Australia 2011 - Day 8 - The Stuart Highway

Sept. 23rd

We woke up early in the morning, probably around 3, and decided, since it was cold and neither of us could sleep, to head further up the road. We turned on the heat and were nice and toasty, and again we didn’t encounter much of anyone, roos included. We stopped at the next rest area, finally warm enough, and got another hour or so of sleep before officially starting our day. Awkward and cold as sleeping in the car was, it really didn’t seem dangerous, nor was it particularly frowned upon out here, so we were excited to have a newfound method of lodging that wouldn’t break the bank. Granted, not being able to shower or really deal with hygiene was a bit unpleasant, but this was the outback! Who would care?! Some of the people we’d see in our travels surely hadn’t bathed in weeks. We got over it quickly.

Only stopping at the occasional station to get gas, we finally made our way into Coober Pedy, the self-proclaimed opal capital of the world. Opal mining is definitely the main industry, with claims being found all around town. In order to deal with the extreme heat of this part of the outback, most residents live in dugouts, bored out underground dwellings. We were glad to be here at the end of winter when it was still cool, if you consider low 90’s to be cool. Apparently the golf course in town, which I’d have loved to have experienced had I known and had we had more time, is only open at night, has no grass save for the turf the players carry with them with which to tee off, and is played with glowing balls. What fun! We’d hoped to eat at the underground diner, but it was sadly closed. Instead, we ate at a small sandwich shop and then attempted noodling, which is the term for opal mining. There are large hills of dirt on the east side of town through which you can dig in search of your own opals, free to keep. We noodled like mad and found a few things that may have been something (but probably weren’t) before we made our way to one of the local opal shops where I bought a small bag of dirt to sift through that would definitely have some in it. I also tried my luck at the noodling bin out front and got some nice ones, though I think most of the above would be lost later on in the trip.

Another issue I had upon arrival in Coober Pedy was my camera’s battery. It was nearly dead, and, not having stayed at a motel overnight, I couldn’t do much about it. So we visited the local information center, and I stealthily plugged it in while we read about the local attractions. I was going to ask permission, but the employees were busy with other people and I couldn’t wait anymore. I’m sure by the time we left I didn’t have enough power to last very long, so when we checked out the underground opal museum, I did the same thing there. Terrible, I know, but I’m sure it didn’t use that much electricity.

From here, we continued northward, stopping at a few more roadhouses for gas. It would have been interesting to stay at one of these rugged outback stations, but we liked to drive into the night and by then everything seemed to be closed…including gas pumps! Which reminds me, nowhere in Australia did we find credit card-rigged pumps. Everything was pay inside only, which got to be inconvenient, especially with night driving because the stations would close down and you’d be out of luck and out of gas.

Our only interesting stop was at the border between South Australia and the Northern Territories. I guess we weren’t supposed to drive into the Territories, according to our car rental company, but here we were! Rebels to the max! By now, dusk was settling in, so we booked it. We gassed up at Erlunda Roadhouse and started our way west, toward Uluru (Ayers Rock) and away from the Stuart Highway. We got about 70 km in before we decided to pull into a rest stop and call it a night. Once again, we enjoyed sleeping under the stars even though it got ridiculously cold again. The peace was incredible!