Coober Pedy - December 2015

Hey hey, the holidays have arrived. This year Sam and I are revisiting an old favourite, we're going on a road trip to Central Australia, we have spent time up here (I'm in Yulara at the moment) almost every one of the twenty five years that we've been married, infact we honeymooned up here, yeah Sam got real lucky with me, where would you like to go for your honeymoon, Tahiti, The Maldives, The Cook Islands? No I reckon we'll go sweat it out in the Red Centre over summer, best of all we didn't even have air conditioning in our car in those days, like I said Sam got lucky!

Refueling at a truck stop in Nhill, it's well after midnight but everything's going good.

First stop on this trip was Coober Pedy, when you read it quickly it all sounds pretty reasonable, and indeed it was, but before my head hit the pillow in the Mud Hut Hotel there was a small matter of a bit of a drive from Melbourne to get there. Unfortunately for me Sam had to stay back at work for an important engagement so we left Melbourne about five hours later than I'd hoped to. Starting a 1600 kilometre leg at 9:30 at night after working all day wasn't ideal, we'd booked all the accommodation in advance so we couldn't easily slot everything back a day. Anyway it didn't take long to clear Melbourne's sprawling suburbs and it then felt as though the holiday was on, so while Sam snoozed I motored over the South Australian border with only my truck driving mates for company. Nearing Tailem Bend at 3:30 in the morning I figured it was time to grab a bit of sleep, with a forecast in the low forties for the fast arriving day I didn't think I'd get much in the ute once the sun made its appearance.

Sunrise beside the highway just outside Tailem Bend, time to get up and head off again.

I managed to grab a couple of hours sleep while being serenaded by the passing trucks, the rapidly lightning sky waking me at 5:30am, time to get going if I wanted to get through Adelaide before peak hour. So with Sam still snoozing we trucked on, leaving Adelaide's northern outskirts by 7:30 we started up one of the most boring section of highway in Australia, the road from Adelaide to Port Augusta, nothing good ever happens on this stretch of road in my opinion. Luckily we beat most of the heavy traffic and the howling northerly hadn't kicked in yet, so all I had to really worry about was my fatigue, and after my little nana nap at Tailem Bend I was feeling pretty good. Jumping out of the ute to re fuel at Port Augusta we felt the full force of the temperature, it was getting bloody hot and we were now heading up into the hottest part of the state.

Heading north out of Port Augusta we were now in red dirt country, the epic vistas opening up before us as we motored along, this is the kind of the country I think of when I think of a road trip, huge skies and views for kilometres in every direction. With the Flinders Ranges receding in the rearview mirror the Stuart Highway passes a series of salt lakes culminating at Lake Hart, arguably the most scenic of the lot, each lake giving me the excuse to stop and stretch the legs a bit. The 540 kilometre journey from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy only passes by a couple of service stations, Pimba and Glendambo, although the bright lights of Woomera are only 8 kilometres off the highway near Pimba. On jumping back into the ute after my frequent photo stops I'd noticed that the air-con was taking longer and longer to bring down the temperature, when I pulled up at Coober Pedy I logged onto the BOM site and checked the observations, Woomera got to 43.7 and Coober Pedy 43.3, yeah that's getting pretty warm.

The Stuart Highway north of Port Augusta, big sky country.

Lake Hart.

Coober Pedy has a population of around 3500 people, and is one of those places you might describe as having character, the best way to describe the place is to imagine what a post apocalyptic world would look like, think Mad Max and you wouldn't be far off. It seems that the movie world thinks the same thing as the town and surrounding wasteland has featured in numerous movies, the left over props littering the town only add to the feel of the place.

Coober Pedy from the Big Winch lookout.

The Old Timers Mine is worth checking out if you have the time.

Coober Pedy's main claim to fame though is opals, the reason the place resembles a moonscape is the hundreds of thousands of opal mine tailings littering the country side, the town is full of reminders of its mining history. If your visiting town I'd recommend the Old Timers Mine as a place to go to check out what its like down a mine. With the temperatures over summer soaring close to 50 C most of the locals not only work underground but live there as well, you can stay underground, visit an underground art gallery, an underground church, you get the idea!

The space ship from the movie Pitch Black crash landed in Coober Pedy, bugger me!

The country for kilometres either side of town looks like a moonscape due the mounds of mine tailings.

After a quick shower we headed out to check out the Breakaway Reserve north of town, leaving town just as a dust storm hit with an accompanying thunder storm, it all added to the post apocalyptic feel I suppose. I've been to the Breakaways before and was a little under whelmed, so having continued to hear good things about it I decided to head back and check it out again, and you know what it was worth it. Turning off the Stuart Highway we quickly arrived at the main lookout, with the sun now coming in and out from behind storm clouds it was a little hit and miss when it came to photos but I still managed to get a couple that show what the place is all about. This place featured in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert as well as Mad Max 3 so its got that familiar look about it.

The Breakaway Reserve.

There were a few storms around this afternoon making the light fairly flukey.

Leaving the main lookout we picked up a lesser track that headed down through the Breakaways and out to Moon Plain via the Dog Fence. Our first stop on this stretch was at a unique landform that the local Antakirinja Mutuntjarra called 'two dogs' a brown and a white one, check out the photo and you'll see what they mean. Soon after leaving Two Dogs we hit the dog fence, the fence that is meant to keep Dingoes to the north and thus make it safe to run sheep to the south. The dog fence used to be 8614 kilometres long but was shortened to a mere 5500 kilometres in 1980. The fence was used in the making of the movie Rabbit Proof Fence even though the movie was set in Western Australia.

The 'Two Dogs'.

We now headed across the flat featureless Moon Plane on our loop back towards Coober Pedy, the red dirt billowing in the mirror bought a smile to my face, the ute floating along the undulating track. On meeting the more substantial Coober Pedy to Oodnadatta we turned and headed back into town. Returning to our room at the Mud Hut Hotel there was just time for a quick shower before I jumped into bed, no dinner tonight, just a deep sleep.

Heading away from The Breakaways onto Moon Plane.

The Dog Fence heading out onto Moon Plane.

Red dust in the mirror, its been awhile but it still feels right!

The Dirt.

Coober Pedy is a seriously strange place, it looks like every feral in Australia has settled there, so I feel quite at home really, in a world of sanitised tourist experiences however it stands out as the authentic article. Coober Pedy is probably not worth a visit in its own right but if you find yourself in the neighbourhood you could easily lose half a day poking around the place. As I've mentioned we stayed at the Mud Hut Hotel in Coober Pedy, I've stayed there before over the years and its a nice clean and quiet place, best of all now days they have good free wifi. The loop around the Breakaways and Moon Plane is probably doable in a normal car in the dry, but I reckon you'd be much more comfortable in a 4wd, try and time your visit as close to sunset as possible as the low sun brings out the colours.

When in Coober Pedy the feral traveller chooses to stay at the Mud Hut Hotel.

The scenery on the way out of town is much the same as the on the way in.