Coober Pedy to Roxby Downs SA: Fri 2 Nov 2012

Dingo versus Eagle

Goodbye to dusty interesting little Coober Pedy! No tent to pack up, so it was easy for us to get going early, and the weather was cold and cloudy. I'm finding I have to have riding gear for all kinds of weather at my fingertips on my motorbike. This morning it was liner back in the jacket, a thermal jumper, and winter gloves on, along with a neck warmer. Tomorrow could be back to 40 degree heat, who knows in the desert country?

Once again we were riding all day across an ancient inland sea. I don't know why people make such a fuss of crossing the Nullarbor, when so much of South Australian north to south centre country is the same; treeless, stony and windy. The highlight of our day's riding was seeing a skinny dingo with its tail between its legs busily eating a kangaroo carcass on the roadside, and a big wedge-tailed eagle was right behind it, glaring at the dingo, which kept nervously looking over its shoulder. It looked like there could easily be a squabble over the precious food in such a barren place, but we didn't stop, as nature needs its privacy!

We stopped at an isolated roadside place called Glendambo, between Coober Pedy and Woomera/Pimba. Young Asians were running this place and they cooked up a very nice steak sandwich "with the lot" for us. Their tourist items, hats, postcards and fly nets all featured flies. Plenty of these persistent pesky insects outside!

A huge road train pulled in loaded up with many wild camels on board, probably being taken for slaughter/pet meat, poor creatures. That is the price they pay for being such good survivors in the desert country after the camel-use days had ended in the late 1880s.

Woomera was the next turn, and my heart sang to see the rolling red sand dune country just after this small dusty township. It felt like I was soaring like a low flying bird through a stunning painting. Then 83 km later we were arriving in Roxby Downs, a mining town of 4,500 people. BHP Billiton owns the huge Olympic Dam mine that is 16km out of town. It is the world's 4th largest copper mine, the largest uranium deposit, and gold and silver is also mined here.

We pulled in at the only caravan park, the Myall Grove Aspen Caravan Park, and a delightfully helpful friendly couple running this place made sure we were comfortably camped on a lawned area with plenty of shade. We had checked out the Roxby Downs town site facilities at the Coober Pedy tourist Information Centre before coming here, and the movie we saw showing the modern township was an inducement to come here. We are sick of places with no shops and caravan park "resorts" charging stupidly expensive prices for basic food items, so Roxby Downs looked like a real oasis in the red sand dune desert.

Which it is! There is a large Woolworths with everything fresh and good here. And a small shopping mall just like you are in suburbia in a city suburb. First visit was to the Information Centre to book ourselves in for an Olympic Dam mine tour on Monday morning, at $10 each, which goes to the very worthy Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Did you know that grey nomads are often the RFDS's biggest customers? I hope we never have to use this noble service. I have been on a RFDS flight once, when I was a heavily pregnant young gal ready to have my first baby. I got a flight from Laverton WA to Kalgoorlie for that, and found myself sharing the flight with a full-blood central desert Aboriginal woman with her very premature baby boy in a humidicrib….she was terrified of being in the Flying Doctor plane, she couldn't speak any English, so I was comforting her. Then, when I suddenly got sick as the plane went into a nosedive, she comforted me! No common language but we helped each other. To this day, 36 years later, I wonder how her dear little baby boy grew up. And his lovely worried western desert mother. The RFDS is such a wonderful service for all the outback people of Australia.

Saturday in Roxby Downs: To Andamooka, another Weird Little Moonscape Opal Town!

Andamooka is just 32km from Roxby Downs, so off we rode to this interesting little place. The tourist brochures were honest, warning us of wild dogs and strange people, and how there is a different form of opal found here, in matrix sandstone. Often it is heated or treated with sulphuric acid to bring out the brilliant colours. Dave and I were not impressed with this idea of treating the stone, but we went to have a look anyway. We reckon rocks are beautiful in their own way with no enhancement needed.

The township is smaller than Coober Pedy, with 800 people supposed to be in the area, but we saw about 6! (Humans, not dogs…we heard lots of dogs barking at us.)

Dry dusty, pale rocky red dirt everywhere, with humpies built into the sides of hills. There is an historical row of miners' humpies that were lived in from the 1930s to 1970s. We only found 2 opal "shops" open to explore. The first people were lovely and friendly and showed us how they were heat-treating the local stone to bring out the colours. I felt sorry for this couple, as they obviously don't make lots of money but they have a passion for what they do. We felt their prices were a bit dear so went on to another place, at the local post office. This was run by a man who has his own private opal collection not for sale, as well as saleable rocks, but he proudly showed us his collection. Wow! Heaven for the Mighty Intrepid Rock Hounds. We saw matrix opal both treated and untreated, and "painted lady" opal which is natural in the hard rock. We ended up buying a great little collection of both treated and untreated Andamooka opal from him for an excellent price, after I haggled it down a bit of course. We plan to work on this when we get home, cutting and polishing and setting as jewellery. What gorgeous colours! It pays to shop local.

We then went for a stroll up to the Andamooka Cemetery, where we saw opal miners' graves with beautiful opal rocks set into their tombstones. Many of the graves had bottles of beer or favourite European wine set out for the dead.

Back to Roxby Downs campsite for a yummy tea cook-up in their excellent "Home away from Home" camp kitchen. The people running it even make sure the air conditioning is turned on when we are there.

Sunday 5 Nov 2012 in Roxby Downs: The Emu Walk

Because today was forecasting over 40 degree heat, we decided to do the local "Emu Walk" early in the morning. This is a nice 3km walk weaving around the town. Then back to the refuge of the air conditioned camp kitchen area to do computer blogging and catch up with reading newspapers. The world could have ended for all we knew while we were in more outback parts, so we were hanging out for some reading on contemporary news matters.

The early evening was getting very humid and by night time there was forked lightning and thunder. And then our Shangri-La tent of 45 erections ripped again! The outer fabric is so brittle from the elements, and so Intrepid Dave did more temporary repairs with plastic shopping bags and gaffer tape, along with trusty Selleys All-Clear glue. It made our tent look like a clown's domain.

The night inside our tent was so horribly hot and humid, with lightning, thunder and wild winds making the tent rock and roll. Dave suggested we wear clothes in case it blew apart on us, but it got so bloody hot that I didn't care less and so decided a nude Nanna was the way to go, come hell or high water!

We woke up after a horrid fitful hot night, inside the poor decrepit old tent. Time to buy a new tent when we get to the next place! Port Pirie looks like our most hopeful new tent option.

But first, to our Olympic Dam Mine Tour tomorrow morning.