Glendambo to Coober Pedy
Our journey from Glendambo to Coober Pedy was a pleasant one – sunny weather, singing songs in the car and enjoying the barren wilderness…until Matt realised that we were only getting a fuel efficiency of 38litres per 100km. He noticed this when the fuel light came on and the car told us we had 80km left of fuel, yet we had about 90km to reach Coober Pedy!
We already knew that there were no fuel stops between Glendambo to Coober Pedy – which is a 254km drive (important to note if you are ever doing this drive) and we had a jerry can of spare fuel with us. However, what we hadn’t anticipated is a strong headwind which affected our fuel efficiency and meant that we wouldn’t make it without having to fill up using the jerry can! We slowed down to 80km per hour and luckily the headwind died off and we were able to make it to the petrol station in Coober Pedy with about 2.5 litres of fuel remaining – phew!
We refuelled at the Shell petrol station which is the first on your left as you enter Coober Pedy. We decided to have a meal there at the Outback Bar and Grill which was joined o the petrol station. The burgers and pizza were delicious – would highly recommend!
We spent 2 nights in Coober Pedy and really enjoyed our time there. We stayed 1 night in an underground hotel (the Coober Pedy Experience Hotel) and then 1 night in a caravan park. We visited the Big Winch which gave great views of Coober Pedy, two underground churches (the Serbian Church and the Catacomb Church), two opal mines (the Old Timers Mine and Tom’s Working Mine) and the Breakaways.
The Coober Pedy Experience Hotel was great fun and it was such a thrill to sleep underground for a night. We loved it as much as Hudson did!
Both mines were interesting and provided information about the history of opal mining and how opal is still mined today. We enjoyed them both but the clear favourite for Hudson was Tom’s Working Mine. They catered brilliantly for children and gave them a torch to hunt for their own pieces of rock and opal which had been “hidden” for them to find – and they could then trade in their stash for chupa chups and chocolate!
We visited the Breakaways at sunset on our last night, which we had been told was the best time to see them. We were happy we took the recommendation as the sunset was stunning and the different light and shadows cast by the Breakaway hills were beautiful!
We left Coober Pedy after a night of heavy rainfall and lots of wind. As expected, the caravan held up well and we were cozy all night listening to the rain falling on the roof – the most relaxing sound to fall asleep to!
The journey to Erldunda was approximately 5 hours and 15 minutes. We stopped at Marla to refuel and have some lunch to break up the drive. After about 45 minutes we were back on the road and were lucky to pass some of the solar powered cars that were racing in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge – what a delightful surprise! All 3 of us had fun waving to the solar cars and their entourage of support cars as they passed us.
We arrived in Erldunda Desert Oaks Resort just before sunset and had time to feed the Emus (fun but a bit scary with their huge beaks!) and stretch our legs on the playground before cooking dinner at the caravan. We enjoyed garlic prawns on the Ziggy Nomad BBQ (on the outside of the van) while watching a gorgeous sunset behind us.
Tomorrow, we head for Uluru!
