Day 109

Day 109 Coober Pedy

We headed out early today and struck out for Coober Pedy. I hope you noted the language of

Mums feeding babies

Cadney Homestead Roadhouse

explorers. We have read so many plaques and listened to different stories of explorers here tat we no longer drive to, we strike out for, or turn or expedition towards. So as I was saying, we turned our expedition southwards and struck out for Coober Pedy. The road was pretty boring I must admit. There are no memorials or plaques or interesting spots since the border, like nothing or nobody did anything! Also the road stops have deteriorated as well. In the Northern Territory, just about every big road stop had a toilet,

Bored, practicing selfies

Reason shes bored, flat country

in South Australia, not one! This has led to the increase in toilet paper pollution. You cannot stretch your legs or explore an area with all the paper blowing about. Something needs to be done, sounds like a job for the Old Codger (when I get home).

One thing that has improved is the number of Wedge Tailed Eagles. We have seen about 8 or 9 today alone. The biggest problem is that we had an easterly wind today and there was one who was on the right lane on top of a carcass and as we approached with horn tooting, the crows all flew off but he

was going to hold his ground until the last moment. That was fine, but he had to take off into the wind, ie in front of my car. We were lucky that the wind was quite strong and he lifted off straight up as we zipped by. I also saw my first Bearded Dragon. He was also on the road sunning himself and blended into the road surface beautifully and it was not until I wwas right near him that he moved and gave himself away, safely I must add.

We had morning tea at a little road house that was offering $4 coffee and cake so we pulled in for a break. Again, all the roadhouses have the bar attached and the pokies in the corner. The Cadney Homestead Roadhouse had this sign over the bar with “YCWCYODFTRFDSTY”, naturally we asked what it meant and the guy said it would cost us a dollar for charity to find out, we asked what charity, he said RFDS and we ssaid fine. It means “your curiosity will cost you one dollar for the royal flying doctors service thank you” very clever. We had our coffee, watched the Morning Show (god I do not miss that part of being home) and restarted our expedition in a southerly direction. (not too sure how much longer this language will last). The biggest highlight of the day was seeing the Dog Proof fence. It was not sign

Dog proof fence

Sandhills in the distance?

posted, typical SA, but it was built to keep the dingos out of the pastoral lands to the South.  As we were driving and I was sleeping, I mean day dreaming, I was suddenly transported to Geraldton. As you drive into there you go through the farming area and you see on the horizon, white sandhills. Well as we were driving along in the red dirt, there appeared white sandhills in the distance. This is the opal mines. Under the red dirt is this layer of white clay and as they excavate their digs, they mound it up into these huge hills and leave it there. It just looks like the coast I could swear we were going to see water soon. As you get closer you see these little mounds of white dirt every where that we later found out were exploratory drill holes. They apparently do not have to refill holes so the place is full of them and dangerous. There is one memorial in town and that is to Stuart, for the highway!

We are at the Stuart Range Caravan Park and have setup for a day here. We went into town and

Not sandhills, spoil mounds

The only monument in town

visited a few of the opal shops. We are entering dangerous territory here as I love opals and so does Maureen. We have narrowed the choices down to 7 rings at 3 different shops all are very expensive! We stopped for coffee at a bakery and got chatting to the owner as we were the only ones there, he came over and sat with us for a chat about opal mining and the hazards but particularly the problems with getting reliable partners and staff. As we were yaking, an old guy walks in, obviously a regular, Nick and he sits down and starts chatting up Maureen! He has been out here for decades and has had mines and told us about his story with partners ripping him off at different times. It was a great afternoon of

a bit of opal

sage advice for movie goers

story telling. The baker suggested we try a track out towards the hills that you can find fossils on, but I don’t think we will do it as you have to hike a bit off the road to find them, but if anyone else is interested, I have the details. There was also a mural in town that had some old signs incorporated and some still apply today, such as no explosives in the cinema, good advice and something for you all to remember.

Chatting with the locals

Tomorrow we expect to do a mine tour and then the town lookout and I think that will be us for here. We should be moving the expedition on on Sunday. Woomera next stop.