Surviving Saturday night in Coober Pedy
Another morning and another breakfast of coffee and cigarettes. Not good. Wasn’t feeling too happy with the world either. A rough night’s sleep and dreams of ex-girlfriends had dampened the night.
Onwards from William Creek and a stop at Lake Cadibarrawirracanna. This is a large salt lake out in central South Australia. It has the distinction of having the longest place name in Australia and its name means stars dancing on water.
Crossing the Dog Fence provided another stop for rest, water, cigarettes and photo opportunities. The Dog Fence was built in the late 19th Century and is designed to keep the dingoes on the north away from the sheep farms on the south. Now officially the world’s longest fence, the Dog Fence stretches from the Eyre Peninsula on the Great Australian Bight to Dalby in New South Wales. The fence is small enough to prevent dingoes getting over it and extends around 30cm underground. Teams check the fence on a weekly basis along its whole length.
The Dog Fence
The drive to Coober Pedy was a short one although driving the tracks takes its time; however, we were there for lunch – pizza. This was followed by a tour of the town and the local Umoona Opal Mine and Museum. A mix of old mines, someone’s house and a shop selling (you guessed it!) opals.
A spot of afternoon noodling (aka fossicking, aka fofficking as Niamh named it) lasted for about five minutes before boredom set in. There we were, spread out over the public noodling pit and found nothing but a football. Useful though. Presumably, the public pit provides something for the tourists, thus giving the locals something to laugh at. The Aussie sense of humour can be fun.
Coober Pedy seems a lot like a town from Tatooine. It wouldn’t have been at all surprising if a jawa or asrtromech droid happened to be around. The area has been used as film sets for such classics as Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mad Max and Pitch Black. The front end of the crashed space ship from Pitch Black now resides in Coober Pedy.
The Underground Bar became a point of call before dinner at the local Greek restaurant. So, a night of drinking started. Dinner was followed by a return to the bar. Several drinks, money in the video jukebox and being joined by some of the people who worked in the area made for an interesting night. The locals don’t see much in the way of available females so were all over the ones in the group. This is somewhat common for men who work out in the Australian wilderness and they will pounce of every available (or unavailable) female.
Sadly, the bar shut at midnight and much to the chagrin of the locals we all headed off with a resounding chorus of Rule Britannia and God Save The Queen in our ears, quite why David wanted to perform a Nazi salute at the time is known only to him.
Turned out our tour guide, Adam was asleep on top of the trailer so we woke him up to extract beer and proceeded up onto the roof of the museum for a spot of late night drinking, mucking about and contemplating whether urinating down the regulatory air vents was appropriate behaviour.
Adam again woke up when plans to photograph him with the empties was attempted. And so to bed, filled with beer and a constant need for the toilet. It was a hot night but the travels and events make sleep so much easier.
