Bouncing the OUTBACK must visit Coober Pedy
! We are now driving in the direction of Alice [Music] Springs, and we just saw another kangaroo. Welcome to Coober Pedy or Coober Pedy—I’m not sure how to pronounce it. Anyway, this is nearly halfway to our final destination. We’re going
To stay here the night because we don’t want to drive anymore. We want to spend a little bit of time in this town, which is a mining town and a quite famous stop for people driving from Adelaide
To Alice Springs. So, we’re going to stop here. Yeah, let’s see what this place is all [Music] About; well, apparently, Coober Pedy has a lot to offer, and we stayed three nights instead of the one originally planned. If you don’t know, Coober Pedy is the world capital of opal.
If you don’t know what opal is, don’t worry. I didn’t know either, but it’s a precious stone, a gem that is quite expensive and mined over here. 85% of the world’s opal is mined over here, so it’s a big deal. It’s simply the most stunning gemstone on the planet. It’s just
Remarkably beautiful. You can put the thing away for a week, pick it out, and look at it, and you can still see things inside it that you’ve never seen before. We learned this at the free museum they have. There’s information about Opal but also about the indigenous people that live
Here and the region. It was very interesting and a very complete museum, I must say. Yeah, there’s a little bit of information about the region, the area, the indigenous people, a little bit of everything. Coober Pedy is a unique, wacky town, I must confess that’s for sure. On the first day,
We didn’t do much. We just visited the free museum and an underground Church—Serbian Orthodox Church, which was pretty random. The reason why we visited only the church and the museum was that it was raining, so we had to take cover. The only two places that were open were those two,
So we ended up only visiting that and then stayed for the night in the freedom campsite, which was pretty quiet, and we had toilets, and the toilets were also underground. Yeah, I think like 50 or 60% of the population of Coober Pedy lives underground because the
Temperatures here are harsh, very dry, and they can reach like 50°. So, people have dug holes and lived underground for a few hundred years. Yes, and I must say that we learned that also at the museum—the underground houses that are called dugouts. People have dug them because they
Realized that underground, the temperatures were pretty much the same between 20 and 25° all year round. So very pleasant temperatures, rather than just staying on the top of the earth and being super hot and not pleasant at all. After a day of work, who wants to stay in a massive oven? Nobody.
They just want to chill in their homes. Yeah, the museum is also underground, so we could experience the nice temperature that we could feel on the underground dug houses or dug holes—dugouts. So many dogs. The landscape here is very unique, and that’s why a lot of movies were filmed here. One
Of them was Mad Max, and another one was Kangaroo Jack, which is one of your favorite movies ever. Yeah, when I was a kid, I have a story about that. Funny enough, because when I was a kid,
I kept stealing my brother’s DVD of Kangaroo Jack, and I kept watching it over and over again, thinking that he would not realize that I was stealing his DVD and putting it back into his DVD folders. He had a massive folder full of DVDs. But obviously, he realized. So,
He gifted the DVD to me on my birthday. I don’t remember how old I was, but I was a kid. The film was out at the time, recently, so it was probably, I think, 2003, yeah, around 2003, 2004,
Around that time. So, he gifted me the movie, and since watching Kangaroo Jack, I was obsessed with kangaroos and Australia. I wanted to come here. It was like my dream to come to Australia and to see kangaroos in the wild, jumping around. I don’t know if you haven’t seen Kangaroo Jack movie,
Go and watch it, and then you’ll realize what I’m talking about. It was filmed in the landscapes of Coober Pedy and the Northern Territory, so the dry and red sand landscapes, which I was just obsessed with. It’s crazy. One of my dreams was to come to Australia because of
That movie. I didn’t realize because it was many years ago that I watched it. I didn’t realize that it was actually filmed in Coober Pedy. That was the actual—we re-watched the movie last night. Yes, we did rewatch The Movie last night, and then we were like [Music], “No, we are here.” It was
So curious because also I wanted to go to Alice Springs, and the main reason why I wanted to go there was because there’s a kangaroo Sanctuary there. I wanted to see baby kangaroos and the rescued kangaroos up close. Obviously, the wild ones that are in the wild, you can’t really get
Too close to them; otherwise, they will kick your ass. So, I just wanted to go and see the kangaroo sanctuary, and Alice Springs, even though it’s super expensive, was one of my dreams. But I don’t have to go anymore because there is a kangaroo orphanage or kind of a sanctuary
Where they rescue kangaroos, either adult ones that suffered any injuries or baby ones where they lost their mothers. So, there is a rescue center there, and they take really good care of them. We went and visited it, and it was the most amazing experience ever. I still can’t believe it.
