From Adelaide to Alice Springs

Adelaide and our wicked Wicked campervan
After five days sleeping on the hard ground, climbing mountains with a hangover, having fun with our new wallabiefriend,… it was time to sleep in a decent bed again. The Lonely Planet guided us towards the Adelaide Backpackers Inn, one of the most friendly hostels I ever staid at. Free breakfast untill 10AM, free movies, free milk, free washing powder, free coffee, free tea, free apple pie at 8PM,… what could you want more?
While we were enjoying the citylife again (nice museums, some nice pubs and a generally nice city) we also planned our next roadtrip. Guido was leaving us to go to Perth (sad face) and Bastian and I wanted to find someone to share the cost to go to Darwin in the next few days… in came Meg (happy face). Together we went to pick up our Wicked Campervan… wicked… like little children in a big toyshop where everthing is for free… So with our cocaïnemobile, some good spirit and $180 less on our account thanks to a foodshopping spree at Woolies we headed for the next roadtrip, through the middle of Australia, the Red Center.

The road ahead
The road is waiting… Together with old buddy Bastian, newcomer Meg and obviously too much food we headed to Darwin. First stop would be Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the world. The road ahead sounded like a good plan, but it’s really boring. There’s kilometers of road with nothing but roadkill and flies to keep you company. Luckily someone (me) had the good idea to burn some music cd’s so we didn’t had to listen to the sound of wind for hours and hours. And that’s how we still had a good time. There’s something funny about driving through the desert with nothing but Cyndi Lauper, the Eurythmics, Men at Work (and if you don’t know what song… kick yourself… hard), UB 40 (Red red wine… ooh yeah), early Madonna, Van Halen, Moby, Massive Attack and a mix of Studio Brussel’s Switch (thanks for the good time). Screaming ‘JUMP’ on the tunes of Van Halen or ‘GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN’ while standing on top of our Wicked campervan, driving through the desert… Good times and thanks for our good sense to buy a few goonbags and a carton of beer for those extra funny nights… There were nights that we just couldn’t get any sleep at all, there were nights that we went to bed at 8PM (how sad is that?). But on all nights… we had fun!!! And that’s what the road ahead is all about… nothing but yourself, your travelling buddies and the road. The road to Coober Pedy was a bit of sobering up after the Great Ocean Road, but we got there, with good humour.

Coober Pedy and the Breakaways
Coober Pedy is the opal capital of the world and the saddest place I’ve ever seen. The Lonely Planet said this was a inhospitable environment and they weren’t lying. It hasn’t rained in this place like, forever and the streets look so dried out that for a second you get worried about the amount of liquids you got in the campervan. Because it gets so hot during the day and so cold during the nights, a lot of the population lives in dugouts, abandonned mineshafts that are decorated as houses. Coober Pedy almost got some tourism going as they start to build dugouts from scratch. People started to live underground, they even had the first underground church.
Next up, about 25 kilometer from Coober Pedy, you can find the Breakaways. A place where you can find absolutely nothing. There’s nothing there, so a lot of Hollywood blockbusters where filmed here, Star Wars, Pitch Black, Mad Max, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,… the funny thing is trying to take pictures and afterwards try to find some differences, it all looked the same to me, except for the big rock in the middle of it. Oh yeah, and what you don’t see on the picture are a million irritating, getting on my nerves, flies. If you try to breath in some fresh air through your mouth (or your nose for that matter) you’re bound to eat at least 3 flies. They are everywhere and tell you, there is nothing funny about trying to pee and keeping the flies away at the same time…

Next up, the red center, Uluru, the Olgas, Kings Canyon, Alice Springs and then up north to Darwin where (I hope) they have found something against the flies, because it’s only getting worse.