WEEK 14 AND 15 - PT AUGUSTA, WOOMERA AND COOBER PEDY

Well here we are heading to Port August from Wilpena Pound, again a cold morning but with expectation that the temperature will climb to a pleasant level. We travelled through Hawker onto Quorn for morning tea. A very nice cafe serving Devonshire teas using Quondong jam (you guessed it, yummo, that’s for me). Just outside Quorn we entered the Pichi Richi Pass and the fuel light came on – I knew I should have put some fuel in at Quorn. Anyway we motor on towards Port Augusta and reach Stirling North, that will do, and I’ll fuel up here.  Main tank full, aux tank full and 2 jerry cans full, $235 later and we are good to go.
At Port Augusta we stayed at Central Augusta Footy Club, $7 a night with water, they averaged 15 vans/motor homes a night. Not a bad little earner for them. We stayed in Port Augusta of 3 nights (we plan to stay longer when we come back from the West), visited the native botanical gardens and Mathew Flinders Lookout (the Red Cliffs). The lookout over looked the top of Spencers Gulf, lots of bird life and dolphins having a good feed.
Onto Woomera for 4 nights, what an interesting place if you like missiles and the like. The park was used to be the senior officers’ compound. There were three barrack buildings reminiscent of the ones I slept in in days gone by and where the caravans were parked there used to be 3 bedroom homes for the married officers, long since demolished. Roxby Downs is about 85ks from Woomera, a green oasis in the middle of dust and dirt . Certainly a company town, I think what BHP says goes. After lunch at the Sports club (certainly not the best steak sandwich we have ever had) we drove out to Andamooka, an old Opal mining town. I believe that they still get a reasonable quantity of quality opals out of the ground. We visited a couple of stores, one was ok the other a little dodgy in appearance. There are some of the original dugouts opened for the public to view – certainly not the mod-con s that we are used to and very rough.


ANDAMOOKA DUGOUT

On the way back to Woomera we stopped at the Woomera cemetery, what a sad place. The amount of baby and still born graves was very sad. One can only imagine the causes.
On the Wednesday, the day before we were leaving to head off to Coober Pedy I was reversing the car into its parking spot and clipped a tree with the passenger side mirror frame. Now the mirror frame hooks over the door and the window slides up and down next to it. The frame twisted and the window shattered. Now being in Woomera there are not too many services available, a quick call to Pt Augusta, a window was organised for the following morning and they would install it at 8am. So up at 5.30, move the van because our site was booked and I didn’t know what time I would be back to pick it up. 180ks to the repairer, one and a half hours to kill while they fixed it and 180ks back to Woomera to pick up the van and Gaila and then 365ks to Coober Pedy, it certainly made for a long day, us old retirees don’t like going more than 400ks at a time.

COOBER PEDY
As you drive through the country side you are confronted by this landscape like we had never really encountered before, sure we had been to Andamooka but that did not prepare us for the foreign landscape before us. For miles around there were mullock heaps and generally where there was a mullock heap there was a mineshaft. Once a shaft had been sunk by law you are not allowed to back fill them, you see because a lot of the mine tunnels become interconnected and therefore if there is a collapse in the mine then by back filling the shafts you could very well be sealing off any escape route and then consigning that miner to his or her death.
We took the obligatory tourist trip around town, visiting an underground church (underground buildings stay around 24 degrees c at all times - good in summer when it is approx 50 degrees c), the golf course (different), visit to the mine fields and so on. We also visited an underground home; this home was owned by a lady by the name of Faye Naylor, she purchased this property in 1962 when all it was was an underground garage built in the early ‘20s, she and 3 lady friends in their spare time dug out by hand a three bedroom home. Faye later had a swimming pool built which after a couple of summers had a room built around it to prevent evaporation. Faye had one of the first tourist businesses in Coober Pedy and after some 20 odd years she sold up and moved to Qld where she bought a pub, apparently she has retired and is living a healthy life in Brisbane. I believe that she is about 85 years old.


FAYE NAYLOR'S LOUNGE ROOM - WHY THE FIRE?

THE PAINTED DESERT

YOU GUESSED IT - THE PINK ROADHOUSE

We had planned to take a drive to William Creek and take a flight over Lake Eyre, after speaking to a couple who had done that a day or so earlier and said that the flight they took only went over Lake Eyre North and that there was very little water to be seen that we decided not to take the flight.
I know I said previously that we only like to drive less than 400ks a day, but we headed off on a two day adventure.

We left the van at Coober Pedy and headed for Oodnadatta, the home of The Pink Roadhouse (currently for sale for around $1,000,000). Our drive took us through the Dog Fence, on to The Painted Desert and then to Oodnadatta. The landscape is something to behold, the Moon Plain and the colours of the Painted Desert were magnificent, plenty of photos taken but they do not do it justice. Not only that but we got rain in the desert, just enough to dampen the dust and firm up the road. That day we covered about 240ks on dirt road. We had tea at the Roadhouse, bought a few bits and pieces and hit the rack. The following morning after much discussion it was decided that we head off to William Creek and then on to Lake Eyre South (we were told that you could see the water from the road). Travelling the Oodnadatta Track was a great experience, the road was in really great condition and far better than some of the bitumen roads that we have travelled on since we started our travels. I’m glad that I didn’t have to fill up with fuel at either Oodnadatta or William Creek it was $2.27 and $2.30 respectively, I suppose we will see worse prices in times to come.

