Opal fever in Coober Pedy

After arriving at the van park in Coober Pedy, the wind had intensified and seemed likely to blow our tent away and into Lake Eyre! We were all employed holding down tent corners, guy ropes and poles as Dave battled the wind and the incredibly rocky ground banging in every tent peg we could find with the axe. Not long after that we discovered the hammer, which we thought the kids had lost coconutting at Mission Beach! This caravan is like the Tardis at times, and a shoe box at others!

The Opal Beetle!

The kids didn’t mind being in a giant sandblaster and ran off to play on the playground, while Dave and I sat huddled between the caravan and the tent wondering if we had made a terrible mistake in booking in for three nights! Thinking it better to get out of the wind, we drove into town to have a look around. The Underground Serbian Church was our first stop and it was so peaceful down below ground we couldn’t even hear the howling gale. Tempting as it was to convert and stay, we decided that we were too unOrthodox, so we found the Opal Beetle. The lady  there told us that high winds were common in October, but unusual for now, so we made a mental note never to return in October. She chatted to us about opal as she dusted all the red dust off her shelves and we learnt the difference between opal and potch.

We wandered into another opal shop, and spent the next hour and a half being thoroughly entertained by Nathan Aretos, a Greek second generation  opal miner. He was opal mining more than he was attending school at the age of 13, found a huge amount of opal in his father’s mine by 15 and his family was swindled by his father’s business partner, who ran off with the profits. He was sorting through opal as he told us his life story. His misfortunes began when he set his house alight as a child, then as a young teen he fell 87 feet down a mine shaft. He survived that somehow, and also a burst appendix (no small deal in Coober Pedy hundreds of kilometres from anywhere). He then had a life-threatening infection and is now battling bone cancer. He was such a character – the kids thought he was hilarious describing his 2 brothers: “One is a druggie and an idiot, and the other one is just an idiot”! He told us where to go to “noodle” for opal (and where not to so we didn’t fall down the many open mine shafts) and recommended the restaurant next door for dinner. We hadn’t eaten out at all on the trip, and as the wind was still doing its best to polish the town with outback sand, we thought that a long meal would be a fine plan! The food was great (and even if it wasn’t, it seemed like it was after 2 months of caravan meals!), the servings were huge (Jackson had to go outside and walk up and down before he could finish his lasagne!) and the door was firmly closed against the wind! Miraculously, the wind had dropped a little by the time Ella was almost asleep, so we headed back to see if our tent was still there.

Some of the opal on display at Umoona

We awoke the next morning to a clear, calm morning so we cancelled our retreat plans and went to visit Umoona.

Umoona was a working mine until the Council decreed in the 70s that there would be no more mining in town. Our guide told us that lots of the old timers still think most of the opal is buried in town. As people enlarge their underground homes, it is common to find thousands of dollars worth of opal in the process! We watched the informative movie in an underground theatre, toured an underground home and spent ages in the underground museum. We thought we'd continue the underground theme, so visited the Boot Hill Cemetery, reasoning that a town like this would have an interesting graveyard. It did! The 40 nationalities who live here were well represented with unusual surnames and one story in particular caught our interest. Karl Bratz was dying of cancer when he decided that as everything he'd ever built was made of corrugated iron he wanted a corrugated iron coffin. His headstone is a keg!

Coober Pedy was named in the 1920s, from the Aboriginal words kupa piti meaning “white man’s burrow”. The Aboriginals were amazed at the crazy white men who were trying to live underground in a place so far from water. Water continues to be a huge challenge to the town, but things have progressed slightly since the 1920’s when each person had a 2 gallon ration for the week! Half the town’s inhabitants live underground, so there are not many houses, nor are there any trees or grass. It is a truly bizarre, incredibly interesting frontier town!

These photos are of the main part of town. Coober Pedy only got street names in the mid 80s, as everything referred to the hill it was dug into eg Postman's Hill.