I still haven’t processed it properly, but we held a baby kangaroo, and he was the cutest thing ever. It’s so cute, meigar, and they’re all friendly, yeah. I got some VIP here for the big ones out of the bag, and I’ll give one. Hello there.
Cute, we go. Hello, I grabbed some. Is this Bella? That’s a shie. Some wasabi. Wasabi, hold your hand down. Nice and low, your hand down really low, and now eat out your hand. Don’t make a mess. Show one of your feeding. Then, next one is
Bottom. You’re making a mess, and then you have fell down the end. You want more? No, no, you can feed yourself. You can feel the s—everything. Oh, my God, he’s friendly, though. Yeah, so basically what we do is take orphan kangaroos. So when the mothers call, we end up with the babies,
And you get them in two ways: one where moms killed on the highway. So, we get them from where moms got on the highway. The other way we get our kangaroos is from the local Aboriginal people who
Still have kangaroo for dinner. They go and hunt the mother to eat, and quite often, if there’s a baby, they might give it to the children to play with. Then, after a while, somebody in the family,
Grandma, realizes kangaroo is not looking too good and will bring it in. So, we get our kangaroos. In Bella, are you going to come and get some food too? Bella, that’s Bella. Bella’s on your right. That’s Bella. Yeah, this is shie and Blossom. Blossom, Blossom, Blossom. Blossom, come here,
Boy. Yes, she’s recing. Not you. You already ate. She’s cancer removed and thinking up. This is Daphne. She’s about 6 months of age. Hello, Daphne. She hops up to you and gives her a little Pat. Just don’t try to pick her up. She falls over. Ignore her. She’s got to learn
To get up herself. Yeah, so when they’re born, they’re about the size of your thumb. They climb in a mom’s pouch, and that’s where they stay for 6 months while they grow their fur. Once they have their fur, sort of coming up to Daphne’s age now, mother kangaroo starts pushing them out.
They need to learn how to hop and stand and get around. Also, learn to go to the outside of the pouch inside Mom’s pouch. She does a little bit of housework. So, little Daphne here is learning
To stand, very pop. Very wobbly legs yet, still got wobbly legs. She tries. Yeah, I know. Oh, that’s how you’re scary out there. Karo in the bed, your bed. Come on in. You go. Oh, in the goes your head out. Hey, what are you doing? Silly. What are you doing? Okay,
Then she’s safe again. So, usually around this time, they go out for a little bit to feed and a little bit of exercise. And slowly, that increases as she gets old. Would you like to have a hold? Yes, please. Dream come true. Right hand behind your back. Right hand
Behind your back, right back. Your back is here. She’s nervous. Feel there, little tail. Feel the tail. Nice tight grip. Don’t let her go. Okay, get rid of that up like that. Nice, nice and tight.
Bring your hand up and give her a little Pat. Oh, my God, I still have the tail. So, when kangaroos meet each other for the very first time, they come up nose to nose and sniff each other’s breath. So,
When you meet a kangaroo, you blow very gently into their nose. If you do that with her, you might get a kiss. She will notice your breath in a minute. Oh, who’s being distracted? What are
You doing? You’re going to give kisses. Here we go. A kiss. Kiss. Yes, I’ll give you a kiss. She’s so cute. Been kissed by a kangaroo. Now, she doesn’t have much. No, she’s growing up. The orphanage place where we held our first baby kangaroo is also an art gallery where there’s a
Lot of paintings, tools, and instruments of the indigenous people of Australia. It’s also the center where they rescue kangaroos—not just the baby ones, like we mentioned, but all types of kangaroos, all ages. The gentleman that runs it is really cool and has a lot of knowledge. Randomly
Enough, he also played us a little bit of the didgeridoo, which I never heard before. I mean, we have heard it, but not live. So, that was a cool experience. We also bought a boomerang, and that boomerang was used by aboriginals to hunt rather than what we originally thought,
That it was just like a play tool. I think the stars aligned at this moment for you to have this experience here in Australia. It was Coober Pedy was destined to be everything happened there. It’s
Going to be a very special place for me that you’re going to cherish for the rest of your life. Exactly. It’s where the movie was filmed. It’s where you held your first-ever kangaroo and baby one. I first touched a kangaroo, really. It was the first time I touched a kangaroo in
General. So, I’m super happy. My dreams have come true. I’ve managed to get my dreams done, and I’m so, so happy. Couldn’t be happier. Thank you, Coober Pedy, for being amazing. Even though it’s a wacky town, it’s not in a negative sense. It’s just like it’s a weird place but not in a
Negative sense. It’s just like it’s a mining area, mining town, unusual. Very, very unusual, and it’s very unusual. Exactly. The landscape is unusual. It feels like you’re not on this Earth, but people are super nice. People are nice, and we were very welcomed there by everyone.
