The time had finally come for us to head up to the Northern Territory – but as the distance from Wilpena Pound (where we had just had a short walking holiday) to Alice Springs was 1400km then we definitely weren’t going to be getting there in one day.

Coober Pedy was very conveniently located midway between the two places – about 700km from both Wilpena Pound and Alice Springs – so this was an obvious choice for our overnight transit stop.

Coober Pedy is actually famous for its below-ground dwellings and there are underground motels and tourist shops – but as we were just passing through we opted for a cheaper ‘non-underground’ room on the outskirts of town – a donga (portacabin) in the desert.