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The kiwis were up early and got away just ahead of us. I
started the Land Cruiser and the message “Oil Maintenance Required” came up on
the dashboard. Now if I was in Sydney I’d happily drive with an assortment of
these messages over a few months admiring new ones as they appear (eg Fuel
Filter Replacement Required), however at Halligan Bay it just didn’t seem the
same. Also it seemed unlikely that there was a Toyota dealer at William Creek.
There was no option but to head off. I checked the oil at William Creek (all
good) and went into the pub for a coffee. The kiwis were there (not surprising
as kiwis are basically everywhere). For some reason we got into a conversation
about some part that had fallen off their camper trailer on the way to Halligan
Bay which they had found on the way back. In full retribution for my personal
failings with regard to Lake Eyre, I had promised Becs that we would head across
to Coober Pedy and stay in a motel. So we drove the 160ks of dirt and sand from
William Creek to Coober Pedy, needless to say we saw the kiwis as
soon as we
got there. I left Becs at the underground motel (more on that later) and went
to the RAA mechanic. I told him the story about the Landcruiser. He took the
keys and went to check it out. I was feeling slightly guilty that I didn’t know
more about my vehicle especially given that in my youth I actually knew
something about engines. After a few minutes I went over to check how he was
going. He was sitting in the driver’s seat watching a youtube video on his
iphone titled “How to Reset the Oil Maintenance Message on a 2013 LC200”. I kid
you not. Anyway he fixed it. Becs and I had lunch at John’s pizza across the
road from the Desert Cave Motel and then we went on a tour of the Opal museum
which I thought would be rubbish but was actually quite interesting. The whole
area was an inland sea and when it drained, opal was formed from the silica
which basdically melted into all the crevices and solidified at the clay line. Some opals are effectively fossilised dinosaurs all of which is explained in the tour. We also checked out a mock
up of an original dugout
and a modern Coober Pedy home. Apparently 60% of the population live in
dugouts. I’d been told by Ian and Sue that the IGA was really good so we went
over to check it out. It had everything (including a 3 gun locker on special). I
have to admit that Becs and I have been drinking cask wine as it is more
compact than bottles. The Yalumba ones are actually not too bad. It was because
of this I truly experienced racial prejudice. Becs and I went into the
Cellarbrations store but we couldn’t find casks so we asked the guy. He just
pointed at the sign “No cask wine in Coober Pedy”. It explained why all the
beer and wine pallets were surrounded by nets. I have a particular sense of
achievement tonight because I convinced Becs to eat at the Outback Bar and
Grill at the Shell Service Station (they do a great Piccolo Latte and the kiwis were there) and
bizarely the waiter was the same as at John’s pizza. Admittedly we had to dodge a
bunch of drunk indigenous people who have clearly discovered that bottles work
as well as casks.
Things we learnt:
- Youtube is just as reliable as Google
- The entire area was a giant sea inhabited by aquatic dinosaurs
- Coober Pedy has a great IGA, where you can buy
gun lockers but not cask wine
- Becs’s standards have lowered
mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:
minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';
mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-language:
EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Footnote: Becs wanted me to mention that one of
the issues with Halligan Bay was the memorial to the Austrian backpacker on the
way in. Got there but never made it out. It’s an interesting story so Google
it!
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