South Australian Discoveries Pt 2

I was really taken with Woomera and was sad to leave, but it was time to continue to head north. Just as we left the caravan park at Woomera, we spotted an emu having a peck on the side of the road.

On our way to the next roadhouse at Glendambo, we stopped off at Lake Hart which is a large salt lake, and we also saw a freight train heading for either Perth or Darwin (the line branches off south of Glendambo) running along the edge of the lake.

We stopped off at a roadhouse out in the middle of nowhere (as they usually are) called Glendambo.

As with most outback roadhouses, you will find they either have a pub (hotel) attached or you can buy a beer etc in the dining section of the roadhouse.

Our next stop which we were really looking forward to exploring was Coober Pedy, a rather largish town again in the middle of nowhere, and oh so dusty.

This is town is one that has been hit quite hard with the drought, and although there is water available, at all 3 (?) caravan parks you can certainly plug into power, but you cannot hook your van up to water. Now this really brings it home just how much we all rely on water. However we managed and had a great time looking around.

Overnight the wind started to pick up, but all seemed good. We had a full day here to check out all that Coober Pedy had to offer, and wow, what a place! You could see all the mullock heaps around the place where people have been digging for opal, and we went up onto the highest peak in town where there is 'a big winch' and terrific views of the town.

This sign made us (and most probably plenty of others) smile - 'Stop here only .. if your car is dynamite resistant!!'

From this vantage point we could see the Old Timers Mine, a tourist venture that takes you underground and features the history of mining in Coober Pedy - goodness they did it tough in the 1800's. It was very, very interesting.

After coming out, it was time to have morno's and do a bit of shopping. however, we noticed that the wind had really picked up and dust was flying everywhere. Everything including the tables outside the bakery had a layer of dust on them, but we managed OK.

No, the photo is not out of focus - that is the dust flying around!

By the time we got back to our caravan, I raced in and found my eye drops, and had a large gulp of water. Goodness what a day!

Time for bed, so ....

Goodnight from Coober Pedy.