And so we cross our second border into SA. Still warm but our run of good weather won't last....
First stop is Coober Pedy which was just amazing in its difference from any other town I've ever seen. All around Coober are the 'moonscapes' above - you can't go for a walk here or you'll fall down a mineshaft. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town (so of course I had to buy an opal necklace while here ;-)
This is the centre of town, theres no grass, not many plants and a number of the houses are big holes that have been drilled into the hillside - keeps the temperature very stable as it can get very hot during the day here and very cold at night - it is the desert after all.
Going on advice (or complaints) from fellow travellers who had passed this way we decided to splash out and get an underground motel room to save us from the dust/cold/heat. It was fantastic! Bigger than some houses we've lived in, and the kids loved being back in a 'real house'.
Here's a typical Coober Pedy house for sale - you can just see the front door buried into the hillside, what a way to live!
I got over my claustrophobia and ventured down into the Old Timers Opal Mine with the boys, which they really enjoyed - the mine had an underground house as part of it, that still had all the furniture in from when a young family lived there. Bizarre.
From there we headed south to Port Augusta, nice little town but a bit cold and although being surrounded by water, nowhere you could swim! Very disappointing as we hadn't been to the beach since Darwin, and haven't been able to swim at the beach since Nth Queensland.
We headed inland from Port Augusta to the Flinders Ranges National Park, which was quite pretty - very different from the parks up north, and obviously different from the red centre. Only stayed one night here as we have booked our flights back and need to be in Brisbane by early December to fly out on the 13th. Time to get moving on, as theres still lots to see.
After a short stop in Port Pirie we headed to Innes NP at the bottom of Yorke Peninsula (one Peninsula west from Adelaide). Beautiful place although far too many snakes here! We were warned about them by the local ranger, and only five minutes after arriving I came face to face with a brown snake (venomous, and very close). We both froze for a minute and then the snake turned and headed off in a different direction - straight towards our tent! It went into undergrowth and must've veered off elsewhere as I didn't see it again. But we saw two other brown snakes slithering across the road during our stay. Needless to say the tent was zipped up at all times!
The beaches at Innes NP were beautiful, but a bit cold even for the kids - they got in once, and only lasted two minutes. There were also March Flies here in force (they bite) which made the beaches less appealing.We decided to take a scenic dirt road out of the Park and hit complete disaster. We rolled the camper trailer, smashing it into three separate pieces and scattering our gear all over the road! The camper trailer was a mess and we had to hire a car trailer to transport it to Adelaide. Thank god for the offroad hitch that allowed the trailer to roll and not the vehicle! Anway we got to Adelaide and had it assessed, it was a write-off. So off to the camping store, and we're now doing the last part of the trip in a tent!
Our new setup (as some wag said, you haven't got your mother-in-law in that box have you mate?) We sold and gave away a bunch of stuff, and sent six boxes of stuff we want to keep back to family in Brisbane (thanks Debbie, did we say three boxes??) So on the road again, albeit not as comfortable as before. One plus though the insurance company paid for our accommodation for a week while we got sorted, so that was a bit of luxury while sorting the mess out.
Where else would we head after something like that, but the Barossa to calm our nerves! Stopped at the worlds largest rocking horse on the way which the kids enjoyed. It was at a wooden toy factory so we had to do the round of that too...
and a little farmlet which had a peacock that followed Ash around half the place. Really enjoyed Adelaide, very easy city to get around and with Adelaide Hills and the Barossa so close it was great, although spent a bit much on wine, but hey its christmas (almost).
Next stop Fleureiu Peninsula just south of Adelaide, where we stay at Victor Harbour - awesome holiday town. Unfortunately full of harley's as there was a hog convention on in town, they were well behaved but the constant bike noise got a bit annoying after a while. We rode a horse-drawn tram across a bridge to Granite Island (600m offshore).
Ruben standing on some of the granite rocks on the island, Victor Harbour and bridge behind.
Granite Island was also home to lots of Little Penguins who were very cute.
From Victor Harbour we head through the town of Wellington (a tiny place on the banks of the Murray River) with just the one shop and a ferry service that takes you across the river, no bridges here. The Murray was quite impressive, everyone says the water is at an all time low but it didn't seem so to us. We'd had a bit of rain in the last few days, maybe that made a difference.
A group (a gaggle?) of pelicans flying above the Coorong.
And a kangaroo hops away from us at the Coorong.
From the Murray we head down to the Coorong which is at the bottom of the Murray River, a long skinny lake with high sand-dunes separating it from the sea. Looked awesome on a map but someone had told Rob it was the toilet bowl of the Murray, and we knew why when we stopped at a scenic lookout. Phew! It stunk. We'd been planning on freecamping there but changed our minds at that point and kept on to Kingston, a little crayfishing town, where the boys wanted their photos taken next to the big crayfish.
We headed onto Narcoorte after this which has a world-heritage listed fossil site that we had to go and see. Not too mention the fact that it was 18m under the ground. Luckily for me the cave system was well-lit, cavernous and the ground was even concreted - you've gotta love tourism. It was a pretty amazing experience to see the fossil site and how they worked through the massive numbers of bones they found down there to piece together 'Leo' a very vicious lion-like animal that used to roam Australia and may have dropped out of trees to capture its unsuspecting prey as they ate. (theres an aussie campfire story about a 'drop beast' that eats children who venture out of their tents on school trips, I guess made up to make the kids stay put - now seems the drop beast is real, but extinct.) Then off to Mt Gambier where we gave in to the bad weather (freezing nights, rainy days) and spent two nights in a cabin while we saw the local sights. Victoria next! and we hope it warms up!
