Woke at dawn to see the beautiful sunrise on the lake, just magic. I say again, what a marvelous country we live in.
A long drive today with the vast landscape changing many many times, the immense sky filled with rolling thunderous black clouds with their silvery beards reaching for the earth.
By the time we reached Coober Pedy the temperature had risen only a few degrees, but that didn't deter us from exploring, we discovered an underground restaurant and booked in for dinner, and found the very quaint little Catholic Church, and of course it was also underground.
We drove up to the lookout for a photo opportunity and met a little chinese opal miner, originally from Hong Kong, who showed us around his 'diggings' and the very deep narrow shaft he lowers himself into, on a swing seat wth a winch, to dig for his opals, which he just happens to have for sale. Jude and I both purchased a small piece of his raw opal for $2 a piece, who could resist his toothless grin.
Tomorrow we are booked on a tour of the town offered by our caravan park, and Monday we are joining the 'Mail Run' down the Oodnadatta Track.
Saturday, 31 May 2014
Port Augusta to Lake Hart
The next stage of our journey takes us along the Stuart Highway or on The Explorers Way as it is known out here, this will take us all the way to Darwin in a few weeks.
On our way out of Port Augusta the weather was a fine and warm 21 degrees, but as we ventured further into the outback we experienced the full brunt of SA Outback weather. Torrential rain, brilliant lightning storms and dramatic temperature fluctuations in a matter of minutes, 22 down to 13 then up again to 21 then down to 13 where it stayed for a while before dropping again dramatically for overnight, the crazy weather conditions were amazing, exhillerating, extraordinary, you've just got to love this amazing country of ours.
We decided to make the detour of around 240ks round trip to Roxby Downs and Andamooka, and we were so glad we did, couldn't be this so close and not visit the towns we had heard of all of our lives.
Roxby Downs was quite a surprise, a neat little town, very modern and lively with lots of community spirit. The town was purpose built to service the Olympic Dam Mine which contains one of the largest ore bodies in the world today. The Olympic Dam Mine is owned by BHP Billiton, the mine produces copper, uranium, silver and gold. As we arrived in Roxby Downs the weather had changed again and we spent a sunny hour or so exploring the town.
Andamooka a real opal mining town. Well what a bigger surprise, we knew it would be worth our while driving the extra 30ks but we did not expect what we saw out here. It was like we had been dropped back into the early 1900's, this place has to be seen to be believed
And again the weather was on our side for a short while which allowed us some dry time to do some exploring here as well, although it had turned bitterly cold so we did the remainder of our sightseeing out of the car windows, with Jeff jumping out every so often to take a photo or two.
This fascinating opal field, discovered in 1930, was once part of a vast inland sea. Two drovers from Andamooka Station saw flashes of the beautiful gemstones on a hillside after a thunderstorm and lodged the first mining claim. This unique town of miner's homes nestles on a honetcomb of underground diggings has a population of around 800 people.
Andamooka opal is considered by experts to be the most stable in the world.
Back on the highway again in torrential rain heading to our recommended free camp at Lake Hart. Lots of caravan and campers here when we arrive as it is getting late in the day. What a great spot you can see why it is so popular, the lake is magnificent, still very windy but the rain had cleared. It was very cold and with no power it was an early night.
As the weather cleared later in the night we couldn't resist doing a spot of stargazing. As we were literally out in the middle of nowhere the display of stars was fantastic, we didn't even notice how cold we where.
Today we spotted a couple of emu's grazing, stretching their long necks to see who was disturbing their dinner, but no sign of any kangaroo's except for a couple who didn' make it across the road during the night.
On our way out of Port Augusta the weather was a fine and warm 21 degrees, but as we ventured further into the outback we experienced the full brunt of SA Outback weather. Torrential rain, brilliant lightning storms and dramatic temperature fluctuations in a matter of minutes, 22 down to 13 then up again to 21 then down to 13 where it stayed for a while before dropping again dramatically for overnight, the crazy weather conditions were amazing, exhillerating, extraordinary, you've just got to love this amazing country of ours.
We decided to make the detour of around 240ks round trip to Roxby Downs and Andamooka, and we were so glad we did, couldn't be this so close and not visit the towns we had heard of all of our lives.
Roxby Downs was quite a surprise, a neat little town, very modern and lively with lots of community spirit. The town was purpose built to service the Olympic Dam Mine which contains one of the largest ore bodies in the world today. The Olympic Dam Mine is owned by BHP Billiton, the mine produces copper, uranium, silver and gold. As we arrived in Roxby Downs the weather had changed again and we spent a sunny hour or so exploring the town.
