4000km Desert Adventure from Melbourne to Darwin
Part 1
Hello helloo, eco-travelers!
Welcome to one of my greatest adventure in Australia!
Let’s first check, what do we have here!
✔️4 000km in the Australian desert
✔️5 guys from 5 different countries
✔️Toyota Hilux for free
✔️+100$ paid!
How is that possible? Read the article to learn more
Well, I spent the last 4 months in Melbourne and I got used to live there. It is a nice city with good/hot weather. There are cool short trips around it. It’s well organized and startup friendly place. You can easily find a job if you have some skills. (I will write an article about it later)
Anyway enough introduction! It’s time for some action! So, after 4 months in Melbourne it was about time to get some adventure! In that spirit, we found a relocation company looking for drivers to move their camper van from Melbourne to Darwin, as the season was off in Melbourne and on in Darwin area.
That’s a great way to travel almost for free in Australia and have tent, chairs, stove, kitchenware and everything you need + 100$ for gas (which was just one fill up the tank, but still…)
So, we were, 1 Bulgarian, 1 Polish, 1 Russian, 1 German and 1 Korean girl – 5 nationalities in a car for 8 days!
Sounds like fun isn’t it?
Here the Russian guy was already off to his return by bike from Alice Springs to Adelaide (2000km)
It was funny how we left him in the middle of nowhere with his bike, which looked like it was made it by himself 🙂
He had 20l of water and rise and gas stove + bottles, so I hoped he would be fine.
Below is the map of our trip. Of course there were a bit of wrong turns, so we turned 4k km for sure :))
1. Preparation and first day trip – Melbourne – Camping before Adelaide
-campermate
-check gas stations
-have back up of water and oil
check for a signal gun in the car (it should be)
We signed on the car and pack our belongings in the car in which we expected to have more space, but it was full of camping equipment, which was quite useful during our 6 days trip to Darwin!
Interesting fact is that the car was brand new, just 9 kms on the mileage.
The feeling was great, especially that we got this car for free 🙂
We got our luggage on the rooftop + the bike is tied up there
Our first night was near to Adelaide in the forest
We had everything in our “small” home on wheels
best way to start the day: in the nature by the sunrise
In Adelaide we pick up the last of the travel buddies and do our shopping for the next 5 days in the desert!
We had some kind of tradtion to have our lunch and dinner in “hotspots” as this one bellow.
After nice and quick lunch we headed to Coober Peddy, where we are going to visit an orthodox underground church and opal minings and a very cool underground house! Follow up to learn more!
Tip for driving in Australia!
Except they are driving on the left side on the road. On the highways it’s very not recommended to drive in the night because of very active wild life and you would kill many animals + you could crash.
Another tip here is to be careful of the Road trains – which are trucks with 2-3 and more trailers – around 50m long, so be very careful when overtake them. They drive quite fast too and can easily smash your so called big car 😀
So, after the next sunrise catch it’s time to go to Coober Peddy!
Here we arrive at the Serbian Orthodox , which is underground
The church was built by Serbian Australians who settled in Coober Pedy as opal miners. Because of the hot climate, it was decided to build a church under the ground. The digging of the community hall begun in June 1992, and was finished in a month. The digging of the church itself began in February 1993, and was finished in August 1993, and consecrated on the St Elijah’s day (2 August [O.S. 20 July] 1993). All work was done by the volunteers. The church has a gallery with a baptismal font and the altar. The iconostasis is made of glass. The interior walls are covered with bas reliefs of saints carved in stone. The whole complex contains the church, the community hall, priest’s home and the religious school, all carved under the ground. Today, the church is a tourist attraction. More tourists visit the church than there are parishioners. The entrance fee is 5 AUD for tourist.
Now I’d like to show you a house underground where even at the moment are living people. This house has been build by two women by their own hands! It’s quite impressive look at the pictures below.
In the cave the temperature is all year long between 20-23 degreese and I can’t say they don’t have comfort!
Now let’s move on in their workspace…
They were mining opal in these mines.
Interesting fact is that recently a tourist found by accident an opal worh aroudn 10k $, so, next time when you go take look around you might be lucky 🙂
Our next stop will be a “boxing ring” which is a sanctuary for kangaroos which were harmed on the road
This little fella was rescued very recently after his mother was killed on the road…
TIp here is to not drive in the night, because that is the active period for the animals in Australia.
The good news is that the little fella is very healthy and growing up fast and can’t wait to be free again!
Here our first part of the desert adventure will finish!
Will see you in the next chapter where we will see the most famous and saint rock in Australia – Uluru, Kings Canyon, very cool springs and for the final real crocodiles into the wild!
Stay tuned and love to travel !
photo credits: MZ
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