Kulgera to Coober Pedy

We left Kulgera at about 7am and about 15 minutes into our trip we spotted our 3rd kangaroo in the whole 4350 kilometres we’ve travelled so far (but who’s counting). Today we also passed our half way mark of our trip which also sees the hard part almost done. Once we get to Adelaide in two days time we actually get to relax a bit more on the rest of the trip as we have more stays for longer and we’ll be back in civilisation which has mobile phone reception and have heard of the internet.

There wasn’t much to see on this part of the trip but after our first kangaroo spot for a while we were keen to see more. But we didn’t! The further south we got the less trees we saw and then when we got close to Coober Pedy all we could see was piles of white dirt.

These piles are in fact old mine shafts where people have drilled looking for opals, for some reason they never get filled, which means there is over 250 000 mine shafts in the area, some up to 30 metres deep. The land itself is very arid country which appears dusty and dry, and with the daytime summer temperatures exceeding 50 degrees there are a lot of homes underground as it is cooler.

Our accommodation is in fact an underground motel, built into the side of a hill. The walls are literally rock which has been drilled out and then the inner walls and floor added, quite interesting. The town itself isn’t much, it looks like a ramshackle of a place with corrugated iron fences and dull streets. We had lunch in an underground café which was interesting and Trish went shopping for opals in the afternoon.

We would of liked to see an underground mine but with the kids it wasn’t going to be easy, so we opted for a quiet night in our underground motel room.

I’m sure there is more to see here, but we didn’t find it in our time here, maybe tomorrow will be more interesting.

PS. I had my third brush with death for the trip this morning, while not quite in the category of the other two.
1. Was the brown snake I almost stood on at Cape Hillsborough.
2. Was a faulty jug blowing up as I touched it in Mt Isa
3. I felt a rock in my shoe, upon investigation it was actually a rusty nail which had gone through my shoe and almost into my foot. Whilst not quiet as life threatening, it could have been, one millimetre either way and it may have drawn blood!