Apr 24 Coober Pedy to Marla



Morning view from Hutchison's Monument camp site

We went to see the infamous town of Coober Pedy with mixed expectations. A few people had given us their brief perceptions of the town prior to our visit, but we wanted to keep an open mind. Coober Pedy is an interesting town and a town that is almost unavoidable when one travels from Port Augusta to Alice Springs. We filled up with petrol, topped up with a few supplies from the supermarket, visited an underground opal mine/jewellery shop and I spent an hour or so noodling for opal in the public dirt pit. (Noodling is the term used for someone wasting their time digging through the mullock heap that someone else has dug out of the ground and removed any sign of opal from it. Apparently it originated from the word nodule, that is looking for opal nodules in the rocks.)

We could have gone on any of dozens of mine tours being spruiked, but our cynical take on these were that such tours are offered by the unlucky miners - found no opal, but have a hole in the ground to show tourists who are silly enough to pay them money to see it. If you found significant opal in this town, I don't think you would persevere with your residency in order to spend your spoils locally. It is an untidy town, which is reference to the people who live there as much as the landscape. The climate can be very inhospitable, but fortunately for us, this time of year it is actually very pleasant. Except for the flies - did I mention the flies yet! They were absolutely shocking. Check out the pics below.

The town of Coober Pedy

More views of Coober Pedy

Unbeknownst to me, while I was (unsuccessfully) noodling for opal, Jude was plotting her escape. We agreed to drive on, and set our destination as a campsite at Marla - a lovely sounding picnic site at Marla Bore, 14 km beyond the roadhouse (which is effectively the town). On the way out of Coober Pedy, we detoured to see the Breakaways - an outcrop of interesting rocks. This was worth the 12km drive down a dirt track to see.

We drove for a few more hours and found what we thought was the turn-off to the Marla bore. Sure enough it was a dirt road, as described. This dirt road however, was quite rough and heavily corrugated. Towing a van along such a road is not pleasant and 10km can seem like a significant journey. Much to our disappointment, there was no camp site. We drove a bit further - still nothing. So, back we went to the town (roadhouse), asked a local kid for information and were told that the camp facilities (toilets) had been moved "just down that other dirt track" and "turn onto another road when you see the wind sock". Well, we tried to follow his instructions but didn't see any wind sock. This dirt road could be more aptly described as a sand road. No bumps - that's good. But no traction either. Having been bogged once already on this trip, I'm more cautious now about maintaining the ability to drive robustly on all 4 wheels. We went on for the 10kms that was purportedly where the camp site should have been located. Again nothing. We went on a bit further just in case. Still nothing. But now what to do? This sand road was barely the width of 2 cars,  and in some places narrowed to the width or barely one caravan. That was OK, because we didn't see any other traffic on this road. But the sides of the road were banked with several feet of sand. Driving along the road gave one the impression of being on a bob-sled track. Great if you are going straight ahead. Not so great if you want to turn around. It was dusk now and getting dark quite quickly. We drove further along this banked sand track into the dark outback searching for some side opening where we might possibly turn around. It seemed like an impossibly long time that we drove further and further along this track with no prospect of turning around. I tried once to manoeuvre the car and van optimistically, but failed miserably. We drove for a further 10km along this god-forsaken track until there was a small ill-defined track turning off towards another end of the earth. At high revs and high speed, we just managed to drive the car and van into the track, over the sandy curb, through some rough scrub and back onto the "main" road. It was now black night, we were 20+km displaced in the outback and just wanted to get back to the highway. We sped back at speeds of up to 60km along the sandy track and fortunately again did not encounter any other traffic. What a relief to finally make it back to the main highway! We were happy to set up camp for the night at the back of the roadhouse, even if it did cost us $25 for the night. And even if we had neighbours who were barely 5 feet away from us.

Sorry, no photos of the sandy track - too dark and too stressful. But here are some shots of the aftermath of the orange dust on the car and van.