Andamooka a real opal mining town. Well what a bigger surprise, we knew it would be worth our while driving the extra 30ks but we did not expect what we saw out here. It was like we had been dropped back into the early 1900's, this place has to be seen to be believed
And again the weather was on our side for a short while which allowed us some dry time to do some exploring here as well, although it had turned bitterly cold so we did the remainder of our sightseeing out of the car windows, with Jeff jumping out every so often to take a photo or two.
This fascinating opal field, discovered in 1930, was once part of a vast inland sea. Two drovers from Andamooka Station saw flashes of the beautiful gemstones on a hillside after a thunderstorm and lodged the first mining claim. This unique town of miner's homes nestles on a honetcomb of underground diggings has a population of around 800 people.
Andamooka opal is considered by experts to be the most stable in the world.
Back on the highway again in torrential rain heading to our recommended free camp at Lake Hart. Lots of caravan and campers here when we arrive as it is getting late in the day. What a great spot you can see why it is so popular, the lake is magnificent, still very windy but the rain had cleared. It was very cold and with no power it was an early night.
As the weather cleared later in the night we couldn't resist doing a spot of stargazing. As we were literally out in the middle of nowhere the display of stars was fantastic, we didn't even notice how cold we where.
Today we spotted a couple of emu's grazing, stretching their long necks to see who was disturbing their dinner, but no sign of any kangaroo's except for a couple who didn' make it across the road during the night.
Friday, 30 May 2014
Broken Hill to Port Augusta
A long drive across our magnificent country to reach Port Augusta. We are amazed at what a wonderful land we live in.
Big 4 Caravan Park on the edge of town to be our home for the next few days. A lovely waterfront shopping centre for us to restock our supplies for the next part of our journey.
A visit to the Royal Flying Doctor Service was a highlight, we watched a short film on the origins of the service and also of some cases they dealt with. An amazing service available to all, and it is a free service to the public. Fortunately for us there was a plane in and we were able to board it to see the set up. Each plane costs $6 million dollars and the service has 61of these planes across Australia, mostly funded by donations, so of course we made our contribution.
Also the viewing tower at the Rotary Park where at four stories high we had a great view of the town and the whole area, which lies at the very tip of the Spencer Gulf so you could see over the mud flats, the mangrove swamps and the glorious hills as a background which were changing colors as we were watching as the clouds rolled over and the sun peeped in and out.
We also visited the Arid Botanical Gardens and the Watjata Aboriginal Info Centre which houses an amazing aboriginal culture display, but we decided not to pay the very high price of entry as we will be experiencing the real thing along our way.
The weather is great, lovely warm days and very cold nights and early mornings.
I have had a great deal of difficulty with the internet in Port Augusta so hopefully I will be able to post photos shortly.
We are off to Roxby Downs and Andamooka this morning and hope to find a good place to free camp tonight, We have been given a couple of locations from other travellers, so we will check them out.
Big 4 Caravan Park on the edge of town to be our home for the next few days. A lovely waterfront shopping centre for us to restock our supplies for the next part of our journey.
A visit to the Royal Flying Doctor Service was a highlight, we watched a short film on the origins of the service and also of some cases they dealt with. An amazing service available to all, and it is a free service to the public. Fortunately for us there was a plane in and we were able to board it to see the set up. Each plane costs $6 million dollars and the service has 61of these planes across Australia, mostly funded by donations, so of course we made our contribution.
Also the viewing tower at the Rotary Park where at four stories high we had a great view of the town and the whole area, which lies at the very tip of the Spencer Gulf so you could see over the mud flats, the mangrove swamps and the glorious hills as a background which were changing colors as we were watching as the clouds rolled over and the sun peeped in and out.
We also visited the Arid Botanical Gardens and the Watjata Aboriginal Info Centre which houses an amazing aboriginal culture display, but we decided not to pay the very high price of entry as we will be experiencing the real thing along our way.
The weather is great, lovely warm days and very cold nights and early mornings.
I have had a great deal of difficulty with the internet in Port Augusta so hopefully I will be able to post photos shortly.
We are off to Roxby Downs and Andamooka this morning and hope to find a good place to free camp tonight, We have been given a couple of locations from other travellers, so we will check them out.
