Bali November 2013

BALI

Arrived in Bali to find Yasa our driver now friend from 10 years ago waiting for us, after 10 years we all still recognised each other, a bit older and a bit greyer, but no difference otherwise. He dropped us at our first timeshare hotel for this trip it was in Seminyak, a very nice hotel but very impersonal, usually with timeshare it is more like a happy resort where everyone checks in on the same day so everyone there is on the same footing. There is usually a communal area where you get to know all the staff and also fellow travellers while sitting around the pool, drinking cocktails or having a meal in the restaurant. This didn't have any of those facilities, no pool & much more like a normal hotel than any timeshare we have  ever been too, but the hotel was in a very busy shopping area & surrounded by restaurants and bars which were great and varied. Seminyak is the place to be for shopping or if you want European food, we did try some of the local eateries, they were mostly excellent, as for breakfast I still need a good coffee and that we got that there too. Also found one of the best French patisseries I have ever come across anywhere, we made it our mission to try some different pastry every day, not too good for the waist line, but we persevered and lord it was tasty. Spent most days wandering around, relaxing, shopping, sitting in cafés or bars watching people.  Spent one day with Yasa sightseeing up to the volcano via Ubud where we stopped at the local market, also stopped at a photo opportunity over the rice terraces, where I got conned into spending an outrageous amount on a top, when I told Colman and Yasa I had paid $10 for the top they almost fell over, I do realise he could have gotten it for half price, but I am incapable of bartering. We have since agreed on a system whereby I say certain words to show I really want something, or good if you can get it but I don't need it really, Colman is the best barterer.  He laughs, smiles and makes jokes, I either get pissy and walk off or just give them the first price they ask for, no good apparently!  Also went to the Kopi Luwak coffee makers.  It is local coffee made from beans which have been eaten, digested and pooped out by the Luwak cat, a native catlike creature aka mongoose,  which eats the coffee beans when they are exactly the right ripeness. What it digests is the outer shell of the coffee bean leaving the bean with a bit of a coating intact, as it cannot digest this it gets pooped out some days later to be collected by the locals (that must rate in the World Greatest Jobs!), de-husked, and then roasted. We tried it and I'm sure some people will think it’s nice, for me it was too bitter, probably a double or triple roast, too strong and.... Well, I left it after one sip, Colman persevered and didn't dislike it too much!( Just maybe the Mongoose was having an off day) The markets in Ubud were very touristic and everyone with a stall wanted a piece (gets very tiring say “No Thank You” every minute for two hours), as we weren't really in the mood for shopping it didn't take us long to get around and head out, the architecture and temples are lovely but the market is like every other market. The volcano, Mt Batur, we had been to before and it was still a spectacular view although fairly overcast and rainy, the restaurant you must go to enjoy the view was ordinary to say the least. The view was great, the smorgasbord food was greasy, overcooked, cold and tasteless, the staff uninterested and up themselves. the toilets......well they didn't rate high on my list anyway. The main reason we wanted to do this trip was I wanted to see the elephant temple Jalan Goolama, and that was worth it, old, spectacular and with lovely surroundings. A couple of funny things we saw was firstly a couple of German tourist with a guide who was trying to persuade them to drink the water that was coming out of one of the statues mouths, it is "fresh spring water, very holy, good for luck, good for you, no bad, no make sick!!!" We watched shaking our heads saying don't do it, one of them did, I'm thinking Bali belly strikes again. A cute little scam in the temple we picked up on early in the piece, you pay to get in, then once inside there is jungle and after an earthquake years ago some of the outlying temples had slid into the valley, some had been built further away and were still intact, but you could wander anywhere you wanted. So at one spot there was a local who said we should go around the other side, through the water to see "more of temple", you could kind of see enough to get the idea, I walked in a little way and he kept encouraging me to go there, go there, look there. At this stage I got a bit suspicious so I turned around, said I'd seen what I wanted and headed out, he looked a bit pissy when I left, and after we  watched for a few minutes he pulled the same stunt on the next visitors, who followed him around and then we're asked for a "donation", not these little black ducks, were smarter than that!  So off we went, came to a couple more sites where similar scams we're going on and avoided them all. Then we came to a small beautiful temple in the middle of the jungle, walked in, little old monk (with 2 teeth, arthritic hands & feet) calls us over, blesses us, point us in the direction in which we need to say our prayer, sprinkles us with holy water and blesses us again and wafts smoke over us to seal the deal. How lovely was that, blessed by a local monk, you can see it coming can't you. As we thanked him and turned to leave, he stood in front of me, with his two teeth smiling,& the only thing he could utter was thhhath, thhhath, thhath, thhath, thatthh, while lifting a little carpet thing laying on top of the alter where 100,000IR ($10) notes had been beautifully ironed and aligned. He thhathed, pointed at the notes, and pointed at my handbag, bugger, so much for smart.   Anyway I gave him about $2, he wasn't excited but let me get away, he then tore past me at the speed of light to get to Colman who had waited for me, after much thhathing and pointing he got cash out of Colman too. Truthfully, we didn't actually mind because the guy was absolutely hysterical and this was going to be one of those things that will be remembered. After all that excitement we headed homewards for r&r. After a week in Seminyak, we packed up and headed to Senor for the next timeshare week. A much more typical timeshare resort, lovely pool, restaurant, bar and staff you got to know, great room with a little balcony where we sat in the morning for coffee watching the squirrels play in the frangipani trees in front of us. We managed to find a jar of Nescafé and some real cow’s milk in Seminyak so all was well.  