From the Red Centre we continued our journey south to South Australia. From the NT/SA border it was another 400km drive to the next town, Cooper Pedy. Cooper Pedy is a small, dry, dusty outback town known as the “opal capital of the world”. Interestingly, most buildings are built underground to keep inside temperatures cool. There were a variety of tours offered varying from mines to underground bars, churches and schools. We cheaped out on a tour so instead drove around the town ourselves. One thing we found interesting was that you needed to pay $0.20 for 30L of water, we filled up our jug then used the left over to give Sheila a bit of a wash. Later in the day we headed to a place called The Breakaways, a sacred place for aboriginals. We stayed for sunset to watch the formations change colour. From Cooper Pedy the road continued straight 600 kms to Port Agusta, the next town, with very little points of interests...yikes! After being in the desert for over 2 weeks we were looking forward to being close to water. On the South Australia map it showed lots of lakes, however they all turned out to be salt flats, which were really neat to see but somewhat difficult to swim in. After a full day’s drive we had finally left the outback and now were in South Australia. Our first real stop after Cooper Pedy was in a small town called Port Agusta where we restocked supplies then headed to Adelaide. Adelaide is a very scenic city with lots of parkland. We couldn't decide where to head in South Australia and we were not impressed that all national parks charge entry fees and camping fees so we headed to the Murray River. The Murray River runs from NSW to South Australia and is a popular spot for house boating, fishing, and water sports. We enjoyed our free campsite next to the river but were literally blown away. From the outback to the Murray River the weather changed dramatically, we went from being where it was 25-30 at night to camping next to the river where the temperatures dropped to 5-10 at night. The change was really difficult to get used to so we moved on and drove to the Grampians National Park in Victoria.
1 Comment
4/7/2014 06:42:18 pm
Thanks for this wonderful insight on South Australia! There are many places to see and discover in this world, you just have to be brave enough to take the change. Good luck in your future travelling adventures!
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