Day 5: Coober Pedy

After a night of restless sleep, we packed everything up and made our way towards Coober Pedy by 8. The drive there was pretty nice. We were now in the arid zone of Australia and in between Coober Pedy and Flinders Range, there are numerous salt lakes. After storms, all the water in the mountains flows down to these lakes and they then become full of life; usually, though they are just dried up. That’s how they were when we saw them. We stopped at a few of these lookouts on the way to Coober Pedy. During this part of the drive, I almost hit an emu with my car. They just appear out of nowhere from bushes on the side of the highway and (slowly) run across the road. I missed it by about a foot. In the outback, there are also service stations every 200km or so. These usually consist of a restaurant, hotel/ caravan park, and the crucial gas station. It is imperative that you always have enough gas out here. That’s why we always fill up at a gas station when we get near a half tank. These stations know their importance too, that’s why gas is usually double what it is in Canberra or on the coast. Anyways, we kept driving until the scenery became visibly flat and barren. We knew by this, that we were close to the Coober Pedy.

Coober Pedy is a unique mining town in South Australia. From the surface, it looks like a tiny mining outpost in the middle of the desert, but most of the town is actually underground. It is also known as the Opal Capital of the world. We arrived at about 12:30 and stopped at Umoona Mining Museum first. The free section of the museum is actually really short, but you could go on a guided tour at certain times for $10. Since we were there at the wrong time, we didn’t go. However, they did have a nice opal shop and friendly staff. They told us a lot about opals, but I forgot a lot about it. But I do remember that red opals are rare. As a gift, I bought a pair of opal earrings (not for me but I could rock them). After Umoona, we headed towards Old Timers Mine. The mine there cost $15 and covered the history of Coober Pedy and mining opal. Since it used to be an actual mine, there was real opal there and the tunnels were extremely narrow. Consequentially, we had to wear hard hats and I had to crouch the whole time. We also got a free demonstration of a mining machine called “the blower”; it was highly underwhelming. Our final destination in Coober Pedy was a small underground church. It was pretty unique, but we didn’t stay long because there wasn’t much to see. After that, we stopped by the visitor’s center to get passes for the Breakaways.

Almost every building in Coober Pedy is located underground, including their church.

Driving in the Breakaways is one giant loop. You can either drive 30 km down the highway and take the loop, starting from the lookouts and ending with the moon plain; or you can drive 15km from Coober Pedy and do the track in reverse. We chose the latter option. But 10km or so in, the road turned rough and unsurfaced. It was something our car couldn’t handle. So, we turned around and entered from the highway. The Breakaways are pretty geologically unique. Millions of years ago, when the outback wasn’t a desert, the rain would seep down until it hit the non-porous rock. This led to the rock becoming silicate. Over time, erosion wore down the earth until sturdier silicate formed the top layer of Earth. This too was eroded over time, but some patches remain. The patches of the remaining silicate are now the tops of the Breakaways. The mountains itself are only a couple of hundred meters high. We got to the first lookout and tried to set up lunch. We did not account for the flies in the Outback. The flies here are the most annoying things ever. They are relentless and crawl all over your face and sometimes up your nose and in your ears. During my time in the Outback, I swallowed two of them. However, after a couple of days, you get used to them; as long as they don’t try crawling into your nose and ears. Sarah and I were so annoyed by these flies while setting up lunch, so we had to eat lunch in the car.

Views from the Breakaways

After lunch, we looked around more and kept following the car path. A lot of the spots we went to were completely empty, so we saw this as a perfect time to take nudie pics. It was really fun. We did a new pose at every stop we went to (or at least I did). There was also a brief moment where I lost my GoPro. I put it on the roof of our car and drove off without it. Luckily, I was able to find it. We continued our drive and eventually made it to the Dog Fence. The Dog Fence is a fence that runs from South Australia all the way to New South Wales and Queensland. It is the longest continuous fence in the world; even longer than the Great Wall of China! Its sole purpose? To keep the Dingoes out. South of the fence is sheep country, while north is Dingo country. We continued to go to the Moon Plain but had to quickly turn back around because our car couldn’t handle the roads. I was a little bummed. Despite its name, it is the closest terrain on Earth that resembled Mars. Its also where the Mad Max was shot. But what are you gonna do? By then, the sun was going down anyways so we just headed back to town. Back in Coober Pedy, we grabbed dinner at one of the few restaurants. The place was attached to a gas station, but it was a pretty popular place. We were having pizza when an aboriginal woman came up to us and asked for a couple of slices. We had plenty so we gave her some. From all aboriginals have suffered, the least we could do is give them a few slices of pizza. After dinner, we headed towards out accommodation: Radeka Down Under. We were greeted by a rather disheveled man who kept complaining about how he was getting sick and didn’t get enough sleep the night before. He gave us access to our dorms, which was all underground. It was pretty neat sleeping in an underground tunnel. No one was there and it was nice and cool underground.

Outback | Uluru