Went for long walks down to the beach where you get the usual hassle to buy stuff, strangly &we have remarked on this before, after a week or so you seem to get this look about yourself and the locals seem to sense that they are wasting their time approaching you, so unless you actually show interest in something they don't bother.  Here we met up with Yasa’s wife Susu and had a long chat with her, lovely to see her again too. Also found out Ayu, a girl we met last time who had worked for her now manages a spa a little further down the beach, so went to catch up with her also. The beauty salon came into existence thanks to a very generous Danish guy and his wife who met Ayu several times on her way to work , then offered to have her trained as a beautician, buy a salon and make her manager. He did the same thing to another girl and bought her a cafe, incorporated the two and now has a huge set up right on Sanur beach. Ayu invited us to her house (built and furnished by the same Danish guy Daneto) meet her husband and young son and check out her place, very impressive, she has come a long way since we met her 12 years ago. Monday of that week we were off to Menjangan Island for some diving, a friend of Yasas picked us up as Yasa had cremations and ceremonies to go to. Wayan (meaning first born) was quite nice and he took us on a bit of a sightseeing trip on the way up.  We stopped at the spice markets first where the guy that tried to sell us watches with accommodation (plastic bags) was still trying to sell them, 10 years later!!  Danau Tambligan and Buyan, called the twin lakes (there are actually 3 lakes, but you only see the two from the viewing platform), and then to Munduk waterfall, a gorgeous waterfall 1000m above sea level, we are lucky the car made it up the hill.  They don’t believe in gentle gradients, straight up will do!  Also saw some of the more non touristy areas of Bali, rice fields where you didn't need to pay to take a photo. Took us very much the back roads which were in very bad state of repair but you did get to see the more real Bali. We eventually arrive at Menjangan resort, it was about 2km set back from the main road and Wayan could only take us about 500 meters to the reception area, which in high season was also part of the resort but now was supposedly closed for renovations .After a welcome drink with some spring rolls we were  then a driven to the beach part of the resort on top of a ute that had seats welded to a roof platform so you could sit on top and watch the jungle go by, which of course we did. Our bungalow when we got there was lovely, huge bed overlooking the ocean through French doors, as well as an open roof bathroom which I have always wanted to try. As always, there are drawbacks, heading out to the toilet in the middle of the night, not knowing what is going to be sitting or crawling on the toilet seat doesn’t make for a relaxing moment in the great outdoors. Shortly after we arrived and had a walk around, deer started to come out of the jungle to swim and then lay in the shade of the mangrove trees in front of our bungalow, so lovely. Then the heavens opened so not much to do except stick around inside till it passes, perfect time for an outdoor bath on our huge marble bathtub. Later we checked on the diving the next day, booked a traditional dinner and a massage over cocktails on a jetty over the water.  Pretty much how the remaining two days went, diving followed by cocktails, then massage and dining on the local food. We did a dive in the house reef which was ok; we did a dusk/night dive to watch the Mandarin fish mate. Now this was interesting, our DM Hermi was good at finding these critters "doing it" despite it being a very quick process. They basically hang around in the finger coral checking each other out, when they both decide the other is ok the come up over the coral, she releases a spurt of eggs which get fertilised and then they head back into the coral, all over done and dusted in 4-5 seconds, and I saw it twice!! And got a reasonable photo to boot so I was excited, the fish are lovely, shades of orange, blue and black. Came back from dive after dark and went for dinner then bed. Next day we had a double dive at Menjangan Island this time with DM Komer who was great. We were joined by two Americans one of whom had dive a couple of times 8 years ago and didn't really want to go deep, but his mate had been there and done that everywhere and egged his mate on to do just that. Turned into a bit of a circus because the uncomfortable one was always meters above us meaning the DM has to keep checking up on him, the cool dude didn't listen to anything the DM said which in diving is not a good thing, stuff like 'how are you' and 'how much air' are pretty important, so the DM had to go chasing him the other time. This was good in a way because it meant Colman and I could puddle along, the DM made sure he showed us anything of interest and that we were ok and after that we were left to mosey along the huge coral wall and into the massive coral gardens, with plenty of wildlife thrown in. After the diving we headed back to the boat and Wayan was waiting for us to take us back to Senur. The remainder of the time was spent wandering around, a bit of shopping, lots of relaxing and some very tasty meals thrown in. One night we went to a restaurant recommend by an Aussie friend as the 'best', it was fine, lovely surroundings and good food and quite pricey. The next night we went to a restaurant recommended by our friend Yasa, nice surroundings and great food and substantially cheaper, the night after we went to the local food night market with Yasa and Susu, very interesting surroundings and excellent food, and for a couple of dollars you could eat yourself silly, so there you go. Mind you we try and eat at a local food at a western type restaurant about every third or fourth night just to give our bellies a break. It was sad to leave, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable stay, but up we got at 1.30am, to catch the 4.30am flight to KL and into Phnom Phen

