Off to See the Wizard - Coober Pedy Day 1 Part 2

Yesterday was such a full day that it is taking me two posts to put it all in.

After our morning’s tour, which by the way, went for nearly four hours rather than the advertised three, we had only a couple of hours before we had to be ready for the second tour.  This time it was a sunset tour to the Breakaways.  Whereas there were 18 on the morning tour, there were just six of us this time, all of who we had met in the morning.

We headed out of town into the gibber desert, as they call it, as it is full of rocks called gibbers all over the ground.  This is one of the hottest places in Australia where temperatures can reach 50 degrees C and the ground temperature can reach 65 degrees C.  The area is known as “Moon Plain”.

On that black section there are lots of shiny stones, that look like mica.  It is actually gypsum.  This area  is an ancient sea bed and one layer is the remnants of a 170 million year old rainforest, complete with petrified wood.  The whole area we were travelling in has now been handed back to the traditional owners, with a permit required to be purchased before travelling there.  Also, we are very restricted in where we can walk off the road.  We were unable to walk on this area.

At this stage of our tour, we were travelling parallel with the dog fence.  This is a fence that runs for 5,600kms, 2,150kms of which is in South Australia.  This is the longest fence in the world, being twice as long as the Great Wall of China. It was constructed to keep dingos from entering the pastoral areas to the south, as they had been killing so many sheep that many grazing properties failed.  Originally wealthy pastoralists constructed their own fences, with them finally being joined into the current fence in 1940 and the final stretch being added in the 1980s.  

The construction is of wire mesh, which has a top that flops into the northern side, so that animals cannot get a grip and climb over, although large kangaroos can jump over it.  On the ground, it folds back towards the northern side for about a foot, so that it cannot be dug under.  Many of the original posts are still in use.  The thin grey timber posts that have wire running through them are made of gidgee, which is very hard and termite resistant. The rust star pickets with the wire running through them are also original.  The shiny star pickets are new, as are the larger timber posts.  The local Coober Pedy Ranger maintains 337kms of the fence.

This gives you an idea of the height of the fence.

I was also able to get a photo of our little tour bus.  There’s a lot of desert out there.

After a while we reached The Breakaways, with their colourful hills.  Can you see the camel sitting down here?

This formation is known as “Two Dogs” by the traditional aboriginal people, as it looks like a white and a tan dog sitting down.  I must say I couldn’t see it.  The difference in colour of the two hills is due to the varying degree of erosion.  The white one has eroded more than the darker one.

To the right of the above hills is a pointy hill known as “The Old Man”.  If you look closely, you can see a long ridge running from near the top towards the lower left of the hill.  There are two horizontal lines, one running each side of it, which are the eyes and down the bottom is his beard.  I could sort of see it, sort of…

There is just one point where we were allowed to climb a little hill to a lookout area.  It was quite steep and George our driver was a show off, pretty much running up it, with Mick not far behind.

What a sight.  George was busy taking everyone’s photos.  As you can tell by our attire, the cold wind was still present, although the air temperature wasn’t too bad. You can see why this area has been the backdrop to many movies, depicting earth as well other outer space planets.  A lot of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was filmed in the local area.

We then drove on to the end of the road at another lookout and went for a bit of a walk.  George pointed out various plants as we went.

We had seen this before, but didn’t know what it is.  It is a bush tomato and grows little green berries that look like little tomatoes.

The next one we had learnt about a the Botanic Gardens.  It is the Dead Last Bush.  We had been told that it is an incredibly drought resistant plant and if it dies, it is the dead last to die.  This time we were told that it is an incredibly drought resistant plant and if the kangaroos resort to eating its spines, they are poisonous and it will be the dead last thing they do.

See those vicious spiky leaves.  Well, the aboriginal people remove warts with them.  They insert two spikes through the wart like a cross, and it kills it.  

There were more Eremophilas.  This variety was a bird pollinating one.

I don’t know what this was, but it was cute.

If you zoom in on the above photo, you will see several caves.  A lot of the formations have them.  Kangaroos and other wildlife use them to seek refuge from the intense summer heat.  The public is not allowed to go there, or on any track in the area.

After enjoying a coffee and muffin, we settled in to see the sunset, while having a general wander around.

There was a little cloud to the south.

As the sun set in the west, there was a beautiful soft light to the east.  The wind finally started to drop, so it was rather lovely watching it all unfold.

The view when we left to head home.

It would have been nice to stay longer, as we have learnt that this is just the first stage of a sunset.  As we drove along I kept looking over my shoulder to watch the sky develop a bright golden colour before developing a rich orange as the rest of the sky was nearly black.

As you may guess, the highlight of the day was our trip out to The Breakaways.

What a truly stunning place to visit.