Camper Capers: Happy Birthday to me!

Says alot about the Outback........

I have come to realise why I love the ocean so much, it is for the same reason that I feel so happy as we travel through the outback. We are travelling along the 3000 kilometre Stuart Highway from Adelaide to Darwin, as it cuts through the Australian heart. Traversing a desert that was in prehistoric times a vast inland lake where dinosaurs roamed, the countryside is a big open space with a big, big sky. You feel a certain sense of freedom, a feeling of total contentment. For as far as the eye can see of this parched landscape is golden Spinifex tufts and mulga trees with saltbush lining the roadside. In places the road is smeared with animal blood and carcasses, no doubt victims of the huge road trains. These trucks are up to four trailers long, at 54 metres, and they don’t stop for anything.

We look so small (at left) next to the road trains

However, the rotting carcasses attract Wedge Tailed Eagles. Many times we have driven past up to 10 of these majestic birds feasting on the one kill. They seem to glare at you as you drive past, protecting their dinner.
Leaving Port Augusta, we headed for Woomera, or as I called Boys Toys Town.

Missile Park, Woomera

The site of missile launches and all things military, the town has a very cool park with many displays of missiles, satellite rockets and planes. Having heard of this town, because of its ‘detention’ past, we were both pleasantly surprised. The town is very neat, very tidy and very welcoming. Even the birds are welcoming. Picnicking in a local park (with very green grass) we met a new feathered friend. ‘Bird’ (a long billed Corella) called me a gorgeous girl and asked me back to his place, but was not happy when we wanted to leave him. I finally got to laugh at Dave, after my bush turkey incident, as I watched our upset friend chase him and try to attack his ankles.

My new friend

We did not stay at Woomera, instead we free camped at a roadhouse 7 kilometres away. Nothing else was there, but we had many fellow campers. As we lay in bed we listened to some of them solve the world’s problem. It was more entertaining than TV for the night.

Pimba Roadhouse- 'Spuds'- nothing else is here

It is a strange sensation being out in the middle of nowhere. Of all the holiday destinations- beach resorts, ancient ruins, tropical paradises, we are here in the dust (and flies). Of all the things I have lost, it is my mind I am mostly missing! But, we are genuinely happy and wouldn’t swap our adventures for a Mai Tai in Fiji (yet).

Lake Hartz- looks like snow, but is all salt! On the way to Coober Pedy

With an audio book in the CD player, we set off for Coober Pedy some 365 kilometres away, but also the next town. This is deliverance country and it has taken a few days to feel at ease. Not that we are in any danger or have reason to be, but it is so very different to anything we have experienced before. Coober Pedy has about 5000residents, but the main street is very small with minimal shops. There are really no houses to be seen and it all looks like a moonscape. That is because 85% of the town is underground. With temperatures that reach to the 50’s in summer, living underground is a very good option. All year round the temperature can be regulated to around 22 degrees inside.

Using diving rods, Coober Pedy in underground mine. I apparently had the gift and found a seam!!

As fate was to have it, it is here that I celebrated my birthday. During our last stay in Melbourne, a couple of friends had posted presents to be opened on my birthday. It was very fun to awake and open them! We spent the day exploring the town’s underground museums, opal shops and a home. Once furniture and the like is inside an underground home, it is not the easiest thing to move and remodel. The home we toured is still furnished and decorated the same as it was in the 60’s and 70’s- a real step back in time. The house however is very comfortable and even has an underground pool inside! Our last visit of the day was the underground Serbian Church, the most spectacular of the three underground churches in town.

Lounging underground, Coober Pedy

Donned in my new opal earrings, it was back to camp, where Dave served up his famous Panang Curry and we washed it down with a bottle of plonk from the Barrossa. All in all, one very enjoyable birthday!

Underground Serbian Church

Coober Pedy is full of little idiosyncrasies- like the golf course. The golf course was the concept of a lady called Faye (it was her house we visited), some 40 years or more ago. Thinking it should have a reciprocal course overseas, she got in contact with St Andrews- the home of golf- in Scotland. They obliged, but to this day, it is the only town in Australia to have reciprocal rights. So for all you golf fans, here is a little known fact. To play 9 holes on the St Andrews course is a 5 year waiting list and a cost of 600 pounds. However, if you are a member of the Coober Pedy golf club (membership fee $100) there is no wait and no fee! Worth the trip out here for golf enthusiasts!
Lake Eyre has only filled to capacity three times in the past 150 years (1974, 1984, 2004), so we embarked on a day trip to see this amazing feat of nature. The landscape on the way out was harsher, than we had encountered thus far. Nothing but dirt and stone for miles. With no plant life, there is also no animal life. At times it was hard to distinguish the road, as it all looked the same. Finally the terrain became more familiar, with a touch of green and shrubs. We soon landed at Australia’s smallest town- William Creek, located 168km’s from Coober Pedy. After a $5 coffee in the eclectic bar (worst coffee ever, but at $5 each we drank every mouthful) it was back on the road.

William Creek Hotel

Hard to imagine, but the landscape became even more inhospitable. The dirt and rock was back, but this rock was almost black in the sun. It looked like a raging bushfire had wiped out everything in its path, leaving a wasted land. But this is Australia, we just have never seen her like this before.

Australia at her inhospitable best, on the way to Lake Eyre

And then like a mirage we gazed upon a sandy bank leading to a powder blue expanse of water. The water was plentiful, but a shame to say the birdlife not. Although, it was strange to see a flock of seagulls out here! The lake is the size of Wales, the countryside we had travelled to reach her part of Anna Station. Anna Station is the world’s largest cattle station- half the size of Tasmania.

Looks like some water- that is the point! Lake Eyre is filling up.

We bid farewell to Coober Pedy and now find ourselves bedding down at Marla for the night. Again, nothing really here other than a roadhouse, but we have travelled enough for the day.