All posts by Alex

Mathematician, Chess Player, IT Nerd, Navigator

Port Augusta

After Coober Pedy, we drove to Port Augusta in a day. It was 540 km, longer than we normally would drive, but when we stopped at a likely rest area, and quite scenic, but the wind was howling – there were no trees to stop it, so we drove on.

SouthAustralia

Although not part of the Nullarbor, this place would comply with the name.

NoTrees

Unfortunately, this meant that we hit Port Augusta pretty tired at around 7pm, and did not feel up to touring the next day. I also think we are a bit tired of the tour at this point. The day after, we decided the sights of Port Augusta would keep, and headed off to Broken Hill.

 

Fossicking at Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is one strange town. As you approach you are travelling through arid, treeless country. (Oddly, it had rained recently, so it was quite green.) Then suddenly when you are about 10 KM out of town you run into all these piles of white mine tailings. Within the town itself, the piles join up into almost continuous tailings. Miners often start on a hill side and then turn their initial excavations into a home and keep adding tunnels.

CooberPedyThe Serbs went as far as to excavate a church from an old mine.

SerbianChurchWe tried our hand a fossicking – called noodling when you re-examine tailings.

Ash is "noodling"
Ash is “noodling”

I mostly found ochre, but we all bagged some interesting silca crystals.

OchreTo the north of the town are the stunning “breakaways”. I think I could dedicate a blog to that one. Here is a panorama I took – click for more detail.

The Breakawys, north of Coober Pedy
The Breakawys, north of Coober Pedy

 

 

 

 

Farewell NT

TripThroughtNTOur travels through Northern Territory are now complete.

You may have noticed how there are no wildlife posts in this blog about NT. That is simply because we saw none except flies and birds, the latter being very shy. Not a Roo, snake or lizard for two weeks – quite extraordinary. However, we did find an Emu farm at Erldunda as we left the territory, so while not wild, it did give dog something to think about.

I feel like emu tonight!
I feel like emu tonight!