Alice Springs

It turned out to be almost exactly the 9 hours predicted - the headwind slowed us down, Erldunda was a madhouse with nearly 50 caravans and buses either stopping for lunch or needing to buy extremely expensive fuel, plus our own stops saw us arrive at around 4:30. Check in took another 20 minutes thanks to only 2 staff with an outdated booking system and about 30  arrivals, most of which had prebooked and another few cranky ones that were turned away
This park has really big sites and feels spacious - and safe. Lots of activities for the kids for those few hours we are at the park. 

The kids were off to the pool as soon as we allowed them into the van to get to their bathers. 

It was still a balmy 27 degrees but we later found out this was a very unique day and we were to expect closer to 20 for the next few days... and checking the weather app also highlighted the -1 degree nights ahead. 

Tomorrow we are going to the Alice Springs Show. This is just a much smaller version of the bigger Royal Shows we have back home, with the same over inflated prices for over cooked food and cleverly marketed pricing for show bags worth half their marked “special” prices. 

It didn’t take long for the kids to spend their money on rides and show bags, which meant we were out by 12:30  (Yippee)

Next stop was the Anzac Hill lookout where there was some good views and lots of information on the town. 

The kids were busting for a swim again, so we went back for an hour or so and let the magic washing machine do it’s stuff. Sure enough, by the time the kids and I got back from the pool, the washing was in neat folded piles on the table all clean and waiting to be put away. 

We then piled back in the car and headed out to see the School of the Air where we learnt all about how remote kids all over Northern Australia get their schooling without leaving home. 

Lastly, we went to visit some friends who had recently moved here from The Adelaide Hills. Our two boys took off on bikes with their two boys, while Kayla did some other stuff with their daughter, leaving us to catch up over coffee and biscuits. 

Getting back to the van after dark meant cooking sausages in the dark, but thanks to my infatuation with timing the cooking and the wonderfulness of the Weber, they were cooked perfectly. 

The Opal capital of the World

The lure of one of the worlds most most valuable gems (more expensive than gold) must be an amazing feeling and also a very lucrative living. I cannot think of any other reason that anyone would want to live out here in these conditions. Everywhere you look outside of the town square mile, there are verandahs poking out the side of hills with junk scattered everywhere around. With heat regularly soaring above 40 degrees and just as regularly down to 2 degrees in winter, and the underground rooms maintaining a constant 22-26 degree ambience, it makes sense. Also, because nobody has a yard when your home is dug into the side of a hill, all your hoarding has to live out the front.

I am sure there is some sort of planning rules governed by the local council, but to the untrained eye it appears that everybody simply lays claim to the side of a hill and starts digging. 

Every bit of machinery seems to be either 100 years old or a million hours used and is barely standing, never mind functional. If you don’t own a 4wd, you are a local. If you do own a 4wd, you are obviously a tourist and your car will be filthy. 

We took off down the Oodnadatta track late afternoon yesterday and stopped at the Moon fields (where Priscilla - Queen of the Desert and Mad Max III and Pitch Black were partly filmed), then along the Dog Fence to The Breakaways- a historical area where the sunset and views were spectacular. 

In some areas, it really did feel like we were on the moon. Except for the wind. The wind was howling, but just still bearable so that we could witness the spectacular sunset. 

Today was bus tour day. Despite visiting many of the underground main tourist attractions yesterday, we knew that there had to be more to understand this place. And I was very glad we did. Getting an understanding of just how extensive the underground living areas are, as well as the huge network of horizontal tunnels, made it worth while. Turns out the thousands of dirt hills that are oh so familiar, are not dug in hope of finding lots of opals, but instead they are looking for a seam that can then be followed at depths of anything up to 28m below today’s ground level. 

There are also at least 10 underground churches of all different denominations, of which we visited a couple. Some are always open and available for anyone to walk in and visit at any time. This could never be the case at home, but it appears here in Coober Pedy there is very minimal vandalism or other unsociable behaviour unless some “out of town” locals wander in, but they seem to be very quickly dealt with too. 

One of the stops was at the 3 hole golf course. Great care is taken to preserve the course with the most unusual aspect being a drop toilet in the middle of the greens - this is because there are no trees. 

Each hole has a nice green patch for you to tee off from, and number 1 is at the highest point giving perfect views of where you need to walk towards looking for your mis-hit ball. 

In the afternoon, we did a bit of our own exploring and even went to the underground pub where we had a cold brew and played some 8 ball with the kids. 

We have a big driving day tomorrow as we need to get to Alice Springs - nearly 700km away, with the inevitable “I need to Pee” stops (which never seem to coincide with fuel stops), and lunch, I am figuring we need close to 9 hours. 

There is even a high chance I am going to slide over into the passenger seat and pretend to be sleeping whilst Tracy drives for a little while. Maybe.