FriendBurst Blog

Day 11 – Sunday – September 26, 2010

Weather:  Sunny & Hot

Destination:  Erldunda, Northern Territory, Australia

Odometer Reading:  99015

Total Distance Traveled:  3672 kilometers (2281 miles)

Price of Fuel:  Coober Pedy – $1.43.9 liter, 47.64 liters, $68.56; Marla – $1.60.5 liter, 44.52 liters, $71.45

Route Taken:  Coober Pedy to Marla to Kulgera to Erldunda

Highlights:  We woke up with the sun today.  It’s bright, clear, a little breezy, but it’s starting to get desert hot now.  Not good for sleeping late since this rolling box we’re living in heats up pretty good once the sun hits it.

Before we left Coober Pedy we walked around town a bit.  I don’t know what exactly we were expecting, but we were a little disappointed with what we could see.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s an interesting place as all mining towns are, but it wasn’t what we thought it was going to be.  Maybe if we had reached it during the week it would have been different.

Since it was Sunday, the underground churches were busy with services and the rest of the underground attractions in town were marked with “Closed” signs.  I think we’re either here too early for the “tourist season” or it’s just too early (10:00 a.m.?) for Sunday morning.  The only underground place that we could go into was the gift shop at the Opal Cave.  It was a cave in the side of a hill that was civilized with electricity, flooring and store fixtures.  The deepest we had to walk down into it was two steps.  The others places may go deeper underground than the Opal Cave gift shop, but since we couldn’t get into any of them, we couldn’t find out.

The rest of Coober Pedy (the above ground stuff) looked like most other old mining towns we’ve seen.  We did a little shopping at the stores that were open as we walked through town.  You just can’t pass up Coober Pedy opals.

There were also the quirky things.  I got a shot of the Opal Beetle, another of the big icons, although it’s really not that big.

Then there was this thing which looked like a space vehicle from Star Wars, but what it actually was, we have no clue.  The lady in the gift shop didn’t know either.

We headed out of Coober Pedy and I grabbed a shot of their town sign.

Right outside of town, the highway travels through the mining fields that surround the town.  It’s a pretty dangerous place, with warning signs, tailing piles and drill holes everywhere.  Some of the drill holes go down 30 meters (98 feet) or more and they’re not necessary secured or marked in any way to let people know where they are exactly.  Walk in the wrong direction and you can just disappear down one of those holes.  We decided an up close and personal viewing would be unnecessary.

The drive was a long stretch of flat, red desert from horizon to horizon, broken only by the highway, a few trees and stubby plants.  I know that sounds like a redundant copy and paste of yesterday’s sights (which it is), but so is the landscape here.  We stopped for a stretch at a nice little spot and I grabbed a couple of Outback flora shots.

Stops:  After Coober Pedy, photo ops, diesel and stretch stops were the only things on the agenda again today.

Where We Stayed:  We stopped a little earlier in the day today when we got to Erldunda, which is at the junction with the road to Ayer’s Rock.  We checked into the Erldunda Desert Oaks Resort & Caravan Park which is an older, but nice, stopping place.  They have a fairly new motel, a store, a tavern, gas and a campground with huge trees and spacious sites.  Our space was $28.00 for the night and after we got The Beast parked and settled into our space, we headed to the tavern for dinner. 

Where We Ate: Dinner was the seafood combo platter for him and the special of the night (Barramundi) for me.  It was really good and went down well with a couple of Cruisers.