On Thursday we set out on a 600km trip with the mail contractor who delivers mail to outlying villages and stations around Coober Pedy. The mailman, Peter Rowe, has lived in Coober Pedy for 40 years and has a wealth of information about the area and its characters. He has done the mail run for the past 10 years. The vast majority of the trip was on good dirt roads and we passed through 5 cattle stations, visiting 4 homesteads and the small communities of Oodnadatta and William Creek. The largest of the stations was Anna Creek. At 24,000 square kilometres, it is the worlds largest cattle station. It is owned by the legendary Kidman pastoral company.
It was good to meet with some of the people who live such an isolated life and to hear tales of their ingenuity. The story of Nilpinna Station and the road to Coober Pedy is a great example where the story goes that the owner was out and about one day and noticed he could see the lights of Coober Pedy in the distance. If he could see the lights, then surely there was a quicker way to get there than through William Creek or Oodnadatta, so he bulldozed a road through his property and now the trip to Coober Pedy only takes two hours. There is a great attitude out here about getting things done rather than waiting for them to be done for you. Nilpinna Station itself was very welcoming, with a homemade afternoon tea waiting for us. The cost was $3, all of which is donated to the Cancer Council. The ANZAC biscuits were as good as those my grandmother made.
Favourite sights on the tour were the moon plains which sparkled as the light hit the gypsum on the plains, the dingo fence, the many waterholes, the green hills and the old Ghan railway bridge at Algebuckina. The burger at the Pink roadhouse in Oodnadatta was enormous and tasty and dinner at the William Creek Hotel was pretty good too. We finally arrived back at Coober Pedy at 9:45pm - it was a big day, but a good one.
We had another early morning today to catch our 8:00am flight over Lake Eyre and the Painted Hills. Most of the dry river and creek beds were green after recent rains and were quite a sight from the air. We could see Lake Eyre in the distance - a mass of white and blue haze. When we finally flew over the area with the most water, we couldn't believe our eyes. The water was purple. Apparently this is due to an algae present in the salt which releases beta carotene into the water. The colour diminishes as more water arrives and dilutes the beta carotene which will happen when the flood waters from Queensland arrive in about 3 months. The purple effect disappeared in some of the shallower areas where we were treated to glossy white mirror finishes and sky reflections.
The return flight to Coober Pedy took us over the Painted Hills located on Anna Creek station. These hills are coloured from white through yellow to deep red depending on which minerals are leaching out. Travel overland to the hills is prohibited and the only way to see them is from the air. These hills only became public knowledge in 2000 when "our" mailman, Peter Rowe, came across them when helping out Anna Creek station.
The flight meant more to us because it included some of the stations and towns we visited overland the day before. We could see the vastness of the stations and the tracks on which we travelled.
Finally, we felt we could not sign off today without acknowledging the flies. Oh, the flies. In their thousands they descended upon us and neither Bushmans nor Aeroguard nor Desert Dwellers would repell them!
No comments:
Post a Comment