Anzac Day today; the day of remembrance in Australia originally for Australian and New Zealand  Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in WW1. It is a national holiday and all major cities have a dawn service to commemorate both the peace before dawn and the dawn landings, and a parade. Instead of poppies they wear sprigs of rosemary, which is a traditional symbol of remembrance and which also grows on the Gallipoli Peninsula.I didn't make the dawn service :-( but I did go to the parade. I was there in good time to get a good view

and the parade began.

They say there's nothing like a man in uniform, but I just love the hats...

All the services were represented and the salute was taken by the Governor  of South Australia.

dress code for the veterans was obviously optional (or do you think he just joined in?)

unsure.....

.
but the ladies

and the school children kept up the standards!

The Scots were out in force and I can't believe how many Scottish Pipe bands there are in and around Adelaide. All but two of them were playing Scotland the Brave which all those who remember 60s tv ads can only think of as "Start off the day with piping Scotts Porridge Oats!" Mercifully two bands played Waltzing Mathilda and a third played wartime favourite songs.

The leader of the British contingent

and the Greeks were fairly obvious

but there were representatives from all the different cultures and nationalities which make up Australia.
The parade took exactly two hours to pass by which will give some indication of the numbers involved. Veterans from Vietnam, mostly reviled at the time were given a loud cheer as were the young soldiers just returned form a tour in Afghanistan (and , hopefully, not going back.) Quite a lot of the older  marchers were obviously finding the going tough, and the next of kin often with photos of their lost were a very poignant reminder of what the day was all about. We are just so lucky to be a generation which has missed a major war. The bravery and courage of the men and women who marched today is an inspiration to us all.

Following the march there was a short ceremony at the Cross of Sacrifice.

A quiet few days after all the travelling...
On Sunday I went to a concert given by the Adelaide Male Voice Choir - mainly Gilbert and Sullivan which brought back many Boxing Day memories. It was held in the chapel of a local high school, very impressive facilities and the concert was very good. During the interval afternoon tea was served, "match teas" in fact with all kinds of savouries and cakes.

Today I went up to the Botanical Gardens on Mount Lofty in search of the autumn colours for which it is famous. Unfortunately it seems that I have missed the best, two weeks ago they were just beginning to turn but since being away quite a lot of leaves have fallen.

 However, there were a few bits of colour

and the lake looked lovely even on this grey day.

I have been fascinated by the gum trees here; ghost gums, peach gums some with very smooth shiny bark and others, like this with fantastic rugged, textured bark.

I can quite see why painters such as Heysen and Namatjira spent so much time painting them.  Still on art, following the Year One art syllabus, I took due note of the sculptures in the gardens!

Lunch at the organic cafe in Stirling followed by a walk in the lower parts of Mount Lofty.

This evening saw The Lucky One in town with friend Emma who I met on the Kangaroo Island trip. We enjoyed it but I guess it would be fair to class it as very definitely a chick flick!

Thursday April 19th

Another early start as it's a long way to Coober Pedy - 650 km. A day of vast skies, far, far horizons and the road stretching out straight for miles and miles - and not another car in sight.

The train takes the same straight line,

 At intervals along the way are signs saying that the road may be used as a runway for the flying doctor service, so presumably it is possible to come face to face with an aeroplane.  The verges are much wider in these places....One of the other hazards are the road trains which are huge lorries sometimes pulling three or four enormous containers behind.

On the way from Port Augusta I passed the first of many salt lakes, 

and reached Glendambo where the Australian sense of humour is still alive.

                                      

It is certainly true of the flies. Since coming to Adelaide I had begun to think that the fly story in Australia was just a myth.The past four days have disproved this in no uncertain terms. The most popular form of headgear looks rather like a beekeeper's hat, with netting hanging down from the brim to about chest height, and is worn by men and women alike. Glendambo is the last service station before Coober Pedy, but it is 243 km away, and very strangely. has two petrol stations. Why not build one 150 km up the road? There is no comparison to service stations on UK motorways. These all seem to be flyblown, ancient establishments run on the whole by rather dodgy biker characters selling mysterious pies at vast profits.....Maccas (local lingo) could do well  here.

So, having filled up (with petrol not the pies!) I made it to Coober Pedy and got my first glimpse of somewhere I have wanted to see for ages.

My first text read   Have I driven eight hours for this? I was so disappointed as it was not at all as I had imagined. It is basically a mining (opals) town and I had overlooked that small point. A walk round the town did nothing to improve the image,

but a few beers back at the camp site with my fellow travellers helped to put things in perspective. I have now come across many of the "grey haired gypsies", Australians who have taken to the road with a caravan or trailer tent; one of those I spoke to had not been home for four years.

Friday April 20th

Met Rudi, my 77 year old tour guide this morning and embarked on a fascinating tour which made me see the town in a completely different light. Rudi had first come to Coober Pedy as a miner and had worked for years in the opal fields with a partner. (All the claims are private, there is no company involvement.) He had so many memories and experiences to share it was a real privilege to listen to him and I only hope that he has written all his stories down. The first stop was at the Serbian church.

With apologies to those who already know this, I should explain that Coober Pedy is famous for its underground living. No one knows exactly whether the homes were originally built for the temperature (in the summer it can get to 48 degrees, but the temperature in the dugouts is always between 20 and 24 degrees.) or because there was so little with which to build in this treeless environment. They are sometimes simply worked out mines but nowadays some homes are dugout specifically as residences. Dugout is the term used locally, they are cut out of the hills rather than down into the ground. There are dugout hotels, restaurants, as well as churches, and excavating is made easier by the soft sandstone. 

We were then taken to an area of the town where anyone can try their hand at finding opals.

