Darwin 2012 - Woomera to Cadney Park Station

Well, after a brief visit to the Cudgee Bar, a nice sleep in and a bit of fun in the night we headed off to Cadney Homestead Caravan Park.

During the night we had a wind pick up so I got up, at about 2am, to wind up the awning. I am sure it would of been ok but I still worry about the awning when we have winds and it is not pegged down. At about 6am I awoke to hearing rain, and on the caravan roof it sounded substantial so up I got again, finding the caravan door unlocked. I went out, packed up the outside chairs and then came in and locked the door. About 10 mins later I could hear someone approach the van and try to get in. ;) it was dad. I didn't hear him go out but he was it amused with a locked door on his return. We also found that today the Flies came on pretty bad as can be seen on Dads back.

We had an uneventful drive towards Cadney Park with little traffic on the road and only Emu on the side of the road. That said we did not see any animals last time we travelled this way and they're we're quite a few Emu.

We stopped at Lake Hart for a look, and walked down to the railway line in from of the lake, startling an Emu in the process. He took off into he distance but we did get off a few shots with the camera.

Coober Pedy was our choice for lunch, and after a quick visit to the local store for some bread rolls for tomorrows lunch we stopped outside the Information center for lunch. Mum even got her chair out and set up under a tree. A quick visit inside told us how to get to the town lookout and after lunch off we went.

The lookout had seen better days, and have most things went you get away from most major cities. Attractions that had been setup by someone with vision? Have been left to age with time. This one was rundown and for sale, as are many things in town.

After the lookout we returned to town to buy fuel for the next leg of our trip. As we went past the information center again mum cried out... She had left her chair und the tree :) dad jumped out and went off to retrieve it whilst mum came up with reasons as to why it was his fault for it being there :)

We have noticed fuel prices rising, as we expected, but I also believe there has been a rise back home which could explain the extreme price. Cadney Homestead Caravan Park has unleaded for $1.87/L

We had a nice swim and a few drinks after setting up camp here at Cadney Park, however after out tea of Chicken Curry I noticed the air conditioner was leaking inside the van. The cause turned out to be a loose seal screw AND a kinked hose. I believe the hose is an installation error by Jayco, yet another example of their production system, however with some force I was able to free the hose up and release much of the built up water. The hose still has a kink, and has worn to such and extent that at some stage I the near future it would of worn through and allowed water to reach electrical items. Not Happy Jayco.

We travelled behind some slower traffic today, maintaining about 90km/h so our fuel economy improved from yesterday to around 14.6L/100km.

All up a good day. Tomorrow awe are off to Alice Springs.

Coober Pedy to Uluru

Day 4 – Coober Pedy continued

We spent the first half of our day in Coober Pedy walking around the town and inspecting all the Opal in the shops. There is some very nice Jewelry here. After lunch we went on the Redeka Coober Pedy Tour that takes you out onto the opal mines and to some local tourist spots. Our first stop was the Underground Church and town cemetery. We also stopped at the local Golf course, no grass to be seen.

We then went out onto the Opal Fields for a talk on the various ways in which Opal is mined. The methods used included digging shafts, of which there are millions amongst the various fields, and then tunneling underground following any seams of opal you might find, and another method is the open cut, where a digger is used to dig out massive amounts of the ground, which is then fed through a noodling machine, equips with a UV light which fluoresces the opal making it easy for the operator to find.

Our next stop was the “Break Aways”, which is the remains of an ancient coast line.

The last stop for the day before a return trip along the Oodnadatta track was the Dog Fence. The dog fence is a fence installed to keep dingos out of fertile lands and extends over 5000km.

Day 5 – Coober Pedy to Uluru

This was one of our longest drives, however the view at the end of the day was well worth it. We stayed at the Uluru camp grounds in Yulara and if we climbed the hill behind the camp we could see both the Olgas and Uluru.

We went straight out that night to view the Uluru sunset, along with hundreds of others.

Day 6 – Uluru and the Olgas

Today we went out to “climb” the rock, not fully appreciating what this was to mean. We arrived to the base of Uluru to be shocked fist at the number of people actually climbing it, and secondly how hard this climb was going to be.

We decided to walk around the base first, and spent about an hour doing this. Each corner held a new vista and something to discover.

We did decide to do some of the climb but only went as far as the start of the chain. Coming down was more of a challenge than going up.

Melbourne to Coober Pedy

Day 1 – Melbourne to Adelaide.

This leg of the trip was quite un-eventful with the only highlight for the kids being the very thick Fog outside Ballarat. We spent the night in Adelaide at the Highway one caravan park which provided a very nice location for our camper for the night.

Day 2 – Adelaide to Port Augusta

We had Caitlyn with us on this leg of the trip. Bianca was with mum and dad, whom we met up with in Adelaide. One of the highlights for Caitlyn was a series of metal sculptures outside Adelaide, with a Martin, a giant bug and Ned Kelly being some of them. This leg of the trip was only 4 hrs so not much to see.

Day 3 – Port Augusta to Coober Pedy

This was a 5 hrs leg that saw the girls swap cars and we had Bianca with us. One of the real trip highlights was a massive dust storm. We saw it on the horizon, and due to the extreme winds we were experiencing from Port Augusta, it travelled right towards us at high speed. We managed to find a great spot to stop and observe the storm approaching, however we really did not appreciate the speed it was traveling and I believe the storm front was really only 500m or so from us when we got back in the cars to continue the journey. When the storm did hit visibility dropped and it was like driving through a thick fog in Melbourne, with the fog being orange.

We had planned to stop in at Woomera but with the wind and rain we were experiencing, we have postponed this for the return trip. The rest of the trip was quiet except for a large section of road works entering Coober Pedy, which managed to get the camper dirty for the first time this trip.