The first stop after leaving Lake Eyre this morning was the village/roadhouse of William Creek which consists of a pub, a scenic flight business in a single building, a bush campground and a gas station attached to the pub. One of our guide books described it as an iconic outback pub, it certainly is an interesting building. Seems to be mostly built from railway sleepers. Perhaps the most interesting thing about William Creek is that it is located on Anna Creek Station the largest cattle station (ranch) in the world. At 9142 sq miles it is just a little bit bigger than the country of Israel. The station was originally established by Sidney Kidman who realized that the only way to run cattle successfully in the Australian outback was to have a very low ratio of cattle to land. ß

From William Creek we made a departure from the Oodnadatta Track and headed west towards the famous opal town of Coober Pedy. The reason for this departure; this road passed by a small lake named Cadibarrawirracanna (lat:-28.95985 lng:135.58756). Not only is this reputed to be the longest place name in Australia but it is also said to be the inspiration for the song Carra Barra Wirra Canna which is the title of a lullaby (the lyrics and rendition of the song can be found by clicking this link ) by the now disgraced Australian entertainer Rolf Harris. Cadibarrawirracanna is an aboriginal word that means dancing stars.

We stayed in a supposedly up market campground in Coober Pedy with a few thousand other travelers.

The name Coober Pedy is derived from the aboriginal phrase kupa peti which has various attributed meanings, the one I like best is white man burrow. Coober Pedy is famous for the tunnels that are dug during opal mining operations and are subsequently used for housing and these days for hotels, restaurants, churches, book shops, and every other imaginable tourist attraction. We will have a bit more info about Coober in tomorrows post.