Blogs from Coober Pedy, South Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 3

Hello family, Friends and bloggers, After a rubbish night sleep outside in my swag (Neil slept sound as he had the large double swag and loves it outside), we all woke at 4.30am to leave by 5.30am after rolling up swags, getting dressed and having our normal standard breakfast. We were walking around the 10.6km perimeter of Uluru this morning before 6am. The sun came up on the east side about 6.15am. The views were amazing, we had our whole last 3 day itinerary changed as the weather was too hot to do the walk on the first day so we have been playing chase since then!!! We completed the walk by 8am (good going even with this annoying Ozzy girl who was slow as a snail). We hit the rode by 8.30am for a 9 ... read more

The wind today started as a strong Northerly then at about 10.45am swung around to the South. At 11.42am we had a really fierce gust, which Barry checked on his phone and found was 70kph. It raised even more dust than we’d been having for the last few days causing clouds of red dirt to pour down the road behind us and almost completely hiding the hills at the edge of town, which could see clearly – usually! The pigeons that normally come down foraging had to stay on the ground, or they were being blown sideways and getting nowhere fast. We stayed in the van until the worst of the dust storm was over and then went to fill up the ute at the cheapest place in to. It was originallwn, we were told, Opal ... read more

We left Cadney Homestead at 9.40am and hit the road for Coober Pedy – corrugated as it was. The council also repaired the bitumen on both sides to smooth out the surface. It looked very odd as the two sides were covered in green pebbles and the centre still had the original brown colour stones and the white lines had been left, too. This meant that the road was brightly colourful and the white lines really stood out. One Rest Area we went into was already occupied with a motorbike rider in full leather kit. I chatted with him and found out that the T-shirted riders I’d seen yesterday were taking part in a race to Uluru from anywhere around Australia. Each rider had sponsors who paid a small amount for each of the kilometres they ... read more

Desert Ship Territory Day 4 Log This morning afforded us a bit of a sleep in without the routine of having to pack up and leave. We enjoyed our new digs and the novelty of living underground for a few days. There were a heap of grey nomads with a difference staying here. They were all on their motor bikes zooming around the desert. If you ask me they should be tucked up at home watching ABC documentaries. Our first stop was the town lookout, The Big Winch, but it was closed and some how we ended up in the neighbour's place. In this quirky place nothing is very well sign posted and when it is, it's just hand painted signs. Now this guy was a real 'old timer' Chinese character. With his deeply lined face, ... read more

For those who are new to this blog if you double click on the first photograph you will get all the photos in a slide show. We headed off from Island Lagoon lookout and headed off into Woomera after having to tighten up a jubilee clip on our water lines, this involved removing part of the bash plating underneath. Water seems to be our nemesis. We wanted some tomatoes and bread so headed off to the supermarket where tomatoes were cheaper than buying them in Clare! $4.10 kg, invested in three and some fresh spinach leaves. Tomatoes on our sandwiches for lunch. Woomera is such a clean and tidy town. Not a thing out of place. We wandered around the outdoor display of rockets and weapons which were developed and launched during the stations heyday. Visited ... read more