Cheetah the cat lived at the office, so Ella went over to get a cat fix before we went out on the second morning. She said he had his own "spinny chair" in the office. The kids were really keen to try some noodling, so we went to the public area for a scratch around. The kids “pegged” their claims and started mining with a gleam in their eyes! They were not keen to leave, but we drove out of town to The Breakaways, part of the Stuart Range. The views over incredibly barren gibber plains (Moon Plain) were so other worldly that you could see why many movies have been filmed here. Mad Max and Priscilla Queen of the Desert are probably the best known. We also followed part of the longest fence in the world, The Dog Fence, which was built to keep the dingoes out of the southern sheep country. The fence was easily visible, as the tumbleweeds had built up on the southern side!

The two hills are dogs in Aboriginal legend, Moon Plain
in the background.

Many of you have been asking about the busking. The Haystack Mountain Hermits have been the Haystack Mountain Historians so far! However, we’ve bravely booked to busk in the Todd Mall Markets as we pass back through Alice on Sunday. Rehearsal time (other than in the Blunderbuss whilst driving along) is hard to come by, so we drove back to the noodling area to have a much needed practice and entertained the local dogs and birds, who all joined in! The kids were dying to noodle again, so we stayed there for a few hours while they searched. We were about to give up when Lachlan found a small chip, which encouraged another half an hour of frenzied digging! The sun went down and we were forced to give up, but we dropped by to show Nathan our finds. He said Lachie’s was able to be cut into a stone. The other chips were definitely opal but too small to be worth anything. He then gave us a couple of uncut chips so everyone had something to stop fights! We were genuinely sorry to say goodbye to him.

The Umoona Aboriginal Community has a bus, which they hail wherever and whenever they like. The Umoona Bus and the Blunderbuss are exactly the same. Everywhere we go in town we leave a trail of very annoyed locals, wondering why the bus didn’t stop for them.  Three very inebriated men tried to get into the bus as we were leaving Nathan’s shop and were not pleased when we kept driving! Much longer here and we’ll have a rock thrown through the window!

After another freezing night, we were up early ready for the 685km drive back to Alice. As I can’t play the double bass as we travel, I took the wheel for the first 260 kms to Marla, which meant we could run through our songs. We passed by our last free camp which we dubbed “Windy Camp” in the manner of the early explorers, and for once it had nothing to do with Marcus! At one stage, we had to stop on the highway for a herd of fat herefords to cross to better grass on the other side. They were in really good nick – we even saw some green grass in the outback! Dave drove on from Marla and I plugged the computer in to the inverter to catch up on the blog. Writing on the go is making it easier to keep up and I post when we get broadband reception – which hasn’t been often lately! So if I am getting too verbose, apologies – but gentlemen, we have the technology!

Crossing back into the Northern
Territory

We saw a dead dingo by the side of the road as we drove towards Erldunda, so now we can take you up on your excellent suggestion of “The Twelve Days of Road Kill” Virginia! It was our third visit to Erldunda, so the place seemed very familiar. Certainly the kids knew where the iceblocks were! Dave got into the back again to play guitar with the boys, Jackson came into the front and designed caravan improvements in his sketchbook, we saw 4 more wild camels and I drove on … and on … 

After driving 100kms through burnt out but still smoking bushfires, we arrived in Alice to find that the Henley on Todd Regatta was on this morning … which meant we drove what seemed like another 685kms looking for a van park spot! We got one in the fourth place we tried, got sorted and the kids bolted off to play on the jumping cushion until well after dark.

Stay tuned ...

a 1600km (return) detour to Coober Pedy

Leaving Watarrka National Park, we packed up and got onto the road fairly early as we were taking the world's longest detour of over 800kms south to Coober Pedy. Although it seems more sensible to visit Coober Pedy later in the trip as we swing around the bottom of the country, by then it will be summer and Coober Pedy reaches insane temperatures of 45 to over 50 degrees!! Not an option!

Ella was thrilled to see lots of horses as we drove down Luritja Road towards the Lasseter Highway again. They were enjoying a frolic in the cool morning air, and we avoided hitting any of them! We stopped for morning tea at the Lasseter Highway junction and were all excited to find a bottle of Gran's pickles to enliven our Saos and cheese! Thanks Gran! A ferocious cross wind sprang up as we travelled East, so strong that we were drifting around the road a bit, which was not fun. Especially as the road trains approached and passed!

