Day 5, Friday 1/7/2016, Coober Pedy to Uluru

Alarms were set for 0600hrs, with cars packed, breakfast eaten, dishes done and toilet stop,  all leaving together at 0657hrs. Three minutes before the planned time. It was a luxury to not have to pack tents up. Watching the sun rise across the desert through fog while driving out of Coober Pedy! Fog! Crazy desert!

We stopped at Marla at 0930hrs. Half an hour for fuel, toilet, coffee, hot chocolate and hot chips for the littlies. Then heading along the Stuart Highway there were some lovely mesas and rocky hills, then small, dark red sand dunes that were covered with grass and shrubs as we crossed into the Northern Territory.

Lunch at Erldunda was just sandwiches in the carpark but we had fun visiting the emus, and Amara and Eliza were excited to hold a 'baby' emu egg. Then we were driving through green scenery and rain! It's not your typical desert these days. The red sand dunes get to a decent size past Mt. Connor, with desert oaks in the swales.

About 5 to 10km before Yulara we turned left, following a small sandy track through the sand dunes to our planned bush camp "Uluru By Sunrise" on Wikicamps. It was everything I had hoped for with beautiful red dunes and a view to both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. (This site has since been banned, so don't go here now). Leah's rain goddess title was in play again with us arriving there in the rain. Col and I chatted to some friendly Canadian campers Robert and Alison for a bit and Col set up the dunny with a view of the rock!

We had a bit of a fire that we occasionally stood by, but not wanting to sit in the drizzly rain. After tea the Parkes clan taught Siân how to play Euka in the kid's set up under the Foxwing Awning. I fell asleep to some didgeridoo music mixed with a synthesiser. There's a group having a loud concert across the dunes to the east.

Day 4, Thursday 30/6/2016, Coober Pedy, day trip to "The Breakaways"

It still felt like night when we woke at 0730hrs with it being pitch black underground. Eliza and Amara were having a great time playing on the 'roof'. Watch out for the vent shafts! After breakfast Siân and Jack started the clothes washing. Jordan did the dishes and then helped with the clothes, while Col and I went grocery shopping. Col then needed a nap as he has a mild flu. Siân gave him some drugs, so I didn't even have to get my trusty 1st aid kit down. Leah was about to go and do some sightseeing without us. I thought it might be fun to spend some quality time together and asked if she could do her grocery shopping now while Gary was doing the washing, so that we could all do something together later (gosh I'm bossy).

After lunch I took everyone to Umoona 1st as it has a good museum and opal display, then Morgan's took us to Faye's house for a tour of a house that 3 women dug by hand over a 10 year period.

Next I wanted to see the "Breakaways" which is about 20km north of town on a dirt road. 

Bugger! We got almost there, but the 2nd dirt road was closed. I was so keen to get there that I decided to try from the other direction which is up the Stuart Highway and then in. The others followed which made me happy. The roads were open from the other direction, yay!!

Wow! It blew us away. It was an amazing vista of colourful mesas. Everyone managed to shift a few of those driving cobwebs. Jack ran straight down to the valley floor, Gary went across to an 'island', Eliza and Amara found some caves and Leah got to play with her camera, with Peter quite taken with her work. Jordan and Siân were my models, with Jordan and Siân then pretending to fall off a cliff. Siân had her first drive of a manual (on a dirt road). I just love rocks!

On getting back to Riba's we realised we had forgotten to top up our water so Col and Gary ducked back into town. We got the clothes off the line with everyone then grabbing their own to fold and pack away. Then an early dinner so we'd be on time for the mine tour.

Leah wasn't so fussed on it but I thought it was great. Very real and factual. Not over commercialised.  He talked us through each stage of getting your claim: counsel applications, license, staking it out and lodgement. How to find, dig and blast a slip, and most interesting, the science behind it all. 

We all had a chance to use the divining rod, and having gone in sceptical found that I had the power! My rods would go crazy everytime I passed the slip! I've had a wonderful day.

Day 3, Wednesday 29/6/2016, Olary Creek to Coober Pedy

Olary Creek did not disappoint with -5 degrees C this morning. There is ice on everything! Up at 0630hrs for a huge day of driving. It was lovely being up for sunrise. Jack and Siân got the pack up speed award today. They were done before the sun rose and before Jordan even emerged from her swag! Poor Jordan, she has a headache today.

Jack now has the Fawlty Towers award and may well lose the packup award as he leant his weight on the kitchen bench which collapsed. A billy of boiling water fell (lucky Siân had moved). All of the pots, mugs and other dishes fell into the newly made red mud from the billy water. Col wiped the mud off things while I washed everything in hot soapy water and Jack dried. It put our camp packup back by 20 minutes, but still done on time.