Vipassana, Sydney November 2013

VIPASSANA

I had heard from a person we met on a ballooning trip we did out of Alice about a meditation retreat in Blackheath outside Sydney, she said that it was great, taught her a lot, sorted stuff out in her head and helped her relax. Well as I have always wanted to learn to mediate, could do with a bit of sorting out and according to Colman could do with a bit of chilling out and learning to relax, I thought I might try it. It was free and the idea was that at the end you gave a donation suitable to you. Spoke with Colman about it and he said he would do it also, so we (I) slotted the 10 day retreat into the beginning of our holidays. Now, I knew very little about the what's and wherefores of the whole thing but basically you get yourself there Wednesday afternoon, 10 days of retreat and you leave Sunday morning, they provide somewhere to sleep and food. As I met a few people who had also done this I learnt some more, stuff like, no talking for the duration, vegetarian, sitting on cushions for the meditation, in my infinite wisdoms I decided to keep those bits to myself, no point in scaring Colman!!! (Yeh!!! I had asked around too & knew what I was getting into wasn’t sure I could do the full term but how hard could it be ???????) So off we went, left Alice and drove down to Adelaide where we spent a couple of days with my mother, getting organised and did very little else, (except for socialise) pretty busy. Then to Sydney to stay with friends (Sue & Bruce) in Austinmer near Wollongong for the weekend, went for a great walk and picnic, spot of swimming, lots of talk and drink and eat. Also went to see a band called the Dead27, a tribute band to all the rock starts who died at 27, fascinating, never realised there were so many, Hendrix, Morrison, Winehouse, Cobain and a few others that I fail to remember. After that we got an Airbnb in Newtown for a couple of days during which we caught up with Derek, Simone and Campbell for dinner at their place in Lane Cove, lovely to see them all again. Then it was off by train to Blackheath. Decided to walk from the station to the retreat, not a good move, only a 10 minute walk “said the station attendant” 25 minutes of  hard going especially with all our luggage, by the time we got there we were a little "tense" shall we say and our luggage a lot the worse for wear  ( Very little of the plastic wheels left on either suitcase )we arrive at the gate. Anyway, we finally registered, put all our valuables in lock up, handed over our mobile phones, books, paper, pen, reading materials, music and anything else that could potentially control boredom, oh my!   We were then told where we would be sleeping, we both got lucky, Colman was in a room by himself and it overlooked the bush, I shared a room with one other girl and we were right near the toilets and the kitchen. Then we were told to gather in the dining area, males one side, females other side, once we go to our first meditation at 7pm that evening, there will be no communication with anyone, includes talking, eye contact or physical contact. Colman and I said our goodbyes, which was really weird and then we were split up into male and female dining rooms. That evening, up until meditation, we could talk to our own sex, but the men had already been separated out. They stayed in a different area of the retreat, mediated in their half of the hall and ate in a completely separate dining room. Right, about the next 9.5 days, here is a synopsis of the day, first gong at 4am ‘wake up” second gong at 4.20am, “begin to get ready & walk to meditation hall for meditation” at 4.30. Colman got the dubious honor of being the gong man in one of the male sleeping quarters “but not too loud as the neighbours complain “.  First morning I was up at 4am, washed my face, brushed the teeth, fixed the hair a bit, mascara, earring and dress. Next morning, I was up at 4.15, teeth, mascara, earrings, next morning 4.25, teeth, dress, end. Meditate until 6.30, then breakfast, yummy bread so I was all good, until I discover, No Coffee (artificial stimulation, not allowed), sh....t, now what do I do, right deal with it and move on, ugh. Time for a walk around the bushlands of the retreat, the setting was spectacular on top of one of the ridges of the Blue Mountains , great views and very peaceful atmosphere with heaps of wild life. Oh speaking of wildlife, there were 5 rules you had to obey while at the retreat. No killing (anything), no talking, no interacting (eye contact) or touching others, as well as a couple of others we have both forgotten, but which might come back later! Now Point 1 about no killing, a fail for me on the first day, I caused the death of one spider and one fly on day 1, hmm, not looking good. Then rest till 8am and off to meditation until 11.45, lunch which was vegetarian but ok, as long as you could get your hands on the salt and pepper, all was well. I discovered later that they try and keep food bland so you don't get excited and loose the meditation plot!!  After that some more walking, and yep, you guessed off to meditation at 1pm till 5pm this was followed by "dinner". Imagine the shock, you walk in expecting, soup, bread, anything, instead you find a bowl with an apple and a pear, right fine, so this is entree, try as I might I could not spot anything else, as you couldn't talk there was no one to ask, Really?!?!?! An apple and a pear for dinner, I don't like apples and pears, my least favourite fruit, buggar......so I ate my apple and my pear feeling sorry for myself, before we headed off for........meditation, which included a 1 1/2 hour discourse via film, by Bupha (the person who re-established Vipassana meditation ) talking about the what's and whyfores of the next 10 days, followed by a spot of meditation before hitting the bed at 9.30 and lights out at 10pm. So that is the outline of every day for the next 9 days. As can be imagined, not everything went according to plan, I killed another spider and one more fly, I made eye contact with Colman as well as one or two other students, but worse was to come, oops. When you arrive there you hand everything in that could disrupt your meditation, no reading or writing material allowed. Well in one of my moments of boredom I decided to rearrange my suitcase, and guess what I found, a jar of Nescafé, a book and pencil and paper, excitement plus. I decided I would write Colman a note, hmm, now how to get it to him, can't get caught so while everyone was having breakfast, I snuck up to the meditation hall, crept in, snuck over to the “mens side of the hall (Oh Germs) and tucked it into his chair, without getting caught!!!  I also read a little of my book, hidden under the blanket with a torch so my roommate wouldn't catch me if she walked in, and started off a food trade with the coffee “with some of the other desperate inmates”.There were about 5 of us who weren't very good at the whole no talking, looking, smiling thing, so while the rest walked around the majority looked like their favourite pet dog had died and they'd been diagnosed with herpes, our little 'illegal' group did the whole smile (a little), nod, wave etc., and another lady and I, well we went the whole hog and had a conversation, or three, where the coffee trade started. She was diabetic, so she got different food, vegemite and cheese sandwiches, the excitement was great and the trade started, coffee for a bit of vegemite and cheese, another girls got bananas, so I had some lollies which were traded for that and so the four of us were swapping food like school kids, oh well it kept us entertained. I was told off a couple of times for talking and was called up to the head teachers office one day because I was seen to be having a conversation while out on my daily walk, they recognised me but needed me to inform on my conversation buddy, I told them it was a dark haired Indian girl, which I guess narrows it down somewhat!  Anyway they found her and she got a talking to also. Found out later that the gossip in the male side was that the women were causing trouble, especially the one who always wears that red scarf!!!”Oops Busted” Colman also had an interesting time, fell down the stairs, snuck me a few illegal notes and heard all about the problem the women were causing!!!

