Coober Pedy is a strange place!
Yesterday was a really long day of driving, and we only left Adelaide at about 9.30 or so because we had to go see the aircon man. So a late start to our longest day wasn't very good, and probably the hottest too. I reckon it was about 45 degrees, plus the heater.
After Port Augusta it's just hours on end of nothing... Or not much.. The stops are few and far between and water is scarce. We filled up our bottles at a few places but heaps of them aren't registered water providers and they say you can't drink from the taps at their shops.
We had lunch in Port Augusta in a picnic area in the shade.. We ate pita bread and crackers with feta, cucumber, tomatoes, olives and dip.
We talked to a few people about the weather, they said it will probably get cooler in Alice springs and up north because its a southern heat wave here's hoping! Apparently this weeks forecast for Coober Pedy is between 40 and 50 degrees all week!!
From Port Augusta all you see on the highway is dead kangaroos, dead cows, other miscellaneous road kill, and cars driving by. When we drive past the road kill the smell is so strong it stings your nose.
There are some drive ways that must lead to huge homesteads or cattle stations. Imagine living out there!!!!! What would you do!! My mind can't even fathom it!
We stopped for fuel and icypoles in Pimba and Glendambo. Already the towns are blurring together, I can't remember what Glendambo was like!
We haven't been listening to much music.. We've got the windows down and it's really loud, so we bought ear plugs in Crystal Brook.
What we have listened to has been: Iron and Wine, Laura Marling, The National, Leonard Gregorian, John Mayer, Powderfinger, Midnight Oil, Moby, Patrick Watson, Radiohead.
The land is so dry. We pass patches of just tiny little dry shrubs, then some has bigger trees, and dried up desert flowers. It's mostly really flat, which is good for the car.
Getting closer to Coober Pedy there were some funny piles of earth dug up, where they do the mining. We got into the town at about 9pm, just after a beautiful sunset. We drove around to have a look at everything... It's such a strange place!! I admit I was expecting more underground houses.. All the buildings are so mixy matchy, there's no one theme for the town... And so many opal museums, and shops, and old mines. We didn't hop out of the car as it was late and we just wanted to be careful. It's so dry, if you lived there you definitely wouldn't be able to have a garden, you wouldn't be able to grow any veggies. You wouldn't really be able to eat locally or sustainably.
The camp sites in the caravan park we stayed at are just patches of hard gravel that you can't put pegs into. It's so so dry. The camp kitchen and toilets were so flashy and new though, it was so strange! I guess a lot of tourists pass through.
For dinner we made soup(!!!) with chicken stock Freya had made and froze, with onions, garlic, carrots, chard and kale from her garden, and cannellini beans. It was like being in a hot sauna in the kitchen and eating hot hot dinner, we were just covered in sweat by the end! But it has been good using what food we already have and not buying much at all.
The showers were 20 cents per 3 minutes, so we paid our fee and had 12 minute cold showers, which were not very cold at all, but still refreshing.
The night temperature was about 38 degrees, so we just set the tent fly up and slept on our mats.. No Down sleeping bags needed! The sky is so beautiful out in the desert, the stars are so bright!
We woke up at 5am and packed everything up and set off to try and beat the heat. Seth drove while Freya and I slept. While we were sleeping he saw lots of rabbits, 3 Brolgas, a white horse, and cows.
We stopped in Kulgera for fuel, then in Erldunda, which is the turnoff from the Stuart hwy to Yulara (Uluru and Kata Tjuta).
They only have opal fuel in Erldunda and it was $2.05 per litre!
Apparently they had had some rain last week, so driving from Erldunda to Yulara was surprisingly green. The Lasseter highway goes through stretches of funny different She Oaks.. Some are really tall and skinny with leaves all up the whole trunk, some are like normal ones just up the top.
We got to Yulara at about 1.30pm which was pretty good tuning! We set up camp, had a lunch of sandwiches with tomatoes, cucumber, tuna, cheese and artichoke hearts. It was so hot the cheese started melting on the chopping board.
We went for a swim in the pool in the camping ground which was pretty perfect. We met some nice French people who are traveling around Australia for 1 year. Wouldn't that be cool!
After our swim we drove to Kata Tjuta, (the Olgas), and then Uluru. It is so beautiful!!! What amazing places. So stunning, so special. All the formations in the rock are so amazing! These huge big eroded holes, and big valleys that look like dry waterfalls, and trees growing from the top of parts of the rock!!
Unfortunately the walks were closed due to the heat. It was still special seeing it from where we did, we drove the loop around it, and stopped to have a listen, quite close up. So magical.
We watched Uluru as the sun set, and watched how much it changes with different light, and did all the touristy photo taking :)
That nights dinner was red thai curry with onion, garlic, tofu, pumpkin, potatoes, broccoli and carrots. It was really yummy but we didn't eat till about 10.30!
The petrol station in Yulara is soo expensive! We didn't want to get opal fuel because someone said its not that great for the car so we broke the bank and got premium unleaded for.... $2.28 per litre(!!!!) and you have to ask for the key for premium because they lock up the pump.
Sleeping in the Yulara camp ground was really nice, it cooled down a bit at night which was a relief.
I'm off to bed now, but I have lots more to talk about :)
x Zannah
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