 After describing the mining process Rudi told us we were free to go fossicking on the heaps of sand to try our luck.Despite the cynical amongst us thinking  that if it was so easy all the town would be there, we all had a go. With no fantastic life changing finds we continued on the tour to the desert golf course.

The "greens" are in fact oil mixed with sand and so black and the only bits of green to be seen were the mats at the tees. Not at all attractive, and I should think pretty awful to play on- we were all covered in

the inevitable orange dust from the sand.

The next stop was to an opal mine, complete with miners' quarters,

and the hard sell of the opal jewellers!  Rudi obviously loved his town, and enjoyed showing it to visitors. There is a hospital and a primary school but the children go to boarding school in Adelaide (800 kms away) after that. There is also, of course , the oval for Aussie rules, which is the largest green space in town!

In the afternoon I went to see another dugout home,

entrance

and heard the story of it from the current owner.

It was originally the postman's residence until it was bought and renovated by three women who dug out the rooms by hand. It is a curious feeling being underground and am not sure I would like to live in one of the dugouts (not expensive though- I checked!) It would be perfect for the French and their obsession with keeping every bit of sunshine out; no need for shutters here...Two more churches followed, the Catacomb Church with its stick cross and natural furnishings

and the Roman Catholic St Peter and St Paul.

Finally I went up to the viewpoint to get a look at this town which has become more curious by the hour!

The large white rectangle is the open air cinema. My last glimpses of the town were the mine workings on the outskirts,

then back to the desert beyond.

The outback is famous for its red desert, straight roads and flies, and I saw them all on this trip! It is a region which covers 80% of South Australia but has only 1% of the population. There are 50 different nationalities living there and it is a dry area that has the world's sixth largest lake, Lake Eyre. Most of the western area is owned by Aboriginals and special permission is needed to go there. It is a truly remarkable place and I shall never forget the sheer scale of it. Despite my initial reaction I came to really like Coober Pedy and the strength and courage of the people who made it home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjkrjYitgeA&feature=related

Tuesday 17th April

Packed the car yesterday so ready to go early this morning. I decided to take the scenic route to the Flinders Ranges; Adelaide to Gladstone, Hawker and Wilpena, which would mean starting in wine country, through pastoral land

where, because it is autumn here, ploughing has begun

up to the wooded hills

and then the mountain ranges.

The townships I passed through resemble film sets for old westerns, like France at midday, everywhere seemed deserted.

In 1865 George Goyder surveyed the land in South Australia and proposed a boundary line showing the edge of the land he thought was suitable to grow crops. North of the line there was not thought to be enough rainfall for crops and the land is more suitable for grazing. Needless to say not everyone listened to him and 1865 saw a period of much rainfall and crops prospered. Over the years that followed however, he was proved correct and there are ruined homesteads all over the region just north of the line. Apparently if flying over the area it is possible to see an actual line where the mallee bush in the south gives way to the salt bush in the north. The Goyder line is a National T rust of Australia heritage Icon and I came across this monument to it near Gladstone.

Later in the afternoon I arrived at the Wilpena resort and claimed my pitch; no grass and quite a lot of stones, which may be the cause or the reason for the amazing Australian camping gear I have sen over the last few days. They really have it down to a fine art with trailer tents which open out to huge complexes larger than most English "starter homes". The cooler and the barbecue are obviously the more important parts of the kit but most campsites provide a barbecue area and camp fires are common - bizarrely in this brittle dry area.

I did wonder how on earth I could get a tent peg into this earth but my very own camping car did not require them!

(pictures taken back home)

All very cosy and worked well!

Wednesday 18th April

The next morning I joined a guide who took us to the foot of Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges National Park. Wilpena Pound is a huge natural basin covering about 80 square kilometres, ringed by steep ridges. The Adnyamathanha people believe it to be the joined bodies of two giant snakes- Wilpena means bent fingers and describes the shape of them twisting together. The walk to the wall was beautiful,

but, after climbing to the top, the way indicated clearly,

 the views  were simply amazing. The camera just couldn't capture the magnificence of the scenery

but I tried!

Back at the base we saw the original (re-roofed) homestead where several generations of the Hill family once lived.

 The sons took two years to build the road leading to it and it was destroyed in a single night's storms in 1914, after which they lost heart and sold the homestead to the government.

After visiting the amazingly well stocked camp shop and cafe for lunch I went off to explore the Bunyeroo valley and the Brachina Gorge, taking in the townships of Blinman and Paralchina. Most of the driving was on dirt roads, fairly firm since it has been so dry, but very rutted and very, very dusty. 

All along the way are reminders that it is an area of flooding and the river beds are easy to see(and they cross the road at frequent intervals).

Although I had the 4wd it is much bigger than I am used to driving but the most eerie thing was the absolute alone ness (as opposed to loneliness). I passed no one and it is such a vast, unending landscape I began to think I could be there for days and see not a soul. Anyway it made me reconsider driving 500 km to Coober Pedy on tracks, a decision highly endorsed by the park rangers with whom I discussed the journey!  Blinman is a strange little hamlet which was formed following the discovery of copper but now famous only for its altitude.

Again, it appeared almost deserted,

though the hotel and tiny church must serve some purpose.

From Blinman I took the track to Parachilna. It is claimed that the rich and famous (Kate Winslett, Harvey Keitel and Australian rock star Paul Kelly to name but a few) are drawn to the beautiful landscape (and film making). I shouldn't imagine that this is their accommodation...

although the hotel , which is one of the very few buildings here hardly appears 5 star...

The food apparently is "memorable" whatever that might mean. 

Many of these towns had prospered  in the days of the railways when the Ghan ran on this old route; in Hawker  the old station has become a restaurant.

After a full day I returned to the camp site, by this time so used to passing kangaroos and emus that I didn't take any photos!