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Published: September 8th 2011
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Coober Pedy
Coober Pedy is a famous opal mining region in South Australia. Another early start on a cold desert morning. The good thing about the early start was that we were able to enjoy the landscape with the early morning light. Beautiful. According to Frank, we had some very heavy rain overnight. I didn’t hear it, slept like a log. He must have been right, because there was a bit of water on the bathroom floor, where it came through the open vent. It would have been interesting to walk down to the lake to see what it had done to the salt.
We experienced more rain in the morning, the remainder of the day was sunny and windy.
Not long before we pulled up at a ret stop for lunch, we passed a cyclist on a recumbent cycle. It was a bit scary for a moment because there was a semi-trailer passing at the same time in the opposite direction. I thought he might be in trouble, but all ended well. He had lunch at the same place as us, so we had a bit of a chat. Marsden Nicholas is an older gentleman, riding from Melbourne to Alice Springs, where he was going to meet his wife and spend time with
Coober Pedy - Metropolis
This picture shows the main street on the town. No residences are visible as they are built underground due to the heat. his grandchildren. You have to admire some people.
We spent a bit of time in Coober Pedy looking at the underground Catholic Church and speaking with a Men’s Outreach Worker from the Uniting Church. We didn’t bother looking at the opal shops because we have been there before. Last time we were in Coober Pedy we were on our way north and the transmission went in our campervan about twenty kilometres south. We limped into Coober Pedy and hunted down a mechanic. As luck would have it, or true to form, there was no way that it could be fixed without going back to Adelaide. If you don’t have Total Care or the equivalent with your Auto Club, you are really missing out. The RACV freighted our van back to Adelaide and paid for us to return on a bus. Then they paid for a hire car and motel accommodation for a week while our car was being fixed. We had to pay for the repair ourselves, which is to be expected. While we missed out on the planned holiday, we were still able to do day trips around Adelaide and the surrounding districts. It must have cost quite a
Coober Pedy - Underground Church #1
The Catholic Church in Coober Pedy has an entrance at street level, but the actual church is underground. sum. We are not new to having problems on our holidays.
So getting to Coober Pedy was a milestone for us.
The landscape is ever changing, if only subtly. The vegetation changes from sparse bush to low saltbush in gibber fields. We saw a bit of wild life today, eagles, hawks, emus and a fox. We also saw a fair bit of road kill, emus, roos and a cow. None of them were fresh enough for dinner. We also had the opportunity to photograph a large patch of Sturt’s Desert Peas.
Tonight we are camped in a caravan park associated with the roadhouse at Marla. Marla sits at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track and the Stuart Highway. The roadhouse complex consists of service station, pub, roadhouse, camping ground and motel units. I think the employees must live in the units. There are no other residences around the area.
Tomorrow evening should find us at Yalara, ready to acquaint ourselves with Ularu (Ayers Rock), The Olgas and Kings Canyon.
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mary patterson
non-member comment
yeh!!
jealous already..enjoy reading your adventures..keep it up.