coober pedy
We really underestimated this place! The size and the beauty! What a place to spend our 15th wedding anniversary!
We made our way from Uluru and began to travel back to South Australia. Our plan was to continue exploring the South Australia coastline after visiting Victor Harbour, Rapid Bay and Wauraltee Beach during the first weeks of our lap. From there we headed up to Flinders Ranges, travelled along the Oodnadatta Track all the way to Oodnadatta before exploring The Red Centre for the month of January. After experiencing what summer was like in the middle of Australia and sitting on daily temperatures between 40-45 degrees, it was time to start making our way to the coastline for cooler weather. This was also timed with the returning of school for South Australian students. As we completed the Oodnadatta Track, it meant that we missed Coober Pedy on the way to Alice Springs, so we came back down the Stuart Highway on our return trip. Different scenery and a whole heap more cars and road trains! We heard mixed reviews about Coober Pedy so didn’t really know what to expect.
We stayed at the Big4 Stuart Range Outback Resort for two nights. We chose a powered site with water so we could get some washing done before we had a few weeks off-grid. The water quality was the best we had in weeks after exploring the Red Centre. The previous inland bore water had been high in salt and metals, but the water in Coober Pedy had a modern reverse osmosis setup and was filtered really well. As it was summer, we were the only campers in this section, everyone else was camped in the power only section. This meant that we had the ammenities building all to ourselves too! It is close to the highway but this didn't keep us up at night. The highlight would have to be the swimming pool which was a refreshing oasis! There is also a children's playground and great camp kitchens. If you're lucky, you might even find some opal around the park!
The town was huge, way bigger than White Cliffs in Outback NSW, which was what we were originally comparing it to. There were so many unique things to do and see! We visited Kaṉku - The Breakaways and fell in love with the landscape, a significant site for the Antakirinja Matuntjara Yankunytjatjara Peoples. We read about Papa (two dogs), Wati (man owner of the dogs), Kalaya (emu), and Ungkata (bearded dragon lizard) stories and saw these land formations. This place is also the main source of tudu (red ochre) used for ceremonies, but other colours can also be found here. Another interesting point of interest was the dingo fence, an unbroken barrier that stretches over 5,600km through South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. It prevents the dingoes from entering the sheep grazing country in the south. To visit Kaṉku - Breakaways Conservation Park, you do need a National Parks Pass. Kaṉku - The Breakaways is only a 25min drive from the caravan park. You turn off the Stuart Highway and drive along an unsealed road. Follow this road pass the dingo fence all the way back to town. It a big loop but an easy drive, with one steep descend.
Once back in town, we visited a Old Timers Mine, enjoyed a milkshake in an underground cafe and tried the famous ‘Coat of Arms’ pizza from John's Pizza Bar made with smoked kangaroo and emu mettwurst. We took the opportunity to get a snap with one of the Australian Big Things, The Big Miner, the famous Coober Pedy sign and Crystal Place street sign since it was our crystal anniversary after all! The views from the Big Winch were great too where you can also find the Old Blower! The highlight of our visit would have to of been the night noodling! We noodled late into the night with a local miner who provided us with some black light torches, headlamps, tools and an unlimited amount of stock piles to start searching for opals. Hours of mindful digging, watching the opal and other organisms glow. This was a mad experience, especially for our youngest warrior who is our biggest rock collector! Opal Hunting at Night was only $20 per person, an absolute bargain!
We could have easily stayed one more night here. As it was summer, most tours were not operational until March so you could possibly stay longer. However, we were stinging to get back to the ocean, so needed to continue our trek to our campsite at Point Gibbon.
Peace + love,
We could have easily stayed one more night here. As it was summer, most tours were not operational until March so you could possibly stay longer. However, we were stinging to get back to the ocean, so needed to continue our trek to our campsite at Point Gibbon.
Peace + love,