First of all – Happy Birthday Lisa!
I was quite surprised that there was so much of Coober Pedy above ground. The mystique of the place where everyone lives underground had me thinking there wasn’t much on top. All of the main street, most businesses, and many houses (most with a minimum of two derelict car bodies in each front yard) on the surface make it look a lot like a regular town.

You can see in the photo above that houses sort of nestle into the hillside. About 80% of the locals live in “dug outs”. They are quite cheap to “build” and it only takes a week or so with the right equipment.
The land surrounding the township is covered in piles of discarded dirt from mine shafts.

We visited an opal mine where we learnt heaps about the industry.

I was surprised to hear that only one person can have one claim (50m x 50m) at any time, for an outlay of just $60. No big companies, no unions, and probably no tax being paid. It’s every man for himself. Don’t even mention OH&S. Coober Pedy has been the source of many innovative mining practices. Below is a picture of the “vacuum cleaner” thingy that sucks all the dirt up to the surface – same stuff that makes all the piles in the picture above. Clearly. What I like is the technical on-off lever system. The blue striped ropes (commonly known as Telstra rope) are pulled to start and stop the motor (up on the surface).

Miners who aren’t cashed up enough to buy the machinery to excavate, still use homemade bombs to make headway underground. Harry was particularly interested in the concise instructions on making bombs – being the Mythbusters fan that he is.

No visit to Coober Pedy would be complete without a visit to an underground house. A lovely couple showed us round their home. It has three bedrooms, kitchen dining and living rooms. The bathroom and laundry is above ground. It even has a pool!

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve stayed in a caravan park in the last 20 years. If you’ve been reading our Blog, you’ll see we are happiest out in the bush. We decided to “do a park” in Coober Pedy (I’m not sure what made us think that). So when we pulled into town and saw a queue of at least 8 cars and their caravans and trailers waiting to check in at the first caravan park, I started to feel sick. We went on past, to another caravan park, where the queue had only 3 cars. Lucky we don’t need power – all the powered sites were gone. But just checking in at the office for an unpowered site approached the rigmarole of picking up a hire car at an airport. Endless staring at computer screens, complete lack of efficiency. Stuff like that.
We found our small plot of gravel, adjoining the bitumen. The total lack of any grass is probably attributable to the climate rather than the standard of the caravan park. Nonetheless – we all had a shower (3 minutes for 20 cents). It was divine! And there’s five bars of 3G reception, the BBQs were spotless (they cost extra too), there was hot water to wash the dishes (free!) and the dozens of children all went to bed early. In fact all the adults did too. John and I were the only two about after 9.30pm, catching up on the Tour.
John and the boys did a quick ride (boys) and run (John) around town before dinner. Then the boys found a TV room (in an enormous tank), so my peace time was extended. Nice.

Don’t for a moment think that the Oodnadatta Track is long and boring. It’s hundreds of kilometres, packed with stuff to stop and see.
Marree – including the Marree Hotel, an amazing old pub that used to service the visiting Ghan train. Since the train stopped coming, they’ve made tourism their focus. You can take scenic flights over Lake Eyre from here.

The Dog Fence – the world’s longest netting fence built to protect sheep (in the south) from the dingos (in the north).

Here’s a gecko Fergus and Harry found.

We stopped at Curdimurka Siding where some of the Ghan tracks are still in place, and date from 1888.

It’s a long way to anywhere…..

There are numerous mound springs in the region, and two popular ones to visit are “Blanche Cup” and “Bubbler”. The water in Bubbler is warm enough to have a dip. Very invigorating in the cold desert wind!

We all had a dip, and then we saw the sign:

Ooops.

The landscape varies from flat plains with little vegetation, to red hills like this one.

We made it to William Creek – Australia’s town with the smallest population (currently two). We took the obligatory photos of the pub, the multidirectional sign (you know – with how far it is to Tokyo and London), the rocket relics found in the desert and the hand written sign for the attractions along the Track.
But I also took a photo of something to show my grandchildren one day:

Just in case they don’t know what one is.

The Ghan railway line was closed to trains in 1981, when the new line from Adelaide to Alice Springs was completed. The Oodnadatta Track runs alongside the Old Ghan line for many kilometres. We camped right next to the disused rail line, just next to Lake Eyre.
Not another camper in sight.

They say that the old sleepers make great fire wood. Now you’d think after 30 years, that all those railway sleepers would have been salvaged, souvenired, or just burnt for the campfire. But rest assured there are plenty left.

We had our best fire yet. The wind dropped off when the sun went down.
This is one of Harry’s photos at sunset. The tiny spec in the middle is the first star for the night. Later, there were thousands.

The filling of Lake Eyre in recent years has attracted thousands of visitors to witness this rare event. I have been lucky enough to see it from the air on flights to and from Alice Springs. But to see it at ground level (albeit from a distance) was amazing. All this – 12m below sea level.

It’s hard to describe how beautiful it is.


Photo below, we have stopped in the fading light to take some photos. It may look hot, but it was actually freezing, with a biting icy wind howling across the gibber plains.