Yorke Peninsula,Coober Pedy and a lot of driving

Yorke Peninsula

We are going to keep this bit short and sweet……….

We hadn’t planned on visiting the Yorke Peninsula as we had not heard anything about it, but we thought we should go look around as it’s part of the coast line and that’s what we are meant to be travelling along.

Yorke Peninsula has a lot of small towns that are great for fishing and scuba diving, both of which we don’t do.  However it was pleasant to walk along the beaches and piers.  Whilst there we did go to Innes National park, where we got to see a couple of shipwrecks.  The Ethel and the Ferret.  To get a closer look James walked down to the beach, which was down (and back up after) about 100 steps.  I decided to stay up top and read the information about the 2 ships.  They both shipwrecked on the same beach 20 years apart and all but 1 person survived.

Also while in the national park we went to Inneston historic township which is being rebuilt by volunteers.  The town was built originally when large quantities of gypsum was found (Gypsum is what make cement go hard).  During the boom time around 200 people lived there.

We also see some wildlife while there, a family of Emu’s and this little fella.

After leaving the National Park, we travelled north.  As we hadn’t booked anywhere to stay we got to go where we pleased, we stoped at a few places before pulling into Kadina the largest town on the Yorke Peninsula, even though it’s still very small.  We only spent one night here and carried on to Port Augusta.

 

After what seemed like a lot of driving we arrived at Port Augusta and set up camp at Nuttbush (city limits, sorry!!!) homestead, a sheep and cattle farm just outside town.  Unfortunately it started to rain and didn’t stop for over 36 hours.  So we didn’t get to see anything other than the rec room where we stayed until the rain and wind slowed.  The trailer tent took a pounding and even though we tried to keep the rain out (tar palling etc.) we were still mopping up water every two hours.  Luckily when it came to packing up the rain had stopped for a while but the canvas was still damp.  As we had done nothing but watch the news and weather we knew that the north of South Australia would be drier so we decided to head for Coober Pedy and hopefully the sun.

Coober Pedy

We set off early after a bad nights sleep thanks to the wind and rain for the 540 KM drive through the bush into the outback.  The only thing on the road was the odd car, road trains and wildlife, James’ favourite game was pointing out the dead things on the side of the road, if I hear “eerrhh look at that, I think it was a kangaroo(bird,sheep or cow) ” again, he will find himself on the side of the road with the road kill!.

Coober Pedy is a strange place to arrive in.  First impressions where of uncertainty as it looks like nowhere else we have been.  The town and it’s surroundings look like it has been invaded by giant moles, with mounds of earth everywhere.

These mounds are in fact mullick, which is excavated dirt from the opal mining.  Opal mining is the reason Coober Pedy exists.  It has a population of around 3000 of which 75% live underground in dugouts (underground houses) which have a constant 24 degree temperature all year round.  While in Coober we did a tour that took us to an underground church, around the town, noodling (will explain in a min) through a opal mine, a museum and a opal shop.  Then to quench our thirst we went to an underground bar.  We also went to a kangaroo sanctuary where they had some fully grown and little baby roos.  The one in the second roo photo below is only 6 months old and just walking.

When the mullick is emptied out on the surface it no longer belongs to the miner.  It is said that they loose 40% of the opal in mullick.  Noodling can be done by anyone that wants to sit in the sun digging through piles of mullick looking for opal. 

While in Coober we wanted to go see where they filmed Mad Max and Prasila the queen of the dessert but due to the rain they had the day before we got there, the roads where closed.  This is also the reason why we didn’t get to go to see Lake Erye.

After staying for a few days our impression of Coober had changed, we had meet a lot of friendly locals and all in all we really enjoyed the experience.

 

Once we were sure everything in and on the trailer was dry we headed back south.  If the roads were open we would have headed to William Creek and then across the Oodnadatta track and down to the Flinders ranges but instead we had to go all the way back to Port Augusta and then out and up to the Ranges a total of 691 km’s. To get us through this drive we had plenty of good (and some bad) music and of course James after having a energy drink was entertainment in it’s self, I don’t think any of the drives going in the opposite direction could explain some of the waving and silly dancing they had witnessed.