Plane Henge – 1/15/2013
Jan 16th, 2013 by admin
After a night of ‘roos slinking by the temp, I climb out of the tent to occasional piles of ‘roo poop. Apparently, paper maps contribute to a healthy, regular and happy Skippy. Make coffee, check email, load and leave.
We’re headed for the Oodnadatta Track, a gravel road through the outback. But first we have to get through this park. Back to the main road and left onto a gravel road that leads us into a gorge area. There are plenty of ‘roos up and about. A couple of emus.
As we head for Eddowie Gorge and then Parachilna Gorge, the road goes over the smaller hills leads to the true mountains. The road gets narrower but every rise has a beautiful, early morning view. Stop for a picture or three. Go a quarter mile and stop again. That keeps going on until we finally start heading into Eddowie Gorge.
Eddowie Gorge is a very narrow road that actually runs down a creek bed. The creek is dried up now but during the rainy season, it must be a torrent onj occasion. The narrow parts of the gorge have scrape marks way up the rock walls and the wider parts have piles of debris make of brush and huge tree trunks. Obviously, this could be a very dangerous place during a sudden cloud burst.
On to Parachilna Gorge. Parachilna Gorge is generally a bit wider overall but is marked as a geology tour with signs occasionally describing the type of rock and the geologic age. At the top of the gorge, the oldest rock is 570 million years old. At the bottom, the rock is 525 million years old. We pass a couple of campgrounds that we had considered staying at. They are, how you say, quite primitive. No water. Just out-houses. Not crowded, though. And the night sky must be unbelievable.
Finally, we’re back to the main road and headed to Leigh Creek for fuel. We’ve decided to get fuel at every stop that has fuel just to ensure that we don’t find our selves needing fuel and the fuel stop that we need is closed, a very real possibility here in the summer where temps get to 50ºC (122ºF). Since these are “mad dog and Englishman” temps and there aren’t enough Englishmen about to justify staying open, some places do close and head for cooler climes which are just about anywhere else.
We stop for fuel and then move on through Lyndhurst (no fuel at all) but the road turns to gravel and we move on to Marree. There is fuel in Marree. There are also so truckers there that we have a chat with.
One of the truckers is driving a “road train” though not a very long one. Road trains are unique to the Australian Outback. They are 18 wheelers with multiple trailers, sometimes as many as 4 but more likely only 2. On private roads such a roads that vare bui;lt to carry ore from mines to their processing plants, road trains may have more trailers but you seldom see them.
We have a nice chat in the shade of the cover over the fuel pumps. Here, everywhere people congregate there is a shade cover. By noon the heat is really oppressive. You can call it a “dry heat” but a better term would be “desiccating heat”. The shade covers make the temps bearable.
But back to the car. We head northwest on to the Oodnadatta Track for William Creek. There we’ll get fuel again and turn west for Coober Pedy.
The road is empty and the landscape is barren. Actually barren is not the right word. Empty is a better description. On the way up to Marree, we were seeing occasional dead ‘roos that had been hit by trucks or cars along the side of the road. They were in all different states of decay, some just skeletons. The dry heat and the lack of any moisture means that the carcasses decay very slowly and with almost no carrion eaters, decay is the only process at work here. On the Oodnadatta, there’s no wildlife at all so there are no dead ‘roos which in an odd way, starts to get very creepy. The only word that comes to mind is desolate but that isn’t anywhere near strong enough of a word for this place.
At just past 50 kilometers, we come to Plane Henge, a junk metal sculpture garden in the middle of this barren landscape. Plane Henge is named such because the first sculpt put there is two small airplanes stood on their tails which are buried in the ground. They stand there like two crosses with aboriginal symbols painted on them. There are dedicated to the original Aboriginal people who lived here and the Europeans who first explored this area.
Since Plane Henge was first built, there have been more junk metal sculpts built and placed here. Some are unexplainable; others a wry comment on modern life. I’ve put a series of pictures in the Photo Gallery so you can make your own determinations. It’s a truly wonderful place, though, that you should put on itinerary for your next trip to Oz. Just go to Adelaide, rent a car, head north to Marree and take a left. Can’t miss it.
