Adelaide to Coober Pedy: A 10-Hour Road Trip into the Australian Outback
From green fields and yellow flowers to opal mines, underground accommodation and a rainbow in the desert
One of the places I was most excited to visit on our Australian road trip was Coober Pedy.
Our final destination was Uluru, but one of the biggest reasons I wanted to travel by car rather than fly directly there was Coober Pedy. For a long time, I had wanted to see this unusual outback town and, most of all, experience sleeping underground.
I had seen photos of underground homes and accommodation before, but I kept wondering what it would actually feel like.
Would it really feel like sleeping inside a cave? Would it be dark or uncomfortable? Or would it feel completely different from what I imagined?
There was only one way to find out.
So, after spending the night in Adelaide, we packed the car and began our long journey north.
Destination: Coober Pedy.
And ahead of us was around 10 hours of driving through South Australia.
Leaving Beautiful Adelaide Behind
The scenery around Adelaide was absolutely beautiful.
As we drove away from the city, I couldn't stop looking out of the window.
The hills had such soft, gentle shapes, rolling across the landscape rather than rising sharply into the sky. Below them were wide green fields, and in many places bright yellow flowers stretched across the countryside.
The combination was gorgeous.
Green fields, yellow flowers and a clear blue Australian sky.
Green, yellow and blue.
Three simple colours, but together they created one of the most beautiful scenes of our road trip.
Every few minutes I wanted to take another photo.
Even after living in Australia for so many years, travelling such a long distance by road made me realise again just how enormous and diverse this country is.
When you fly, one landscape disappears and another suddenly appears when you land.
Driving is completely different.
You actually get to watch Australia change.
And that was exactly what happened on our journey to Coober Pedy.
The Landscape Slowly Began to Change
The farther north we travelled, the more the scenery changed.
The lush green countryside gradually began to disappear.
The trees became smaller and more scattered. The vegetation became lower, the land became drier, and the beautiful green fields we had seen earlier slowly gave way to shades of brown, gold and red.
It didn't happen suddenly.
That was what made it so interesting.
Kilometre after kilometre, we could actually see the landscape transforming through the car windows.
Eventually, the scenery became unmistakably Australian Outback.
There were long stretches of open land with very few buildings and hardly any people in sight.
Sometimes it felt as though the road would continue forever.
The sky seemed enormous.
Against such a huge landscape, our car suddenly felt very small.
A Special Sign Along the Way – KOKATHA
During the drive, we came across a striking sign with the large word:
KOKATHA
Above the letters were the words:
“One People, One Country, One Dreaming.”
I later learned that Kokatha refers to the Kokatha people, Aboriginal people with deep cultural connections to this part of South Australia.
Seeing those words standing against the vast landscape made the sign particularly memorable.
It wasn't simply another roadside sign.
For me, it was also a reminder that while we were travelling through the Australian Outback as visitors, these landscapes have much older stories and cultural connections.
One People. One Country. One Dreaming.
The words somehow seemed perfectly suited to the enormous sky and open land surrounding us.
It became one of those unexpected moments from the road trip that stayed in my memory.
Lunch Stop at Port Augusta
A 10-hour road trip definitely requires a few breaks!
By lunchtime, we reached Port Augusta, where we stopped for a quick meal at McDonald's.
Nothing fancy—just an easy road-trip lunch.
But somehow even a simple meal tastes good when you've already spent hours travelling and know there are still many kilometres ahead.
After eating and stretching our legs, we climbed back into the car.
Coober Pedy was still waiting for us.
So north we went again.
Green Disappeared and the Outback Took Over
After Port Augusta, the scenery became even more dramatic.
There were fewer trees.
The land became increasingly dry and flat.
The colours changed from green to dusty brown, pale yellow and rusty red.
At times there seemed to be almost nothing around us except the road, the land and the enormous sky.
This was the Australia I had seen in documentaries and photographs.
But seeing it through a car window was completely different.
We weren't just looking at the Outback.
We were travelling through it.
And that was exactly why I had wanted to make this journey by road.
Strange Mounds of Dirt – We Must Be Near Coober Pedy!
As we got closer to Coober Pedy, something unusual began appearing across the landscape.
Small mounds of dirt.
Then more.
And more.
They seemed to be everywhere.
At first, I wondered,
“Why are there so many piles of dirt out here?”
Then it made sense.
We were entering opal country.
Coober Pedy is famous for opal mining, and the mining activity has created one of the strangest landscapes I have ever seen.
The piles of excavated earth scattered across the surrounding land made it look almost like another planet.
At that point, I knew we were getting close.
After nearly 10 hours on the road, we finally arrived.
Welcome to Coober Pedy!
I was tired after such a long journey, but strangely, the excitement took over.
There was one place I had been waiting all day to see.
Our accommodation.
And this was not going to be an ordinary motel.
