Desert and More Desert

Driving the Stuart Highway from Pimba to Coober Pedy, 376 kms of nothing except desert and bush (which are hard to differentiate). The scenery is spectacular, vast areas of nothing interspersed with the odd salt lake or small hill topped with a lone tree or the occasional dust storm. One particularly long straight stretch had been designated as a RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service) Emergency Road Landing Strip complete with chequered markers at each end of the runway and landing gear tyre marks. It was slightly unnerving to be driving down a runway and I was relieved to reach the end without an aircraft appearing in my rear view mirrors.

To preserve fuel and reduce the strain on the vehicle, we settled into a steady 85 kmph which was somewhat slower than the enormous road trains that hammered down the highway at the maximum speed of 110 kmph. Luckily we were equipped with a UHF radio tuned to channel 40, so we could hear exactly what each truck driver thought of caravanners! It was consistently derogatory and X rated but luckily there was no-one under the age of 18 in the car, so no-one was offended.

In all seriousness, they did have a job to do while we were just enjoying the scenery, so we did try to anticipate their arrival on our rear bumper and pulled off in good time to allow them past or coaxed them round us when we reached a long straight stretch. The slipstream when they went past was quite exhilarating (NOT), as the caravan wanted to wander onto the wrong side of the road or take off into the bush!

The long distances and with very little to look at meant that the slightest event caused great excitement. One of these events was when an oncoming vehicle came into sight in the distance. There is a tradition in these parts that the drivers wave to each other when they pass. I say ‘wave’ but its more of a laconic expression of indifference, and each driver has customised and individualised their ‘wave’ to suite their character and the way they wish to be regarded. Sometimes, with less experienced drivers, like tourists, it is a full on wave, but more often it is a brief raising of a finger or two of the hand resting on the top of the steering wheel. I spent some considerable time perfecting my own version of the wave until I was happy that it represented how I wanted to be remembered by that passing driver.

After a 4 hour drive we eventually arrived at Coober Pedy, a town famous for the presence of Opals, only an estimate 10% of which have been mined so far. More of that in the next post.