23 March 2000
Left Port Augusta around 7:40 this morning and headed NW along Stuart Highway for Coober Pedy. Weather was fine, with scattered cloud and a brisk, cold breeze blowing. The gale force winds and heavy rain of last night had abated sometime during the night.
Trip was uneventful, passing through Pimba, Glendambo and on into Coober Pedy around 2:00 p.m. Stopped at Pimba for fuel. This seemed to be a weird little place. All that was there (commercially) was a roadhouse. There were quite a number of people in it, drinking beer (9 o'clock in the morning, mind you), playing pool, eating breakfast. They gave the impression of being locals rather than tourists - there were quite a number of small, shabby residences clustered together not far from the roadhouse. And the atmosphere of the place and the people just felt odd. Inbreeding, perhaps?
On to Glendambo and another stop - this time for fuel and breakfast. There were a couple of roadhouses and other businesses here, and the atmosphere was much more agreeable.
Countryside very variable, from flat featureless, treeless plains to rolling hills and gullies covered in trees and shrubs. But always the beautiful colour contrast of bluebush and red sand.
About 20 kms out of Coober Pedy you start to see the mullock heaps (earth and rock that has been removed from the underground mines and just piled up beside them). What looks like a series of small ranges in the distance off to your left materializes, as you come within visual range, into hundreds (thousands?) of them. There are signs beside the highway warning people of unmarked mine shafts and warning "DO NOT RUN", "BEWARE DEEP SHAFTS" and "DO NOT WALK BACKWARDS". When you get to the town itself, it seems to have sprung up between the mullock heaps (and probably has). There is no grass or other vegetation in the town and adjacent residential areas. Just bare earth. And dust. Dust everywhere. We are staying in an underground apartment. It has been made by cutting a cave back into a cliff (which was probably originally a mullock heap). It is very spacious and consists of a large kitchen/dining room with a full size fridge and freezer, sink, cupboards, cutlery, crockery and electric stove, large lounge room/living room, large master bedroom, second bedroom and a large toilet/bathroom. It is quite cool and comfortable and has views from the front door over the nearby Stuart Ranges.
When we went to get some tea was talking to a chap (Italian) who is an opal cutter and polisher. He used to be a miner for many years (he has been here for 38 years) but never did much good. He was saying opal fever gets in your blood, like gold fever and you just have to keep going because you never know if the next swing of the pick might make your fortune. He used to go away picking fruit in season to get enough money to come back here and keep going. He told us he was finding a little bit of opal in a corner of his claim, and that he knew his neighbour on the adjacent claim was also getting opal just on the other side, but unknown to both of them there was a triangle of land between the two claims which each thought was the other's but in fact had been pegged by neither of them. Someone else came along, realized what was happening and pegged the vacant area. Guess where the opal was? The newcomer made a fortune.
Continuing north tomorrow towards Alice Springs. Undecided as yet whether to go straight to the Alice or to turn off at Erldunda and go out to Ayer's Rock and the Olga's first. Decisions, decisions. Will make it tomorrow.