the scenery has been changing daily.. ground gradually being replaced with red sand. we camped out at this one place with a sign reading - 'population: 22,000 sheep, 40,000,000 flies, 30 people'. another sign for a destination that is 500km away, the next available stop on the almost straight highway..
coober pedy was a simple little town, riding the coat-tails of old opal mines for tourism.. (oh, and they had the spaceship from the movie "pitch black" with vin diesel.. [obviously the real reason we went there..]) we stayed the night 34 steps underground in a cave-like hostel. drove out to the 'dingo fence' stretching 5300 km, and also to the 'moon plain' [which looks like you're on the moon, basically.. or maybe mars]. red dirt and broken rock spread along the surface with the 'breakaways' jutting in the distance. it was pretty phenomenal, although a difficult ride for our poor station wagon weighed down by 5 people, backpacks and camping gear..
we saw a herd of wild horses galloping through the dessert, emus, and mutant-sized birds (eagles the size of men).. hoping to climb ayers rock, we drove out to urluru; unfortunately it was expensive to enter the park, and we didn't have a clear sky so our hopes of catching sunset and watching the rock change colors were shattered.. instead we checked it out from a distance and continued on to king's canyon, taking in a small walk that evening, and a beautiful 6km hike around the rim this morning.. "the roadies" - an old couple with an assortment of instruments (and costumes) played a free show at the bar by our campsite last night and we each found ourselves on stage at some point in the night, embarrassing ourselves (and each other).. i've never felt so hick, and i'm from foxwarren..
presently in alice springs in need of some groceries and a camp site for the evening.
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3 comments:
Hey Melanie.
I finally caught up on all your blogs. I hope everything is going well. It certainly seems that you're having a lot of great adventures-- I mean, Pitch Black was always your favorite movie, so that must have been quite exciting.
Well, we're all anxiously awaiting your return to Regina. It can't come soon enough. I'm just going to end by being a bit of a smart ass.... it seems odd that wild horses would gallop through dessert. That must have been quite the site. I would have expected them to stick to deserts.
Alright, take care and talk to you soon.
Love Darryl
hi mel, here i am at moms for lunch and reading your blog. i must get ken to print it out for me as i have copies of everything youve sent for the book youll write one day right. its a cold windy day so no golf...where this global warming got to, je ne sais pas... wish you couldjoin us for kens big 60 birthday on sunday..getting so anxious to see you mel..take care sweetie xoxo grandma.
Ken, if you read this, you're right and I'm wrong..... yikes. I certainly meant to type "sight." Sorry for ever doubting you.
-Your humbled nephew, Darryl
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