Road trip – 17 km – Coober Pedy
I could sleep well in this cave. I woke up the first time after 01:00. I don’t know if it was because I needed to pee or the snoring of one of our neighbours’ caves. It was insane how this guy was snoring, and the stone walls in the cave were even amplifying it. Anyway, I slipped into my flip flops, got my headlight, and went out to the bathroom. When I came back, I used my earplugs, which helped.
We both woke up around 07:00; at least it wasn’t as cold as the first night in Burra. We are already trained for packing everything, the deckchairs, sleeping bags, tables, and all the rest. Got it all to the car, where everything has its own place. Andrew is super organised in this, but changing a bit here or there to optimise it. It’s pretty comfortable when you don’t have to search all the time for your stuff. It was time for breakfast and a coffee now, so we walked to the communal kitchen.
We had the whole day now to explore the area, as we would spend one more night in Radekas Downunder Motel. We drove to the Underground church at first. A small church built into the rocks here.
The next highlight would be the 360-degree winch. A platform with a Cafe where you had a good view all around Coober Pedy.
You find this shape of rocks in the background all over the outback. It’s the same shape as Ayers Rock. I have no idea what was creating them like this. Then we drove to a place where you can do something which they call Opal noodling here. Opal noodling is a practice in which people search through tailings piles and on the ground for opals that have been overlooked or discarded by miners. The term is derived from “noodle” and refers to rummaging through the earth for small pieces of opal. This method is open to the public and is often practiced as a fun activity to find opals yourself, especially in areas such as Coober Pedy and Lightning Ridge in Australia.
We drove to our Motel to check in and realised that they would be open from 14:00 to 21:00. So we went for lunch in a Restaurant where we would be the first guests as it was early. We saw on a big screen that there would be the final of the IFL (Australian Football League). Cats against Lions would be the first time in a final match. After lunch, we still had time for a mine museum; the entry was free. Only the mine tour in the evening would be charged.
Time to check in now. We got our keys and room, which was also underground.
Simple but extraordinary. We made ourselves comfortable, arranged our stuff. Then, sitting outside, we applied for permits to cross the Great Central, Aboriginal land. We needed two permits for the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Here is a washing machine, where we did our laundry. Later, we checked some Restaurants, but there are not many. For Pizza, we would have to wait for one hour. We decided to cook for ourselves, some pasta with veggies. Time to rest in our room now.
No responses yet