The Breakaways Coober Pedy

I have a fair bit of editing to do with the photos we took yesterday on our flight so in the meantime I will show some photos we took on Friday of the Breakaways. By the way I survived the trip. The Breakaways Reserves lie 32km north of Coober Pedy. It consists of colourful low hills which have broken away from the Stuart Range, hence their name "The Breakaways". I have only selected a couple of photos but hopefully they will highlight the open space and colourful environment, leaving an impression of the long gone inland sea our early explorers dreamt of. The white and yellow outcrops are locally called the "Castle" or "Salt & Pepper" the aborigines call these outcrops two dogs a white dog and a yellow dog.

Some of the outcrops have been used in movies such as Mad Max beyond Thunderdrome and Ground Zero. On the return trip we went via the dog fence. This 2m high barrier stretches for over 5,300km across three states to protect the sheep country in the south from the native dog the dingo.

Coober Pedy is well known for its Opal Mining. Pricilla Queen of the Desert was also partly filmed here. I did my share of digging for opals and purchased a lovely solid chrystal pendant. Very nice.

Talk again soon