When we got stationed in New Mexico, our inprocessing briefing had a section about particular health concerns in the area. Hantavirus and bubonic plague were on the list. There are several cases in the US southwest every year. It’s treatable and basically nothing to worry about in the era of modern medicine.
As interstate travel here is not quite back on the menu, my girlfriend decided she wants to go to Coober Pedy for some reason, so we are booked in for a three day trip next week. I am excited to report on this for you guys, this is going to be a bona fide outback experience. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town with a population of less than 2,000 in the middle of fucking nowhere in the north of South Australia. It’s about 8 to 9 hours’ drive north of Adelaide and it’s still another 250 miles if you wanted to make the NT border. The nearest town is over 150 miles away. There’s a lot of nothing out there. It looks like this:
Aside from mining, the town is also a tourist attraction, partly for the opals and partly because it’s famous for the inhabitants living underground, in dugouts in the rock. Here’s an underground hotel room.
About 20% of the town is Aboriginal and there’s frequently a lot of racism in outback Australia, but let’s not jump to conclusions. Let’s ask “Ricky”, bartender at the Indigenous Bar:
See? It’s fine. Indigenous people have their own segregated bar so that they don’t annoy the civilized people of the town. Not racist at all.
If you’re thinking heavy drinking might be a problem, Ricky wants you to know that it isn’t:
I wouldn’t say that alcohol in Coober Pedy is necessarily a problem
Something generally goes down every day, but I don’t usually need to get involved. Most of the time they’ll sort it out amongst themselves.
I mean yes, there are fights every day.
We don’t allow glass in here due to a few fights in the past so we just stick to cans.
Yes, yes, ■■■■■ will glass each other given an opportunity, sure.
We’ve had a great long list of barring orders on people. It’ll generally happen once or twice before they get the idea. There have been a few barred for life and they always try to sneak in.
Yes, we do have to ban half the town from drinking, but aside from all this, alcohol definitely not a problem.
I’m excited. Should be a singular experience. The first Riddick movie Pitch Black was filmed out in Coober Pedy and they just left the spaceship there afterwards, so I’m going to go visit that, if nothing else. Other than that, probably drinking beer and contemplating expanses of red dirt.
It’s hard to express how little there is of interest in the 5 to 6 hour drive from Port Augusta, the last city on the way from Adelaide, up to Coober Pedy. I think this might give some idea though. On the way is a tiny town called Woomera, which is military-owned - the surrounding land is used for military testing.
Here is a real excerpt from the “Do” section of the Woomera Wikitravel page:
You can drive out and look at the town garbage dump, or sewage treatment plant.
“Eight hour drive! Get me cube!”
I’m very excited about this. I expect daily, if not hourly, updates from the road and from Coober Pedy.
See if you can find a night tour where they take you out to play with funnel webs in the desert or something.
Definitely want a TR from the Serbian Orthodox Church:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g255094-d4543579-Reviews-Serbian_Orthodox_Church-Coober_Pedy_South_Australia.html
Also Crocodile Harry’s Underground Nest
Also The Dog Fence - which is apparently the longest fence in the world.
And Josephine’s Gallery & Kangaroo Orphanage where you can see drunk or possibly dead kangaroos.
Some more ideas for you:
I had misgivings about Coober Pedy, but I made the Ghan stop - the only one to get off on a Started with misgivings but I made the Ghan stop. 36 carriages, 2 engines,360 ppl. Only I got off. Wayne agreed to pick me up. He did.
The next two days were AMAZING, thanks to Wayne.
A long-time resident he is a fantastic guide and person. Exceptionally knowledgeable on places and people,he took me on the Coober Pedy City tour and then the Breakaways,stopping at the longest fence in the world, the Dog Fence.I was blown away with history, pioneering spirit and the beauty of the place.
On the second day we took the long road to Lake Eyre, Australia’s largest lake, through Anna Creek Station, Australia’s largest cattle farm arriving at Williams Creek, Australia’s smallest town, with a population of one! Its the only thing small in a place where all is vast and immesurable.
