Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

7/7 To the Painted Desert and Breakaways

We decided to stay two nights in Oodnadatta and use this day to drive into the Painted Desert and also go down to Coober Pedy. While in Coober Pedy we also went to view the Breakaways.
When we got to the Painted desert the sky was clear, but the wind was howling! It was pretty windy so it wasn't a good day for walking! We did the short loop, i.e. to Arckaringa and back to Mount Barry, not via Evelyn Downs, which is a bigger and longer loop.
The Arckaringa hills never disappoint. The colors are absolutely fabulous. Amazing what nature can do when given enough time!
We then headed for Coober Pedy via the Moon Desert. This part of the land is pretty devoid of any trees and considered Moon like. Not that I've been to the Moon, but I couldn't see the likeness. This landscape has been used in a few Australian movies, so it has made the big screen!
We arrived in Coober Pedy and refueled and had lunch. Then we did a bit of shopping in the local IGA and then decided to do a loop up the Stuart Highway and back via the Breakaways. We had never seen the Breakaways before and were completely caught by surprise. What a fantastic colorful landscape. It is pretty much as interesting as the Painted desert.
When getting back to the main road to Oodnadatta from the Breakaways you drive along the Dog fence. Yes, it's the longest fence in the world, only about 5,200 km long and runs across the lower part of Australia. It's there to prevent the Dingos from the northern part killing all the sheep in the southern part. It does work well as experience has shown. It started out as a disjointed fence managed by different stations, but eventually became a national project to implement and maintain.

Then we were off again and drove all the way back across the Moon desert to Oodnadatta.