Day 8 & 9 |Coondambo - Alice Springs

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August 20th-21st

Spending our first night truly in the middle of nowhere gave us a glimpse of what would soon become routine through the more deserted parts of Australia.  We got on the road early, excited to see the mining town and self-proclaimed opal capital of the world.   With its underground churches, bars and living quarters, Coober Pedy had all the boxes ticked for an interesting and welcome break to the monotonous desert landscape.  Numerous mounds of dirt and signs advising not to walk backwards made it impossible to miss the town. 

Informative signage on the outskirts of Coober Pedy.

Once a booming place, Coober Pedy proved to be much different than anticipated, where roads were lined with loitering intoxicated aboriginals and decrepit opal related memorabilia and shops. 

Many vehicles in Coober Pedy has been converted for mining operations.

While battling with the idea of taking Bertha to a potentially over-priced mechanic to fix our malfunctioning power sockets, we instead opted for a 100 kilometer drive that took us through aboriginal land and skirted the longest fence in the world.  The 2250 kilometer fence was constructed in the late 1800’s by wealthy sheep farmers to protect their herds from the hungry dingoes.

The dog fence goes as far as the eye can see.

Continuing along the fence we were presented with natural landforms, many of which have strong cultural meanings to aboriginals

Breathtaking views, that a picture can hardly grasp.

While taking in the view, we were unaware that the extremely corrugated desert road had gotten the best of Bertha’s starter motor.  By a strike of luck, we had parked on a slight incline, which was crucial when push-starting our two ton lazy beast.  The slight problem we had ignored before became a worrisome inconvenience before the 700 kilometer drive between us and the next large town.  Still expecting Bertha to snap back to normal, we continued about our day, getting prepared for the next leg of our journey north. 

About to leave town, we were confronted with the fact that Bertha would only push start.  With this in mind, we decided not to take the risk of staying the night in the middle of nowhere.  Instead, just after dusk, we embarked on the 700 kilometer drive to Alice Springs, only stopping once along the way to refuel.  Anticipating another push start the following morning, we stayed the night parked on a hill outside of a prospective mechanic.