We celebrated our first morning of no fights at all with Spinner iceblocks (which the kids had been coveting) at Erldunda, where we rejoined the Stuart Highway. The drive towards South Australia was through fairly unremarkable flat country.  Crossing into South Australia was the highlight of the day!

The skies darkened as we drove south and at 3:05 p.m. we used the windscreen wipers for the first time on this trip! They were turned off again at 3:07, as it was just a light sprinkle! The winds did not stop, and it was an uncomfortable drive passing lots of road trains until we decided we'd had enough, and stopped at a layby. We were about 200kms as the crow flies from Ground Zero of the 1950s British Atomic Tests at Maralinga. As we started to set up, a freight train passed and the kids were so excited that the driver waved and blared the horn at them! We cooked up a vegetable curry with all the vegetables we were not allowed to take any further into South Australia, and tried to play some music before dark. It was pretty miserable with the wind swirling around throwing red grit and dust into our faces, drinks and dinner. We had to retreat into the caravan on dark, where we spent an uncomfortable night, being buffeted repeatedly until we wondered if we would turn over. The mouse plague was evident outside - the wind didn't bother them at all as they spent the night chewing our floor mats.

We had no problems getting up early as we were all keen to get out of the wind and the red dust. The sunrise was one of the most beautiful we have seen, with vivid colours bleeding away into a pale, pearly, early morning light. Unfortunately the strong wind also followed us the last 200kms to Coober Pedy, although the landscape as we approached cheered us up. The opal mining slag heaps were everywhere - an amazing sight!

Stay tuned ...

Watarrka National Park

Spinifex pigeons

Our first morning at Watarrka National Park began fairly slowly, as we were all pretty tired after all the walking and driving of the past week or so. However, we were keen to experience the King's Canyon Rim Walk, so we packed our backpacks with lots of water, bandaids and lunch and drove out to King's Canyon (after filling up with petrol at $2.09 per litre, our most expensive fill yet). There were spinifex pigeons all over the place with bronze plumage and long topknots, which Ella thought very cute, and Lachie failed in his attempts to catch.

A pause climbing Heart Attack Hill

We set off up Heart Attack Hill - over 100m straight up a long rock staircase. Puffing and blowing, we stopped for a rest and a look at the surrounding vista. We met a very game couple there - he must have been 80 and his wife not much younger - also walking the Canyon Rim. We kept meeting them all day as they kept pace with us. The walk flattened out to follow the rim of the canyon, affording amazing views and an attack of vertigo for me! The track went far too close to the edge for my liking, and the kids went even closer to the edge, of course.

Surprising this photo turned out - I was shaking!

Weathered rocky cliffs

 

The Lost Race - "We're the Hukawi"

Along the way were the weathered, buttressed domes of the Lost City - looking for all the world like an abandoned city of a lost race.

The track led to the edge of the canyon, where nice, solid steps took us down into a small valley filled with pools of water, cycads and river red gums. We took advantage of the lovely, shady gorge to eat out lunch and have a rest before attempting the second rim walk. There was a large pool surrounded by the "Garden of Eden" but I couldn't put off the scary rim walk forever, so we climbed the steps up to the other side of the gorge. It wasn't as bad as the first side, thank goodness, and we wandered along enjoying the views and the information boards.

The whole place seems ancient, with weathered, loose rock chunks stacked on top of each other. It seems as though whole cliffs could come tumbling down at any time, but the most "recent" falls were in the 1930s. Some of the rocks were rippled, proving that shallow lakes or seas used to be here. It seemed incredible to think of water above the dry canyon.

Ancient ripples turned into rock

Water was all that was on our minds as we returned though, as we had run out. After rehydrating, the kids went straight to the pool. The water was absolutely freezing but the kids had a ball there while Dave and I walked up to book another night to give us a rest day. We were all knackered and didn't want to go anywhere at all the next day.

