CULTURE SHOCK...!!!

OMG!! Where the... ... are we?!?

First impressions of Coober Pedy: A dry, dusty, dirty town in the middle of nowhere. Second inpression: Not so much a town as it is a garbage tip! It's strange and wierd (in all the wrong ways). Third impression: I want to go home! Get me out of here!!

But we'll get to Coober Pedy soon, lets start at the beginning of the day... Or rather, lets start with the end of last night. I thought I should let you all know that our birthday dinner for Jeremy at The Standpipe restaurant was a resounding success!! We all went home very full from a lovely meal, which was a great way to finish a wonderful day.

We woke early this morning, and were away from Port Augusta at exactly 8am. We wanted an early start, cause we knew we had a big day in front of us. The road trip was everything we expected, everything we dreaded, but more... it was surprising and eye opening. It was a long way, but the road was good, the traffic was light, and we made good speed. The scenery was spectacular, and changed fairly frequently, but quickly got boring, as the hours drifted by... The road goes on and on, straight and level, and I'll be dreaming of a dotted white line tonight... There were a couple of things that surprised us, that I feel are worth mentioning. Firstly, the road is frequently broken by cattle grids. I wasn't expecting this, but I understand it, it just seems wierd on a major national highway... Secondly, there are lots of bodies of water between Port Augusta and Coober Pedy. I though desert was arid and dry, and some of these 'lakes' were salty and drying up, but many seemed very full, and very very big. It might just be this time of year? Thirdly, the roadkill we expected was kangaroos, wallabies and rabbits, but what we saw most was cattle. Bloated, full of air like a balloon, dead on the side of the road. Lots of them. A couple of sheep, foxes, many birds and of course, the kangaroos... Want to know what was impressive about the roadkill? Huh? The magnificent and regal Wedge Tailed Eagles feasting on it! The crows would squabble, fly away and scatter as we drove past, but the eagles would just sit on the carcass and stare us down. I wish we'd stopped for a photo, they are a massive bird of prey. After a while though, the road was the road, and it stretched on and on. I got very frustrated again, at the caravans refusing to do more than 90kph, and some sitting on 80kph, on a road posted limit of 110kph. The road trains are enormous, and would swoop past them like they were standing still, and you could see their van sway and swerve with the wind as they went by, and we'd have to wait till we could see way into the distance before overtaking, cause I do NOT want to meet one of those trucks coming the other way... It's very annoying when there's so much distance to cover. Anyway, back off my soapbox... We had morning coffee at 'Spuds Roadhouse', at a little town, not even a town, not even a village, called Pimba, and left as soon as we could. At that stage, I found the locals confronting. Now that we're here in Coober Pedy, I think they'd be great company... We had lunch at a rest area (can't remember the name), where lots of other vans were stopped, and we met some of the other travellers headed to Coober Pedy. Funnily, the couple that were next to us in Port Augusta, we ran into again at 'Spuds', and have arrived here at Coober Pedy also...

We arrived at 2, and had set up by 3... and we all wanted to leave at 3.30, but one of the reasons for doing this trip is to show the boys that not all life is as we know it on the east coast. Some people live differently, (we expected most people to live on the same planet though), and this is part of that lesson. We have to set aside our judgements, live outside our comfort zone for a while, and take things as they come... We went to a local lookout, and I let Jo wind down the window to take some photos, but we stayed in the car with the doors locked and the motor running... I honestly would have run people over to get out of there if I thought it necessary... We ate dinner at the local pizza bar, and in a town of complete contrasts, it happened to be the best pizza we've ever had. I had kangaroo pizza... YUM!! Who would have thought you'd get awesome pizzas out here? But we did that at 4.30pm, cause we wanted to be back at the park, locked inside our caravan, before dark... Our park has a massive steel gate which they close at 10pm and don't open until 6am, and we figure that's for a reason, so until we know otherwise, we're going to play it safe. For our third and final night here, we booked ourselves into an underground motel, just to see what all the fuss is about...

Anyway, we're here now, and we're here to experience whatever comes our way. It's extremely unusual to us right now (that's being diplomatic), but we might get used to it by the end of our visit. (If we do, I fear it's because we've gone insane.) If we're still around tomorrow, I'll write to you all and let you know how we're getting on... Ok? ... If you don't hear anything... send the army...