FORTYTHIRD DAY – FRIDAY 20TH AUGUST
We had porridge for breaky, packed up and off we went at about 9 am headed south. There were no clouds to be seen. As we approached Cadney Homestead there were signs on the road indicating they were there and one said ‘Stop n Eat or we’ll both starve’ - very catchy and so we stopped and had morning tea. It was make your own cuppas with a piece of cake for four bucks each. Their slogan was also the ‘gateway to the painted desert.’ As we continued on the landscape became more desolate with very few bushes, the odd tree and lots of pebbles and red dirt. It looked quite pretty actually – hence ‘the painted desert’ I guess. We then went to ‘The Breakaways’ which is off the road down a dirt track for about 10 kms. They are a group of hills and mountains that are made up of layers of different coloured stones and ochres. There were small plants growing only in the run offs, which the water has made – which make them appear like veins across the colourful desert. It was an amazing place with distinctly different coloured hills which the aboriginals have stories for to explain their existence. We decided to go for a walk as there were supposed to be walking tracks. We began the walk on a defined track but as we continued the track kind of disappeared and so we made our own track. We walked for about one and half hours round trip to the van. It was actually a really nice walk and good to see the rocks and colours and plants up close and personal. We were thinking of camping here but as we read the info it said no camping so we thought we’d better not as it is an aboriginal site. We then drove back to the main road and into Coober Pedy where we filled up the fuel and then drove off the find our back up plan for camping the night. The sun was going down pretty quickly and it was beginning to get dark. We finally found our camping area – in the dark. Settled in for the night and had a ‘tin can dinner’ We read the brochure about Coober Pedy that I had picked up way back in NSW so we would know what to do tomorrow.