Friday, July 29, 2005
Day 13 - 29/07/05 Arkaringa Homestead to Coober Pedy
Although we got up early at 7.00 am today (by our recent standards!), it wasn't until 10.00 that we actually got started.
We had a small distance to cover about 150 km and most of it was going to be on the sealed Stuart highway. The drive continued through country similar to yesterday, but there was more vegetation, and short stubby trees. We saw quite a few cattle too. It never fails to make us wonder how they survive and thrive in this harsh environment. Last night we were chatting with our hostess at the homestead. Thrice a year the cattle are mustered and penned for branding, ear tagging, castrating the males etc.
Sometimes they are moved from a paddock with very little feed to one with more feed. On the whole they look after themselves without much intervention. They tend to keep the cows and sell the bulls or male calves. The cows are allowed to breed from stock bulls which are bought for the very specific purpose of breeding. We asked how many such stock bulls they had. She said that there was a specified ratio. One stock bull was supposed to service 500 cows in 7 weeks. Some quick calculation and we found that this meant 70 cows a week. or 10 cows a day, or one cow every hour in a 10 hour work day! Well, he had to work very hard indeed.
There were more hills like the Painted desert. These were called Copper Hills, and there was a Copper Hills HS (homestead) nearby too. Once we got onto the sealed road, the drive became quite boring. After the challenge and stimulation of the Oodnadatta track, this drive seemed so mundane. The scenery on either side of the road looked different too....it was much more vegetated along the road. About 40 km from Coober Pedy, we crossed the Dog Fence.
It is the longest structure in the world, longer than the Great Wall of China. It runs continuously from the coast of the Great Australian Bight to the Queensland coast, and was built to keep dingoes out of the sheep rearing districts. South of the fence there are both sheep and cattle on the properties, while north of the fence are only cattle. Dingoes will attack and feed on sheep, but cattle are too big. Occasionally they will manage to bring down a calf though. The fence is patrolled and maintained to ensure that the dingoes are kept out.
Closer to Coober Pedy we turned off the road onto a dirt track to see the Breakaways, which is a much advertised Coober Pedy attraction. Again, it was not as exciting as it was made out to be. It was very similar to the Painted desert but on a smaller scale, and less dramatic. I suppose it was a sort of consolation prize for those who could not make it to the Painted Desert. It is a very stark lunar landscape, and apparently a setting for many films. Driving through it made one feel like one was on another planet. The road then came to the Dog fence and followed it for a short distance before turning South and leading into Coober Pedy.
Coober Pedy was surrounded by mounds of pink earth from all the mining activity. The town was practically sitting on mines. Driving down the main road felt like driving through a shanty town. Many of the buildings were of corrugated iron. It is very touristy, and has many boards advertising tours, accomodation, attractions etc.
The rattling from yesterday hasn't gone away, only gotten worse. So I had another look under and think I've found the problem. I had the muffler and exhaust job done in Adelaide and things seemed fine. But after about 800km on unsealed tracks, the vibrations seemed to have caused the exhaust pipe coming out of the engine to come loose and the whole exhaust system was rattling. It could easily come loose and fall off on the next rough road we took. It was too late in the day to get anything done today. Will have to get it fixed first thing tomorrow, since it is Saturday and not many places may stay open long.
Although we got up early at 7.00 am today (by our recent standards!), it wasn't until 10.00 that we actually got started.
We had a small distance to cover about 150 km and most of it was going to be on the sealed Stuart highway. The drive continued through country similar to yesterday, but there was more vegetation, and short stubby trees. We saw quite a few cattle too. It never fails to make us wonder how they survive and thrive in this harsh environment. Last night we were chatting with our hostess at the homestead. Thrice a year the cattle are mustered and penned for branding, ear tagging, castrating the males etc.
Sometimes they are moved from a paddock with very little feed to one with more feed. On the whole they look after themselves without much intervention. They tend to keep the cows and sell the bulls or male calves. The cows are allowed to breed from stock bulls which are bought for the very specific purpose of breeding. We asked how many such stock bulls they had. She said that there was a specified ratio. One stock bull was supposed to service 500 cows in 7 weeks. Some quick calculation and we found that this meant 70 cows a week. or 10 cows a day, or one cow every hour in a 10 hour work day! Well, he had to work very hard indeed.There were more hills like the Painted desert. These were called Copper Hills, and there was a Copper Hills HS (homestead) nearby too. Once we got onto the sealed road, the drive became quite boring. After the challenge and stimulation of the Oodnadatta track, this drive seemed so mundane. The scenery on either side of the road looked different too....it was much more vegetated along the road. About 40 km from Coober Pedy, we crossed the Dog Fence.
It is the longest structure in the world, longer than the Great Wall of China. It runs continuously from the coast of the Great Australian Bight to the Queensland coast, and was built to keep dingoes out of the sheep rearing districts. South of the fence there are both sheep and cattle on the properties, while north of the fence are only cattle. Dingoes will attack and feed on sheep, but cattle are too big. Occasionally they will manage to bring down a calf though. The fence is patrolled and maintained to ensure that the dingoes are kept out.Closer to Coober Pedy we turned off the road onto a dirt track to see the Breakaways, which is a much advertised Coober Pedy attraction. Again, it was not as exciting as it was made out to be. It was very similar to the Painted desert but on a smaller scale, and less dramatic. I suppose it was a sort of consolation prize for those who could not make it to the Painted Desert. It is a very stark lunar landscape, and apparently a setting for many films. Driving through it made one feel like one was on another planet. The road then came to the Dog fence and followed it for a short distance before turning South and leading into Coober Pedy.
Coober Pedy was surrounded by mounds of pink earth from all the mining activity. The town was practically sitting on mines. Driving down the main road felt like driving through a shanty town. Many of the buildings were of corrugated iron. It is very touristy, and has many boards advertising tours, accomodation, attractions etc.
The rattling from yesterday hasn't gone away, only gotten worse. So I had another look under and think I've found the problem. I had the muffler and exhaust job done in Adelaide and things seemed fine. But after about 800km on unsealed tracks, the vibrations seemed to have caused the exhaust pipe coming out of the engine to come loose and the whole exhaust system was rattling. It could easily come loose and fall off on the next rough road we took. It was too late in the day to get anything done today. Will have to get it fixed first thing tomorrow, since it is Saturday and not many places may stay open long.
