Cooper Pedy to Port Augusta..

A day in Cooper Pedy

This town is all about opals - and it was like that for me as well.. The landscape that you see at the end of all streets there is deserted and like on the moon - except for signs of mining: piles of dug up material and mining machines. The main street holds a shop selling opals on every corner. So just perfect for finding what I looked for: an opal. Visited 6-8 different shops and found out that the owners had about as many nationalities. A real "wild west" town where treasure hunters from Greece, Albania, Ukraine and Croatia have found a living with these stones. I ended up buying an opal from a guy from Ukraine. It is a so-called black opal and found a couple of hundreds of km's south of Cooper Pedy.

My opal holds more colors in reality..

After having accomplished this mission I took a round on my bike to visit 3 under earth churches established in empty mines. Apparently the miners are quite religious.. 
 I also went for a kangaroo feeding session at a place where kangaroos rescued in traffic or elsewhere are taken care of. There were some 4-7 years old ones and a little just 5 months old baby girl. She was cute having milk from a bottle and could not really stand on her legs.

Dramatic change of weather 

We woke up to cloudy skies and a major temperature drop the following day. First time on the whole trip where it seemed kind of cold - weird.. Went off leading the peloton in full speed and was happy to have my light rain jacket in my bag on the back of the bike. Just at lunch it started dripping and continued into a solid rain coming with wind against us. My fingers lost all feeling and I was cold at arms and legs. A 125 k's day is long and there is time for the weather to change - several times. So we got dry again - and felt fine for once not sweating on the bike. As we arrived at our bush camp the wind caught up - just enough to make the setting up of a tent to somewhat of a challenge - to me at least. So just as I thought that I was all set the tent was taken by the wind and took it's own way over a fence into the bush area behind. I ran after it - but would have had little chance if it had not got caught by some trees maybe 50 meters away. I got it back, put my heavy bag inside - and felt kind of safe. Got ready for the night putting air into both of my mattresses - the old thick one that does not hold air more than 4 hours on the top and the new more compact one underneath. Was tired and wanted a little rest - but no chance - soo much noise from the wind "hammering" on the tent. Went for at beer at the rest area - and went back - more relaxed for a little rest. Passed out and just woke up 5 min. before riders meeting. Stumbled out of the tent and fell over one pole - and broke it. Was fed up and just left the tent as it was. When I looked at it next time with my dinner plate full - it was half lifted from the ground with the poole sticking through the cloth. No chance - just had to go back and get it fixed. With the help of our tour leader Andreas an emergency set up was established for the night. My tent had half it's normal (low) height - and there just was space for me and my things inside - all powdered in red dust! This was the end of my

tenting career - for this section at least. Had one more bush camp left after another 2 days ride and in stead of a 117 k's and a 62 k's day I decided to do the 179 k's ride to go straight to our Spencer Gulf destination Port Augusta.

The continent absolved - efi!

Toothbrush and a couple of other things packed in the bag at the back of my bike,  a hot soup poured down and I left the evening's camp at 2 pm together with Catherine from Vancouver. Her husband Hans is not a fan of bush camps either and actually left the group at Cooper Pedy to go straight to Port Augusta by bus. 

 We started out with a nice long descent, had a little stop at a rest area (brought my Coke+Mars) and ended up with 20 k's of strong headwinds. Arrived after 5 pm. Wonderful to see "real" water.  Got installed in a cabin - and drank the wonderful red wine Hans had ready for us! Something to celebrate: 2.750 k's done from ocean to ocean - the whole Australian continent - and EFI of it on my bike!