the Olgas



Millions of years ago The Olgas may have been shaped like Uluru but as the stone is much softer, it has broken into pieces and looks like a giant hand slung things everywhere.
I feel that they are  visually much more stunning than the rock and I undertook the 7.8km walk through them, much to my sorrow as it was for the most part a grueling trek, but I wouldn't have missed it.

Ayres Rock

Maureen was worried about the border quarantine inspection as we had lost so much fruit and vegetables going into S.A.  and we had been warned about how ruthless the inspectors were, so she was meticulous about having nothing that could be confiscated, however there was noone to inspect us when we went through the check point.
Arrived at a rest area 30 km short of "TheRock" on Tuesday afternoon where we hooked up with Don and Pat, Jean and tony plus Stan and Noela, whom we had met at Port Augusta together with John and Suzanne. Noel and Bev were parked about 100km back at Clinton Springs (where diesel was $2.20 a litre)  and joined us next day
We camped 30km short of the rock at a rest area where there is a hill which is a good vantage point to see it.

It had been raining all the way from Coober Pedy but eased in the afternoon and we were having happy hour when Don mentioned that it was raining in the national park. Maureen immediately wanted to see water on the rock so we set out post haste and sure enough there were streams cascading down it.

Have seen many pictures of the rock but there is no substitute for looking at it.
The huge monolith towers over you dominating and almost threatening. everyone agreed it was a bit eery.
Looked at the climb track and decided it was not for us so we drove round it.

Coober Pedy

It's a red letter day when we leave at 7.30am. but never the less thats what happened.

After an hour we stopped at Lake Hart as we could see the lake in the distance. Decided to walk down to the water. It was a magnificant expereience. We walked on the salt flats and saw a mountain of salt piled up from an old saltworks, Emu prints in the ground, reflections in the water and watched trains on the Adelaide - Darwin rail line.

Arrived in Coober Pedy mid afternoon and booked into a caravan park which pretty much resembled an ants nest. It certainly wasn't designed with vehicles like "Moonshine" in mind. The entrance was very narrow and I staked the wall of a tyre on a garden bordered with sleepers. The power point didn't work so the owner plugged us into the next  site. The bloke next door came back, found his lead unplugged  and wanted to punch me in the nose.

Changed the tyre next morning and got out of there.
Looked for a tyre in town and all I was offered was one for over $600!! So decided to take the risk without a spare until we get to Alice Springs.
  Noel and Bev whom we had met at Wauchope NSW and also at Port Augusta. were in a a public parking area and they told us about a cheap campsite on the edge of town so we followed him down there and got secure parking with power and water for 12 bucks a night.
The Breakaways is a long, low, broken range of low, weathered mountains of incredible colours 35kms from town, so we spent Saturday afternoon out there. Stopped at the "dogfence"on the way back. At about 6000km its the longest fence in the world and was built to keep dingoes from stock. It runs from Surfers Paradise to west of the Eyre Peninsula on the Nullarbor.
On Sunday we looked at 4 underground churches round town.
Monday it was a private home, a lookout, an underground hotel and a motel and tried our hand at "noodling" late in the afternoon.

Maureen at the salt pile



remains of the salt racks

Goods train from Darwin



Emu footprint



Pimba

Travelled north on the Stuart Highway just short of 200km we passed Lake Gairdner (which Malcolm Campbell had driven his bluebird on in an attempt at the world speed record) ,one of the lake eyre family to Pimba, which pretty much consists of a roadhouse with a campground attached There's toilets and paid showers so it's a fairly neat place.
took the bus to Woomera. Looked at all the rockets and other things that were developed there in static outside dispalys.
We visited the 2 museums in the township and spent about half a day there ( could have spent much longer as the exhibits were excellent and reminded us of things we knew growing up)
should have gone back to Pimba but pushed on to Roxby Downs and  opal mining town of Andamooka.
Unfortunately, it was too late when we got there and returned under cover of darkness. The other unfortunate thing about it was that the fuel economy was calculated at 1.6km/l !!