White Cliffs - 12 July 2014

We packed up the van this morning as tonight we are staying in the Underground Motel here in White Cliffs. It is something a bit different and should be a great experience. We are leaving the van here at the caravan park plugged into power. We weren’t sure how many people would be staying at the Motel and how much parking room there would be.

We went to the Red Earth Opal Cafe for morning tea. We got there not long after it opened at 10 am. Graham had scones in the oven which weren’t quite ready so we had another chat.  He was saying he nearly hadn’t opened today as he was feeling pretty tired (I’m not surprised with all the hours he puts in). He ended up having about 12-15 people come through for morning tea.

I checked out his jewellery again as I was interested in an opal ring. We spent about an hour trying different ones on and asking him about the opals in them. In the end I bought one that I am very happy with. When I retired, I was given some money from work and I thought it would be lovely to use the money towards the ring. I just put a bit extra to it.

We then drove out to Peery Lake in the Paroo-Darling National Park. The Lake is about 60 kms from White Cliffs. Unfortunately the water was quite a way out, probably at least a couple of kilometres. We decided not to walk out to it, as distances are deceiving and it could have been further.

We took our lunch with us. Or so we thought. When we got out there we realised we had forgotten to stop off and buy some bread at the General Store. Luckily we had some water crackers in the back of the car so we put avocado and tomato on them and that was our lunch.

There was another car parked there when we arrived and as we finished our lunch, the fellow arrived back. He had a big camera with a microphone and a tripod with him. He set it up back at the car and we got chatting. It turns out he is making a documentary on emus. His name is Matthew Keighery. On his way back to the car he had disturbed an emu which had been sitting on a nest of 12 emu eggs. The male sits on the eggs and rears the young for 2 years while the female emu goes off and parties with more male emus. We watched the emu’s antics for about an hour as it very gradually made its way back to its nest. We may end up in the film or on the cutting room floor. He was saying while he had been out on the dry lake 2 dingoes had come near him.

You can see a faint line where the water is on the horizon, if you look really hard!

 

When we got back to town we went straight to the Underground Motel and checked in.

 

As you can see it doesn't look all that much from the outside. The Motel was started in the late 1970’s as a house for the guy who built it. His son built a house next door. This is all underground as Dugouts. They decided to join the two houses together which gave them 8 rooms. They thought why stop there. It now has 30 rooms. It was all done by hand and took 3-4 years. It was like a rabbit warren, hallways going everywhere. There were no ensuites – they were communal.  It stays a constant 22 deg Celsuis. We had a great time chatting to everyone. There were about 15-20 guests. There is a staircase, about 25-30 steps, going from inside the motel, and ending up outside on the top of the hill, to watch the sunset. We enjoyed the experience.