Port Augusta to Coober Pedy

The Grey Nomads are well prepared

Our lush green campsite in Port Augusta

This is where the real driving begins. The distances increase, the opportunities for supplies and petrol decrease. And the consequences of any mishaps become potentially life threatening. The 535km from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy starts another 2000km of similar conditions to Darwin.

I've driven long distances before and across desert landscapes as well but nothing has quite prepared me for this. The outback is exactly what you expect, it's huge and flat, which is why when you do see something that deviates from this it's quite a surprise. Emus pecking at the scrub at the side of the road, massive salt lakes, like Lake Eyre (the world's largest), even some of the smaller ones are larger than a lot of countries, (I won't use Wales for comparisons, everybody does that and most people really have no idea how big or small Wales is).

It's been said before and will be again...'There's a whole lot of nothing out here'.


And we're heading for Coober Pedy which is right in the middle of this nothing....Not only that, but it's one of the hottest places on the planet, and 80 percent of the people live underground. And we're about to join them for a couple of days.

This is our underground hotel room in our undeground hotel.