anuvverday

Its afternoon on the 28th of May and we are sitting out rain storms in Coober Pedy. The road out of the caravan park is impassable. So, continue writing dear boy!

Where we left orf last night when the tiredness bug caught up (I’m sure it catches up much earlier these days) we were still on the way to Oodnadatta. Well dear reader you may be disappointed to learn that we had no further mishaps –  we actually saw out this day with no more drama than BAD roads. Suzy has more squeaks and rattles than it did even after last years ‘trip to the tip’.

Well Oodnadatta is not a swell town, my kinda town cos I’m clearly the wrong colour. Ya gotta be pink…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is however another side of town or maybe just up the road side of town and it goes like this….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

or perhaps like this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but there is the museum. Housed in the original and now classified Ghan station house it comprises a collection of photos and story boards, all of which proved irresistible reading. The environs are not much today but the town sure has some history, dating back as far as I recall to about 1860. The rail came in around 1870 or 80 and as the terminus it provided for quite a lot of employment. I seem to recall a number of residents being in the order of 3000 but I’d guess thats down to perhaps 300 today, mostly indigenes……….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps being a little self conscious of our white car we decided to doss down in a ‘donga’ for the night, rather than pitch the tent again. Altogether uneventful boring night of television, up almost at the crack of dawn(who?) and on to the Painted Desert.

The Painted Desert is off the road back to Coober Pedy from oody doody. It is just another bad dirt road covered in sharp pointy stones and corrugations. Ya gotta wanta go there. As we turned into the lookout area some 40 or so k’s in, “BLAM”, another tyre bites the dust. We’re well prepared for this with our fresh can of spray in tyre fixit goo. Lets get to that after we’ve taken in the sights. And what sights they are. This outlook is incredible and I have to say the photos following don’t do it justice……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We tired of this (ha) after about a half hour of gawking and ooh aah-ing so back to flat Suzy. As it was only flat on the bottom, with the help of some handy passers-by we took the wheel off and set the gunkometer onto it. Gunk pissed out the hole and it was green gunk so this added to the overall painted effect. Didn’t fix the tyre though, so on with the spare – the one that was repaired on Sunday. Fortunately it still had air in it so eventually we got back on the track. Dilemma – do we take the shortest dirt road back to the Stuart Highway and face the longest drive back to CP on bitumen or the shortest direct route via dirt. Stupidly opted for the shortest dirt – what a shit road. Of course don’t know what the other road would have been like but with one tyre short lets minimise the risk was the thinking!!!!!.

It was however very picturesque……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but clearly a less than happy trip for someone (and no there were no bodies – we guess the dingoes gottem)

Turned out to be a relatively uneventful trip back to the highway and then 155 km back to CP on blessed bitumen. Oh so smooth!

That was Tuesday. Wednesday was spent replacing a tyre and there went another $230.00 for a non matching one. But a look at some of the spots of interest around CP salved the angst of painful expenditure. The Umoona Opal Mine, museum and underground houses, the Serbian and Catholic underground churches and the big hotel did a lot to assuage the pain. It is truly amazing how the locals have adapted over the years. Apparently the white population all lives underground in climactic conditions which see 54′ at the top to -1′ at the bottom. The underground temperature sits at about 22′ all year round. It seems the indigenes believe underground is bad. This must be so cos they wander the streets at all hours of the day and night. Most of the significant dwellings and commercial premises are dug by machine but many of the older habitats are pick and shovel exercises. Coober Pedy is notable for the development of specialised equipment to carry out the mining task such as the little digger tractor and the giant vacuum cleaner. The tunnel mazes are mind boggling. Interesting now though is since 1972 no mining is allowed within the town boundaries, but nothing prevents you from digging another bedroom (or two) . No explosives though and we’re told you’re not even allowed to take explosives into the drive-in theatre cos you mightn’t like the film. When you see the underground mazes you are truly overawed at the tenacity of these miners…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opals are for sale everywhere. Doublets and triplets are relatively cheap cos they are just paste jobs but the real stones can measure into the thousands. Many we looked at were still fairly small and un-prepossessing but had tags over 10K. Shudder – I don’t even like them, but Jude does have a liking for Yowah black opals. Hah, in her dreams.

Today has been a sit around day trying to catch water to refill our tanks and get yesterdays washing dry. Haven’t succeeded on either count. The road out of the caravan park is impassable in the Winnie and just passable in 4 wheel drive this morning in Suzy when I went into town. We’re bogged down for an extra few days until the rain clears and the road dries out. Our neighbours had booked to go out to William Creek and Oodnadatta today on the mail run but it was cancelled due to the wet and subsequent road closures. All the mines cease operations in this rare weather cos you can’t drive out to them without getting bogged down.

So, another night or three out of town and consequently little action on which to report.