WILLIAM CREEK HOTEL - INTERESTING DECOR

 

LAKE EYRE SOUTH

We reached Lake Eyre and it was a spectacular sight, the water was about 500mts from the lookout so I can just imagine the sight of it in full flood. Travelling the Track was amazing, we saw everything from a bloke on a pushbike, numerous 4WD with and without caravans and campers, a full size tourist bus, a few campervans and motor homes to half a dozen semi trailers, so as you can see it is a very popular road to travel. Gaila and I would really love to see more of this road, not this time but maybe in a couple of years we will do all of it and link into the Birdsville Track.
Today (Wednesday) we went out to an area called The Breakaways, (for all of you Priscilla Queen of the Desert tragics, some of it was filmed here) again magnificent scenery, similar to the Painted Desert, my photos just don’t do it justice.

THE BREAKAWAYS

An interesting thing about Coober Pedy, the water here is some of the best in the country; the locals pay about $5 per kilolitre. It is source from an artesian basin, put through a desalination plant and reverse osmosis filter plant and it is crystal clear, we cannot hook up to water at the van park so I have been filling up two 20ltr jerry cans at the outrageous cost of $0.20c for the lot, small price to pay.
Tomorrow we head off for Ayres Rock, staying two nights on the road, so stay safe and we will catch ya later.

Week 13 Wilpena Pound Flinders Rangers

Well what a place! The colours of the Flinders Rangers are unbelievable, photos do not do them justice. We arrived at Wilpena Pound after a 6 hour drive from Broken Hill.
After 200ks from Broken Hill we were forced to contribute early to the SA economy, the quarantine station decided that they wanted all our fruit and veg (except for the carrots). They did very well out of us and the three vans in front of us. You guessed it I was none to pleased, after dumping our fruit and veg before Broken Hill, we had to restock at Peterbourough before hitting Wilpena Pound.
The camp ground at "the Pound" although there was barely a blade of grass to be found it was still very nice. The sites were a good size with power, water and sullage - a bit dear at $33 a night, but no free camping in the area.

FLINDERS RANGES

We started our visit with a drive to a couple of close by look outs, truly spectacular views, again I don't think photos do it justice. On the way back from the lookouts there was a sign for "The Cazneaux Tree", this was a tree photographed by Harold Cazneaux in 1937 and the photo was titled "The Spirit of Endurance". The tree is a River Red Gum, check the difference from then to now. Google "The Spirit of Endurance"

THE CAZNEAUX TREE

We visited the Sacred Canyon - a short walk along a dry creek bed for a couple of hundred metres and there above a small waterhole was a rock wall with engravings on it, they sort of lined up with the interpretive info back at the start of the walk, but I think there may have been some additional work done on the wall, interesting all the same.
We took a drive from Wilpena to Blinman (an old copper mining town) where we indulged in a devonshire tea aussie style, with wattle seed scones and quondong jam and a quondong pie with cream and ice cream. The cafe was owned by an ex-German girl who is an ex-travel agent and tour guide, a very interesting lady. To the right hand side of the road just short of Blinman is an are know as the "Great Wall of China" for obvious reasons.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

From Blinman we traveled via Glass Gorge to Parachilna. Parachilna is a little village with a pub and not much else on the road to Leigh Creek and Maree.
Leaving Parachilna we traveled south until the turn off for the Brachina Gorge Geological Trail. The trail take you back over the Flinders Ranges, well not so much over as you drive along the dry riverbed of the gorge. This are has been flooded in February this year, but the track was pretty good and well signposted with plenty of information signs on the way describing the geological history of the area. After about 35ks of dirt we hit the bitumen that takes us back to Wilpena Pound. Gaila was glad to see the tar again.

After yesterdays excursion today I wanted to visit Bunyeroo Gorge that we missed out on, Gaila however had other ideas, she had had enough of the dirt tracks so I headed off myself. This was a little hillier and steeper than yesterday, but still a good drive with plenty of driving along the dry river bed in the gorge. In one spot I came around a bend into the river bed and there was an Outback Spirit tour bus parked and everyone was out enjoying their morning tea. Not being one to knock back an invitation I joined them for a cuppa and chat, they were very interested in our travels.
They were on a trip to Maree for three days for some flights over Lake Eyre. I continued on, visiting some homestead ruins before getting back to the van. I must say they certainly didn't have it easy. There was one bloke who took up a lease of land that was less than ideal for raising his cross bred bullocks, but the saving grace was the he had a permanent spring on his lease so he was more or less OK. That was until the miners came in and through a dodgy deal with the SA lands dept they had his boundary changed so that he lost his spring. Oh how times have changed and funnily enough they stay the same.

