We've been hanging out in Coober Pedy South Australia for the past few days. It's a strange little town full of peculiar people. It's an opal mining town and everyone and everything is dusty. As you drive in all you really see are mounds of dirt. It's the weirdest thing. Most people who live here reside underground. They have underground churches , underground pubs, underground book shops, they even have an underground camping ground. It would have to be one of the most unique places in Australia. One of the locals were telling us that everyone here is very secretive. "No one has any money and no one is finding any opals" he said. "People don't like to flash around there money and they are extremely protective of there opal claim sites. If you walk on to one you could find your self shot". It's a little like what I imagine being in the middle of a gold rush town back in the 1800s would have been like.
Today we decided to get off the bitumen so we headed out along the famous Oodnadatta track in search of a place called the Painted Desert. On our way we experienced the Moon Plains which are famous for being where they shot a lot of the desolate scenes in the Mad Max movies. It's hard to imagine a place where there is an absence of anything. Where there is just flat stony land for hundreds of kms, but that is exactly what these moon plains are like.
The Painted Desert is an area of spectacular colourful hills. It's an incredible sight and would have to be one of the highlights of a trip to South Australia in my opinion - these rocky outcrops of large and small hills which really do appear like they have been painted , suddenly out of a flat, desert landscape. Apparently it was created more than 80 million years ago. I think it's made all the more extraordinary by the fact that you've just driven through 60kms of absolutley flat desolation.
We then headed into the famous outback town of Oodnadatta and had a beer at the Pink Roadhouse. The lady running it offered us both jobs, which I think would have been a great experience if we didn't have other plans. We did tell her we might come back through one day and tae her up on her offer, so you never know. I like to keep all interesting work options open!