We move on. The road is so boring that it’s hard to believe. And apparently, not just for us. Every kilometer or so, there are gullies that would have water if it ever rained. The gullies are marked by road signs with the word Dip.
Someone else who was obviously very bored has stopped at every Dip sign and edited each sign. Dip becomes Skinny Dip or Dip Stick or Dip *hit or… You get the idea. There is a fair amount of dedication and creativity at work here. First stopping at every Dip sign wears out fast. And coming up with new versions of Dip takes a lot of creativity after the first few are exhausted. Try it your self. And there are a lot of Dip signs.
Proof that who ever did this was on a roll is that the started editing Crest signs to the obvious. But the obvious edit was the only one ever used on Crest signs. Must be a less usable word.
We come to Lake Eyre which is listed as the sixth largest lake in the world. Right now it looks like the world’s largest dried salt flat. It real claim to fame is that it sits on the world’s largest aquifer. The water is replenished by the substantial rainfall in the Coastal ranges.The lake which sits 12 meters below sea level is the catchment for 22% of the Australian land mass. But right now, there are no birds or rodents or lizards or snakes. Just brilliant white salt.
After 204 kilometers of this excitement, we pull into William Creek. William Creek has a fuel station, a hotel/motel, a bar, a bistro (all in one building) and a runway. You can book a sightseeing flight for a mere AUD700. It lasts about 4 hours and you get to see something (I hope) beyond this lifeless desert, probably Lake Eyre.
We stop in the bistro/bar/restaurant and have a toastie and beer for lunch. They have a graffiti wall and I add our comment to the thousands of others. It’s right next to the front door. “No Adult Supervision. Paul & John, 15 Jan 2013” If you’re passing through, stop in and add yours.
But back on the road to Cooder Pedy. Its 166 kilometers to Cooder Pedy and it’s into the setting sun. It’s been a long day and it’ll be nice to stop. The temps have been ranging between 39º and 43º and driving into the sun the car’s air-conditioning is just keeping up with the heat.
We’re back on the tarmac at the outskirts of Cooder Pedy and we head into town looking for someplace to stay. It shouldn’t be a problem. This is the very low season for the Outback.
Cooder Pedy is the center of the opal mining industry. It’s routinely so hot here that most people live in underground houses that may have previously been an opal mine. Plus, the people here are reputed to be pretty seriously bent.
We find the Radekas Underground Hostel. Pull in and walk into the lobby (above ground). The owner comes out looking the part of the bent Coober Pedy resident of lore. “Have any rooms?” He gives me an “of course we have rooms, you twit. There’s no one here in the summer” look and asks us if we want above ground or under ground. “Under.” “Room or dormitory?” “Room.” “Close to the shared baths or down 34 steps?” “ Down 34 steps.” “Good choice. Cooler.”
It’s a nice room and it is cooler. We drop our stuff and head back upstairs to check email. There are actually other prople in the hostel though only a few. We meet a young couple and there are afew more cars in the car park.
We’d asked for a restaurant recommendation and the owner suggested Tom & Mary’s Greek Taverna(!?). Who could resist? Off to the taverna. Which is really a Greek taverna complete with scordalia, tsastiki, calamari and souvlaki, all quite good. And they have retsina.
Tom is Greek; Mary not. He was born in Oz but his mother who was born in Greece still lives here. I can’t imagine being born in Greece and ending up in Cooder Pedy. She probably can’t either.
We have a great dinner and three small bottles of retsina. Mary, of Tom & Mary’s, can’t believe we even drink retsina, let alone drink three bottles. We pay the bill and she stops to give us a map and a couple of places to see before we leave.
The table next to counter has an older local couple with a Swiss woman who is visiting them. They had taken her to the Painted Desert just outside of CP. In this case “just outside CP” is 100 kilometers, take a left, drive 40 kilometers and stop. The road goes on to Oodnadatta. (Ping.) (Or is it pong?)
We thank them and thank Mary once again. Back to the hostel. Through the car park. Through the security door. Left down 34 steps. Right into room 6D. Bed and goodnight.
Obi-wan