We took the opportunity to sleep in, lying in bed reading until hunger got the better of the boys and they hopped up to make pancakes. Laurie, our neighbour in the next site, had a new ukulele and came over to join us while we played some music. His family came over to listen and before long there was quite a crowd. Laurie really enjoyed himself. At one stage, he was copying Marcus and his strumming patterns so intently that when Marcus adjusted his hat, Laurie did the same!

We spent the rest of the day swimming and reading. I needed a book, so I bought The Dig Tree, about the Burke and Wills expedition and became engrossed in it for the rest of the day.

That night, the full moon rising over the George Gill Range was spectacular, but we were only just awake to see it!

Stay tuned ...

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

If you are of a certain vintage (like me!), Ayers Rock and The Olgas will mean more to you than the above heading! Since joint management of the park began in 1985, Anangu ownership of the land has been formally recognised by the dual naming policy. We learnt on our guided Malu walk that climbing the rock (which is formally discouraged at present) will be ending in 2019, or sooner if visitors who climb fall below 18% of the total visitor numbers. Fall is probably an apt word, as 40 people so far have died on the climb. Many more have been injured or have succumbed to heart attacks back in Yulara after their exertions. The Traditional Owners make it very clear that they prefer visitors not to climb, with warning signs and cultural explanations visible at the beginning of the climb route.

Our usual view of Ella - she can outwalk all of us!

After a freezing cold night - so cold that Ella had to climb into bed with Marcus - we got organised to drive out to Uluru. We chose not to climb, instead joining the Guided Malu Walk around part of the base. That just whetted our appetites, so we decided to walk the entire 11 kms around the rock. Ella, in her usual style, led us all the way around - hopping, skipping and dancing along. Her Dreamtime Totem must be Rock Wallaby! We were surprised to find that there are two waterholes around the base, one is semi-permanent and the other permanent. The south side was cooler and shady and a very pleasant walk. Much of the area was sacred and photographs were not allowed, but we took a few in the designated areas.

Four senior men still watch over the cave of learning

One of the wave-like formations

The colours are due to lichen (black), bird urine (white)
and the red is iron oxide rusting in the sandstone.

That evening, the kids stayed up in the sand dunes after viewing the lovely sunset on Uluru. They buried Jackson up to his neck in the red sand and made a lovely bikini out of plants on top of him. He was happy to stay there, as the sand was warm and the temperature was dropping fast! We were better prepared for another cold night as I dragged out all the winter gear which I had stashed away earlier in the trip.

Warm and cosy in his bikini top.

Holding on to our hats in the Valley of the Winds!

We could see Kata Tjuta from our campsite - I hadn't realised that it was so close to Uluru - so the next day we decided to explore Kata Tjuta and walk the Valley of the Winds. It was easy to see why the walk was so named as the wind whistled up the gorge. The area is quite green after the unusually high rainfall of recent months, and the locals describe it as "lush"; although that is going a bit far to our coastal eyes! We thoroughly enjoyed the 7.4km circuit which included two lovely views of the rocks from high vantage points.

Trying to keep up with Ella!

Karingana Lookout

As we were having lunch at a nearby picnic area (with awesome views of Kata Tjuta) we were amazed to hear a Chiming Wedgebill - one of our favourite birds we saw at the Desert Park in Alice Springs. After some time spent searching for it, we had to admit defeat, but it was great to hear it! Deciding that we had enough energy to walk the Gorge Walk as well, we wandered up the gorge in deep shadow. The walls were polished smooth by water flowing through the narrow valley and it was a lovely walk, but it was a unanimous decision to return to camp, so we drove back to Yulara. The boys disappeared for ages to skateboard and ripstik (and visit the reception shop to get some lollies we discovered later!) while Ella played a game with her toys in the red dirt, drawing lines and symbols in the sand like an Anangu child!

The Spinifex Hopping Mice all came out in force again to feast on crumbs and rice. Uluru was eerie in the moonlight - it was almost a full moon.

The next morning we packed up for our trip to King's Canyon, but we drove back to the Cultural Centre to spend some time there. The whole place has been designed with Anangu input and is very informative. The shop sells locally made art and artefacts. A pair of traditional clapping sticks found their way into our collection of musical instruments that we are carting around the country.