The grand finale came half way through day 10, when we allowed to start speaking (still no touching), yeh sure! hugs all around  the first few hours sounded like I was stuck in a chicken coop, the noise was amazing, just people talking and laughing. At that point the "spell" was over and it was extremely difficult to do the last few meditation sessions required.  It all felt strange and at that point I wanted out, and so did many others by the sounds of it, many of us commented that they should have let us keep silence for the day, or end the mediation earlier. Anyway, it was great talking to all these different people and finding out why some were here, very interesting and varied stories.
The outcome of the retreat, I can't speak for Colman, he wasn't as excited about it all as I was. For me, it was good. I eventually realised that the whole not talking, not reading stuff was for your own good, it helped the meditation, by the end of the third day you were asking yourself what was that important email I was supposed to send &  if I really need to know who is on Chat on Facebook all the time. However I found the not making eye contact and not touching to be the hardest. To me that was just unnatural, but I mostly managed. The reason I went was to learn to meditate, and I have done so and enjoyed it as such, I cannot imagine doing it for one hour three times a day, but every so often is good. Eventually, after about 4 days, I got the hang of it and started to feel really good, despite sitting cross legged for about 11 hours a day. Although I was one of the few who did not really go there to sort out any major life dilemmas, you nevertheless reflect back on your life, sort out who and what is important, and what really doesn't matter and should be left go. I feel calmer and better for it, mind you as Colman has pointed out who wouldn't while on a tropical holiday. I guess the proof is in the pudding when we get back to Oz. For all those who thought I was running away to join a sect, let me assure you, not even close and it also has no religious affiliation whatsoever, it is based on the Buddha philosophy, which interesting enough I had (inadvertently) already been a great believer in,as well as  the whole karma stuff. The teacher talks about all religions, but condones none, nor does he slate any. As far as payment, many of us were of the opinion that they would line us up at the end and shame us into making good contributions.  Not so!  They gave you back your wallets, they had a cash machine and the rest was up to you, we did not give anything but plan to when we get back to Oz, everything around us, the grounds, buildings, food was from donations and volunteer work, the people cooking and cleaning were people who had been to the course before and the money required to run everything was what we are asked to donate interestingly enough you must have done the ten day course before the allow you to donate or volunteer as they say themselves if Bill gates were to say ‘here is a million $” they would have to say to him would you like to do a course before we accept it.  They do ask for people to do volunteer as helpers while others are doing the course, both catering and maintenance, and neither of us would be averse to this, for me it is definitely on the agenda. I think the very bottom line for me is, if there is any traumatic event in my future, I will not be off to see some psychologist or counsellor and support their next trip overseas, I will go back up to Vipassana at Blackheath (the first custom built one and the prettiest one in Oz). Colman on the other hand will most likely have his nails pulled out with red-hot tongs before he goes through that again :-)!