Monday, 26 May 2014
Exploring Broken Hill
We started the day with a visit to the Pro Hart Gallery which was fantastic as expected, what an extraordinary man. We loved his 4 Rolls Royce cars in his front yard.
Next to the Line of Lode Site, The Big Chair and the Miners Memorial - all of which were closed indefinately due to an Insurance dispute with the leasee of the Mining Lease - too bad for us, so sad to have missed one of the main highlights of broken Hill. Never mind - onwards to the White Rocks Historical Site, a memorial to The Battle of Broken Hill, the site of the only conflict on Australian soil during The First World War, where a picnic train full of people was attacked and 4 people were killed and several injured. The attackers were 2 local men of (what is now known as) Pakistan descent in support of the Turks under attack by Australian soldiers.
Next to the Syndicate of Seven Busts, The Syndicate of Seven was the name given to the original seven members of the Broken Hill Mining Company formed in 1883, who lodged the original mining leases.
Next we walked the main street to view the amazing murals which depict historical and current events and can be seen on many of the buildings in Argent St.
Then it was off to Silverton, approx 30ks out to the famous Silverton Hotel for lunch. We ordered and then we talked Laurie into taking 'The Silverton Test' - (Google it) which he did, and he was such a good sport with it and we all had a good laugh at his expense. But he did get a certificate for his effort.
Next we headed up the hill to the Mad Max Museum, which had closed for a couple of weeks, our luck again, but we could see a few of the cars and some other memorabilia.
Back into town to Sturt Park where there is a Titanic Memorial, which we thought was a bit out of place up here, so we needed to check that out, it turned out it was funded by the local musicians as a memorial to the bandsmen on the Titanic who continued playing their music while the ship was sinking and therefore they were all lost, quite a moving story.
And the last stop of the day was the Silver City Art Centre and Mint which houses the longest painting on canvas in the world. It was quite a site, the centre had been purposely built to display the work. Set in a natural style setting with red dirt and all, it was quite spectacular.
Back to the caravan park only to discover a dust storm had gone through, and silly us had left the windows open and everything was covered in lovely red dust - so we just sat down and had a nice cup of tea.
Next to the Line of Lode Site, The Big Chair and the Miners Memorial - all of which were closed indefinately due to an Insurance dispute with the leasee of the Mining Lease - too bad for us, so sad to have missed one of the main highlights of broken Hill. Never mind - onwards to the White Rocks Historical Site, a memorial to The Battle of Broken Hill, the site of the only conflict on Australian soil during The First World War, where a picnic train full of people was attacked and 4 people were killed and several injured. The attackers were 2 local men of (what is now known as) Pakistan descent in support of the Turks under attack by Australian soldiers.
Next to the Syndicate of Seven Busts, The Syndicate of Seven was the name given to the original seven members of the Broken Hill Mining Company formed in 1883, who lodged the original mining leases.
Next we walked the main street to view the amazing murals which depict historical and current events and can be seen on many of the buildings in Argent St.
Then it was off to Silverton, approx 30ks out to the famous Silverton Hotel for lunch. We ordered and then we talked Laurie into taking 'The Silverton Test' - (Google it) which he did, and he was such a good sport with it and we all had a good laugh at his expense. But he did get a certificate for his effort.
Next we headed up the hill to the Mad Max Museum, which had closed for a couple of weeks, our luck again, but we could see a few of the cars and some other memorabilia.
Back into town to Sturt Park where there is a Titanic Memorial, which we thought was a bit out of place up here, so we needed to check that out, it turned out it was funded by the local musicians as a memorial to the bandsmen on the Titanic who continued playing their music while the ship was sinking and therefore they were all lost, quite a moving story.
And the last stop of the day was the Silver City Art Centre and Mint which houses the longest painting on canvas in the world. It was quite a site, the centre had been purposely built to display the work. Set in a natural style setting with red dirt and all, it was quite spectacular.
Back to the caravan park only to discover a dust storm had gone through, and silly us had left the windows open and everything was covered in lovely red dust - so we just sat down and had a nice cup of tea.
We are off at last
The day finally came for us to head off up the highway on our big trip. Everything packed and we are ready.
Our first stop was Lake Tyrrell where we free camped, a first experience for all of us. We were right out in the middle of nowhere with just the birds, rabbits and the huge blue sky. We circled the wagons to make a cosy spot shielded from the wind. The boys gathered firewood and we had a raging fire deep into the night. We sat around with a few glasses of red, and enjoyed a lovely dinner cooked on the camp stove and experienced the most magnificent scarlet sunset. Just Magic.
