Day 125 - Tuesday 2 May - On to Opal Country

Day 125

Tuesday

2 May 2017 

Glendambo -  Coober Pedy

Paul woke me with the bright light from outside, as he opened the shade a touch so he could read. The light streamed in preventing any further sleeping, so I also began to read for a short time.

By 8am, I was happy to get up and organised. Paul moved the van forward, hoping that it would move the car tyre strap from its position under the tyre, it did and meant he didn’t have to spend ages fiddling around. We had breakfast, fastened all objects and then moved on up the road to Glendambo.

We pulled into the roadhouse and filled up with fuel, a large gathering of Harley riders were doing the same thing. After a HOG run to Alice they were heading back “home” and we were told to expect 500 of them on the road!

We continued our journey north. The 300kms ahead was one of red dust, low green scrub and signs for the various cattle stations. We did pass a few small water holes, cattle and eagles along our trip and 45 Harleys (I was counting).  The landscape reminded me of quintessential art works of the outback, the stark orange dirt with moss green, smoke grey and cream low lying scrub, black trees devoid of leaves, all set against the purple and blue hues of the sky beyond. It felt like you had stepped into an oil painting.

I had found what I thought sounded like an interesting camp spot just short of Coober Pedy and after turning off the main road and on to a k of dirt, we pulled into Riba’s Camping and opal mine.

Once settled in, we had lunch and then did a wander. This camp offers space for caravans but also has a number of rooms underground and space for tenters to camp up as well. It was definitely living up to my expectations of life here and I think a good choice.

We checked out the underground dug out, admiring the layout. A tent was set up at the far end, but there was no one around. Round shafts leading to the surface provided funnelled spotlights of light, but at the furthest point it was almost pitch black. I was intrigued by the patterns in the rock created by the excavation, the circular carvings leaving an artistic imprint.

We completed the full circle and returned to the surface, checked out the TV and internet room and then came back to the van. We gathered our bits and pieces and drove in to the centre of town. We completed a lap of the main street, stray dogs roamed the main road and a large number of local aboriginals hung about lazily on footpaths. The town was dusty and rundown in appearance but there was still plenty of life.

We found the info centre, did a walk around and then collected relevant info from the attendant. We had a laugh with a young European tourist who wanted to know what “Dry town” meant and did that mean she couldn’t drink in her car in which they were travelling and sleeping? With our map, we were off to do an initial exploration of the town. 

Our first port of call was the Desert Cave Hotel. This hotel is the nicest building in the town, built out of rock. It has an underground museum that you can walk through for free giving a rundown of opal mining and history of Coober Pedy. We did the walk down the halls before wandering through the small arcade and back out.

We checked out the main street opal dealers, well a few of them, as there are so many. We wandered in and out of the various shops checking out the uncut pieces, polished stones or jewellery they had on offer. A few piqued my interest so I may be back.

We then stopped in at the IGA and walked back to the car to continue our journey. We drove on to an area in town where you can “noodle” for opals. There is a large area set aside for tourists to try their luck digging around in the discarded piles of rock brought to the surface. The tourist info lady said in the last 18 months lucky tourists had discovered opals in the patch worth anything from $50 to $15000. Yikes.

We drove round to the Big Winch Lookout, parked and walked to the top. From here we had great views over the town and beyond to the Breakaways. A giant Opal Winch was set at the top as a monument to the opal mining industry.

From here we made our way back to the van. Many more tourists had come in, some camping and some in caravans.

We set about reading the tourist brochures and deciding on things to do tomorrow. We also picked up info for our leg onto Uluru and Alice Springs. I then began loading the photos for today, while Paul read his book.

By 5pm, I was getting restless and needed to walk, so I did a lap of the park, taking in the views and the plant life. I stopped to talk to some of the caravaners, who had started happy hour and then returned to Paul in the van.

The wind had begun to pick up and the temp had dropped. I figured it would be quite cool here this evening, it had only been 20 today anyway. Some of the back packer tenters were out kicking soccer ball to keep warm. I thought Paul might join them, but he didn’t.

We sorted our dinner and ate as the sun completely disappeared. Closing the van up from view and ensuring the warmth, created from the cooking, hung around for a little bit, keeping us toasty.

We played a round of cards to keep us entertained, but only one as I beat Paul convincingly. We then went for a wander around the campground. It was quite breezy out so we needed to walk swiftly to keep warm and help put some steps on the counter. The kitchen was very lively with the campers staying underground busily cooking their dinner and chatting.

Once back at the van we settled into bed to read before turning out the lights.