was already kicking his sleeping bag off and putting his clothes on.
Turned out it was 6.30 and the sun was about to rise... The man sets a
dangerous precedent.
We drove the remaining kilometres to Cooper Pedy without drama, the
long flat straight roads lending themselves to good speed and great
fuel economy (11.9l/100km), if at the expense of any driver input. The
red stony earth with it's small spiky grey-green shrubs engulfs you in
a mesmerizing way. At various points from down in a shallow creek bed
you rise up to a small hill and before you opens a stretching vista of
grey red nothingness on all sides.
Cooper Pedy appears at first like most other outback towns. It's only
when you look closer that you notice buildings that appear to be
cowering beneath the hills are actually emerging from them. Rather
than being built down into the ground, most of the buildings are
carved into the side of the sandstone (I think) hills.
We spent the day walking around the town, checking out the opal mining
tours and exploring the various churches built into the hills.
Although the rooms aren't dank, musty or particularily dark there is
no getting away from the confined feeling that you are living beneath
the earth. In some ways it's a stranger town than it first appears.
We left at about 5 pm to drive on to Wilsons Creek, about 200km away
to the east along the Oonadatta track (no idea about the spelling for
that one). From there we will drive to the town of Oonadatta, then
back onto sealed roads and the Stuart Hwy for the final drive to
Alice. But we still have much drive remaining for tommorow. Right now
we are camped next to a lake (with water), about 90 km east of Coober
Pedy on the road that leads to Wilsons Crk. No one else in sight for
as far as the eye can see (and that's a long way).
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