Eliza and Amara were bugging their quite tense parents and each other so I took Amara for a walk up the railway track which she loved as she's not allowed up there. Then I took the two of them for a short walk up the creek bed. We chucked a left and found Col packing up the dunny. The girls and I planted some seeds over the spot where we left our fertilizer. We planted a poop tree!

Leah and Gary again want us to go ahead of them saying they'll only be 20 minutes behind us and will meet us at Peterborough. I'm reluctant to split up again as it's best to all stick together, but again, with their faster car, not yet desert and the pressure being taken off them we decided to go ahead.

It's $164 per couple for two nights accommodation and a mine tour at Riba's in Coober Pedy. I'm wondering if we'll be able to get to it as the couple from last night told us that William Creek Road was closed. We waited at Peterborough for the others. They took about an hour longer than we hoped. I don't think we'll get there before 7pm.

Jack enjoyed driving over the Flinders Ranges with the fun curves. We took the usual photo at the lookout being the 4th one that we've done.

After filling our fuel tanks in Port Augusta we had to push on as we are running so late. Leah is upset that she couldn't get some groceries at Port Augusta and says she has nothing for tea.

We had a quick sandwich stop on the Stuart Highway. There are police everywhere doing alcohol and drug testing. While pulled over a whole convoy of police cars, bikes and horses went past. Apparently they're expecting a rowdy demonstration at Roxby Downs in the next few days against the dumping of nuclear waste.

We pulled over at another lookout with the best views along the Stuart Highway of a salt pan (currently more a lake) for a quick photo. Morgans/Davies didn't stop so we've lost them again. I'm not sure what they're planning or how we'll find them. I think they know where the accommodation is. It's on the itinerary, but it's a bit tricky as it's out of town in a working mine.

Yay, we ended up finding them 60km south of our destination. They had gone to a roadhouse at the Woomera turnoff. We've only seen galahs, sheep and emus today.

Arriving at Riba's Underground Camping and Rooms, 15 minutes late for our booked and paid for mine tour, plan B was required. Swapping tonight's tour with tomorrow's John's Pizza night is perfect as it covers Leah's lack of food and the fact that we're too tired to cook or go on a tour. So as it turns out, we are back having pizza in the same place exactly 4 years later, to the day! Happy birthday Fiona!

Amara felt sick at dinner and there were a few long faces after such a long couple of days. I'm sure they're thinking "when does this get fun?" Just with our time limits it's worth working hard to get to the middle quick to have more time at the highlights. Sorry guys. Gary ordered the "Coat of Arms" pizza and Jack and Siân had kangaroo on their pizzas.

After our showers we went to bed in our rooms underground and I certainly didn't read for long tonight.

Day 10, Saturday 30/06/2012, Coober Pedy to Lake Eyre

Breakfast was included in our rate. Make it yourself in the kitchen. Col emptied our water tank as the water tastes funny from Ceduna. He filled it from the motel. Everyone else went down the road to a public filling station where they put 20 cents in the machine and topped up their water with the best artesian water in Australia. After topping up with fuel we went to Umoona Opal Mine and Museum at mum’s recommendation.

 

It was a great museum, movie and house and mine tour. Good one mum, and so close and handy. I bought a $40 opal and Jordan bought a $14 one.  Jamie is so excited about the opal her mum bought her. Bruce seems to have ‘the runs’, looks like gastrostop might be the go.

Australia now supplies 90% of the world’s opals at the highest of quality. It only costs $65.50 to get a permit to stake out a piece of land 50x100m, awesome! I know where I can get cheap land one day if I need to. Also, out of 100 mines, about 10 find opals and one makes it rich. Better than most other odds (LOTTO anyway).

The road to William Creek is graded. Driving through ‘digs’ looks like the old Coober Pedy would have. It’s such a busy little town now.

Then you’re hit by the nothingness. Flat scrubland. No hills or trees as far as the eye can see. I can definitely picture this as an ancient seabed.

It’s a fast run at 80km/hr on William Creek Rd. Which I’m sure would be a different story if there had been any rain. Stuart needed to stop and let some air out of his tyres. They were inflated in the cold, and now running in warm weather the pressure has gone too high. These ‘tyre dogs’ come in handy.

Rude buggers! Just drove past without waving! Just not kosher in the Outback. Have to stick together out here. 14km west of William Creek we passed a turn off to Anna Creek Station, the world’s largest cattle station. Had literally a few drops of rain here.

William Creek Hotel was a wonderful stop. Finally an Outback hotel that’s not abandoned. It certainly is an iconic pub, full of character. We helped to cover the walls with our business cards then ordered our lunch, just in the nick of time. We arrived at 1.30pm and the kitchen closes at 2pm. We enjoyed a beer or wine in the pub and then sat down for the best burgers ever.

