Jaypatrol

On Saturday the 21st of May, we hitch up again and continue our travels to Coober Pedy.
This is to be a long drive, so we are up early in the morning to allow time to stop off at various sight-seeing places on the way.

The first stop was a lookout looking back toward the Flinders Ranges. This is a beautiful panoramic distance view – lovely.
The next stop was at Lake Hart. Amazing to see such a large salt lake in the outback so far from anything. The soft colours were so beautiful that we had to take a few photos .

We called into the Glendambo Roadhouse to stretch our legs and get a hot cup of coffee. It was very cold here, so we needed warming up.
This roadhouse was quite basic, but the man behind the desk was friendly and the coffee was hot. We also fueled up again here.

We followed the map all the way, pointing out the various mountains, lakes and towns as we passed through them.

We finally arrive in Coober Pedy in time for a late lunch. We were weary, but not too tired to check out some of the town. Lindy was on one of the tours she had booked previously, so we had time to fill in.

We managed to find a great viewing area, overlooking the township and the dugout homes built into the side of the hill. There are many of these scattered throughout Coober Pedy, as they are cool in the 50+ degrees in summer and warmer in the winter. The dugouts remain at a constant temperature all year around, varying only a couple of degrees in seasons.

Lindy arrived later in the evening and we were able to catch up on each others news.

After an early night and catching up on the usual domestic stuff, we headed into town again.
Lindy was off on her Mail Run Tour so we made our own way around to check out some more of Coober Pedy’s offering. We also got some essential shopping. We then had an easy day resting around the park and catching up on washing.

The next day, we all headed back to check out some of the sites with Lindy. We saw Fay’s House. Fay and 2 of her friends built her own dugout using a pick and shovel back in the early 60’s. This is an amazing achievement in itself. The house includes 3 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, lounge (with TV, Sterio and everything one would find in a normal 60’s home). There is another later addition of a games room. This includes a billiard table and a built in indoor swimming pool.
Fay went on to become a very well known lady in Coober Pedy, in the days when women were not well supported here. So nowadays, she is a legend in the town. Fay is still alive and living in Queensland, but is expected to return in the next couple of weeks. The first mail truck to Coober Pedy was housed in what is now her kitchen. Her house is now owned by a local and opened for tourists to view.

We also toured the Old Timers Mine. This was a working mine in the old days, but now a tourist attraction. This was very interesting too. There is still opal seams visible in the walls of the mine that has been left for people to see it in the natural. There is a mock mine set up with displays of miners models performing the things they would have been doing in the mine to search for the elusive stike of the precious opal. A very well thought out and set up display.

Next stop we called into the undeground pottery, this is where we had to pay for our Mail Run Tour. We also checked out some of the pottery and talked to Derek, the son of the owner. He is such a character and we were looking forward to our tour as he is to be the driver of the bus.

On the way back to the caravan, we noticed a sign to go to see Crocodile Harry’s. We had heard from quite a few different locals to make sure we check him out. Harry is the local eccentric. He is quite a character to meet and his dugout home is surely something not to miss. He has old newspaper cuttings scattered about in which is an article of him calling for 1000 virgins to sign his bedhead. By the looks of his home, he has achieved his goal. He certainly has a fetish for women’s underwear as there were plenty strewn about the ceiling. We could now see what the locals meant.
As we left his house we looked around some to the other dugouts around his house. This is apparently where Mad Max-Beyond Thunderdome was filmed. We could see why.

That night we packed some drinks and nibblies and headed out to the Breakaways. This was a mountainous and sandstone area where at sunset, you can get spectacular photographs as the sun reflects off the various colours on the different rocks and mountains. The views were indeed beautiful. Unfortunately, when we got there the wind was so cold, that Lindy and I had to sit in the car. Poor Arthur was left to take the photos in the freezing wind. But the end result was amazing. The photos reflected the colours of the sunset magnificently.

Lindy and I checked out all the Opal shops over the next couple of days. They are quite expensive in some places, a little cheaper in others. Most of the jewellery was very beautiful. But as I am not an opal lover, I didn’t purchase anything for myself. I hope I don’t regret it at a later date.

On Sunday, we went to church at the Catacomb Underground Church. It was good service and similar to what our services are. After the service the Minister showed us through the rest of the church. We went out on the santuary to the right, up over the top and re-entered the santuary through the left hand side door. The congregation was very friendly and gathered to ask us where we came from and where we were heading. There were a lot of other visitors from various areas of Australia and one couple from USA, to the church that morning too, so the church was quite full.

A very lovely morning indeed.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 2nd, 2006 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.