Hopping Up the Red Centre

So many unique destinations – each memorable for a vista, an experience or a human encounter, or a combination thereof –

Arkaroola…

A nature reserve and lodge in the Flinders Ranges, and a notable Dark Sky destination. Each day toward sunset, guests are invited to grab a beverage and watch the feeding of the yellow-footed rock wallabies that live nearby…. So cute.

The moderately mountainous terrain provides a great setting for a sleepout under the stars. While Tertius and Ty held back, the hardy elders amongst us ventured off with several others along the ridgeline to a well-placed campsite.

Although clouds and high winds prevented a spectacular star-viewing, conditions were perfect for the coming and going of the sun….

What a gorgeous color palette! Ain’t nature grand?

The guide spotted a pretty amazing rock on our way back down to the lodge…. Unfortunately a bit too big for Henry to stow in his luggage……

Andamooka

Andamooka was our first foray into opal mining territory. It’s a town of several hundred sturdy characters and really nice folks. We stayed at Duke’s Bottlehouse Motel, and Peter Duke showed us around.

The opal museum, and beautiful artwork by local artist Leila…

Something like 95% of the world’s precious opal is produced in Australia. Because of how opal naturally occurs, it does not lend itself to large-scale commercial mining, so opal is found and extracted by individual miners working small tracts. The area in and around Andamooka is pocked with holes and piles of sand and rocks where miners have pursued their dreams. Here we examine some of the basic cottages that the early miners inhabited in the 1930s:

Peter was kind enough to take us to his claim and clear out a space for us to do some looking on our own….. even using his excavator (doesn’t everybody have one?) to uncover some new material.

Opal mining is called noodling, and works best with an ultraviolet light to evaluate the quality of the findings. …. And we did some more of it in town after having a beer and watching a sunset with our new local friends.

Speaking of characters – Cal the Stoner is an incredible artist and artisan, who carefully selects and works pieces of stone into amazing pieces of art. In progress is “The Goddess”…

His Andamooka tiger is extraordinary…. Each chunk of sandstone is precisely worked, taking into account not only its shape but its color – and fitted into the greater sculpture.

Before moving on, Ty and Tertius did a little shopping with the help of Peter’s wife, Margot.

Unfortunately, our noodling efforts were not successful, so we had to buy our souvenirs!

Muloorina

Muloorina is a large cattle station located near the shore of Kati-Thanda-Lake Eyre. If full of water, Lake Eyre would be the largest lake in Australia; however, it is shallow and salty and dries out quickly in the heat of the Red Centre. Just a quick stopover, Muloorina was notable mainly for our celebration of Ty’s birthday……

The station owner was kind enough to make Ty a cake…

Tertius and Henry celebrated by taking their once-a-week smoke break.

We brought some gin and tonic to have a group toast.

And Tertius caught a nice photo of our trusty plane as the moon rose over Muloorina….