May 2018
At Eulo we cross the Paroo River and shortly after turn north onto a good single lane bitumen road. The countryside is dry red dirt, stony with gidgee and mulga. It feels like we are in the middle of nowhere, then my phone beeps with a text message…Oh whoopee I’m entitled to a cheap haircut …in Adelaide! (1455kms south)
We press on through mulga and red dirt occasionally stopping or moving over to let someone pass. An hour and a half later we turn off to the boulder opal fields at Yowah. Our mate Vee and several others have told us not to miss this town but gee we just can’t embrace it. The best building in town is the school. It’s closed. There’s a modern community bore (artesian spa) which doesn’t really appeal at this hour of the morning and a few streets of ramshackle housing interspersed with fossickers caravans. Oh, and large wandering cattle as fences are a rarity out here. We don’t sight a single soul. Some places grab you and some don’t. I can understand that some people would love Yowah but it doesn’t grab us. But at least we’ve seen it. Perhaps we should have gone fossicking.
itchingforhitching 
So many words in this post that I don’t understand ………..
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Oh dear. Perhaps I should have included a glossary. 😄 I guess donga might have been a problem. I only hope I never have to stay in one but they are popular in the bush.
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When are you off to Adelaide? 🙂
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Ha ha considering that we were there in March then not for a long while.
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🙂
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Nothing quite like a bit of fossicking!
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I daren’t try it I think I could become addicted.
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hmm fossicking?
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Oh damn another confusing word. Who says we speak the same language?😄 it’s prospecting or hobby prospecting. I don’t know if it is popular in your country but here a lot of retirees go prospecting for gold, gems and opal. For several reasons, they have the time, it can be addictive, they can easily find small quantities and it’s tremendous fun.
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I love that word!! That sounds like it could be addicting!
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We loved Yowa made fantastic friends, were embraced by the community a couple coming over to the freebie camp to see if we were ok and inviting us into their home for a meal when it rained for the first time in years and that single road was cut off. So we stayed 10 days and yes we fossicked and I found a beautiful yowa nut…
When we asked them why they stayed there the reply was a classic “it is so central, a day in any direction to get anywhere to Melbourne, or Brisbane or Darwin …”
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Ha, we fell for the old trick of not stopping and chatting.
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