Time was ticking on, so we drove east and stopped at the Mt Conner lookout for lunch. The kids bolted up the huge, red sand dune on the opposite side of the road and came back terribly excited having "discovered" a large salt pan. It was slightly reminiscent of Lake Taupo, with the island in the middle, although only salt-cured trout would be caught in there!

The Salt Pan Explorers!

The drive along Luritja Road to King's Canyon was uneventful, following fire-blackened country all the way. It must have been fairly recent, as several hotspots were still smoking. Our petrol was low and we were not sure if we would make it, but fortunately we got there without any trouble. We haven't filled the fuel jerry can yet but perhaps it would be a good idea!

Stay tuned ...

Road Kill Tally

All of us have been morbidly fascinated by the road kill along the highways. I thought it time to give you an update. Read no further if you have a squeamish stomach!

Kangaroos           too many! (stopped counting at one hundred) This includes the dead one comprehensively mashed into the road by us.

Snakes                  5

Wild Pigs              8

Wedgetail Eagle   1

Crow                     1

Budgies                                2

Fresh Water Lake Seal     1               

Bulls                       4

Cows                     5

Calves                   1

Horses                  1

Camels (yes, CAMELS!) 2

Stay tuned ...

Alice Springs - Uluru

The cold change did come through about midnight, we stopped smelling the fire and I stopped worrying about an emergency exit! The tooth fairy came, despite the fires, and Ella was most pleased that the tooth fairy didn’t take her tooth, which she had hidden in the Blunderbuss! We struck camp after breakfast, filled the new water bottles (in lieu of the caravan watertank) and headed South on the Stuart Highway.

Her posture says it all!

The pace of the last couple of days was starting to show, so we stopped at Stuart’s Well roadhouse, home of the famous Dinky the Singing Dingo. Well, famous to some, but we had never heard of him and wouldn’t have stopped without Mind’s recommendation. Dinky began singing at the piano when a young pup, and now entertains visitors to the pub at the Roadhouse. Ella played piano first, and Dinky sang and played with her. After the Devil’s Marbles dingo experience, she looked rather startled (to say the least!) when Dinky kissed her at the end! Lachie then got to have a turn and played Surfboard Boogie for Dinky to sing along to. After a reluctant start, Dinky got into it and even played some more with his feet! It was hilarious. Craig and Gerry, Percy the 3-legged harmonica howler has some competition! Dinky has recently had an interview with Dr. Harry, and will be on TV on November 4^th if you’d like to see him.

Lachie's kiss from Dinky

Drove along to the Lasseter Highway turnoff, and turned West for a change! There are not many corners out here! Along the highway were hundreds of melons – we were intrigued and couldn’t resist stopping to check them out. After breaking one open, we think they were jam melons.

We fortuitously found the magnetic games so the afternoon of travelling whizzed by with the kids absorbed in games of Ludo, Chess and Solitaire. However, they were soon cast aside when we caught our first glimpse of Uluru! None of us could quite believe we were really seeing it. We found our campsite, set up quickly and climbed the red sand dune behind our tent to catch the sunset on the rock. Fantastic!

Rock Music!

As we were all heading to bed, Marcus noticed a mouse outside the caravan. It turned out to be a Spinifex Hopping Mouse, and all his family, so we sat in silence, enthralled as they scampered around our feet eating scrunched up Saos!

Stay tuned …

A Town Like Alice

There is ash slowly falling around me as I type from a large bushfire approaching Alice Springs. It is burning towards the Stuart Highway from the North. No prizes for guessing where we are! We have been listening to the warnings on the radio and I checked the fire alert website (www.firenorth.org.au if you are interested). The authorities have issued a statement that they have enough teams (with extra volunteers doing double shifts) and they expect to stop it before it reaches the city. Lachlan's eyes are like saucers and we sincerely do hope they stop it before it reaches the outskirts of the city, as even our World Record packup time would be too slow if it gets here!! The wind direction is expected to change around midnight which should turn the fire back on itself. If not, I guess we will have a faster than planned departure from here.

We've also filled in the Census form tonight, and Ella and Lachlan both have notes out for the tooth fairy, so it is all happening in the Red Centre!