Wednesday today and we are headed off to some Aboriginal rock paintings at Arkaroo Rock, after trekking for a while we came to a fork in the track, they both went off in an upwards direction, we had just clammered over a rather steep rocky trail. Gaila decided, not for her and headed back to the the car. I continued on upwards, I'm glad she didn't keep going as the painting were rather disappointing. The first area had no protection for the paintings, so you guessed it there was so much graffiti on the rock the rock art was not visible. The second area was fully caged, but compared to the stuff we had seen a few years ago in Kakadu these were disappointing. There was still what appeared to be interference with the art. It make you think about the mentality of some of these people, I can't understand why someone would go to the effort of climbing the hill and then deface something like that. Go figure.......
Tomorrow we leave Wilpena Pound and are heading to Port Augusta for a few day before going to Woomera.


ARKAROO ROCK

So take care, until next time.

Week 12 Cessnock to Broken Hill

Well here we are almost two weeks into the next part of our travels and I thought I should get my act together and start getting this Blog up to date.
We left Cessnock on 1st May heading for Broken Hill; we travelled via Dunedoo, Gilgandra and arrived in Nyngan for a couple of nights. Nyngan located in the Bogan Shire on the banks of the Bogan River and what more can I say.
Heading for Broken Hill out of Nyngan you travel through Cobar and Wilcannia. Wilcannia is describes in the tourist book as “it was a thriving inland port with 13 hotels and a population of 13000. The legacy is apparent today on streets lined with historic architecture, best viewed by walking the town’s historic heritage trail’. Not bloody likely .The road was flat and straight with Roos, Emus and wild Goats wandering around. No close shaves, they were very well behaved and stayed off the road. About twenty Ks out of Broken Hill were signs warning that all fresh fruit and vegetable good had to be disposed of, so into the fruit fly bin it went, great, I suppose that’s one way of making people spend in you town.

MOBILE HOME AT NYNGAN C'VAN PARK

We stayed at Silverland Roadhouse Caravan Park, no grass, reasonable amenities and only $25 per night, staying 7 nights.

Broken Hill is a very large place, but boy we are still trying to find the “nice” part of town; yea I know I’m a snob. I is amazing that there we some houses (a term I use loosely to describe some of them) that looked like they were knocked together with what every scrap corrugated iron they could lay their hands on and then there would be thousands of dollars worth of solar panels on top, go figure.

Broken Hill is divided by the “Line of Load”, an enormous mullock heap and on top is a lookout and a memorial to the some 2000 odd miners that have been killed in the mines since they started operating in the late 1800’s. That 2000 does not include all the ones that have died after toiling down the mine for years and breathing in the dust and fumes from down the mines, especially in the early days. After reading some of the stories of the miners and the mine owners it is no wonder that Broken Hill was really the birth place of the Labour movement and trade unions in Australia, put basically the owners were absolute “bastards” and treated the worker like trash.

MINERS MEMORIAL

On a better note the Pro Hart Gallery was truly amazing, and he was an amazing bloke but with some rather funny ideas. The galley has a three storey tower in the middle with a walkway around it with some of his more famous paintings in pride of place, some truly brilliant pieces of art. Pro loved music, could listen to Bach all day and in particular his love of “big” organ music is evident by his large pipe organ on display in his gallery. He was a self taught musician and regularly played his organ.

To the west of Broken Hill is Silverton, an old mining town that was actually the start of mining in the area some time before the riches of Broken Hill were discovered. Now Silverton is a place where the tourists visit to view artist galleries and the Silverton Hotel. Silverton is also an area popular with film makers, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mad Max 2 and many others were made in the area. About 10k further on from Silverton is the Mundi Mundi Plain. The view from the lookout allows you to see the curvature of the earth and the sunset is magnificent.

The Living Desert Sculpture Park is an area where about 12 or so sculpture were done by artists from all around the world. They were all invited to take part over a three month period to complete a magnifcent park on top of a hill about 10 ks from Broken Hill.

LIVING DESERT SCULPTURE PARK

MUNDI MUNDI PLAIN

South East of Broken Hill is the Menindee Lakes system. A system of lakes filled by the Darling River, a lot of the roads around the lakes are currently under water due to the high level of the river, but it is an amazing wet lands area with a vast amount of bird life. The area in days gone was a sheep station called Kinchega, this is now the name of the National Park the covers the lake region. The old woolshed a Kinchega is a magnificent old building built from River Red Gum and had stations for 62 shearers and had sheared up to 110000 head of sheep a season in its better years. You can feel the smoothness and the lanolin in the timbers of the pens and runs in the shed.

KINCHEGA WOODSHED

South Broken Hill hides the little gem, Bells Milk Bar. An institution since the 1950s, a real trip back in time, the thick shake was that thick and cold a spoon was certainly required. They make all their own flavourings and syrups, very nice.

Next part of the trip will take us to Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges. So until them stay safe and have fun....