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Published: October 27th 2013
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After a bit of a late take-off from Alice, we stopped off for some final supplies, then hit the highway south, camping in the bush at the turnoff to Owen Springs. After a beautiful sunset, happy hour & a barbie tea we had an early night & travelled into Rainbow Valley the second night. The sunset was just beautiful, after which we enjoyed happy hour & threw a leg of goat into the camp oven for dinner. All washed down with a shower under the starry sky, we headed to bed content.
And here the “fear” caught us, as we both woke at 3.30am, to an eerie calm, heaps of black rolling clouds above, and our decision to head out there & then was made! Flashbacks of Desert Storm still haunting us! As we were in a camp area surrounded by dirt, with a pretty hefty dirt road back out, so we hit the road, drove about an hour down the highway and pulled up on the banks of the Finke River. We needn’t have worried – we awoke to a beautiful blue sunny day.
On South, past Marla we were tempted by the “left turn” down the Oodnadatta
Track, but with several days of over 40 degrees expected, we let logic rule & continued south into some cooler climes. This night we camped beside the Ghan Line, enjoying a steak (thanks Phil & Di for loading us up with porterhouse before we left!) & a few reds. The Ghan whizzed by about 7pm, plenty of faces peering out at us camped out in the scrub, enjoying our fire, food & bevvies, while they ate at linen tablecloths, silver service all the way. I know who was having more fun! Still, the Ghan is most definitely still on the bucket-list.
Arriving in Coober Pedy the next day, we settled ourselves into one of the local parks for a few nights, got out the esky & promptly headed straight for the nearest bottle shop for a carton of Coopers & a bag of ice – after all we were now in “Coopers Country”….when in Rome & all that?!
We spent an interesting few days looking around, visiting an opal mine, an underground home, a few cold ones in the underground pub, frequenting the local tavern in the afternoons to escape the heat. It seemed the 40-plus days found
us here too! But hey, better than being out in the desert as such, pretty sure the cats were happy to stay put too.
Heading away from Coober we passed a guy cycling (push-bike) that we had passed earlier on our trip from Alice. We pulled up at the next rest-area, made him & ourselves some lunch & got his story. He looked about mid-20’s, from the UK, cycling from Darwin to Melbourne to catch a flight home - in 10 days time!! Man, he’s gonna have to do some serious peddling to get there in time! We talked about possible routes to Melbourne for him, enjoyed a bite of lunch, he was most grateful for a “COLD” drink as he keeps nothing cold while he rides, not food or water, and with the temps having been over 40 the last few days & with a terrible wind to fight against, we felt kinda sorry for him! Anyway, he seemed happy enough with any generosity we had to offer.
With the rest-areas being a little dodgy all the way along this highway south, we most often try to find a spot off in the bush, doing this pretty
much all the way from Alice. The nicest spot so far being on the banks of Lake Hart, a massive salt lake near Woomera. Here we spent a couple of nights, enjoying views of the trains, watching the lake change colour with the sunrise & sunsets, and REALLY enjoying night time, as during the days the flies were
unbearable!
On to Woomera, and into Roxby Downs where Tab checked a lotto ticket she had bought in Coober – winner winner chicken dinner! Oh, well we didn’t have a chicken dinner, we had a steak sanga, but it was her shout at the local pub for lunch! On to Andamooka where there is a fab little historic centre with old miners huts, then another nice little camp off the side of the beaten track.
It was here Tab had to Oscar-proof the travelling vegie patch (this time we have basil, baby spinach, oregano, parsley & “winter savoury”) as he decided this journey that we only brought the plants along as his personal ensuite! Little turd pee’d on the parsley & tried more than once to have a digging session – AKA number 2’s – so she’s hoping the skewers
& string does the trick. (Colleen that little roll of garden twine you put in Tab’s birthday parcel came in superbly handy!!)
Back to the highway from Pimba we continued our journey south, camping about 50km from Port Augusta Friday night, and rolled into Port Augusta Saturday – our first sighting of blue water in about a year & a half. We promptly got bait, cold beers & have dusted off the rods heading off for a sunset fishing expedition in Spencer Gulf. Jeff takes the prize for catching the first (and sadly only) one.
Today we are heading off into the Flinders Ranges, can't wait to see what adventures we can get into up there! Catchya next time xxoo
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chick
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hello............
hi some more great photos , good to see the moggys settling in, and you guys for that matter. I like it that you are getting closer, so text me when you have finished trekking the flinders rangers, and i will give you a call.Thanks for my pressie too ! xxx