For those with some money a sightseeing flight over Lake Eyre is on offer here, but too expensive for our family of 4. We’ll walk on it instead.

At the turn off to Haligan Bay you can self register and pay $9 for a permit, but it is included in our SA desert Parks Pass. The road in to Lake Eyre was pretty good, although a bit bumpy, plenty of small corrugations, dips and washaways. Some parts were sandy, others rocky. Those not used to corrugations (eg Gunbarrel) thought they were terrible.

It was a flat scrubby landscape with the occasional herd of cattle. There was a curious dingo that stopped to look at us, sniffing into the air and a couple of wedgies.

The landscape then abruptly changes and you feel as if you have landed on the moon. A black, grey and white valley of mesas with Lake Eyre glowing white in the background.

Lake Eyre is awesome! I particularly love the patterns that the salt makes. There was no water to be seen, but soft parts where you crack through the salt crust and sink into the soft, muddy silt beneath. Most of us played on the lake until sunset.

Again such a beautiful remote place has been ruined for camping with poles and wires confining you to a tiny gavel car park area to camp in. You can’t even see the lake from where we were camped, and looking at poles and a toilet block just weren’t what we imagined. I guess for those that like amenities it would suit, but not my ‘cup of tea’. Also fires were not allowed. With the freezing wind biting into you, this can be a major problem. We all decided to have our 2 night stay elsewhere, having enjoyed the sunset and tomorrow the sunrise on Lake Eyre, we were satisfied.
Poor Lisa and Stuart. Their fridge froze. With that plus the corrugations, they had a can of soft drink explode spurting a slushy everywhere.

The older kids, Jordan, Jessica, Jack, Madison and Michael, were a bit mental tonight, spinning, chasing, falling over and getting fits of the giggles.

Bruce came running back to camp excited that the lake was glowing from the moon light, so we went over for a few night shots. Lisa and I like this one, although it is slightly blurry.

I think there are a few rattled nerves in our group at the moment. It is normal to have a few meltdowns halfway through a trip. It can be quite a shock to the system, especially with such tight time schedules. It’s a shame we have to get back to work so soon.  

Day 9, Friday 29/06/2012, Mt Finke to Coober Pedy

This is one of Col's thunderbox shots. A spectacular sunrise at Mt Finke!

Happy Birthday Fiona!!

It was the most amazing fireball sunrise. Awesome welcome for Fiona to her birthday. From Mount Finke we took the northern branch back to the Googs Track which takes you along the edge of a small clay pan.
 

There were a couple more suggestions for a group name. Everyone likes “In a Rut” more now that they’ve experienced the driving out here, but even more popular was “Red Dirt” by Stuart.
Bruce then came up with a song for this section “Googs Vibration”! Good one. Enjoy those ruts!

The dunes were pretty small north of Mount Finke, with the largest being between the lake and mountain. It wasn’t long before we crossed the Trans Australian Railway and came across the dog proof fence again. It's amazing to think that this is the same fence that is on the border of NSW and Queensland!

From here it is an easy graded dirt road to the Stuart Highway. We planned to stop at Tarcoola pub to meet some locals, but all the people had disappeared!  There was this whole town, but no people. Pub, hospital, police station, school, church and post office. The houses had BBQs and chairs on the verandah, as if the people vanished instantly leaving everything behind. Peter was funny. He knocked on one of the doors. There was no answer, he then proceeded to tidy up their verandah, righting chairs. There seemed to be only one occupied house at the east end of town near the railway track, but we didn’t meet anyone. It was such a fun, spooky ghost town, that was most likely abandoned when the mine closed down.

Travelling east again, crossing the railway several times we come upon another mostly abandoned town at Kingoonya. We were hoping to visit these outback pubs. We had lunch at a rest stop just west of the town that had a pit toilet, table and bins.

There was one house only with a sign of life and a couple of dogs. The fuel bowsers looked disused and the general store had no floor left on the joists. This town has died on and off since the Stuart highway was moved east of here to Glendambo. There is fuel and supplies available at Glendambo. They have a population of 33 people and 22 500 sheep.

Then we were heading north on the Stuart highway (where Stuart needed to get a photo), to Coober Pedy where we checked in to our underground motel. Cool! Fun sleeping in a cave.

After a quick shower we headed into town as there was no laundry here. Col stayed at the Laundromat with Jordan while Jack and I did the grocery shopping. Most in the group did a similar thing, hoping to have more sightseeing time the following morning. It was quite a late dinner but so delicious and happy, fun company and a little bit of wine at John’s Pizza. I hope Fiona enjoyed her birthday. Messages sent back and forth with our Friday night dinner crew. It’s a shame they’re not all here.