Adelaide 2 Alice / Groovy Grape Style

Posted by Ray

Posted on July 28, 2008

Any flights in or out of Alice Springs are usually very expensive. This is due to Alice being in the middle of Australia and completely isolated from any other town or city. With this in mind we booked a two day bus tour with a stop over in Coober Pedy with Groovy Grape Tours. For $195 we covered the 1600km by mini bus crossing over from South Australia into the Northern Territory.

The thought of sitting on a bus for two days didn't sound that appealing, but I really enjoyed it. With a really laid back guide called Nathan ( A local from Alice) and a esky full of beer, the never ending straight outback roads flew by. Having a good guide also helped. Nathan was your typical hick Ozzie who managed to squeeze a 'fucking right' or 'dickhead' into every sentence. This alone kept me amused day and night. Being local he gave us a great insight to the life in the outback and what it had and hadn't got to offer.

Our stay over was in Coober Pedy. It's the largest opal mining location in the world. The town is only there due to opal. We stayed in an underground dorm and drank in an underground bar. 70% of the town is underground to combat the heat. In the summer the temperature can reach 50 degrees. Below ground a house can usually have a consistent 20-25 degrees all year round.

The following morning we visited an opal museum and had a guided tour inside a once used mine. very interesting experience, which was included in our package.

Back on the road again. The second day we covered 700km. The day again went easy. Drinking beers, eating and sleeping made light work of the eight hour journey. We pulled into Alice Springs in the late afternoon. I think everyone on board agreed money well spent.

The Outback

The Girls Playing Around

Clem

Diane

Sunset

Underground Dorm

Where We Stayed

Umoona

Mine Cart

Open Mine

Coober Pedy

Sunrise

Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy

Opal Mine

Opal Mine

Crikey Got Me Some Opal Here

Opal

Opal

Hundred's Of Opal Mines Outside Coober Pedy

SA

NT

The Outback

The Never Ending Outback Road

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