Coober Pedy

Once in South Australia our first overnight stop was Coober Pedy. We were looking forward to checking out this unusual place and it lived up to any preconceived ideas and as usual on this trip exceeded any expectations.  On approach to the town the very barren landscape was broken up by all these coloured mounds of sand and you knew there was something a bit different here.

Opal fields from the Stuart Hwy

 From the words of a local, the people here are a little crazy and you just had to walk into any ‘shop’ to figure that out.  It felt a little like shopping in Egypt when we walked into a souvenir shop to find it dark until we entered then the lights went on, and after having a brief look around and turning to leave (we were still in the shop), off they went again.  Another one had a garage door entrance which only opened after you knocked, there was a lovely gallery downstairs carved into the hill then as we left the garage door was closed again.  Even outside the supermarket Paul was offered some ‘cheap Opal’.  There were old spacecraft in the main street, an Opal VW Beetle, plenty of underground houses pocking out and wrecks of all sorts galore.  We enjoyed a tour at the Old Timers Mine, an opal mine started in 1916 in secret and only discovered in the 80s when a family was doing an extension to their underground home.  

A Blower as used in the mines

 

We also took a drive to the Breakaways and these were a pretty awesome sight.  These were part of the Stuart Range where the mountains are very susceptible to erosion and it results in this beautifully coloured landscape.  Beyond them is what is known as the Moon Plain and a ‘Dog Fence’ which extends for over 5,000 kms and 3 states to keep the dingoes from the sheep country.  A very interesting 70 round trip, our longest stretch of unsealed road driving and the reason for our very filthy car!

On Wednesday, July 4 (4 days to go) we got back into our filthy car and headed towards Port Augusta.  Our new animal to look out for is now the emu!  We have just seen a group of four running across the road – 90 days on and this trip is still surprising us!!!