Gone Bush, Part II - January 8th, 2007

Well hello there friends, ready for another dip in the tickle trunk? (I actually have no idea what that means...)

When last we left off, things looked like this:

Leaving Broken Hill after a marvelous Christmas, and urging the Mighty Mustafa forward with every inch of will he had. Good success dodging the law so far, and the weather was starting to really warm up. We had to first go south along the Barrier Highway to Port Augusta, a charming city that boasts both coal factories and polluted bogs. When you cross into South Australia you are coldly greeted by a fruit and vegetable quarantine officer, who is probably the last un-caught member of the 1940's German government, and regardless of the fact it is Christmas Day, run a very high risk of being anally inspected for tubors. Kids, watermelons may be cheap in New South Wales, but there is another price you will pay. A very, high, price.

Anyways, new destination, Coober Pedy! We've all heard of the town in Oz where everyone lives underground, well this is it. It's routinely over fifty degrees here in the summer, and it's also where 85% of the world's Opal comes from, so the townsfolk have all dug out caves with mining machines and live in the absolutely wonderful 20 degree paradise. Jess and I camped underground, which aside from the temperature comes with the added bonus of sleeping like you're in the womb.

We headed a little bit northwest to see the Moon Plain for the first time, which is absolutely stunning. They filmed some of Mad Max here, and you can see why. As far as the eye can see, nothing. No trees, no shrubs, no grasses, no sound. A horizon which is literally burning itself across your vision. The ground is like a cracked and dried wound, and the only manifestation of willpower for hundreds of kilometers is the Dingo fence, a fence three times larger than the Great Wall, which keeps dingos out of the southern, sheep-filled regions of Australia.

There are lots and lots of different forms of Aussie desert, but this is by far the most impressive and foreboding.

We stayed in Coober for a few days and soaked up the atmosphere, then sweated it out. Coober Pedy is like the old Gold Rush towns we're familiar with, except it's still going on. Police cars are routinely blown up with spare nitroglycerin, and when you get shot with a twenty-two, it's considered a warning shot. I am not making this up. Incredibly friendly people though, although with maybe too much spare explosive around to win a town beauty pageant. We ended up coming back to Coober several times over the days to come, and made some solid acquaintances by the time we were done. At this point though, with a car still thirsty for pavement and us still thirsty in general we headed back to the road, to the land without rules or hope, the land that decency forgot...The Northern Territory...

More later guys,

Nick

P.S.

This is what the night horizon in the desert looks like, and it's beautiful...