Mozzeenet

Andrew and I soon realised that South Australia is the land of the big, both natural and man-made. My friend Annie, who we caught up with in Adelaide on the way back, confirmed our theory saying that South Australians make up for the small population and sparseness of their state by building big things including the Big Rocking Horse. We were welcomed to South Australia by the Big Lobster at Kingston which was rather bizarre.

From Mount Gambier to Adelaide, the scenery is deadly – flat as a pancake to the horizon and the road is as straight as a rod for hours and hours of hellish driving. It was grey and bleak too so we relished a snack break at a replica oil rig by the road side later on. We wondered why anyone would bother to build a replica oil rig in the middle of nowhere. It looked so incongruous but did provide us with hours of amusement afterwards. Annie, Andrew and I decided that building more strange things on the side of that road might be a good strategy to relieve bored drivers from the monotony.

We arrived in Adelaide in the early evening and booked into our hotel, the Adelaide International, north of the city centre. Annie had recommended the Exeter pub in Rundle Street so we headed down there and had a fantastic meal of kangaroo with a glass of red (apologies to vegetarians and Skippy fans). It’s a grungy old pub with a good atmosphere.

Next morning, we checked out the Adelaide Central Market near Chinatown. It’s a fantastic indoor market selling fresh food including a large variety of cheeses (we bought a piece of superb Dutch goats’ milk cheese to take with us), German-influenced spiced sausages (the ones labeled ‘bum burners’ appealed to my sense of humour), old fashioned lolly shops and excellent coffee. Annie reckons due to a lack of other forms of entertainment in South Australia, eating and drinking is what you do (incidentally that day was one of the coldest Adelaide had had in years for that time of the year). If it’s food like I saw at that market that South Ozzies eat to while away the hours, I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do!

After lunch it was time to head north out of Adelaide with Port Augusta our destination for the day. We were amused to see for quite a long way north from Adelaide various weird and wonderful sculptures stuck in the fields by the side of the road. One I remember was an old toilet with a sign above it saying ‘Liberal Government’s Gulf War’ and an arrow pointing down the can. What an excellent way to make a political statement and it certainly made what would have been fairly colourless scenery, interesting and memorable.

Andrew had said to me before the trip that we would avoid one iconic South Australian town at all costs. However as we headed off that day, I noticed it was on our route on the map and it soon appeared on the road signs. Snowtown - the home of bodies in barrels in an old bank vault.

Well, of course we had to stop to use the facilities…umm that’s the Ladies and Gents and not the ATM! We wandered into the pub and the three people sitting at the bar drinking all turned their heads in sync to stare at us. We detected a feeling of hostility. Probably they are sick to death (no pun intended) of people dropping in to have a look. The publican told us we had better leave our car somewhere further north and hire a four-wheel drive because there had been a lot of rain up there. We think he was just trying to scare us because our whole trip was on sealed roads and we barely saw rain. I know it had been raining a lot up there about a month before but still. The town was deserted and eerie. Maybe we noticed it more because we knew what had happened there. Anyway, we got out as quickly as we could and agreed that it was an unusual place.

After about another three hours driving we arrived at Port Augusta. We didn’t see much there but stayed at a fantastic place, the Oasis Apartments. They were brand new and equipped for self-catering so very well fitted out. The only strange thing was that the security for the complex was like Fort Knox. There were huge steel fences surrounding it and a gate with intercom at the entrance.

Next day was a six hour drive to Coober Pedy. It was on this leg that the landscape started to become really interesting. Here’s where the naturally ‘big’ aspect of the state started to kick in. The red rocks and soil and scrubby vegetation stretched forever but unlike the earlier landscape, its constant changes had us amazed. It was just brilliant and for me this was one of the highlights of the whole trip. It’s so different to anywhere I’ve been and the rest of the country. It certainly made me recognise the magnitude of Australia and how much of the country is uninhabited and untouched.

It was on this road also that we began to see road trains of two, three or even four connected carriages. At one point we came up behind a great specimen taking up most of the road. It was carrying a huge dump truck (headed for a Mount Isa mine we later found out). It was flanked by a police escort. After a short time they waved us through and we squeezed past on the right. Wow! What a sight!