Kimba to Alice Springs

10 February
We left Kimba heading for Pandurra Station or Nuttbush retreat as it is now called, the first piece of it was purchased in 1895 and now the army is taking a quater of the farm including the best grazing land because it wants to increase its tank training area. The piece of land they wish to have must have a pub and a hospital at either end, so in this case one end is Whyalla and the other end is Port August. The fact that the soldiers have been barred from the pubs already does not seem to rate a mention. Apparently they will leave the station with the land that the new homestead sits on, but take the land from the old homestead. Couple of problems, all the water bores are on the land the army is taking, the explosions that they will let of in the middle of the night are about 5 Km's away and are about 192 decibels, so no sleep for guests, as I said earlier its the best grazing land, they haven't yet paid them a cent but they have claimed the land.  As yet the owners havent remove the sheep, intersting. I consider that bullying and harassment and would be looking at getting a very good lawyer...
11 February
This morning we walked out to the Nuttbush retreat old homestead, a 3km track which is the land these guys will loose. Then went for a swim in pool and did some work in the afternoon. Lovely BBQ under the stars in the evening
12 February
Left for Port Augusta and after checking out the two possible campsites ended up in the Shoreline CP which was quite alright. Had a lovely spot overlooking the bay, unbeknowsn to us right opposite was the railway shunting yard, I now know that railway carriages are shunted all hours of day and night, and they are at their noisiest at night. We also had car problems so took Suzi into the local Suzi dealer who gave us a rental car until ours was fixed, great service as far as the hire car is concerned, but the work was dodgy. Needed a new fuel pump, they fitted it and the car wouldn't start, so they thought it might be their injectors so they fitted 2 of those, and the car wouldn't start, thought it might be the plugs so they fitted 6 of them and the car wouldn't start. So on doing the diagnostics again, they found one of the mechanics had wired a coil the wrong way. So on that note we got 2 injectors and 6 plugs free, this took 3 days, the day we collected her we were heading north.
13 February
Spent the day around town and here is a bit of history about this place. My mate Matthew Flinders had been past here to see if he could sail to the inland sea, unsucessfully.  The reason these guys thought there was and inland sea was taht many of the major rivers flow indland towards lake Eyre.  Various others had called past but none had bothered to drop anchor, John Eyre also passed on land around 1839, and the first settlers started farming in 1940. The first pastoral lease was granted in 1851. In May 1852 Port Augusta was named after Augusta Sophia Marryat, who at the age of 22 married Mr Fox-Young who was the first civilian Governor General of SA, there is more on the subject but not this time. Water is another interesting fact here, the first water was carted in casks as there was no fresh water supply to be had. In 1865 a pipeline was laid from the Flinders Ranges to the town which was not sufficient and finally in 1944 they laid another pipeline which brought water from the Murray river. On checking the water it tasted OK, but was the colour of mud, thank heavens for our assorted water filters. This always reminds me of a joke I heard when I was about 12 and it goes like this.  A woman was asked who she most wanted to be in life, Sophia Loren, 'No' she answered, how about Gina Lolibrigida, agan 'No', fiannly he asked 'Well who then?'  She replies Vitoria Pipiline, 'Who is that'.  To which she pulled out a newspaper article with the headlines "Victoria Pipeline, laid by 100 men in 200 days".  Sorry, showing my age here!!!Colman went to a few employment agencies but there was very little here for the short period we were looking for, he did manage to find me a job at the local court, full time secretary starting in 5 days time, permanent.
14 February
Our last day in Port August and thought we would do some of the tourist things so went to the Wadlata Outback centre and were very pleasantly surprised. It was interesting, well set up, lots of variety and everyone was friendly and most helpful. Spent a good couple of hours wandering around the display and learnt quite a bit about aboriginal legends and history, and as always, this needs to be put into the diary. It started off by giving a geographical history of Oz starting 15 million years ago and how we separated from the Antarctic landmass, Africa and Asia. How the various parts were in fact underwater, (heavens, must have had global warming back then already), the massive inland sea that stretched across Australia and how live forms started in these lakes.  Fossils of shells, squid type creatures and sea ripples can still be found now, outback, we did see some of these when we were doing our walk through Kings Canyon last year. There was also an Aboriginal legends that appealed to me about the Southern Cross. The legend is called the Muda Awi Hunters, two guys find themselves standing right on top of the tallest peak during a bushfire, even here the flames and smoke of the bushfire reached up to them. So to save themselves the two men flew up into the sky where they changed into the brightest stars in the sky, the pointers of Wildu Mandaawi, the Southern cross, which by the way means eagle foot, and if you take a good look at the Southern Cross it is in fact the shape of an eagle foot. Another funny story is about the Ghan and its lack of timeliness. A woman passenger continuously asked the conducted when they would arrive in Alice Springs. He finally got impatient and asked her what the hurry was to which she replied that she was due to have a baby. Annoyed the conducted told her she should not have boarded the train in that condition to which she replied she wasn't in that condition when she first boarded the train! We then went to the Arid Lands Botanic Garden which looked good but as it was a 35 degree plus day we opted against the 12km long walk. I would like to come back some time and do the walk but I reckon it would need to be winter. Another bit of trivia is that they have the worlds largest Eremophila Garden, now for all those (like me) who have no idea what that is or if its even legal, I checked it out and these are draught tolerant plants that are endemic to Australia, there are about 215 species.
15 February
Collected Suzi, hooked her up to Momo and left Port Augusta to drive to the Bon Bon bush camp on Bon Bon station north of Glendambo. Bush camp overnight, fine apart from the fact these damn trains seem to be following us. We wont talk about our generator or the state of our car, better that way.
16 February
Arrived in Coober Pedy and checked into the Stuart Ranges CP after perusing the others and finding this ones had the best pool. Then we went to investigate Coober Pedy, last time we were here was in 1990 so let's see what has changed. First of to describe Coober Pedy to anyone who hasn't been or doesn't know it.  Many of the original inhabitant build their homes underground, so when you go into the town you don't see that many houses but you do see lots of pipes coming out of the ground, huge mounds of dirt and lots of things that look like small hillocks.  Its only when you drive around and see doors leading into sides of these hillocks that you realise just how many houses there are here, underground.  Now a little history, the first explorers arrived in 1858, the first opal was found in 1915. Originally it was called Stuart Range Opal Fields, in 1920 there was a vote that went something like this.
Hutchinson got 5 votes
Coober Pedy got 16 votes
Opal Range got 12 votes
Gemville got 3 votes
The name is derived from aboriginal words "kupa" and "piti" meaning white man and hole in the ground. The first miners dug the shafts by hand with pick, shovel, knife, pliers, windlass and cow hide buckets, they only needed to go down about three meters to find opal. Now it's all modernised and mechanised and they go down as far as 20-30 meters.If you feel like prospecting a Mining permit costs AUD$70 and a Claim cost between AUD$80 to $150 for three months, all you need then is a ute, a generator, tools blood, sweat and tears.  This allows you to also go down some of the older abandoned mines and see what was missed.  Another interesting fact is that Coober Pedy has first and possible only underground post office.
17 February
Today off to see the Breakaways Reserve, location of the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdom film which are located in Arckaringa and Eromanga Great Artisan basins and cover about 1.275million square kilometres. If you are into geology this is a fascinating place, as I'm not that excited by it I will just put in the basics summarised from the explanation boards. So here goes, the Breakaways are made up from flat-topped mesas and gibber desert. These are formed by the deposition of sedimentary layers forming a huge plateau, the uplifting of the rock and the subsequent erosion of the protective silcrete coating along weaknesses causes it to weather at different rates.  So eventually this huge plateau was broken up and eroded away shaping what are now the Breakaways. the reason for the name is that looking at it, it looks like this area has 'broken away' from the main Stuart Ranges. On a happier note, temperature range from 45 to 65 degrees out here. Next port of call was Castle Rock, or as the indigenous folks call it Papa rock or two dogs (?!?).  So called because the two mounds, one brown and one white reminded them of two dogs and obviously two dogs in aboriginal language is papa! They look spectacular also, but we couldn't for the life of us find the outline of two dogs, we've got a great imagination, this one stumped us.  And our last outback port of call was the Dog fence, mentioned before but here is a little more.  It is 2250km long and stretches over 5300km, I realise this doesnt calculate, but thats what the signs says and I always believe the signs!!  It starting from Surfers Paradise in Queensland, through New South Wales, South Australia and ending in Bight near Western Australia. The protected sheep country being on the southern side of the fence.  I think I read somewhere that it is bigger and better than the Great Wall of China and better at keeping 'things' (including rabbits - sorry Aussie joke!!) out. After a long and bumpy ride we arrived back in Coober Pedy and visited some other sights.  First the Serbian underground church with scalloped ceilings and beautiful stained glass, the cemetery with lots of stranger graves, all wildly decorated and many Greek, Yugoslav, Polish and German names, this certainly is/was a colourful town. Surprisingly not a very big cemetery.Then we checked out the Golf course with its scrapes greens or black as the case may be. Thet requested that you keep off the grass but for the life of us we couldnt find and a blade, however this golf course is (apaprently) the only course that has reciprical rights with St Andrew Golf Course in Scotland
18 February
Did a little sight seeing, first to the Catacomb church built in 1944 cut out of sandstone in the shape of a cross, the cross, lectern & communion table are made from local mulga wood and an old miners winch. In this church they talked about the Greek word ICHTHUS, which is Greek for fish and which is painted on the wall behind the communion table and was a secret code used by the Christians during the roman persecution. Apparently the letters represent
I jesus
CH christ
TH gods
U son
S saviour
I do love Dan Brown stories.  Then off to St Peters& Paul's Catholic Church, a natural heritage listed church, the first underground church in CP and possible first in the world, it was dingy, gloomy and smelt, favouite church - Serbian Orthedox, hmm  might convert.  We also went to check out the big winch which is for sale and sadly neglected.  Next door is something called a museum, sculpture park but I would just called it a junk yard with things perched here and there made of heaven knows what including keyboards, computer monitors, exhaust pipes and more.  Apparently Coober Pedy's first tree was planted here, overlooking the town, made of scrap metal and still standing without the need for too much water.