That’s why we ended up staying three, right? The first one, like we mentioned, we didn’t do anything. The second one, that’s where we went around town a little bit. On the second day, we also went to the public noodling area where we tried and find some
Opal. Well, we actually don’t know what we are looking for because this is the public area for noodling for finding opals, but we have no idea how to look for them. But we came and gave it a try anyway, and we found these cool shiny rocks. Unfortunately, couldn’t find any,
At least we don’t think we found any, but we found a lot of shiny stones. It was [Music] fun. The first night we stayed at the Freedom Camp, but then on the second and third night, we went
To a caravan park to have a bit more. Yeah, we needed to chill out, have a nice swimming pool, facilities there, running water, nice shower, running water. Exactly. It was so good, and we deserved it because we’ve been on the road for a really long time. It was our first time on
A caravan park, on a paid one. We have never paid for a campsite before in Australia, in Australia, and in New Zealand. We paid, I think, one at the beginning or something, but mainly because we
Needed to have a shower, and there was no showers around. And this time, we looked, and we’re like, “Oh, there’s a swimming pool. It’s not so expensive, and it looks like an oasis in the middle of the desert.” It was pretty much empty because it’s off-season now. So, we had the place
Pretty much for ourselves, and we deserved it. We really enjoyed. We took really good advantage of the swimming pool and really good advantage of the TV room/kitchen because that’s where we spent most of the time. And we also had free Wi-Fi, which was good to speak with our family properly and
Not being worried about spending too much of our data. So, yeah, it was like a mini holiday for us as well, of switching from the traveling and just enjoying being there. And the last day was just doing nothing. I think that’s how you say it in Italian, whichmeans the pleasure of doing
Nothing like that something like that but that was us yeah that’s pretty much what we did and we’re very happy and ready for our next adventure that starts today cuz we are leaving Coba PTI so we scrapped Ali Springs off no need to go there we had an
Incredible experience so we are heading straight to Uluru to the heart of Australia the Beating Heart of Australia we are very very excited and the weather has finally turned and it’s not too hot and it’s also not cold anymore like it was and it’s not raining beautiful
Beautiful Skies so we are ready for the next adventure and we hope that you join us yeah next video will be U we’re just going to drive straight over there I think it’s like 800 km from Koopa Petty r that I hope you guys enjoyed this video thank you so much
For watching and we shall see you on the next one [Music] [Applause] [Music] peace [Music] o
After a long journey through the outback, we’ve finally made it to Coober Pedy! In this travel video, we’ll share our experience of this strange, but beautiful, town on the edge of the Australian desert.
Coober Pedy is a bit of an off the map destination, but that’s part of the appeal. If you’re looking for a unique travel experience.
Hey hey we made it to the Outback of South Australia, we stoped in Coober Pedy for 3 days, this has to be the strangest town in Australia, but in a positive way we loved it here, we visited the Umoona Opal Mine & Museum, the Serbian Orthodox Church, Josephine’s Gallery and Kangaroo orphanage (were we held a baby kangaroo named Daphne) BEST DAY EVER. Terry the owner even played the didgeridoo for us, the place is also a gallery and Cristiana bought a boomerang that was made by the aboriginal.
Coober Pedy is the opal capital of the world, opal is a gem, precious stone, we learned all this at the free museum.
Due to the unusual landscape a lot of movies were recorded here like: Pitch Black (2000), Red Planet (2000), Kangaroo Jack (2003), The Osiris Child (2016), just to name a few.
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5 Comments
Your joy (with the kangaroos) caused this old Aussie to get emotional.Love your films.
I hope you saw some of the underground homes in Coober Pedy. They are truly unique.
Thank you for this video. Wonderful. Happy holidays.
Oh gosh, it's indeed wonderful that finally Cristiana's dream comes true…cuddling a baby kangaroo and seeing kangaroo (s) at close range. Thank you very much for sharing this cool video of Coober Pedy.
Merry Christmas, Joan Cristiana.
Me and my partner did a help X at Jo and Terry's Kangaroo Orphanage about 4 years ago 😀