Blogs from South Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 5

We saw a kangaroo!!! But this was quite late in the day, there’s plenty more to cover I just couldn’t contain my excitement. Starting at the beginning…. What a beautiful day, can you believe this is the first day we’ve woken up to clear blue skies and sunshine since we arrived! It was 20 degrees at the start of the day and we finally reached the heady heights of 30 degrees today. Summer is finally here – to be fair the locals did say summer starts on 1st December, they were almost right! Today we were leaving Mount Gambier and heading over to Victor Harbour. This is quite a long trek, just over 5 hours drive, around 270 miles without our diversions to see places on the way. We ended up taking about 8 hours in ... read more

Finally, some sunshine! We woke up this morning to a nice sunny start to the day. Dressed in our summer attire, packed up and headed out for the day. Quick pitstop at McDonalds for a nice healthy breakfast then we were on our way. Not long into our journey, the sun vanished the grey/black clouds rolled in and the rain started. The shorts and flip flops didn’t seem like such a good move at this point! We drove through a place called Tower Hill, which is an extinct volcano which is now a wildlife park. It was drizzly and grey at this point, so we didn’t get out to walk around, but we did spot a wild Emu (my favourite!) although this time it was safely on the otherside of the car window and I wasn’t ... read more

We woke knowing that sometime today we would arrive in Birdsville, having completed the legendary Birdsville Track, but not before we had endured severe corrugations for long stretches and very rough stony track surfaces. The few, ‘smooth-as-a-baby’s-bum’ sections, were a welcome relief. The grader was also out smoothing the track. The Sturt Stony Desert did live up to its name. The stones (gibbers), shiny and smooth and in their trillions, spread for as far as the eye could see. Complete inconsiderate fools still sped past at 100kph spitting up rocks galore. The word around town is that 6 vehicles lost windscreens today to the ‘same’ idiot. They are positive of ‘getting’ him. Another huge rig had their water tank punctured by a rock, losing all their water. We climbed the truly spectacular Koonchera Dune which the ... read more

We topped our tank water supply, $1 for 40L, plus brought another 15L from IGA, just-in-case! We visited a few Coober Pedy attractions: Big Winch 360, Old Timer’s Mine, Opal Jewellery (none purchased), Comfort Inn, Coober Pedy views, Coober Pedy Hill Sign and roamed the streets, just looking. Personally, having been raised in a small outback mining town, I had had enough and just wanted to be on my way. We hit the William Creek Road, which only a few weeks ago was closed, being impassable due to the recent rain having caused havoc with the track, turning it into a mud quagmire. We hoped for the best and found for the most parts a fast hard track. Apart from a few brief sections it passes through a totally flat, treeless, dry plain (desert). We stopped ... read more

1 500 000 … that’s, One Million Five Hundred Thousand … that’s how many opal shafts have been dug since opal mining began in and around Coober Pedy. Advice, don’t get drunk and wander off. Coober Pedy means, “White Man in a Hole”. The area has over 70 fields, the largest opal mining area in the world producing 85% of the world’s opals. Its surrounds look moon-like (not that I’ve visited the moon … yet) with the landscape dotted with shafts and mullock heaps. CP lies on the edge of the erosional scarp of the Stuart Ranges, on beds of sand and siltstone 30m deep, topped with a stony, treeless desert. Due to the regions very low rainfall, a modern water desalination plant using reverse osmosis process, produces frsh drinking water for all … however … ... read more