Showing posts with label Andamooka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andamooka. Show all posts

Monday, October 27, 2014

OUR WORLD - Andamooka Opal Town


Take the Suart Highway out of Pt.Augusta
drive a few hours then take a right at Pimba.
By this time you're probably hungry
so stop at "Spuds" roadhouse for some chips,
thats French fries in N.America,
we did and they were freshly made and good,
had them on the road.

Pass a few red sand dunes


pass Woomera and turn right again
where the sign says Andamooka

just keep driving
eventually the town floats into view
over the dusty, dry desert plain


there are even diggings among the houses
in any mining town one needs to watch one's step
not only for deep shafts but also 
not to encroach on a ming lease


in the right light, 
the mullock heaps against the blue sky
can look quite spectacular


evening light


and morning light
if you get tired of looking at the horizon 
or digging for opals
or painting or doing your chores


you can always pop into town for a beer or two
who knows, someone may build another bottle house
it's nice and cool in there


or, like me, just watch the rising sun
gild the landscape.


Linking with OUR WORLD

Friday, October 24, 2014

TODAY'S FLOWERS & FLORAL FRIDAY - Weeds of the desert


The Opal town Of Andamooka
dry and hot in the desert


 yet in the harshest of climes
one still finds colour to attract and hold the eye


early morning light on wild hops,
an introduced species that has established itself
all through this region and the whole of
the Flinders Ranges


strictly not flowers as that fetching red
is the colour of their seed containers


Linking with 


and 


Monday, September 29, 2014

OUR WORLD TUESDAY - On the road to . . .


Leaving Port Augusta heading West
you go for miles and miles 
through nothing but miles and miles . . .
of desert country


occasionally to the South
there is a hump
a saline soak


scraggly sheoaks eek out a tenuous existence


in the over 300 miles, there are changes in the terrain
here we are coming into red dune country


low vegetation covers some of the elevated ground


while on the roadside we found a shaggy mane 
of all things, shrivelled but miracle of miracles
here none the less in this inhospitable environment.


after a number of hours of driving
we arrived at, you asked for it,
the town of Andamooka
renowned for it's black opals

and a campfire at the observatory.

But that is another tale . . .


If I can make it next week,
we will finally be in Andamooka.

Linking with 


Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Andamooka Opal Fields ~ Skywatch * 8

The opal mining town of Andamooka,

South Australia at dawn

Situated in desert country some 600km from Adelaide


The first rays of the sun kissing the mullock heaps

Mining shacks litter the landscape

The diggings leave a lunar landscape
anyone can get a miner's licence and leave
dangerous devastation behind

Finally, I thought I would invest in a vintage car
this is what I decided on

Click on pictures for the full effect.

To enjoy skies around the world, click
on SkyWatch logo on the right.
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