Port Augusta-Coober Pedy, May 30th
In the middle of the night I look out
the window to check the bikes, all OK. Later on I do this again.
Paranoid? Bikes are OK but why is the ground wet? I'll worry about it
when I wake up. When daylight comes the weather looks good. We pack
up and then do some maintenance checks; oil level OK, tire pressures
are all low. The service station next to us does not have an
inflation nozzle that will work on a bike. But I remember a tire shop
down the street when we were looking for a Subway restaurant. He has
a nozzle that will work, we pump up the tires and I thank him using
my best Australian which leaves him wondering just where in the world
we came from. A few minutes later we are at the start of the Stuart
Highway named for one John Stuart who was the first person the cross
Australia from north to south. We are on our way to Coober Pedy which
is over 500 km away with 2 gas stations between us and our
destination.
On the way we see a parked road train
with different trailers than the one I posted before. Instead of 46
wheels this one has 62. If you look at the front of the road train
you can probably see white stripes crossing the highway. These are
marking one end of the highway designated as a landing strip for the
Royal Flying Doctor Service.
We chose to stay undeground in what is
supposed to be an old opal mine. It is cut out of the rock like a
mine but it has many square alcoves where you can pitch your tent. We
chose to just use our groundcloth, air mattress and sleeping bag. The
cost was $12 or we could take the mine tour for $22 and the camping
was free. We signed up for the tour. We set some stuff in our chosen
cubicle and went to town to eat and for Jeff to buy a couple of
opals. Jeff got his opals and then we had pizza next door. I had a
pizza with kangaroo, emu, wallaby and spinach. Jeff chose a more
conventional pizza. Then it was back to the mine for the tour which
was interesting. First one chooses a site by whatever method one
chooses even including the use of divining rods. Then you drill a
hole about 15” in diameter and check the soil samples for different
types of layers. If you don't see what you want you do it again and
again ad infinitum. If a hole looks interesting then you drill a
bigger hole about 4' in diameter. Then you can lower some tunneling
equipment into the hole and start carving out tunnels. All of that
dirt has to go somewhere so you have a truck up above with a big
vacuum cleaner that is sucking out the dirt making a big pile. If you
are incredibly lucky you get rich. If you are normal you find nothing
and start again somewhere else maybe only a few meters away. Needless
to say there are piles of dirt and holes everywhere. There are also
lots of signs telling people to be careful when walking as you could
easily fall in a hole and never be seen again. Of course it is very
slightly possible that there might be some opals in these hills of
dirt so people go looking through the dirt. This is called noodling
and people have developed some sophisticated techniques for noodling.
After the tour we went back to our hole for a good, dry night's
sleep. It suddenly came to us that we had overlooked something in our
money saving campsite. We were not alone. There were several families
with young kids that wanted to run and play, yell and scream and do
everything but remain silent. But after what seemed like a very long
time we did get some sleep.
Coober Pedy – Ayers Rock May 31st
I am an early riser so I left the cave
before dawn to shave and brush my teeth. It was lightly raining and
the prediction was for a lot of rain. We were a couple of kilometers
from the highway on a dirt road. I was warned that the roads quickly
became impassable as the dirt was clay and is extremely slippery. We
made it out to the highway and started north towards Erldunda where
we would turn west to go to see Ayer's Rock.
As you can see the
Coober Pedy area is full of dirt mounds.Ayer's Rock would be an 800
km ride so we got started early, so did the rain. My bike is limited
on gas and is also thirstier than Jeffs. There are only a couple of
stations between Coober Pedy and Erldunda and I remembered each one
as I have ridden this rode before. We saw several flocks of white
parrots but they fly away before you can take a picture. We did stop
at a rest area on the side of the road to add another layer of
clothing as the rain made it cool riding. While there a man pulled in
with his travel trailer and small dog. He was returning to Western
Australia which is a long way. He had recently lost his wife on many
years to cancer and was traveling as it was something she loved to
do. It was very sad. A little bit later we crossed into the Northern
Territory. This is the real remote area. We did see several abandoned
cars that had probably broken down. They were all stripped of
anything usable and many were burnt. Say goodbye to your car if it
breaks down here. After miles of forever we reached Erldunda and
gassed up. It is 260 km more to the rock and we could not get back
before dark. We did not want to stay at the resort by the rock as it
is expensive. But there is a station About 160 km toward the rock so
we got a room there and went to the rock and then would return.
Ayer's Rock or Uluru as the Aborigines call it is about 3 km long, I
am not sure how tall it is. At one location there is a ridge that you
can walk up to the top on. It is very steep and has posts with a
chain between them for the first third of the way up. I am glad they
were there the first time I was here as Imy foot slipped on the way
down. I was hanging onto the chain and was glad of it. There have
been many fatalitiesthere from fallen climbers. The rock is closed
when there is any wind, moisture or chance of lightning as the chain
makes a good lightning rod.
If weather conditions are correct the
rock will appear to change colors during the sunset. There are areas
set aside for photographers to try and get their pictures. In the
busy season these area are extremely crowded. After getting our
pictures we headed back to Curtin Station where we had reserved our
room. It was only 85 km but it got dark before we were halfway there.
It became evident to us that the lights on our bikes are woefully
inadequate for high speed riding on 2 lane dark roads with lots of
critters in the brush. We got back in time for an expensive dinner.
Everything has to be trucked in from far away. A bottle of coke which
is normally $3.50 was $5.
Curtin Station to Alice Springs June 1
160 km back to Erldunda, 200 more to Alice Springs. We are checked into a motel that I have stayed at before. Going to do laundry and feed the wallabies at sunset. Hopefully we can get a Subway sandwich instead of a big meal. And I hope to post pictures of the wallaby feeding on the next post. They really are cute.
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