Friday15th August

Friday 15^th August.

Greg decided that the sun would not rise in an ideal spot for taking sunrise photos of the lake and decided to sleep in. No doubt still happy that his sunset photos were so good.

Sunrise on the salt lake

I awoke and although later than I would have liked to do sunrise photos, decided that I would have a look out the window. To my surprise there was a decent kind of sunrise about to happen so scrambled to find shoes and socks and car keys and rushed out to get my big Nikon out of the car. I hastily locked the car and started running down to the lake – which is about 800 meters away only to discover that putting on a bra would have been really helpful in wanting to run  - also my asthma spray and water and well really badly planned  effort this was. However to turn back would cost too much time so I pushed on. I arrived at the lake with the sun playing in the clouds and knew that before long it would look not as spectacular as the Murrumbidgee river shots but not a complete failure either. The wind was quite chilly and not as hard as the day before but enough to be uncomfortable if I didn’t keep moving. I took some photos and then a big train came past which was very good as I love trains. Then the sun started hitting the salt plain and casting light and shadows which became a great fun time to photograph. I even tried to get the low down shot so I lay on the salt, keeping the camera well above it – but I was covered in sticky salt by the time I got up and because it had rained last night, I was a bit damp too. A few more shots and I realized that I still had the car keys and if Greg had woken up and decided that he wanted to take some photos he could not get to his gear as it was all in the car and I had the keys. I started to hurry as much as one can back to the van. As luck had it Greg was just stirring and so I wasn’t in the poo. But I did need a sailor’s shower as I was sticky as can be with salt and felt a bit yuk.

We were still on the road early and I even mopped the floor on the way out as there was sand everywhere. Greg insists on living in his work boots and because of the tread on the soles of them they dump crap everywhere inside.

Force feeding him a banana, we drove along the not very interesting outback road until we came across the Glendambo roadhouse which we fuelled up. It was windy as heck and bitter cold. We expected to find some occer Aussies in there but there were some very polite Asian people instead which was lovely although unexpected.

sticks encrusted with salt

Wasting no time we wanted to get to Coober Pedy so we drove on, my turn to drive until I decided it was time for a coffee – since the roadhouse didn’t even have a coffee machine. Greg decided it was time for a $2000 coffee so while I made a cuppa tea inside he got the generator on and plugged the Nespresso machine into it. We call it the $2000 coffee machine as that’s what the generator cost. Coffee made and some of my Mum’s lemon slice gobbled, we hit the road again. Boy does my Mum make the BEST lemon slice!

Before we knew it though we were in Coober Pedy. We knew we had to stay in a caravan park here but were unaware that you can plug in to power but can’t plum as water was so scarce. We went to the Tourist information centre and gathered some facts about the place and then went back to the car park where I found a man driving off with his caravan tap still turned on. So being a caring person I went over to tell him only to get a mouthful of, ‘its intentional he snarled, and I need to get rid of the water in the tanks before filling up’. Made less than no sense to me unless the water in his van tanks is awful – which if you filled up in Broken Hill I can totally understand – but he was so rude. I told him that there was no need to be rude about it and walked off mumbling to myself ‘hope you get several flat tyres – rude wasteful man’.

We booked into a caravan park which the spots are very close together especially after free camping for a while and low and behold Mr Rude man and wife pulled up soon after. Thankfully not parking next to us. The parks were not really defined by any marker so it made figuring out sites difficult. I must say I was very glad to arrive early as lots of others arrived after us and had we rolled up about 5pm we would struggled to fit Gibson in anywhere.

We didn’t need to level but did have to unhitch. We  decided to go for an unhitched drive and did a bit of exploring the town which took all of 10 minutes. We went to Lightning Ridge in May and learned all about mines and opals so seeing mines and opals in Coober Pedy wasn’t exactly a mind blowing experience. The underground church was lovely though and seeing the start of people’s places which are underground are cool. Luckily for the residents here the rock is so hard that they don’t need support beams which they do in Lightning Ridge – hence people can’t live underground there like they can here. Anyway opals are opals and I don’t need any so lots of opal shops are lost on us.

We did buy a coffee though – almost not. We went to a café and the girl on the counter didn’t even look up but said, “kitchen is closed and no more food orders”. So I said “ok”. She said again, “no food the kitchen is closed”. And I said “I don’t want anything to eat only coffee and do you serve proper decaf or do you supply it from a jar”. I nearly walked out. Should have but we ordered coffee and then realized that they do free internet so used it. Bugger them.

Washing.

