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| An underworld - in outback Australia |
As I take my fiction writing on the road, echoes of ancient
Egypt... in Australia?
Do you know this ancient Egyptian tomb?
It’s actually not a tomb at all and it’s not in Egypt, but
in the heart of Australia’s outback.
This is an underground dugout in Coober Pedy, outback Australia, opal-mining capital of the
world, and also an underworld where people live in homes carved out of the living
sandstone to escape the harsh outback climate.
It’s a world away from Egypt, my favourite dreaming place,
but as an adventure author, outback Australia has the same sense of deep time
for me… and other echoes of ancient Egypt itself.
The
feeling of Coober Pedy gets my creative juices flowing – it’s like being back
in Egypt... in tombs and passageways on some archaeological adventure with the
fictional hero of my novels, Anson Hunter, the alternative Egyptologist.
Now I appreciate how life was for the Egyptian Coptic monk Abuna Daniel who also lived in a man-made cave in my Egyptian adventure thriller novel 'The Smiting Texts' (Abuna becomes an ally of my hero in his investigation of global conspiracy and dangers from the ancient past).
Now I appreciate how life was for the Egyptian Coptic monk Abuna Daniel who also lived in a man-made cave in my Egyptian adventure thriller novel 'The Smiting Texts' (Abuna becomes an ally of my hero in his investigation of global conspiracy and dangers from the ancient past).
And
speaking of conspiracies, we have just come from Woomera, an X-Files style
defence town and the world's biggest testing range (the size of England). It’s been dubbed Australia’s Area 51, a place where the dust of an ancient land combusts
in the flash of science fiction, rocket firings and UFO sightings.
Woomera
is partly mothballed today, although tests still take place here. It’s also
disturbingly deserted with street of empty residences and mysterious buildings. (Nobody can actually own a
house here.)
On a quiet weekend Woomera has a
blanket of silence and secrecy spread over it. The place reminded us of the dummy town where Indiana Jones took refuge from an atomic bomb test in that notorious refrigerator scene from The Crystal
Skull…
