Alice Springs was like a big city to us after being in the bush for six weeks. They even have a K-Mart!!! It was a great place for a bit of R & R. “The Alice” as it is fondly referred to, has a number of Australian ‘firsts’. These include the laying of the Overland Telegraph Line that opened up Australia to the world, the establishment of the Old Ghan railway, the world’s first motorised road train and the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the first aerial medical organisation of its type. We visited the Old Telegraph Station which is the birthplace of Alice Springs. It was once an operating telegraph station and has some beautifully restored buildings. It is also the site of the original Alice Springs waterhole. Alice Springs was named after the Superintendant for ... read more

30 - 0. Gotta love that score!!! Go the maroons for the next game.... read more

Heading back to Coober Pedy the next day we made a detour into the Painted Desert. This is another area that was under water 150 million years ago. Very beautiful. A very long drive and would you believe the third flat tyre for Phil. All very happy to arrive back at Coober Pedy and wash all that dust off. The next day was spent cleaning the cars. We think we have completed all the dirt roads, but of course our fearless leader (Ross) wants to go to Chambers Pilar when we get to Alice Springs…….Oh no Ross!!!! Next stop Ayers Rock, can’t wait. ... read more

After a lot of driving we decided to treat ourselves to a tour of Coober Pedy. Our tour leader’s name was Steve and he could talk under water! Very informative though and we now all know EVERYTHING about how the dirt is sucked and blown out of opal mines!!! (Lots of suckers and blowers around here). Coober Pedy is an interesting place with most of the houses and even churches being built underground. The town itself has a population of around 3,500, 60% European with 45 nationalities represented. Coober Pedy was originally known as the Stuart Range Opal Field, named after John McDouall Stuart, who in 1858 was the first European explorer in the area. But it wasn’t until 1915 that opals were first discovered here. Not long after this discovery the O’Neill brothers arrived here ... read more

It’s been a busy week and lots of bush camping and outback roads. Arkaroola was a disappointment especially after driving a long way on very bad corrugated roads to get there. On the way from Blinman we called into Chambers Gorge only 9 kms off the highway but a really bad road. Ross, Alice, Phil and Robyn decided to stay there the night however being State of Origin night Lee and I decided to press on to Arkaroola where we hoped to see the game live on TV. Enough said about that…..only the first game. The caravan park at Arkaroola was not good. Very dry and dusty and not well managed. We met up with the others the next day and after de-dusting our vans and lots of washing of cloths etc. we had a leisurely ... read more