Onwards to Coober Pedy

This morning we left Spear Creek early and drove 537 kilometres to Coober Pedy along the Stuart Hwy. The moment you leave Port Augusta or “The Gutter” as locals call it and you hit the Stuart HWY it’s the last time you see a traffic light until you reach Alice. That’s 1200 kms! The HWY’s main purpose is to connect the south to the north and at times I wondered if it would ever end.

The landscape changes dramatically and the low lying shrub becomes non existent the further north you travel. Wide expansive lands that touch the horizon, red ochre soil, stunted vegetation and extensive salt lakes that are crystal white. It’s the contrasting colours of the land and its surrounds that highlight its beauty and its toughness to survive.

Along the way we passed several stations. These stations extended for hundreds if not thousands of kilometres and I found myself admiring the people who chose to make this their home.

Most of the way we had Telstra coverage and we listened to some Great Aussie Classics on Spotify. Solid Rock, Great Southern Land, This is Paradise… until we left Glendambo and then for 250 kms we had no coverage and saw no one except for a few road trains that were heading south. We were alone in the Never Never Land.

Along the way we saw emus feeding, eagles hovering close to the road. I lost count of how many dead wallabies we saw on the side of the road. We could spot the roadkill hundreds of metres away as the crows were the tell tale sign that yet another had met its fate and further up the road the abandoned vehicle severely damaged by the  impact. This was a constant reminder to keep our eyes on the road and its surrounds.

We arrived at Coober Pedy at 4 pm and my first impression was .. now this is going to be an interesting town.

I read this poem when I visited the Indigenous Outback centre in Port Augusta. Lawson brilliantly describes the never never land and for an eerie moment I felt it too.

The Never, Never Country by Henry Lawson

By homestead, hut, and shearing-shed,
By railroad, coach, and track —
By lonely graves of our brave dead,
Up-Country and Out-Back:
To where ‘neath glorious the clustered stars
The dreamy plains expand —
My home lies wide a thousand miles
In the Never-Never Land.

More…https://allpoetry.com/The-Never-Never-Country