SA Outback

It’s been a few weeks since we were in Coober Pedy and the Flinders Ranges but thought it was time to do a blog.
We arrived at Coober Pedy and it was hot, dry and nothing but dirt to see. It’s a weird place when you drive through as it’s pretty much dirt and junk laying around. Buildings that look old and out dated. When you look past the main part of town there isn’t heaps to see but pipes sticking out of the ground and old shacks. 

 The things that we soon found out was that Coober Pedy, in a good year will receives 150mm of rain, otherwise there is not much water. So that explains the dirt and why things look so out dated. The dust and harsh environment just ages everything so quickly. The pipes sticking up are actually underground houses and the shacks are the front of them. When you realise that you see how big Coober Pedy is.   

 It is a unique place, out of this world. There is no place like it. It’s quirky and on the surface boring but once you start looking lots to do.

We were super lucky that our friends were caretaking Faye’s underground house and mine so we got our own personal tour which was so amazing to see how people live underground, the boys loved it. And the amount of effort gone into the mining and building of Faye’s place was crazy. She did it on her own. What a truly remarkable woman.

  We drove out to Crocodile Harry’s place which is quirky and creepy at the same time. But a must do while in Coober Pedy. We then drove to the Dingo fence and on to the Breakaways. The breakaways were amazing. The colours were incredible purples, oranges, whites and browns. In the middle of nowhere beautiful coloured soil.  

 
  
We had a look at the Serbian Church which was incredible. They have carved sculptures into the walls amazing.

  We went through the Desert Cave Hotel as they have a museum there which had lots of information on the aboriginal culture in the area, the making of the Stuart Hwy and of course Opals and it’s formation and mining. 

We walked through the Umoona Opal museum which covered formation and mining of Opals but always the fossils found in the area which was pretty interesting. 

Both had opal shops which I tried to talk Matt into buying me one but no such luck.

We did all this in one day which was information overload. My brain hurt at the end of it. You definitely need more time in Coober Pedy to explore it. We also found out that ground temperature there gets to 65 degrees. No wonder the van was hot.

We really enjoyed our time in Coober Pedy.

We left Coober Pedy and got to Lake Hart which is a salt lake and is pretty spectacular. It was really white this time. When we went to Darwin it wasn’t as white so I’m assuming that it has to do with water. There was even rain on the other on the horizon which was pretty cool. 

  We then continued on to The Flinders Ranges which was closed due to vermin control so we went and stayed in the Parachilna Gorge. It was a great spot. Some water flowing so the boys could play in it beautiful scenery. We took a drive to Blinman which is the highest town in South Australia. They use to mine cooper there. 

 Once the goat cull had finished we moved into Teamster Campground which was actually a four wheel drive track but we got the van through with care and great skill by Matt. We drove the Brachina Gorge drive into Wilpena with a detour to Stokes Hill Lookout then we drove back to campground by Bunyeroo Road. The views on each track were similar but also different. We were so glad we did these without the van attached as I don’t think our poor Jayco would’ve made it.  

 The guy at information centre told us that you can see fossils in the rocks where we were camping. So we went exploring and found them. And a cool Cave.

   
 The following day we checked out Sacred Canyon which was interesting and a bit of fun then we walked to Wilpena pound lookout then took the scenic route back to campground via Moralana drive which was to the south of the Flinders Ranges and was so different. It was more sort of grazing country, undulating hills and stations. Was great to see the differences.  

    
 The next day we left but we stopped at Hawker on way out and checked out Jeff Morgans panorama art gallery which was amazing. He is one patience and talented man. 

  While in the Flinders Ranges we showered alfresco which the boys loved and we made pet in a yellow footed rock wallaby which we all loved.
We love our beautiful, diverse country that is forever changing around us. 

Take care xo