Day 18 – September 18 2012

We packed & left Arckaringa Station after a relaxing breakfast, taking the Mt Barry Station Road.  The road condition was pretty good for an on-station track & the 45km to the Coober Pedy turnoff was relaxing, though very dusty through shrubby desert country.  The road to Coober Pedy was fairly average to start with, then around 70km out we caught up to where a grader was working so the rest of the drive to Coober Pedy was reasonably smooth.  The landscape changed dramatically, we were now in the Moon Desert.

The Moon Desert is very barren, a flat expanse as far as the eye can see, covered in small rocks with no vegetation at all.  As we drove along we noticed a lot of rocks glistening in the sun, these rocks are actually a mineral called gypsum, very similar looking to glass & just as hard, hence the reason for no vegetation.  It really does look like a moonscape, you feel as though you are in a different world, with the Moon Desert seeming to stretch on forever.

We eventually noticed some mountain ranges in the distance & as we approached them, the Moon Desert ended abruptly, there was a noticeable delineation at the edge of the gypsum field & plants were growing.  As we drove closer to the mountain range we noticed similar colouration to the Painted Desert & the range turned out to be called The Breakaways.

About 15km out from Coober Pedy, just after we passed through the Dog Fence again- the longest man made structure in the world (this is to keep the dingos away from the sheep), we turned off for the scenic drive to The Breakaways.  This was a very corrugated track following the Dog Fence along until veering into The Breakaways.  These are a stunningly coloured range of mountains, very similar to the Painted Desert.  Again, the different colours are remarkable & we stopped a number of times for a walk & photos.  This was a loop drive & we drove through the range & out into scrubby desert country again to join the Stuart Highway about 20km north of Coober Pedy.

The bitumen of the Stuart Highway was very welcome after the roughness of all of the dirt roads we have been travelling.  The dirt mullock heaps from the opal mining that Coober Pedy is famous for started appearing & became very pronounced, right up to the edge of the road, there are thousands upon thousands of mullock heaps.

Coober Pedy is a different sort of town & we called into the Visitor Centre before heading off to the caravan park to set up. Helen & John got a nice cabin at the caravan park.  After lunch we made calls to the family (amazing how we missed hearing from them) as we finally had mobile phone reception after so long in isolation in the outback.  Then we took a walk down the main street, not very impressive & full of mining tour shops & opal shops with 2 grocery stores, etc. thrown in.  Sadly there are groups of aboriginals walking around with casks of alcohol, being very noisy & a little disconcerting.  We bought a few groceries then back to camp for a relaxed nibblies & drinks with our friends before dinner & a long night of posting blogs to catch up.