Day 5: Alice Springs - Coober Pedy
We crossed the border with the dual signs of Welcome to South Australia / Northern Territory and a surprising number of people were there taking photos.
We arrived in Coober Pedy in the afternoon, an outback town known for producing the majority of Australia's opals. We tried to do a mine tour but it was all booked out, and having arrived so late in the day, there were few other options.
So instead we went to the underground Catacomb church, where a friendly volunteer gave us a pretty thorough history of the place. The main part of the church was dug by hand / dynamite in the 70s, and the extension done fairly recently with machines. The winch under the main altar is a tribute to the town's history, and the cross is made from local wood.
We also headed to the kangaroo orphanage where we fed the kangaroos and saw one of the joeys being fed.
Who knew that kangaroos loved wasabi peas! Apparently the spiciness of the wasabi mimics the flavours of native bush plants.
This little joey was 4 months old and happily suckled on a bottle like a baby.
Day 6: Coober Pedy - Adelaide
This was a quite a long day's drive. The landscape outside Coober Pedy is very much like the moon, full of little rocky hills and pockmarked craters. Soon we passed into salt lake territory, with many shimmering pools of white on the horizon.
We stopped at Lake Hart and headed down the hill for the short 10min walk to the edge of the lake. Seeing sand adjacent to salt is really quite strange, and reminds us that so much of what we stand on used to be under water.
Incredible expanses of white makes people want to do silly things!
We stopped at Woomera for lunch in the missile park, an interesting collection of relics from a time when the military conducted experiments in the desert.
We stopped by the side of the road to buy fresh prawns, from the Spencer gulf just a skip across the highway.
We drove and drove, and finally got into Adelaide after dark. After almost being T-boned by a car somewhere in suburban Adelaide we arrived at a really nice Airbnb where we could finally warm our bones from the drizzling cold rain.
Day 7: Adelaide
This was pretty much the only day we had on the whole road trip that rained incessantly. It was grey, misty and cold - so far removed from the warmth of the north. Despite the rain, we went with my dad's friends to Hahndorf which was very busy on the weekend.
We went strawberry picking, stuffing our faces with these fat juicy sweet strawberries.
Stopped off for a massive German platter with all the goodies.
We crossed the border with the dual signs of Welcome to South Australia / Northern Territory and a surprising number of people were there taking photos.
We arrived in Coober Pedy in the afternoon, an outback town known for producing the majority of Australia's opals. We tried to do a mine tour but it was all booked out, and having arrived so late in the day, there were few other options.
So instead we went to the underground Catacomb church, where a friendly volunteer gave us a pretty thorough history of the place. The main part of the church was dug by hand / dynamite in the 70s, and the extension done fairly recently with machines. The winch under the main altar is a tribute to the town's history, and the cross is made from local wood.
We also headed to the kangaroo orphanage where we fed the kangaroos and saw one of the joeys being fed.
Who knew that kangaroos loved wasabi peas! Apparently the spiciness of the wasabi mimics the flavours of native bush plants.
This little joey was 4 months old and happily suckled on a bottle like a baby.
Day 6: Coober Pedy - Adelaide
This was a quite a long day's drive. The landscape outside Coober Pedy is very much like the moon, full of little rocky hills and pockmarked craters. Soon we passed into salt lake territory, with many shimmering pools of white on the horizon.
We stopped at Lake Hart and headed down the hill for the short 10min walk to the edge of the lake. Seeing sand adjacent to salt is really quite strange, and reminds us that so much of what we stand on used to be under water.
Incredible expanses of white makes people want to do silly things!
We stopped at Woomera for lunch in the missile park, an interesting collection of relics from a time when the military conducted experiments in the desert.
We stopped by the side of the road to buy fresh prawns, from the Spencer gulf just a skip across the highway.
We drove and drove, and finally got into Adelaide after dark. After almost being T-boned by a car somewhere in suburban Adelaide we arrived at a really nice Airbnb where we could finally warm our bones from the drizzling cold rain.
Day 7: Adelaide
This was pretty much the only day we had on the whole road trip that rained incessantly. It was grey, misty and cold - so far removed from the warmth of the north. Despite the rain, we went with my dad's friends to Hahndorf which was very busy on the weekend.
We went strawberry picking, stuffing our faces with these fat juicy sweet strawberries.
Stopped off for a massive German platter with all the goodies.
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