Back to South Australia

By Jen.

When we were approaching Uluru a few days earlier, for a few minutes, I mistook Mount Connor as Uluru. Jonathan told me that it was massive and could be seen from a great distance, so when I saw the reddish-pink “rock”, I got excited for a bit. But, as more of it came into view, it was obvious that it was NOT Uluru. Despite that, it is a pretty mesa and was in our view from our campsite after leaving Uluru. We had tried to stay at Curtin Springs, but someone lit a fire just a few feet from our van and filled our van with smoke. I really can’t handle smoke, so we drove a bit down the road. Nice and quiet there.



From there, we decided to swing up to Henbury Meteorite Craters Conservation Park. But, after all that time driving in the outback, we needed to fill up. The cheapest place south of Stuart’s Well was Erldunda Roadhouse at a whopping $1.749/liter. When we arrived, there was a long line of cars, so we settled in for the long wait. Fortunately, Henbury was worth it. There were 12 craters, but only 5 of them are really noticeable.

A lovely sunset at the park.

As noted previously, to get to Uluru, we had to drive halfway down the middle of Australia. Since we were so far south, we had several options on what we could do from there. We could retrace our steps back north and head to Queensland that way. Or, we could head south and knock a few things off the list that we didn’t do the first time around. As I am diametrically opposed to going back the same route when we have limited time to see the country, I suggested we pick up Coober Pedy as well, then head back North via a different route. So on southwards we went.

We quickly crossed over into South Australia, then made our way to the Painted Desert.









We knew we were getting close to Coober Pedy when there was a sign saying that there were unmarked holes all over and there were mounds of mine tailings everywhere.





Coober Pedy is known for its opal mines. As always, the prospect of mining and making a fortune draws people from all over. Coober Pedy was located in the middle of nowhere Australia, though, with little to no electricity or roads, etc. It is also HOT. Even now, in their winter, you don’t need long sleeves. Even nights don’t get too cold. So, people started building their homes underground to beat the heat.

Fun Fact: Ever since journeying into South Australia 3 months ago, we have seen steel and/or cement telephone poles along our routes. Presumably, these are to prevent having to replace the poles every time a bushfire rolls through (which is fairly frequent).