2012 Around Australia: April 2012

Day 73 Thursday 26th April 2012

We had a long day of driving to do so we got out and about pretty early. One of the things you have to get used to when you are on a journey such as this is that certain things are out of your control. For example the use of showers when available may not always turn out to be extremely successful, such as in Ormiston Gorge. The previous night I decided after I had made dinner that I was going to shower. When I got to the shower, I as I usually do, got undressed prior to testing the facilities only to discover that there was no water in the solar hot water tank. Whilst I am not sure why, my first instinct was that the person prior to me had left the tap dripping, which it was, and of course the tank did not fill again.

I closed the tap, got dressed again and grumbled all the way back to the van. It was ok as I would just have a wash and the following morning I would have a hot shower. Well that morning needless to say I rose earlier than everybody else as I wanted to be first in the shower. Well same problem no hot water. I had to do a mad dash cold shower. I did feel good once my teeth stopped chattering but cursed while I was standing under the water rinsing the soap off my body which didn’t seem to want to be washed off.

After all this was complete as well as packing up home we hit the road. We were going to try and get as far down across the South Australian border as we could by 5:00pm. This way when we got up the following morning out trip out to the Painted Desert would not be so long and painful considering it was going to be quite a few kilometres on dirt road, of which we were not sure of the condition of.

The trip was uneventful as it has been over the last few Northern Territory drives mostly because the land seems so flat and uninteresting with a few hills jumping up now and then to change the scenery a bit. The sand dunes are an amazing red though. We stopped off at Erldunda to fill up with fuel which was $1.93 per litre and then headed on for Kulgera. We stopped off at Kulgera to say hi to Mick in the pub had a beer/shandy and headed on further south across the border. We found a rest area about 50km’s across the border and setup camp for the night. Later that night or early hours of the morning we were woken by a road train pulling into the stop. He left his lights and motor running for what seemed forever. Finally we dozed off again.

Packed up the van and headed out

Houdini in a Ghost Gum

Houdini in Alice Springs

Red Dunes

Closing in on the South Australia Border

We are back on track again

Home on the side of the road in a rest stop

ditto

Day 74 Friday 27th April 2012

We rose pretty early as the truckie had to get up and out early, so it wasn’t really our choice. After breakfast we packed up the van and headed out towards the Painted Desert. To get there you have to go via the Stuart Highway through Marla and Cadney Park. Just past Cadney Park you turn left into the dirt road to the Painted Desert.

The first part of the road seemed pretty good. But I guess about 20km’s into it we struck bad road and the driving had to slow to a crawl. It is not so much the creeks or rocks but the corrugation on the road that puts one off travelling down the dirt roads.

Anyway we took our time and arrived at Arckaringa homestead at approx. 2:00pm. As Oscar was backing the van into its resting place for the night I noticed that one of the van’s tyres had a major gash in the wall of the tyre. I had to stop him and he got out and examined it. The tyre would have to be replaced. Once this had been accomplished we set up camp. I was in a hurry as I knew we only had this one night in this area and we were moving on the following morning and I really wanted to see the Painted Desert Mountains, which is why we made the trip across the dirt track. At approx. 3:30 we headed out to the mountains to see what the big fuss was all about. The Painted Desert is one of those places that I don’t believe our photos will do it much justice. You need to get out there and experience it for yourself.

We flitted from one mountain range to another and back to the original at sunset. Once we had satisfied our need we headed back to the homestead and had a hot shower, dinner and bed.

We were heading out again in the morning and my little worry wart had a dirt road to contend with and no spare so he was not in the best frame of mind. I have to keep reminding him that my Guardian Angel is watching over us and will not let us get into too much strife i.e. we discovered the gash in the wall of the tyre when we had reached our destination, we did not have a blowout on the dirt track.

Gash in Tyre Wall

Mr Fixit

Painted Desert

On top of the World

Sunset Painted Desert

Oh my Aching Nerves - I thought it was over

Day 75 Saturday 28th April 2012

Early bird catches the worm they say; mmmmmmmmmmm not sure about that. Anyway we were up and out bright and early we didn’t have far to travel but the stress of having no spare was weighing heavy on Oscar’s mind. The trip needless to say was uneventful. We stopped a few times for photos on the way, as this was the area called the Moon Plains in which the Mad Max 3 movie was made.

We got into Coober Pedy pretty early 11:30 so we had enough time to enquire about tyres and to setup camp and explore the town. We visited places such as underground churches and an underground motel. We met Nick who gave us a tour of his Motel “The Underground Motel”, what a nice bloke. On our travels here we had many tell that the people of Coober Pedy were an unfriendly bunch. To date we have only met nice people. So it is safe to say, you have to go out there and experience it for yourself. One man’s experience is not going to be your experience. We had an early dinner of Chinese and then headed home to watch “Unfaithful”. Good movie.

Dingo on the road to Coober Pedy

Moon Plains

Mirage on the Moon Plains

Remote

The road into Coober Pedy from Oodnadattta

The rooftop of the Underground Motel

Standing on the Roog

Climbing down from the roof

Entrance to the Underground Motel

The Rooms

A good Preacher???!!!!

Sculptures in the walls of the Serbian Underground Church

Underground Catholic Church

Underground Entertainment

Underground Serbian Church

Day 76 Sunday 29th April 2012

We were up and awake long before dawn this morning. It is not as though we had an appointment or anything. Met a lady that travels round Australia taking all the sunrises and she has a website. I can’t remember the name of the website but it is something like capturesunrise.com or countrysunrise.com. Anyway we had decided the night before that we were going to go to the Castles and the Breakaway.

We left to go out to the Oodnadatta road again and Oscar’s body language said it all. He was not enjoying the dirt track once again. It didn’t matter much though because we didn’t have long to travel and once we arrived at the destination the scenery was such that it was really hard to worry about the corrugation.

Again it is one of those places such as the Painted Desert, you have to get out there and see it for yourself. I am not sure that our photos do it much justice but I am sure that you get the gist of what it is that this awesomely beautiful country has to offer. You only have to go out there and grab hold of it. And I might add it is the safest country in the world in my opinion to do a trip such as this.

On our way back we stopped off at Tom’s working mine to have a gander around. The owners wife was a lovely woman who had all the time in the world and was clearly passionate about Coober Pedy and Opal mining. She did not have the slightest problem chatting to us and letting us know about the history and the future of the opal fields.

We got home at approx. 1:30 and were both tired and hopped into bed for a Sunday afternoon Nanna nap. Had a roast chicken dinner and we promised ourselves we would watch Louise and Thelma tonight.

I spoke to all three my grandies tonight so Ouma is once again a happy little veggie mite. Tomorrow we move on heading to Port Augusta. Little Princess Bocskay has still not made an appearance and it looks more and more like she will be born on my Mums birthday.

Well till we met again on-line here’s hoping that Oscar has been home and Princess has arrived.

Till then

O&V