19 February
Today we went to the Old Timers Mine, an original opal mine dating back to 1916. In 1968 a maze of hidden mines that had been dug sometime earlier was discovered when the owners of an underground house wanted to extend their home to create a bedroom for their two daughters. They had started to dig out the room when they broke through into mine tunnels, the shaft leading down had been backfilled in around 1916, in this backfilled area they found a huge opal pocket. No one ever returned to lay claim to the mine so the opal was left there (well most of it anyway) and it was turned into a museum. I like the fact that in CP every time you need a little more cash you just dig out another room.  You cannot mine in the town anymore, but no one can stop you from extending your underground home.  In the old days the way they got into the mines was by digging holes and then climbing down them, so if you were little you would only need a little hole, then you dug out little notches where you could position your hands and feet and down you went. Apparently the English & Welsh dug square holes, the Chinese round holes and the Aussies boat shaped holes. Not sure what to say about that. The only light they had back then was candles and that is what they used to find opal, so a little about opal. Opal is a solution of hydrated silica, due to evaporation this was concentrated and formed a gel which seeped down into the sandstone and deposited itself in cracks and cavities. Between 2 million to 70 million years ago, this then hardened into opal. Only 1 quarter of 1% of opal is precious gem opal, the stuff that glimmers with colour, the rest is common opal called potch. Difference between light and dark opal are the amount of trace elements contained, the more of these elements the darker the opal. Coober Pedy is the opal capital of the worldwide more than 75% of he worlds commercial opal comes from here. One of the largest pieces weighs 3.5kg. There are three ways of using opal in jewellery, you can use the entire stone, cut and faceted.  You can use a base and glue a slice of opal onto that base (doublet), or you can use a base, glue a thin sliver of opal onto this so thin that it takes the colour of the base and then glue a perspex rounded plate on top to reflect and enlarge (triplet).  After all that excitement went back to the Momo, went for swim and organised for tomorrow.  In the evening we went to one of the slag heaps in the centre of town where you can watch the sun go down over the Breakaways, in the car park there is a movie prop left over from the Vin Diesel film Pitch Black, something that looks like a big space ship.  Apparently the Americans left it there as a thank you after filming part of of it around here.
20 February
Coober Pedy to Erldunda was a long drive but we wanted to get to Alice Springs, its been a rough few days and we needed to calm down. The Erldunda Homestead was nice enough, had a pool which went down a treat as it was around 37 degrees.  Was fairly barren place but showers were free, oh I forgot to mention that in Coober Pedy we had to pay 20 cents for 2 minutes of water, I managed on 40 cents just.  Hopefully Trevor isn't reading this blog, Kimba showers could have cost me a fortune!! So showers were free and judging by their lack of concern over dripping taps and such like, water wasn't a great issue to them.  We met a cute little tabby who took a liking to us, we called her Triptych, one of her feet had been squashed and she limped, mind you she ran fast enough when there was a pat or food on the offering.  Another funny thing was that a tour group that had camped at the same campsite as us in Coober Pedy was also here. Now this would normally be fun, people to talk to etc, well these were the most miserable bunch of people I have encountered in a long time, couldn't even say 'Hello'.  Not even Colman got a word out of them and that is unusual, Germans we've discovered! 
21 February
Spent the day at Erldunda, spent the day sewing and updating CV's, swiming and a shandy at the pub, nothing too exciting.
22 February
Packed up early to head for Alice, after a bit of checking booked into the Heavy Tree Gap campsite on the way into Alice right next to the Todd river with a big fence separating us from the other side.  Campsite is lovely with a big pool, longer than any of the previous pools we've been to so my 20 laps almost killed me yesterday.  Finished settling and then decided to have dinner at the Tavern right next to the campsite.  It was an interesting exercise and one I suspect we wont be repeating soon. The meal of the day was fish and chips for $10, not bad, served wrapped in paper with plastic cutlery, yes we are sitting in the pub, there are Pokies to the left of us, Kino behind and screaming kids all around.  The wine was "dry white", I guess we should count our lucky stars, it could have been "fruity white".  We also discovered that this was the pub we came to on our last visit in 1990, we were sent here back then because it was a family friendly pub with good food and a nice atmosphere.  My only recollection is the guy hurling a glass over my head aimed at his girlfriend (?!?) who was just running out the door following full scale yelling match at the table behind us. It smashed into pieces and everyone just kept on eating, no one batted an eyelid. Now as then, we finished our food, which wasn't too bad, and headed out the door.

