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Day 1 30/06/06 Melbourne to Adelaide - Gawler.
As planned, we managed to get away by shortly after 6am. After dueling with the early Friday morning traffic through Melbourne, we stopped at McDonalds in Deer Park for breakfast. We drove along the Western Highway onto Nhill, where we stopped for lunch at the bakery. We then forged on to Adelaide, arriving at around 3.30pm. From Adelaide we took the A20 out to Gawler, arriving at Pat & Leanne’s at around 4.30pm. We spent the night at Pat’s, also catching up with Gary and Dawn.
Day 2 01/07/06 Gawler to Port Augusta
After having breakfast with Pat & the girls, we bid them goodbye and headed for the A1 or the Princes Highway. Traveling north, we went through towns including Port Wakefield, Snowtown, and Redhill, stopping in Port Pirie for lunch. The Information Centre was very helpful with information and brochures for our trip. We viewed their show and saw the replica of a Great White Shark called ‘Shakka’ After lunch we toured the National Trust Museum, which included the Old Customs House, Old Railway and Police Stations. We climbed the steep staircase to the tower in the Old
Railway Station which provided a good view of the surrounding area. As the Smelter was closed to tourists, we drove across a small causeway onto land adjacent to the rear of the smelting plant, as the Tourist Centre had suggested. Unfortunately, you couldn’t see a great deal. We then drove through to Port Augusta, arriving at the Big 4 Caravan Park at around 3.15pm. As we set up the camper trailer it began to rain. By the time we had set up, cooked & eaten tea, it was time to bed the boys down.
Day 3 02/07/06 Port Augusta to Andamooka
We had a lazy morning and it was almost 11.30 before we departed Port Augusta Big 4 Caravan Park. We went into town and checked out the Info Centre, Wadlata Outback Centre, spending some 90 mins there. It was very informative, you could easily spend 3 hours or more here. We managed to gather more information, brochures etc. for our tour. We had intended to check out the ‘Arid Lands Botanic Garden’ on the way out of Port Augusta but we ran out of time.( we will do this on our return trip) From here we headed
for Woomera along the Stuart Highway, stopping for lunch at a roadside stop about an hour into the trip. I was astounded by the amount of litter and rubbish around the area! Once we reached Woomera, we headed north to Andamooka, via Roxby Downs. We arrived at Andamooka Opal Field Caravan Park around 5.10pm and were greeted by the manager Arthur. The park is set on a gravel shelf on the side of the road with the amenities in Atco buildings in the center of the block. We set up camp under a cloudless sky as the temperature dropped to Melbourne overnight lows we are used to! Given the rock ground, we bent quite a few pegs attempting to drill steel pegs through rock! We then prepared dinner and ate under the annex, rugged up, as the temp dropped to around 1 degree! A couple of the other travelers had a great fire going in an old washing machine tub and we joined them in an attempt to warm up. Daniel enjoyed himself helping stoke and maintain the fire until the wood pile was depleted, whilst Leanne read Harry Potter to William. We headed to bed around 10.30pm.
Day
4 03/07/06 Andamooka to Glendambo
We awoke to a frosty morning and dragged ourselves out of our warm beds around 7.30am. After eating breakfast, we walked into the Andamooka town centre under strong, warm sunlight and checked out a few of the attractions. It seems not much happens in Anamooka before 12 Noon, although the Post Office, the IGA supermarket and the bottle shop were open. The ‘Glass House’ at the Post Office was unique. We walked back to the caravan park via the children’s playground. There were ‘public noodling heaps adjacent to the playground and so Daniel and William tried their luck at finding some opals, without success.
On our return to the caravan park we packed up the trailer. The manager, Arthur, gave us a look at some of his opals. He has been mining in the area, in partnership with another chap, for around seven years. He gave us a great explanation on how opal is mined, treated and ends up as the colourful stones that find their way all round the world. He also informed us of the massive markups you pay at the commercial outlets and that you should check out the stones
in daylight, not under the shop lighting! We purchased a few small opals from Arthur. It was a pity we were leaving, as Arthur said if we had 3 or 4 days in Andamooka, he would have taken us mining! One of the other Victorians staying in the park apparently found a $500 opal just days ago with Arthur’s help! Begrudgingly, we headed south back to Roxby Downs for lunch. We were keen to do a tour of the Olympic Dam Mine, but found out that the tour begins at 9.30am which unfortunately had long passed. After lunch in the Lions Club Park we headed south back to Woomera.
At Woomera we checked out the Missile Park and then the Woomera Heritage and Visitor Centre. The boys really enjoyed the various displays and videos of the rocket testing. We took a few extra photos of the various monuments especially for Leanne’s dad Des, as he worked here as a young man when Woomera was being built. We departed Woomera at 4.45pm heading for Glendambo, our stop for the night. Driving into the blinding setting sun was challenging, but we made good time arriving in Glendambo at 5.45pm. We set
up the trailer in the Glendambo Tourist Resort, once again challenged trying to peg the tent into a gravel surface. By the time we had everything, including bedding set up, it was dark and very cold. As we needed to get the boys into bed early (been experiencing a bit of cabin hysteria) we decided to have tea at the pub. The pub is designed to represent a shearing shed and was well done. There were two open fires and the food was great. After we had eaten dinner, we moved into the main lounge area, where we enjoyed coffee and tea by the fire, while the boys entertained themselves on motorbike simulators. We headed back to our cold trailer at about 8.45pm and settled in for another near zero night.
We are all well and enjoying the trip. Thanks for the e-mails, Scrivener & Brooks families and we will send another Blog in 4 - 5 days. Talk to you soon, The Glenisters.
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Michael Groves
non-member comment
The smelter at Port Pirie
Worked there in the late eighties. It's a pretty impressive place but pretty toxic. Lead poisoning is a real problem in the town. However, the locals used to love living and working there, especially for the fishing. Sounds like your having a great time. Cheers, Michael