I have been really looking forward to visiting Coober Pedy and I am not disappointed.
It is like being in an alien land with various sized ant hills all over the place. It is very hot, dry and dusty.
We stayed in the grounds of the famous Catacomb Church which is fascinating and well worth visiting. We were doing some volunteer work for the church as we worked in the mornings as it is much too hot to work the afternoons.
After a leisurely lunch, we tend to indulge in a bit of sightseeing such as
the Breakaways - a luna /alien landscape that have featured in many movies including Mad Max.
Faye’s underground house (dug out entirely by ladies by hand! And complete with an indoor swimming pool and games room) and the
Old Timer’s mine.
Quiet times are spent chatting, playing games or in my case making some explosion boxes for craft.
On Anzac Day, Rob &Julie stayed in their respective beds while Richard & I went to the Dawn Service which started with coffee or tea with a shot of Whiskey was available for all comers along with wonderful homemade Anzac Biscuits. After the short but emotionally charged 20 minute service we were all invited to stay for breakfast of bacon & eggs, and they did a fantastic job of it too! Way to Go Coober Pedy RSL. We stayed and had breakfast with 4 others that we had met previously.
Then back to get ready for church at the
Catacomb Church. They sing songs for 15-20 minutes then they break for coffee and fellowship for about 15 minutes then back into the church for the bible readings, prayers & sermon plus another song in conclusion. I also go me some more lovely sunset photos and a sunrise photo too whilst here. I love the colours that occur at these times of the day.
Though it was an interesting experience, it is not my sort of town.
I really don’t know where to start when I want to tell you of my impressions of Alice. First off there is the terrific entry into Alice by driving through The Gap which is literally a gap in the rocky MacDonnell Ranges to see Alice Springs spread out beyond this. Next I notice that there are so many Aboriginals walking around, one wonders what they are doing or going in the middle of the day. A lot of the aborigines are congregating in small groups all around town as though waiting for something. Another thing I noticed that many of the women esp the older ones around the shopping centres have bad scarring around their faces. It saddens and shocks me to learn later that aborigine women are 24 times more likely to be beaten up in Alice due to the combination of alcohol and violence. Alice also has the sad distinction of having the highest renal failure per population in the world. However we are informed that what we see is only about 20% of the Aboriginal population. The majority of the Aboriginals are working and have a worthwhile lifestyle, whether it be in their communities or in town as is their choice. Regardless, or maybe in spite of this, the people here are very friendly. The white people I met are sympathetic to the problems of the indigenous population, though may feel frustrated for various reasons in their limitations of what and how to approach and tackle the problems here. Most of the people we met here love Alice. It is quite common to here that someone came for a week’s visit and ended up living here. There seems to be something that draws people here, maybe it is the relaxed pace of life, maybe it is multitude days of sunshine, or the magnificence of the evening stars and the sunsets and sunrises over the ranges that surround Alice.
