14/09/21 The Inland Sea: Coober Pedy to Andamooka

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Good morning from Coober Pedy.

 

Way back in the NT, at the picnic area at the Devil's Marbles, we met a lady who lives in Adelaide and has driven the Stuart Highway many times.

'Meh' she said. 'Once you get south of the border there's nothing to see. It's really boring all the way to Port Augusta.'

Well let me tell you she was wrong.

There may not be an inland sea but nevertheless we drove across an ocean of land, where grey seas of saltbush lapped, frothed with wattle, at the edges of the escarpments and breakaways. We looked all the way to forever from the top of red sand dunes that rippled north-south, separated by glittering shallows of gibber stones. Salt lakes took our breath away with their fickle promise of water; we swam (okay drove, but allow me poetic licence) against a river of wind all the way to Andamooka where the lines between home, mine, and mullock heap are so blurred as to be indistinguishable, and we could step into the semi-dugouts and take ourselves back to a harder, more difficult life.

There's really not much else to say: I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.
 
 
















Outback Art Installation (I'm going to call them OAIs from  now on) at Lake Hart.






 
Home for the night: Andamooka Town Common.


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