Desert Horizon

The sun fades away over a sea of desert land, turning auburn as it slowly nears the horizon line. You've arrived just in time to visit our arid lookout point, which overlooks a breathtaking desert landscape and the historic mining town below. Guests are welcomed through a beautifully constructed visitors center which features large modern metal panels, which contrasts perfectly with the untouched desert itself. You've arrived just in time for one of the many perfect moments that happen at this lookout every day. When the sun dips below the horizon line, the town's street lamps spark to life one by one. The illuminated bulbs create a beautiful pattern, like a desert oasis among the vast, open space of the outback surrounding it. This is only one of the many things we can show you from this beautiful viewpoint, but before we explore the others, let's take a brief moment for a wind down exercise. Tonight's exercise is a really simple breathing exercise. So when you're ready, let's begin. So first, get yourself comfortable. Now just bringing the attention to the breath. Just noticing where you feel it, in the nose, the throat, the chest, the diaphragm. You're nice and relaxed. We're going to be taking a deep breath in for four, holding it for four, and then breathing out for six. So are you ready? Let's begin. In for four, two, three, four. Hold it for four, two, three, four. Now breathing out for six, two, three, four, five, six. In for four, two, three, four. Holding for four, two, three, four. Out for six, two, three, four, five, six. In for four, two, three, four. Holding for four, two, three, four. Out for six, two, three, four, five, six. In for four, two, three, four. Holding for four, two, three, four. Out for six, two, three, four, five, six. Great, now returning the breath to normal. The mound that crests over Broken Hill was built by the daily, hourly labor of many people over countless years. Each of these rocks, each grain of sand, of mica, dug and removed. What remains is called mullock, the earth from which all gold has been taken. Mullock is a simple word, like an old pebble rolled for many years in a riverbed. From the outside, this hill is a dull but deep brown. But even now, under these layers of dirt, other, more colorful sedimentary deposits lie waiting, untapped. Feldspar, quartz, garnet, biotite, and amphibole. Each of these minerals illuminates a different color of the rainbow. Feldspar, vitreous and white, from which we get moonstone. Quartz, glittering in all the blues of a stormy sea. While garnet gathers the reds to it like secrets. No one knows why these hills have drawn to them such richness. Only that the pressure of thousands of years have left veins of ore, curving like boomerangs under the surface where you stand. These boomerangs of rock have their own name, gneiss. To say this word...