Leaving the EP - Finally

We returned from our overseas trip hoping to earn some money before Christmas.  Unfortunately as there was so little rain this season the harvest had started early and was half way finished when we got back, all positions at Vitera had gone.  Luckily Colman still had some work waiting for him with Rhett, I ended up volunteering at the library and doing lots of tidying and organising on Momo.  Colman's work also finished earlier than hoped but on the positive side we managed to get a lot of work done on Momo especially as we had decided to sell the trailer, meaning everything had to be either shifted onto Momo or shipped back to Adelaide.  Luckily K and B took some things back to Adelaide for us and it looked like we would get everything else back without too much ado.  I did one day work (paid!) at the local kindy, and apart from that lots of socialising, cleaning, socialising and tidying.  A couple of funny incidents need to be mentioned at this point. Poor T's farm was beginning to resemble Kimba CP number 2, at one point there was D & D as well as V & D staying here, mind you we all got along well and it was good having others to talk to.  They came and went quite a few times while we were there and it was always like old friends returning, especially with D & D.  One night we had a massive thunderstorm, we were woken by the sound of a huge clap of thunder and the smell of electricity in the air.  We got up and tried to decide what to do, I thought that as we were sitting on rubber tyres we were fairly safe, until Colman pointed out that we were in fact sitting on three metal jacks.  So we decided to head over to the house, I took what was important to me, my IPad, my iPhone and Bearly, our trusty travel companion for years now.  So off we trotted, me in my dressing gown clutching my goodies.  The thunder and lightning was spectacular, a couple of trees on the farm were hit as well as one of the windmills at the end of the road. So we stood there for a couple of minutes when we heard D & D approach from the other side of the house where they were parked.  So there we were at 2am, all four of us in various state of dress watching the sky show, D and me clutching assorted goodies.  D did ask me if I was holding onto my bible, to which I laughed, funny joke, little did I know there was something else to that question, more later.  Eventually all three lighting storms passed us heading for Adelaide and we all returned to bed.  Another funny incident was when we went to O and D's place for dinner, with J and B.  Not sure if everyone remembers the last time we had dinner with D & O was at Rhetts place and I got D into trouble because she felt uncomfortable saying Grace around me and ended up getting into trouble with her son, well it appears O has a great memory.  D put all the food into the centre of the table and had asked us to help ourselves, everyone fluffed and hesitated so I thought I would get the party started and picked up the serves to start.  Just as I had them firmly clasped in my hands, O pipes up with "right, shall we say Grace".  This was a well-planned bit of sabotage.....oh well, we are now even.  Another funny incident was back at home on Momo, we all use the shower in the house and will frequently run into the others.  One morning we headed in and met D, D, D & V, I headed off to the shower and Colman chatted for a while.  Next thing he rocks up in the bathroom in stitches, turns out that while they were chatting D had turned around and said that he really should hurry up if he wanted to get to church on time! It appears they thought we were 'churchies', we then realised that in fact we do hang round with people who go to church most Sundays, hmm, I wonder could that be seen as Grace by proxy?  So yes we did and no we're weren't, but I did offer to bless D & D's caravan before they left, for what it was worth. And the last one I will mention is when a friend called past to visit while Colman was at work; she was driving her son’s car so it was not a local car.  We were having coffee when there was a knock on the door of Momo; it was the one we now refer to as The Grim Reaper.  He wanted to know if we had any pets because he was putting out poison and wanted to make sure it was all right.  This confused the bejesus out of me as we had been here for 10 months and had definitely not hidden a cat, dog or budgie in all that time.  While talking to me just outside the bus he kept looking at the strange car and trying to work out who the visitor was and and trying to peer into Momo which  is impossible from that angle.  I realised then what was going on and I wasn't inviting him in, he walked away perplexed and dying of curiosity, not sure if he ever worked out who it was, I certainly never told him.  Eventually everyone headed off and Christmas was approaching, my mother was due to arrive in Port Lincoln on the 19th and we would pick her up.  We decided to head down there a few days early and catch up with everyone, met Geoff and Jenny on the way down and then we stayed with Ross and Stefan which was great fun, also caught up with everyone at the church, Petar, Josel, Yoli, Cousin John, Toni and Lee.  (By the way, The Church is the local Pier Hotel in Lincoln, nothing more sinister).  Had a few good nights with R&S and got them addicted to The Room, a brilliant IPad game.  Picked my mother up and had a lovely few days in Lincoln with her, went a couple of times to the Marina Hotel and generally relaxed and got ready for Xmas.  We also caught up with Ike and Sandy also while there and then we were off back to Kimba for Christmas which we were spending with K & B.  We set my mother up in the house as the day we arrived it was roasting (45C), put up a Christmas tree and had a lovely time.  Saw the Kimba Christmas lights on our own personal tour, which I had to end up driving despite having finished a bottle or two prior, Colman just didn't do it right!!  Christmas Day was with K&B and their kids and was very traditional and fun, Stoney & Anna arrived in the afternoon for coffee.  Took my mother to see all the sights of Kimba including the Big Galah, not impressed with that one!  