Next morning we headed into Mildura, a very pretty well set out city. We booked into a caravan park right opposite the Centro Shopping Centre and had a good look around. Mildura has a lovely riverside walk where there is a lot of activity around the water, lots of houseboats and lots of local landmarks which we enjoyed and of course we had to stop into Stefano's Coffee Shop for a coffee.
Sunday we headed off for Broken Hill stopping off at Wentworth which is about 30ks down the road, there is a lovely park at the junction of the 2 rivers, the Darling and the Murray, a beautiful park good for a free camp if we are ever by this way again.
First stop in Broken Hill was the information centre where we picked up a map with all the places of interest, and of course the caravan park locations, but our priority tonight was the Living Desert Sculpture Park for the sunset.
As we pulled into our caravan park, a huge disaster was narowly avoided. We checked in and were driving down the hill to our spots, over a fairly large speed bump, when OOPS! Laurie's caravan 'popped' off the towball - Ouch! After driving over 300ks with the towball not locked on, how lucky was he forbit to happen where it did. Fortunately no harm done and after some speedy work on behalf of Laurie and Jeff it was back on again and we completed our check in, and headed off to the Living Desert Sculptures for the sunset and we were not disappointed, what a magical spiritual place.
Our first stop was Lake Tyrrell where we free camped, a first experience for all of us. We were right out in the middle of nowhere with just the birds, rabbits and the huge blue sky. We circled the wagons to make a cosy spot shielded from the wind. The boys gathered firewood and we had a raging fire deep into the night. We sat around with a few glasses of red, and enjoyed a lovely dinner cooked on the camp stove and experienced the most magnificent scarlet sunset. Just Magic.
Next morning we headed into Mildura, a very pretty well set out city. We booked into a caravan park right opposite the Centro Shopping Centre and had a good look around. Mildura has a lovely riverside walk where there is a lot of activity around the water, lots of houseboats and lots of local landmarks which we enjoyed and of course we had to stop into Stefano's Coffee Shop for a coffee.
Sunday we headed off for Broken Hill stopping off at Wentworth which is about 30ks down the road, there is a lovely park at the junction of the 2 rivers, the Darling and the Murray, a beautiful park good for a free camp if we are ever by this way again.
First stop in Broken Hill was the information centre where we picked up a map with all the places of interest, and of course the caravan park locations, but our priority tonight was the Living Desert Sculpture Park for the sunset.
As we pulled into our caravan park, a huge disaster was narowly avoided. We checked in and were driving down the hill to our spots, over a fairly large speed bump, when OOPS! Laurie's caravan 'popped' off the towball - Ouch! After driving over 300ks with the towball not locked on, how lucky was he forbit to happen where it did. Fortunately no harm done and after some speedy work on behalf of Laurie and Jeff it was back on again and we completed our check in, and headed off to the Living Desert Sculptures for the sunset and we were not disappointed, what a magical spiritual place.
Tuesday, 6 May 2014
Both of our 'Rigs'
This was our first outing together in the vans testing them out, and boy did they get a good test.
It rained and it blew like you wouldn't believe, so now we know that neither of the vans leak!!
This is both of us at Inverloch, December 2013, testing out the vans
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| Judy and Laurie on the left Helen and Jeff on the right |
This was our first outing together in the vans testing them out, and boy did they get a good test.
It rained and it blew like you wouldn't believe, so now we know that neither of the vans leak!!
Monday, 5 May 2014
17 Sleeps to go
Well what an exciting time this is as we prepare for "The Big Loop" with only 17 sleeps to go.
We are being quite busy preparing the Geist for its long journey ahead. Jeff has been adding extra shelves in the cupboards, we have installed a fly screen door to keep all those pesky flies out, that I am sure we will encounter on the way, given that everyone is telling us there are millions of them out there, especially around Coober Pedy.
He has been doing all the necessary things that boys do outside the van, tyres, towing, awning etc. also making a stand for our outdoor hotplate, ensuring all the ropes and pegs are in order, all that sort of thing while I have been doing all the inside chores. We are both enjoying very much.
We have started to pack some goodies in the van, linen, some non perishable groceries, toiletries etc etc. Jeff had been busy on the computer ensuring we have lots of movies and TV series on USB's and lots of music for the car.
All in all we are pretty well organised and can't wait for the 22nd to set off.
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| The Geist and The Kia Sorrento |
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