The bain of life on a long trip is you never will know when you can get your washing done, especially in the outback. I reluctantly paid $4 for a washing machine and even more - luckily was standing by the machine when it finished. Mr Rude and his wife were starting to do their washing and he commented that it was good I was near my washing machine as he needed to use it and didn’t care to wait.

I really, really hope all his tyres go flat.

Then he asked me where I was from and I said Canberra – and he had the audacity to say that its really cold there – I said it was a bloody side colder here and fifty times more wind and that Canberra weather is much nicer – and I could have added a really good insult but decided to keep myself nice. ‘Get stuffed and hope your water tank springs a leak for wasting water’ came to mind. Then I took my washing and left – as I had run out of dollar coins and needed to use the drier – bugger. Bet he would have stood there and waited for that too.

Hope he has a really good puncture repair kit. Or better off not. Good thing I lit that candle in the church or maybe I could be in trouble.

Greg had a bit of a snooze while all of this was happening so I charged up my extremely flat computer and typed out some more of this. Washing done and mostly dried – the rest hung in the portable clothes airer – the car. Greg awoke and was most upset as he had overslept and wanted to photograph the Breakaways, a bunch of eroded hills for the want of a better brief description, significant to tourists and more to the local indigenous population -  at sunset. So it was with lead foot and a sense of upmost urgency that I floored poor Lady – who had already done her work for the day the 30 or so kilometers which of 11 was up a quite corrugated dirt road to the viewing platform of the Breakaways. What a breathtaking view but what a bummer of a sunset. Thick grey clouds blocked the sun who tried valiantly to compensate but no. A few stray rays and it was all over bar the gusting, really cold, crap and we are totally over it WIND!

Greg stayed near the car with high tech camera gear at the ready which could not be used as the noise of the wind impacted the quality of the photos  (makes them not sharp) so it just didn’t work. I just had my Nikon D300S who is my best friend and we went exploring and found different things to photograph at different angles and still didn’t come up with the winning shot of the day but some weren’t bad – if I could only get a horizon straight. But since I went such a long way over the hills to find that perfect shot at least I had some exercise.

By the time I got back to the car, Greg had found people to talk to. Usually I am the one who talks to anyone (stop nodding your head) but this time it was Greg who had a case of the yaks. Whilst I cooled down from my hill climbs and then proceeded to get cold, although the conversation with the couple Greg had found to chat to was interesting, they were threatening to go sit in the car and wait for an opportune moment to photograph a glimpse of sunset. I just wanted to sit in the car and get out of the cold wind. Greg was forever optimistic and stayed, camera with massive lens attached, ready, waiting for the moment. Waiting until he too gave up hopped in the car, heater pumping, and we started the trip back home. Not a winning shot to be had. Never did see that couple again – maybe they’re still waiting.

It was a sham that camping is not allowed at the Breakaways but its not other wise we would have stayed there the next night in search of the sunset and sunrise photos.

Back at camp and for a Friday night, happy hour was very late. Cleverly though the caravan park has free internet  - hooray – but it doesn’t work in the caravan park, just in the bar. Ploy! So regretfully we gave up our quality happy hour drinks for free internet, a dreadful bottle of shiraz, a plate of chips (which were excellent) for dinner (also really naughty as I had planned a healthy take away pizza, and it all goes downhill from there) and me sitting like the obsessed, egging on the very slow internet to upload photos on to the blog like a hopeless punter waging his last 50 cents on a long shot – with about the same outcome. We even got kicked out of the dining room into the other bar. They needed to shut as it was late. How sad is this story so far? Greg was happy in the dining room they had Friday AFL on the telly. Happy man happy life – but that’s ok as he could continue watching it from the other bar with lots of company from local indigenous folk who were fine and helped Greg egg his team on. Not that Greg needs help, he would put the most died in the wool punter to shame. His team wasn’t even playing. Greg yells at the telly regardless when football is on. Any AFL game is fair game for vocal comment. Some people find it odd. After 21 years of marriage its like him cutting his toenails. Hold on maybe that’s the wrong scenario. Just normal stuff I guess.

Greg however in spite of his snooze in the afternoon was very tired and kept asking me if I had finished. Of course I wasn’t. Its Friday and I am only publishing Tuesday! These damned photos take so long to download or upload or just flaming load!!!

So we went back to our caravan in the cold wind (yes, still) and now am sitting in the kitchen part of the van still typing like a woman possessed, and my husband who has thoroughly forsaken me and gone to bed is wondering why I can’t just send my updates to the ones I love/like/friends with/whatever by bloody email as it would not be quite so hard!

But there you go. Hope you are enjoying this as its quite fun in spite of the rubbish internet to do it with.

Cheers! Another big day tomorrow.

Its show time – off to Maree and the Oodnadatta track!