It was a nice late start today - wake up at 7, on the road by 8. We continued south, the landscape becoming progressively more arid. We made a refreshment stop at another cattle station roadhouse, which advertises itself as 'the Gateway to the Painted Desert', and I took the opportunity to photograph one of the road trains which we see so frequently on the Stuart Highway.
They can be up to 54 metres long, and are a major feature of the long drives in the Northern Territory. There is very little traffic at all on the long straight road, and I notice that each passing driver is greeted with a wave.
The drive to Coober Pedy takes you through a landscape that becomes progressively more dry. Eventually, you arrive at what at first sight might appear to be spoil heaps, but turns out to be a range of low hills.
Some of the landscape is so bleak and arid it might almost be on the moon.
Another interesting feature is the dog fence, which keeps dingos out of sheep country.
It is 5300 km in total, of which 2250 km are in South Australis.
We reached Coober Pedy in time to make lunch. Paul and I, having paid for upgrades, have another motel room. Our fellow travellers are staying in an underground backpackers' hostel. About 50% of Coober Pedy homes are built underground, or at least into a hillside. This means they are at a constant temperature of 23 - 25 degrees, which is an advantage when summer temperatures can rise to 50 degrees. I suppose it also saves you from having to endure the dust storms (which we are having at the minute) or the swarms of flies which I understand are another feature of summer here.
After lunch, we had an opal mine tour. It was particularly interesting to see the parts of the mine hacked out originally with pick and shovel. These days, machines are used. We also saw an example of an underground home, from the 1970s.
It also had a 1970s kitchen
We went to the opal shop, where I chose my birthday present, a beautiful pair of green opal earrings. But I can't contemplate wearing them until the dust storm dies down!
We had a tour round the town, which really only has one street, the population being only 3500. The town is very dusty - particularly now with the dust storm blowing. Parts of it are full of wrecked cars.
It has been used for filming at least one of the Mad Max movies, and various other movies whose names at present escape me (there's a crashed spaceship from one of them just outside the backpackers' hostel).
Later, we went to try 'noodling' in the spoil heaps for opals, but the sand-blasting from the dust storm was painful and most of us gave up quite soon. On the trip to Alice Springs, one of our fellow travellers had a Lonely Planet guidebook which said that you might be forgiven for considering Coober Pedy 'a post-apocalyptic shithole' and in summer, when it is so hot and full of flies as well, I can understand that description.
This evening, we are going to a Pizza restaurant for supper, and afterwards we are off to kiss a kangaroo. Though I am so desiccated and dusty by now that I imagine any self-respecting kangaroo will absolutely refuse to kiss me!
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