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March - July 2001
Australia
Brett Voegele2005-11-14 17:31:04
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Flinders we also visited a few of the aboriginal caves containing rock paintings, which were interesting.
Coober Pedy
We next took our most ambitious side trip - 1000+ kms (600 miles) round trip to Coober Pedy. The road seemed like one long all-you-can-eat buffet for the many magpies and wedge-tailed hawks, as there was plenty of road-kill to go around. Coober Pedy itself has to be seen to be believed. It is an opal mining community, with no greenery in the area. Seems nothing grows in this dry, dusty area, but the flies seem to find a way to survive - we counted 30+ on a person at any one time. The heat is also quite oppressive, which is why most of the people have taken to living and working in shops below the ground in 'buildings' they hollow out of the earth. Some can be quite elaborate, while others are pretty basic. We camped in an underground campground one night just for the experience. We also drove out to an area used in the Mad Max movies, as well as visiting the Dog Fence. The Dog Fence is a wire fence 5600 kms (about 3400 miles) in length built to keep the dingos north and out of sheep country. Pretty ambitious undertaking. I think the Great Wall of China is simply a dog fence on a more grand scale......
Burra, Tanunda, & Angaston
From Coober Pedy it was back to Port Augusta for a few nights before moving to Burra - an old copper mining town. Was interesting to walk through the historic buildings and to see the mine workings, and the Cornish pasties tasted great! Next stop was Tanunda - a German village in the Barossa Valley. Barossa Valley is known for it's wine, but I was more pleased because I finally found a decent beer - a Schofferhofer from Germany. Mmmmmmmm. We next stopped in Angaston to visit Lego Man. Yes, those Legos. This guy has every Lego building block kit ever produced - working trains, cars, etc.
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