This story is one of the “Easter Trip from Melbourne to Coober Pedy” fun travel stories

So prepare for a chance of a lifetime
Be prepared for sensational news
A shining new era
Is tiptoeing nearer
(c) Lion King


Preparation

So, to Coober Pedy!

from Melbourne to Coober Pedy and back: Easter trip

Easy to say, scary to believe :-)

It will be a long way – what do I know about it?

It will be Outback, a desert, almost the middle of the Continent. Dry air, dust, reds, yellows… nothing around… it sounded reealy scary.

Also at that time I was reading a wonderful book “Birdsville (My Year in the Back of Beyond)”. The book is about a town in the middle of nowhere, where food is brought by trucks only twice a month or something like that, where only 4wd survives (and even that cannot be guaranteed in some cases), where sand, dry air and empty surroundings are usual things. Birdsville can also easily become inaccessible for up to three weeks because of… flooding!

I though that Coober Pedy is something like that, at least very close to that “picture”. That sounded really “promising” :-)

from Melbourne to Coober Pedy and back: Easter trip from Melbourne to Coober Pedy and back: Easter trip

from Melbourne to Coober Pedy and back: Easter trip

Google said it will be 1555 km one way from our place to Coober Pedy. It’s a nice-looking number, isn’t it? ;-) Once I saw it, I knew that everything will be fine, interesting, and fun!

Many things needed to be thought out.
Previously we travelled a bit, “practicing” :-) I started my solo driving only this January, so when our Easter trip happened – I was in shock when I calculated this :-D – I had only 4 months of my driving experience.

Our previous longest trip was about 600km one way and all of trips were more between places “full of people”, with fuel stations along the way, with water, food, and shelter :-D

Myths and Facts

Further will be my experience. As reality showed, same places in Australia can appear very differently to different people. How we see them and how they appear to us depends not only on us as personalities, but also on weather, season and… many other factors.

I noticed that many people have same questions and face similar situations to decide on.
Here are some of fears (or questions ;-) ):

  1. It’s a long way, more than thousand kilometres. Will I be able to cover that all?
  2. Alone or with horde of friends?
  3. From Port Augusta (South Australia) it’s about 500-600 km of a road unknown to me. What is that like?
  4. Do I need to carry a jerry can? Do I need to pre-fill it?
  5. Are there any petrol stations? Will they work?
  6. How many spare wheels should I have with me?
  7. What if my car breaks?
  8. Are there any mobile coverage?
  9. What if I’m lost?
  10. Where to stop for a night?
  11. I’ve heard about animals jumping, flying, running and doing on roads everything but expected. How is that? Is it really that bad at night? “Don’t drive at night” – is it just a saying?
  12. Do I need to worry about food? Water? Plenty of water – how much is plenty?
  13. Flies? Mosquitoes?
  14. Any people around there?
  15. Anything I have not thought yet??
  16. Do I still want/need to go there?! :-)

I will cover these topics in the nearest articles.

From Melbourne to Coober Pedy: Easter Fun Travel Trip

from Melbourne to Coober Pedy and back: Easter trip: Glendambo

Discover other parts of this fun travel story – “Easter Trip from Melbourne to Coober Pedy”

If you like any of my photos and want to use them somewhere, feel free to send me a message.

 

Author: Natalie

Discussion: http://goforfun.com.au/groups/travels-places-activities/forum/topic/from-melbourne-to-coober-pedy-part-2-be-prepared/

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15 COMMENTS

    • It’s not hard but requires some time :-D
      We did one way in two days – from Melbourne to Port Augusta (~11 hours) and then from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy (~5 hours).
      The way back took the same, but it looked like we spent less returning from Port Augusta – don’t know why but we even did not get tired! :-D

  5. Hmm it looks like your site ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any tips for inexperienced blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.

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