Driving South To Coober Pedy

We are heading south today to the wacky, weird and wonderful OPAL mining town of Coober Pedy.

We basically packed up most of our stuff around us last night so that we can hit the road early and before sunrise. No matter how quiet you try to be not to wake the neighbours, it’s like coming home drunk and trying to make the stairs to bed without making any noise. Impossible!

DRIVE: Kings Canyon Resort to Coober Pedy (762km).

After driving the road out of Kings Canyon to Lassiter Highway, We stop at a sculpture celebrating the red centre of Australia. From here we are in fact 422km from the official centre of Australia at The Lambeth Centre, Ghan NT and will pass as close as 139.5km as we go through Kulgera on the Stuart Highway.

There have been several methods employed to find such a centre, but only one is named for Dr. Bruce Lambert, one of the nation’s top cartographers. The Lambert Centre of Australia was calculated in 1988 by the Royal Geographical Society of Australia to commemorate the Bicentennial of Federation, and to honor the late Dr. Lambert.

So imagine for a moment you can hold your finger up in the air and balance Australia on the tip. That’s it, keep visualising it, a bit to the right, keep still, there, you’ve got it. Well that’s almost the centre of Australia. You need to allow for the curvature of the earth and voila, the centre of Australia.

Similar to what’s known as the “gravitational method,” the Geographical Society’s calculation did with math what had been done with geometry, weights, and physical models. The centre of a land mass is determined as the spot at which the shape, balanced on a single point, manages to balance.

The coordinates are:
25 degrees 36 minutes 36.4 seconds south latitude, 134 degrees 21 minutes 17.3 seconds east longitude (25°36′36.4″S 134°21′17.3″E); position on SG53-06 Finke 1:250 000 and 5746 Beddome 1:100 000 scale maps

Back up a bit. Reaching Eldunda Station, a vital junction between north and south, we queue up like everyone else for petrol. This place takes north of $100 per refuel and the line of cars is long and never ending. Whilst waiting, I be efficient and go and grab two bacon and egg toasties, a coffee and a hot chocolate from the roadhouse.

There’s nothing like a bacon and egg toastie to get you going and the remaining 487km to Coober Pedy will be a breeze so we hope to get there by 3.00pm. Jen phones ahead and books a caravan park and they can just squeeze us in.

So as we leave Eldunda, there’s a sign saying north Alice Springs or south Coober Pedy. It’s tempting to turn left and flip a coin to turn right and head for home and it’s all down hill from here... well not literally!

We soon cross the border into South Australia which means we have been in every state and territory in Australia on our trip with the exception of Tasmania. The desert’s flat, the horizon is distant, the road is straight and even the road surface in South Australia is an ocre/orange colour to match the desert.

Jen reckons the blue sky is getting paler the more we head south but I reckon it’s just us getting a little closer to the winter southern states. Still no clouds though and it’s officially 8 weeks since we have experienced a single droplet of rain. In fact, we can probably count the number of day we have had any rain in the five months of travel on one hand. Likewise, we can count the number of days we haven’t had sunshine on the the other hand. I think the lowest daytime temperature we have experienced is 23 degrees in Alice Springs and the vast majority of days have been 30 degrees.

Everything’s extreme in the outback. For a start the distances between places is far with not much in between. Jen spots a freight train parked up in the desert by a roadhouse which is over two kilometres long. I think the train driver has stopped for a pee! We see signs to slow down as there’s unfenced cattle roaming ahead from a cattle station thousands of hectares in size but as dry and barren as can be. Oh and the cost of a Mars Bar is pretty extreme too!

We arrive at Coober Pedy, the Opal centre of Australia and have been transported back to 1979 when the first Mad Max movie was filmed. It’s a one of a kind place. As we approach on the highway, a rampant mole has been busy digging up the earth and creating miniature mountains of dirt, literally hundreds and hundreds of them just off the highway. (see tomorrow’s footprint for explanation).

CAMP: Oasis Caravan Park, Coober Pedy / 2 Nights

I mentioned that the caravan park can squeeze us in. Well this is the tiniest piece of real estate we have been on and my campervan is sideways on an angle to let the gentleman’s car out next door. No worries, we are thankful and grateful that we at least have a spot. We have power even though our lead is going through the fence to another area and surprisingly the showers and amenities at this place are great and now rank in the top three toilet blocks on our 5 month trip. Now that’s pretty good to get on our top three list.

All set up and starving, we take a drive 100 metre or so into town then drive 400 more and we are at the edge of town. The Outback Bar and Grill is calling us in so we dine there tonight. Simple enough food, a tasty beef burgers and seafood basket with beer and cider.

Coober Pedy has a character about it and many an Opal mining story to tell. So we are both a little excited to explore the place tomorrow, do a tour, find some opals and meet some local folk.Read more