We had a slow start to our first day in The Alice, as we were all exhausted. The kids all woke up themselves, instead of us doing the "Up! Eat! Pack! Go!" routine. Lachlan made us pancakes before we moseyed on down to the Todd Mall Markets for lunch. We visited the fantastic Mbantua gallery and museum (thanks for the tip Mind) where we spent an absorbing couple of hours admiring Aboriginal art (including some Albert Namatjira watercolours) and boning up on traditional culture. Marcus spent ages studying how to make spears. He is looking for spearwood wherever he goes now! Lachie and Ella both started their art collections there with small dot paintings. We had intended to go to the Desert Park as well, but energy was in short supply, so we went back to camp. The kids and Dave jumped into the freezing pool for a few minutes and even the kids needed a hot shower to warm up afterwards!

Painted Finches in their nest

On our second day here, we ended up spending an entire day at the Alice Springs Desert Park. It was established in 1996 and has just had a huge new visitor's centre added. There is an audio guide to the 31 stops around the park, narrated by Aaron Pedersen (the actor of Arrente/Arabana Australian Aboriginal descent). It was just fantastic. We spent about an hour in the Nocturnal House, where we were all delighted with the antics of the bilbies and the other mammals.



One of the signs at the start claims "You will never look at the desert in the same way again" and we have to agree with that claim. The movie presentation was outstanding, with a jaw-dropping surprise at the end and the whole place superb. Go if you ever get the chance!

Wired for sound - enjoying the audio guide

West MacDonnell Ranges early in the morning

Today, we have gorged ourselves on gorgeous gorges! We got up before sunrise and headed out along the West MacDonnell ranges as the sun came up, bathing the hills in a warm, soft glow. It was a beautiful drive out to Ormiston Gorge, and quiet too! (All the kids were feeling carsick when we got there which was the reason for the peaceful drive.) The loop walk was flooded, so we climbed to the lookout to view the gorge before walking back around to get to the waterhole at the bottom. We were all stunned by how large the gorge was. We found a cave near the waterhole so we climbed up to rest in the shade for a while. The roof of the cave was completely covered in wasp’s nests – fortunately none of them were home!

Hard to capture such a grand spectacle

The waterhole at the bottom of Ormiston Gorge

Heading back towards Alice Springs we stopped at the Ochre Pits next. The earth’s layers have been twisted and heaved upwards, becoming exposed as the water has flowed through over time. The colours are amazing, and the local Aboriginals use the area for their ochre for ceremonial purposes as well as for their art. It is a highly significant area to the traditional owners, and you are asked not to remove any of the ochre, to the kids' disappointment.

Another short drive took us to Serpentine Gorge, where the kids voted the picnic the best yet as we had boiled eggs! After re-fuelling we walked – or hopped and scrambled – a kilometre or so along the mostly dry, rocky river bed to reach the gorge. It was well worth the effort – a fairly dark, brooding place with sheer cliffs rising each side. Ella was thrilled as the many of the rocks were purple, although that made the walk back difficult as she wanted to collect most of them! She also had a moment of sheer panic thinking she had swallowed her tooth (something we’ve been through twice before!). Fortunately, she hadn’t, so we got her to pull it out back at the vehicle before we had to suffer the unpleasant consequences!

Ellery Creek Big Hole was our next stop. This is the largest permanent waterhole in the area, and a place well used by traditional people. It was freezing cold and full of dead fish, so no-one was tempted to swim, although it must be a very popular place on hot days!

We decided to finish the day by walking up to Standley Chasm, which was also fantastic. The kids could almost see the dinosaurs eating the cycads on the cool walk up between the cliffs, and the chasm was awesome. The rock walls have been scoured and polished over millenia with torrents of water and rocks pouring through the opening after cloudbursts. We sat on the cool, smooth rocks and tried out a bit of acapella singing in the chasm. The acoustics were great! The singing was not!

Simpson's Gap was the last of the day's agenda, but it was almost 5 o'clock and there was smoke everywhere, so we decided to head back to camp. It turned out to be a good decision as there is another fire raging there.

Stay tuned ...