There Wayne prevailed on Trevor of Wright’s, to take me over the Lake, to where there was still water. We flew over the salt pans, the bubbling springs and the lake with its islands - stunning blue water,white salt pans and red desert. Then we went to the Painted Hills where we landed. I’ve got no words to describe the shifting colours and beauty of the undulating landscape of yellow, brown, orche…Timeless beauty, ineffable peace, silence with only the wind to keep things cool.
Returning, Wayne had a surprise.He took me to Lake Caddibarrawirracanna (hope that’s right, Wayne), the longest name of a place in Australia! A place of beauty and peace.
THANK YOU Wayne. Loved every moment. For those with misgivings of stopping at Coober Pedy, don’t let people put you off. They are all wrong. Just let Wayne of Arid show you how exquisite and unique the place is…
Do not miss sunset at the Breakaway country
Another tick on my bucket list…to visit Coober Pedy. The highlight was sunset at the Breakaway country…breathtakingly beautiful. Andy was such fun and very accomodating. He had to keep stopping as we wanted so many photos… it was so very beautiful. He told us many stories about Coobers characters and history.
He obviously loves the land and the life of an opal miner. Pay the extra $10 and have a glass of wine and nibblies to celebrate the setting of the sun!
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g255094-d4599986-Reviews-Opal_Bug-Coober_Pedy_South_Australia.html
Crocodile Harry’s is shut at the moment for some reason, but we are certainly hoping it opens before we get there. I mean:
Avid von Blumenthal was a baron from Latvia who fought for Germany in WWII. He came to Australia where he hunted crocodile for 13 years before coming to Coober Pedy in 1975. His dugout which features sculptures, painting, graffiti and displays of women’s underwear, became a tourist site and a set used in movies.
Before I read this I wasn’t aware that I wanted to see a collection of women’s underwear amassed by an ex-Nazi professional crocodile hunter named Avid von Blumenthal, but now I really do.
We haven’t established that Coober Pedy has the internet.
This seriously looks like a level in a post-apocalyptic video game. My first reaction was to put my left hand on the keyboard so I could WASD around the map.
Yes, I am going to continue to find excuses to work the <kbd> tag into posts.
Also, the <sub> tag is a thing if you want tiny text.
Alice Springs but that’s in the Northern Territory.
btw Funnel Webs are a Sydney-area thing, you don’t get them in the desert. But there are plenty of snakes of course, including Inland Taipans which are the most venomous in the world. There are also giant centipedes. I’ll see what I can do.
What about <sup>?
subregsup
strike
<sup>, tag?
bro?
15 year old social media thread, or search by his name.
The second season of The Amazing Race went to Coober Pedy. It was the first place they visited where I remember thinking, “Now there’s a place you couldn’t pay me to travel to.”
Because you can’t stop me, more ‘fun’ stuff from the world of French politics. Here’s some highlights from interviews with our new Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti—up until yesterday a lawyer who made his name defending politicians from various accusations of corruption, sexual assault etc.
Discussing the recent rise in visibility of sexual assault (#metoo etc.)
An starlet who agrees to sleep with someone for a role, that’s not rape, that’s the casting couch (une promotion canapé). And to deny that, that’s to insult all the women who refuse.
And what about my 25 year old son, if he tries to put his hand on the knee of a female friend he’s out with? Is that a crime as well? When it’s no, it’s no, evidently, we all agree on that. But, well, how do you know?
Then on that old bête noir, political correctness.
We live in an era with which I have some trouble. We can no longer say anything about Arabs unless we’re called Jamel Debbouze (a French actor, family from Morocco), nor anything about Jews unless we’re called Gad Elmaleh (French Jewish comedian, born in Morocco). Communities are at loggerheads and we are padlocking our thinking. We are in a time of total mediocrity, obsessed by hyper-moralism and hygiene of thought.
Let’s hope he can tell us what he thinks of Arabs and Jews now he’s in charge!