Mon 26th May – Day 18: Coward Springs - Coober Pedy

Kids were up early and back in the Spa, I snuck off to the boiler and had a wonderful hot shower – we dragged the kids out for a quick hour of schoolwork before the flies became too horrendous. More repairs this morning, a daily occurrence at the moment – we taped up the rear window using the front sun visor for fear of ricochets from the trailer. Northwards we continue, stopping at Strangeways bore where natural mound springs allowed a small settlement along the Railway line in the late 1800’s – many of the mounds now dry and I wouldn’t want to be trying to survive there now. A hike up to the ruins and the whole area strewn with glass (I guess the pub was the last to go), such a shame when the aboriginals had used the area for 100’s of years without littering before us.
William Creek, smallest town in South Australia, just the pub, an Avgas store and the caravan park among the dusty shade trees of Anna Creek Station (largest Cattle property in the world). A quick call to Lloyd to let him know we made it and inside for that cold beer and to view the myriads of underpants, bras, student id’s and cards which adorn any vertical surface. A German Student who had recently been Jillerooing up along the Birdsville track and another young girl from Adelaide in search of something different served us cold cans. Sitting next to us a couple who had just flown up from Broken Hill in their light aircraft on their week long tour of the interior before going back to work and next in another couple with us at Coward Springs last night. An eclectic bunch we were too and it was strange sitting in the middle of no-where with all these others in search of something else.
By the time we left William Creek it was getting late and the thought of bouncing over another 170km of dirt didn’t really appeal. Harry Potter book 1 via CD saved the day and we quickly arrived to the 3500 strong town of Coober Pedy. This opal mining town was a far cry from the tiny community of White Cliffs. Being on the Stuart Highway every caravan park was chocka block with grey nomads heading northwards – lined up like soldiers, I felt like we were in a retirement village; but power, fresh water, mobile phone and internet connection did have it’s advantages.
Coober Pedy Sturt Caravan Park ($35/night)