Nullarbor and Coober Pedy

With my pedal to the metal we lugged our 5 tonne mobile house of fun east.

We were heading to Coober Pedy in South Australia.

We left Mandurah in Western Australia with a plan to get lunch at Albany, and stay at Esperance.

That was the "Man" plan of course. 870km could have been done easy, but with two girls in the car and me not saying "come on" enough we only made it to Fitzgerald (626km). 

This was the first time we had to pull up and literally camp on the side of the road.

We choose to stay at abandoned school, from the mid 1960's, with a spooky old house, that was once the school hall. We parked our rig on the old cracked asphalt assembly area. The faint outline of the kids painted hopscotch lines barely visible through the weeds growing up from the cracks.

Night fell and the place got dark. Very dark. No lights, no sounds, no civilization. 

I've since vowed to watch less horror movies when I return home; I'm sure some of the random noises were ghost children, or even a Chucky doll, two inches from our unsecure pop-up-canvas-horror-coffin, otherwise known as our camper.

Damn Possums, bloody freaked me out all night.

The next day we were up early and headed to Esperance and planned to also cross the Nullarbor.

Nope, with lunch at Esperance, we didn't have a chance. This country is so big!!

We pulled up about 100km east of Norseman, driving only an embarrassing 500'ish kilometres. We found a massive bush area and set up camp.

I had convinced the missus to buy Ribs for dinner from the Esperance supermarket, thinking we'd make a powered site of course. Slight problem, we needed an oven to cook them and we never made it to that powered caravan site.

No problems, I'll start up the genny, she'll be right. While other campers use the genny to charge their batteries, I was powering the rib filled oven and air conditioner. Why not, it was hot, and we weren't slumming it in the bush.

Now I'm not one for exerting more energy than I absolutely have to, so I decided to just leave the generator on the trailer and start it up there.

Whoops, big mistake, the heat from the exhaust melted the tie down and almost started a fire that could have engulfed all my toys.

But.....she'll be right mate.....

We were off again in the morning, still feeling a little bloated from my rib fest, but quite satisfied with my accomplishments nonetheless (even though I could have started Australia's biggest F250 bonfire)

But, as I'm sure you have guessed, we didn't get as far a we planned again. No surprise there.

This time we pulled up at a lookout, just before sunset, over the Great Australian Bight. We had million dollar views all to ourselves. Magic.

We unpacked the bare minimum and got ready for another quiet night.

This is where things got strange. When you look up at the night sky, hundreds of kilometres from any town, and over water that no one uses, there are more stars in the sky then you have ever seen before. 

You almost feel like you have floated away to another planet; because the sky you are looking at isn't the one you are familiar with. 

A phrase keeps popping into my mind. "These are not the droids you're looking for".

The next morning was a race to Port Augusta. We stopped for takeaway meals and toilet breaks only. If they weren't taken at the same time there was much ranting from yours truly.
However, Yours Truly had to stop, hypocritically mind you, for a photo opportunity as we drove through the South Australian Wheat Belt. I couldn't miss snapping this for you all.

An overnight stop in Port Augusta and we were back on the road heading for Coober Pedy.

First stop, an old Yamaha FZR Supercharger and Clutch graveyard.

Ok, so they weren't parts off broken Yamaha's, they were parts off various rocket launches at Woomera. They look the same though don't they, notice that aftermarket blow-off valve fitting on the intake pipe, that's RIVA isn't it?

This is the place Australia tests all their people killing missiles (and other stuff).

We kept going and reached the various salt lakes of South Australia. Some of these lakes were massive!

This next one looked partially frozen, except it was almost 40 degrees C outside. Those "icebergs" were massive chunks of salt. It's one of the weirdest things I've seen on my travels.

Next stop Coober Pedy.

This place is known for it's Opal Mining and homes dug into hills and underground.

Old Timers Mine Home

Crocodile Harry's Home (part of this was actually in Mad Max!)

Underground Restaurant we had dinner at (it's not peak season here!) 

The only way in and out of the Restaurant. It's a lot harder going up after a T-Bone Steak, let me tell you!

These "Dugouts", as they are called, are just the beginning.

If you have watched Mad Max, this town is the real life version. In fact, some parts of Mad Max were in fact filmed here (like Harry's home above).

"I am the Nightrider. I'm a fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker, I am the roller, I am the out-of-controller!"

I'll let these pictures do the talking now, but don't for a minute think these are staged movie sets, this is a real town, unedited, in it's raw glory, and I love it.

The hill in the centre of Coober Pedy

Someones front yard. They all looked like this. It's not a special one.

Another persons "front yard"

On the main road!!! It looks like it's not used anymore, but probably still is. Everything looks like this!

This Hong Kong immigrant from the 1970's trying his luck finding Opal. He managed to sell us some worthless Potch for twenty eight bucks, so he is doing ok off dumb tourists I guess

Just sitting across the road from the scam artist from Hong Kong. Where is the Council demanding this stuff is moved? It doesn't even have a parking fine on the window. Well, it doesn't have a window or wipers, maybe the fine blew away?

You must come here once in your life. 

As you can see, this town hasn't changed much since the 1970's.

A working mine. Tom's mine actually

Think the Wild West, Aussie style, and that's it. 

Again, a working mine. Yes, that car has explosives in it!

Outside of Crocodile Harry's Dugout

There is a character and charm to this place, much like the naked chrome body of a Harley Davidson in a sea of boring painted vehicles. Even the local police, in their slow moving Landcruiser, give you a wave as you drive around.

Dingo Fence running from South Australia to Queensland. It's more than 5600 Kilometres long!

I could have stayed here longer, but we needed to see Australia's most famous landmark; Ayers Rock, and we are running late.

Got to go now, one of the girls need another toilet stop! Will this place do? No trees to hide behind though.

The Oodnadatta track to The Breakaways