Also had lunch with Anna & Stoney before we left which was a great laugh, Stoney had this wonderful story about a watch he had to buy in Germany so that he could tell the time back here.  Only problem was that it had no light so at night he had to work it out himself, but in day time it worked very well.  I told him that I was positive that there was Irish blood in there somewhere, (xxx I’m sure your still laughing at me even now xxx)).  Must also mention another great event that took place over Christmas, I won the coveted Port Lincoln Camera Shop photo of the month competition. The theme was Christmas food and looking at the photos it was all about cookies, cakes and sweet stuff, so we decided to do a savoury take and created a fabulous (if I say so myself) Christmas tree from olives, feta, rocket, tomatoes, tuna and more. It tasted as good as it looked. Thanks for all who voted for the photo on Facebook.  Took my mother back to Lincoln and then went to a party we had been invited to on our last visit. Stayed with Cousin John and partied at Josels, the best food and the most hysterical Karaoke all night.  Still pretending we could sing at 3 am, we'll we could!  Next day we headed off to Arno Bay to spend New Year with Joyce & John at the 'shack'.  Lovely time, lovely weather ran into friends (Margaret and Roger from the 4WD trip) who had just gotten engaged, so celebrated with them too.  Met a few more great people and ran into others we were delighted to see, or not as the case may be.  Went for lots of swims, including out to the buoy with T a couple of times, didn't want to do it on my own, he would give the sharks a bit more choice!!  Had a great New Year's Day which they celebrate in style in Arno, except I got burnt to a crisp, but we all survived.  Left there on the 4th for Kimba to organise and next day to Adelaide to stay at J&J's house, swim every day, socialising every other day, and also met Leanne, Shaun and Mitch, J&J daughter and family who we will hopefully stay in contact with.  Caught up with everyone near and dear, lots of great food, great wine and wonderful company and lots of laughs.  Then when we went to stay with my mother, we met Frieda a friend of my mother’s from Cairns who was a very happy soul and a great cook, got many a tasty salad recipe from her.  Went to see the charity cycle ride of the Tour Down Under where we had a funny incident which I must mention. Got up at sparrow fart to head out and watch the good people of Adelaide ride the tour down under track from Golden Grove to Tanunda to raise money for cancer.  We were part of a sewing club my mother belongs to and who happened to be Swiss.  So we had the full complement of cowbells, bicycle horns and other assorted stuff that made a woeful racket, which we used to full effect once the first cyclist passed by, admittedly at 7am.  Next thing this halfwit rocks up to tell us that we have woken up his kids, dogs, and wife and we need to stop - now. When we didn't he went into tantrums about the Aussies, their inability to do anything proper, and how useless these bicycle riders were.  Imagine fifteen or so women, ages between 50 to 80, with Attitude, at 7 am. It was truly beautiful! We explained slowly and concisely that these were not in fact professional, but ordinary citizens doing this for a worthy cause (a new concept to him), if he didn't like it he could return to whatever hole he crawled out of and leave us Aussies with a better class of immigrant.  I think he began to realised he was on a losing streaks when the police car he tried to pull over to arrest us, gave us a huge honk of the horn, a smile and a huge wave.  Hi finally decided that maybe silence was the better part of valour when the 80 year old asked him if he had kids.  He replied "yes" to which she answered, "Heavens, they would be so ashamed of you at this point, I feel sorry for them".  Women at 7am 10 points, arrogant stupid troglodyte 0 points! The silence was deafening!  It was beautiful as it always is when you win!  After that excitement we spent the rest or our time traipsing around Adelaide, a day in McLaren Vale, a day on a boat, discovering lots of new restaurants and a day relaxing at a spa.  Our stay in Adelaide was wonderful and it was very sad to leave again but also exciting to get back to Kimba where we are now sorting ourselves out to finally head off north.  We are doing our rounds of socialising here and have caught up with many of our new found friends already. The Grim Reaper has been around killing all and sundry and as someone told me the other day, he is from the generation of "if it moves shoot it, if it doesn't chop it down", great quote with a good deal of truth in it.

On leaving Kimba I have compiled Ten golden rules for living in a country town, no one please take offence and get narky with me, this is My Diary! 

These are not necessarily in order of importance...

1. When going out anywhere dress properly, you will run into someone who knows you

2. Never talk about people, they will know each other, be related or be neighbours

3. Take notes of who is who, they have met 1 person you 100 but that is no excuse when they bail you up for a great chat in the street

4. Never assume you can nip into the supermarket, this undertaking will take at least 20 minutes possibly more

5. Watch what you say, someone else will repeat it back to you and you will need to explain

6. Keep flirting to a minimum, many folks out here don't do the whole touchy feely bit

7. Never assume you can buy whatever you want in the supermarket or butcher, you can't if it’s the wrong day

8. Be ready to be quizzed, questioned and interrogated, all in good humour but everyone want to know

9. Never repeat what anyone tells you, you will get it wrong

10. Be prepared for some great hospitality, friendliness, laughter and be ready to make great new friends

I have written this from personal experience and friends who know me well will realise that I probably broke each rule at least once. Having said that, I really don't care, the new friends we have made will join in the laughter and the rest, well as I said above, don't bother getting narky with me, oops broke rule number 5 again! :-)