Cobber Pedy

September 12-13, 2012 - Cobber Pedy and the end of Stuart Highway Drive

Wednesday – We checked into the Desert Cave Hotel, our room (dug into the sandstone ground) was a very well appointed and comfortable room, (but cool and dark (cave like?); a fun experience for one night. A nice package deal included dinner in their very nice restaurant, breakfast the next morning in the café, a nice bottle of wine and a box of chocolates.

 We took an afternoon a cave tour with Gunther, our German guide, a retired miner, opal cutter and pretty much an expert on everything; who did give us a lot of interesting information. We went into a mock up of an old mine, dug-out home, and out to some working opal fields, marked by piles of dirt (looking like giant mole hills), next 100 foot deep holes. The little shuttle then headed out to the The Breakaways – a stunning group of sandstone outcroppings on the desert floor, we drove by a section of the “Dingo Fence” (5,300 K – 3575 miles long) running from Queensland in the east to South Australia on the west, keeping the wild Dingos to the north of the fence and the sheep and cattle safe to the south. Our last stop on the tour was a Serbian Church that was dugout of the ever-present sandstone – what an amazing structure.

We finished up the day with a very good meal in the hotel’s restaurant, using more restraint tonight than on the previous eve.

Thursday – Desert Driving Day #4

We left Cobber Pedy and headed south along the Stewart Highway for one last day of desert (deserted highway) driving. The amenities on this stretch of road were far and few between, we only had one fuel stop at about after about 175 miles.  Since Alice Springs we have covered over 1000 + miles and have witnessed the beauty and sameness of this highway. We are looking forward to get down towards the coast and seeing some more color.  One of the highlights of today’s drive was a flock of emus crossing the road in front of our van.

Port Augusta was our stop tonight, a pretty town on the Spencer Gulf, we got some of the dust washed off our selves and are beginning to feel re-energized by the ever increasing greenness of the environment.  Adelaide is our next big stop, we will be seeing our friends Kris and Bill (Adelaide the Springer Spaniels’ parents from Ashland, Oregon) – looking forward to catching up with them and spending some time sight seeing, wine tasting and enjoying their company.