We had booked underground accommodation built into the hillside.
This was one of the main reasons I had wanted to include Coober Pedy in our road trip.
First Impression: “Is This Really Our Motel?”
When we first arrived, I have to admit that I was a little surprised.
From the outside, it looked quite simple and rustic.
There was red earth, exposed rock and a hillside.
It certainly didn't look like a typical hotel.
For a moment I thought,
“Is this really where we're staying tonight?”
Then we walked inside.
And my opinion changed immediately.
Wow.
The inside was completely different from what I had expected.
Sleeping Inside a Hill!
The walls and ceilings still showed the natural texture of the rock.
Instead of ordinary plaster walls, we could see the marks and patterns created when the rooms had been excavated.
Warm lights illuminated the rock surfaces, giving everything a beautiful golden colour.
The combination of natural stone, brick walls and soft lighting made the interior surprisingly warm and welcoming.
Walking along the underground corridor was fascinating.
There were guest rooms on either side, but above and around us was rock.
It genuinely felt as though we had walked inside a hill.
Our group had six people, so we divided into three rooms with two people in each room.
And of course, before settling down, we all had to look around. One thing that really surprised me was the temperature. It stayed at a comfortable 25–26°C throughout the night, making the underground room feel cosy and perfect for a good night's sleep.
The walls.
The ceiling.
The corridors.
Everything felt unusual.
I kept thinking,
“We're actually going to sleep underground tonight!”
Much More Comfortable Than I Expected
Before coming to Coober Pedy, I wondered whether underground accommodation might feel dark, cold or claustrophobic.
But once inside our room, those worries disappeared.
The room had the facilities we needed, including a comfortable bed, television and fridge.
The rock walls made it feel unique, but the room itself was comfortable and cosy.
After spending so many hours travelling through the dry Outback, being inside this quiet underground room actually felt very relaxing.
It was one of the most unusual places I had ever stayed.
Korean Dinner Underground in Coober Pedy
After driving for almost 10 hours, nobody wanted anything complicated for dinner.
Luckily, we had brought food with us.
We prepared rice and took out the Korean side dishes we had packed for the road trip.
Soon our little table was covered with rice and banchan.
There we were, six travellers in the middle of the Australian Outback, eating a Korean dinner inside an underground motel.
It made me laugh just thinking about it.
Of all the places to enjoy Korean food!
But after such a long day, that simple dinner tasted wonderful.
Warm rice, familiar side dishes and good company were exactly what we needed.
Sometimes the most memorable meals during a trip aren't the expensive restaurant meals.
They're the simple ones eaten when you're tired, hungry and happy to have finally reached your destination.
That dinner in Coober Pedy was definitely one of them.
And Then Came the Rainbow 🌈
After a comfortable night's sleep, we woke up the next morning ready to continue our journey.
And then Coober Pedy gave us one more surprise.
A rainbow.
Above the dry, rocky landscape was a beautiful rainbow stretching down toward the Outback.
The contrast was incredible.
The red and pale earth below, the enormous sky above, and soft rainbow colours appearing between them.
After seeing such a dry landscape the previous day, the rainbow made everything look completely different.
I just stood there looking at it.
It felt like a beautiful way to say goodbye to Coober Pedy.
Why I Wanted to Travel by Car
Flying directly to Uluru would certainly have been much faster.
But then I would have missed all of this.
I would have missed the gentle hills around Adelaide.
The green fields.
The yellow flowers.
The gradual disappearance of the trees.
The huge open Outback.
The Kokatha sign and the words “One People, One Country, One Dreaming.”
I would have missed watching the earth change colour as we travelled north.
I wouldn't have seen the strange mining landscape appearing as we approached Coober Pedy.
And most importantly, I wouldn't have experienced sleeping underground.
That was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to make this journey by car.
I wanted to see Coober Pedy for myself.
And it was worth it.
Sometimes the Journey Really Is the Destination
This day reminded me of something very simple.
Travel isn't only about reaching the final destination.
Sometimes the road itself becomes one of the best parts of the trip.
We started our day surrounded by green fields, yellow flowers and blue skies near Adelaide.
Hours later, we were surrounded by the dry red landscape of the Australian Outback.
And that evening, we were sitting underground in Coober Pedy eating Korean rice and side dishes.
What a day!
Coober Pedy wasn't simply a place where we stopped to sleep on the way to Uluru.
For me, it became a destination in its own right.
The underground accommodation was every bit as fascinating as I had hoped it would be.
Maybe even more.
Next Stop: Uluru! 🚗🌵
The following morning, after our unusual underground experience and that beautiful rainbow, it was time to pack the car again.
Our journey wasn't over.
In fact, one of the biggest moments of the entire road trip was still ahead of us.
We left Coober Pedy behind and continued north through the Australian Outback.
Next destination: Uluru.
And I couldn't wait to see what the road would show us next.
