We have enjoyed the lower temperatures of the last few days (26C) although the next few days are forecast to get hot again. We went out to dinner at the Big Winch Cafe in Coober Pedy tonight and we had to ask them to turn their cooler off as it was making us feel very cold.
Our travel distance from Marla to Coober Pedy today was only about 250 km and even though we tried to depart late and take it easy, we still arrived here at around 2.00 pm. In all that distance, we only came across one roadhouse and a couple of emus that we saw in the distance. These road trains were parked at Cadney Homestead Road House – the only sign of civilisation we saw along the way.
Over the entire distance, the vegetation changed from this:
to this:
And the road just went on and on!
Around 150 million years ago, Coober Pedy was covered by ocean – and when the water receded, the sandy silica minerals from the seabed flowed into the rocky cracks and cavities and solidified over time into a multi-coloured gem-stone – opal.
Approximately 75% of the world’s opals come from Coober Pedy, making it one of the largest and most famous opal-producing areas in the world. The town has a rawness and a rough edge seeing that there is only one reason to live in this inhospitable desert outpost – digging for opals. Coober Pedy is located in one of the harshest environments in Australia.
We came across our first sight of the opal fields about 30 km north of Coober Pedy and its moon-like landscape continued until we had reached the town area. Perhaps these mullock heaps are just a replacement for all the termite mounds from further north.
We checked into our cabin in the Big 4 Resort and grabbed a late lunch before heading back up the road to see the ‘Breakaways’ which are about 30 kms north of the town and then 8 or 10 kms to the east of the highway along a gravel road.
This remarkable Conservation Park, now owned by local Aborigines, is a series of low lying, and dramatically colourful, hills which have “broken away” (hence “breakaway”) from the Stuart Range. Two lookout points provide views across to outcrops named ‘Salt & Pepper’ and Panorama Hill which has been used in a number of films. Like Uluru, the sun changes the desert colours on the breakaways. At the time of our visit, the colours and scenery were spectacular.
