The painted Desert;

Please click the pictures to realise the vastness of the desert and to see the colours.

The bitumen road turns into a desert road.

Very picturesque.

The stones are millions of years old, slowly integrating, not in my lifetime or the next...next...to us humans whom are only a short time walking this planet it is infinite.

The painted desert comes into view, it is breathtakingly beautiful in its abstractness.

Where does it begin and where does it end?

After taking in all this strange beauty, our driver asked us would you like to have lunch here?

We all said, yes it would be nice to have lunch now. He, Guenther, started to prepare the table to cook on, the food etc. only one little thing was missing the frying pan, it was forgotten to be packed! Meant as a joke, I said we could go to the next homestead and ask for a frying pan, as we had driven many hours without seeing a house or people. Guenther said, ok, packed everything up and off we went. We drove and drove and drove, the only sound some rumbling tummies! Suddenly like aFata Morgana a homestead and outbuilding came into view.

Guenther went to the door, knocked and came back triumphantly waving a huge, black frying pan. Well to make a long story short, we had a good lunch, even as we had to hold on to the lettuce leaves, as it was so windy.

Patsie's car is another story; Patsy was a Governess and drove for many years every Sunday, attired in her sunday's best, hat and white gloves to church. When she died, they left her car on the side of the road where she used to drive to church.

Sometimes there was a grave along the road; this one was for a little boy, only four years old; so sad.
Plants are very tough buddies in the desert. They have adapted to hot and cold, strong winds and no water.

The stony desert is an awesome place.

In the desert this is a good way to go; home!

Today's Flowers; if a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear...

My son in law and my daughter send me this message;

This song made it to the charts 20 years ago and not much has changed since then. Heard it again today and then found this on you tube.

See you 2morrow

Please click here and listen to it. ( I generally do not post you tube, but this one is important.)

Click here for Today's Flowers;

Skywatch Friday; Into the blue;

Neat rows of orange trees; outside Bourke.

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SkyWatch Friday; "Outback" sky;

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Photo TS

Coober Pedy;

Mining started in 1915. In 1920 the town was named from the Aboriginal word Kupa Piti;

white man's hole or water hole. ( for a better view please click to enlarge the pics.)

The mining areas look like anthills from a birds eye view.

The desert Cave Hotel where we stayed. some of the rooms are dugouts.

I had a dugout room, or cave room. No windows. It is pitch black. It was very comfortable and very quiet. The stone is soft and crumbly. In an emergency I probably could have dug my way out!

The town looks like a perpetual construction site.

Most people live in dugout houses. Summers are very hot more than 50 degree C and winter is cold. The cave houses keep an even temperature of about 23 degree C.

A pretty arrangement at the entrance of the church.

One of the many cave churches.

The cemetery for all religious nominations. The Christian graves face the desert and the Muslims face Mecca. There are about 45 Nations in Coober Pedy.

No this is not Egypt, this is a mining area.

They never lose their sense of humour.

The holes are very deep, it is dangerous, because there are so many and generally one can't see them. Our driver drove very close to them!

The stony desert;
Everybody wants one!

A splash of beauty. The aptly named Desert Pea.

continued;

SkyWatch; Friday; Wheeling....

I was fascinated watching hundreds of cockatiels wheeling and turning in big circles settling on the nearby trees, taking off again in huge flocks until they found their roosting place.

(I have left the pictures fairly big, so please click and scroll to see the impact of the birds.)

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Photos TS

Adieu Bourke; on the way to Coober Pedy...

Perhaps au revoir!

Please do click the pictures to get a better view.

Lilli picked some of the tiny straw flowers.

The wharf is a three story building. When the Darling rises the boats could still be unloaded; have a look how high the river can rise in flood times.

On the banks of the Darling River almost 800km north-west of Sydney, the once thriving river port of Bourke was the highest town on the Darling from which barges filled with cargos of wool could be shipped downstream.

Bourke was a bustling river port from the 1860s to the 1930s, and there are some fine examples of riverboat-era architecture, including the huge reconstructed wharf which can be explored – from here a track winds along the magnificent, tree-lined river. Thanks to irrigation with Darling River water, crops as diverse as cotton, lucerne, citrus, grapes and sorghum are successfully grown here despite the 35°C summer heat, while Bourke is also the commercial centre for a vast sheep- and cattle-breeding area: to the north there are rich grazing lands across the Queensland border around Cunnamulla and Charleville.

The Flinders Ranges are magnificent to see from above.

The region of the Flinders Ranges and Outback South Australia covers the area starting 200km north of Adelaide at Crystal Brook and extends to the state's borders in the north, east and west. The Flinders Ranges is a majestic mountain range stretching for 300km. The area is noted for its scenic beauty, unique flora and fauna, fascinating geology and heritage. Outback SA is a vast region noted for its harsh environment. Despite this the region offers a diverse range of experiences coupled with the stark beauty of its sandy and stony deserts, salt lakes and arid wetlands.

There are three major deserts in SA's northern Outback area - Sturt's Stony Desert, the Simpson Desert and the Great Victorian Desert. Scattered throughout the Outback are vast dry salt lakes of enormous size, the largest being Lake Eyre.

The discovery of opal in the Outback resulted in the establishment of mining towns; most notably Coober Pedy, the largest opal mining town in Australia. Situated on the Sturt Range,

We have flown over Lake Frome; Lake Torrens and Lake Eyre;

To me the huge salt lakes looked like a giant canvas painted in bold strokes with watercolours.

Salt pans in the desert;

Olympic Dam; We had to ask permission to land at Olympic Dam to refuel on the way to Coober Pedy.

Olympic Dam

South Australia possesses the world's single largest known deposit of uranium, at the Olympic Dam mine. Olympic Dam contains 40% of the world's known uranium reserves. The Olympic Dam mine is also the world's fourth largest remaining copper deposit, and the world's fifth largest gold deposit.

Andamooka from above;

Andamooka, there it is in the middle of the desert only a few kilometres from Lake Torrens and 30 km along what was once a very ordinary dirt road (it is now beautiful bitumen) from Roxby Downs, 113 km from the Stuart Highway, 286 km from Port Augusta and 592 km from Adelaide. Only 76 m above sea level it is a town driven by one economic imperative - the desire to dig a fortune out of the unforgiving desert soils.

Opals were first found at Andamooka in 1930 and since then there have been periodic great finds including the famous 'Andamooka' opal.

We arrive in Coober Pedy.

(continued)