17/9/2013 Port Augusta to Laura to Tailem Bend

17/9/2013 Port Augusta to Laura

We drove from Glendambo to Port Augusta. The further south we drove the more green the vegetation became. From Port Augusta to Laura the roadside was vivid green. We have never seen this part of the country so green and with so much grass.  From Horrocks Pass to Laura is really picturesque country.  At Laura we indulged in one of the special locally produced Golden North  icecreams.

The weather was very overcast so although we enjoyed the scenery I didn’t get many photos for the day.


18/9/2013 Tailem Bend

It rained during the night. That was the first rain we have had since leaving Stuarts Point. It rained as we travelled during the day, and gave the car and caravan its first wash for months. We went into Adelaide to Patritti Cellar Door Sales and bought some bottles of sparkling to add some zing to our lives. After that we followed the road out to Tailem Bend where the caravan park is on the Murray River bank, admiring the river as we followed its course.

13/9/2013 to15/9/2013 Coober Pedy

13/9/2013 Coober Pedy

We drove to Coober Pedy and set up camp. After shopping and lunch we went noodling in the public fossicking area. We found colour along the edge of the carpark area so we spent the rest of the afternoon crawling around in the dust finding, not a fortune, some nice pieces of colourful potch.

14/9/2013 Coober Pedy

Today we went to church. The Seventh-day Adventist church in Coober Pedy is in a disused mine, underground. From the surface it looks like all the rest of the landscape, but underground a comfortable worship area has been carved out.

The young minister, Pr Allan,  is a Tongan, employed under the Global Mission plan.

There were 6 visitors, including us and about a dozen other people from the local community. It was an enjoyable fellowship, and a challenging worship service. In the afternoon as we walked once again we bent our eyes to the ground and searched for opal. In the evening we treated ourselves to an outing at the local pizza shop.

15/9/2013 The Breakaways

We drove out to the beautiful desert area called The Breakaways. This is the edge (sand dunes?) of the ancient sea which once covered this area. We marvelled at the varied colours of the sand hills and their weathered shapes. Down in the deep part of the sea floor we found fossils of ancient shellfish.  We continued on to the dog fence which runs for almost 6000 km (it used to be 9,000 km) and then we  returned through the opal fields and stopped and fossicked over some of the earth tailings for the rest of the afternoon.

16/9/2013 Coober Pedy to Glendambo

Today we had intended to leave Coober Pedy early, but after buying some supplies we had another look in the public fossicking area. Someone (possibly the council) had added another load of tailings  to the carpark area so we had a look and Gerd got so involved in noodling that we didn’t leave until about 2:00pm by which time we were covered in dust and our hair felt like it had a can of talcum powder shaken through it.

We travelled to Glendambo and were very glad of a long hot shower ever though the bore water was quite hard and salty.

11/9/2013 to 12/9/2013 Cadney Roadhouse and The Painted Desert

11/9/2013 Cadney Roadhouse

After leaving Marla we drove the short distance to Cadney Roadhouse. After doing some washing and car cleaning we spent the rest of the day having a rest.

12/9/2013 The Painted Desert

Leaving the caravan at Cadney Roadhouse we drove 100km east to Arckaringa Hills and The Painted Desert.  It is a spectacular, colourful,  beautiful desert area.

9/9/2013 to 10/9/2013 Marla Roadhouse and Mintabie

9/9/2013 Marla Roadhouse

We left Uluru and drove back to the Stuart Highway and then south to Marla where we set up camp.

10/9/2013 Mintabie

We drove the 35km to Mintabie opal mining town. The man at the general store told us that we could fossick anywhere and to come back at the end of the day and if we didn’t collect any specimens he would give us some.

After looking around another miner directed us to a recently vacated site and told us to noodle in the tracks made by the front end loader. We did that and found lots of colourful potch, which made us feel successful.

Later in the afternoon two other young miners allowed us to watch and assist with their noodling machine. They were running tailings from an old mine along a conveyor belt under a black light which allowed them to “see” the opal and extract it.

At the end of the day we returned to the store, bought an icecream each and, true to his word the owner generously gave us a bag of opal chip.  That made our day. At dusk we drove back to Marla, saying that next time we are in the vicinity we will visit Mintabie again, and possibly camp there.

Too busy all day for pictures!!!

8/9/2013 Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

8/9/2013 Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

After sunrise pictures of Uluru we drove to Kata Tjuta. Firstly we walked The Valley of the Winds. It is a long walk - 7.4km. The second lookout was so windy we had to hold onto our hats and take care that we weren’t blown over.

After lunch we walked Walpa Gorge. It has immense high sides.

6/9/2013 to 7/9/2013 Uluru (Ayers Rock)

6/9/2013 and 7/9/2013 Uluru (Ayers Rock )

We drove to Mt Connor Lookout and looked at the mountain and then in the other direction to the salt lake.

At Uluru we took pictures to record all "The Rock’s" colouful moods from sunrise to sunset.

7/9/2013

We climbed Uluru. We left about 10:30am and we got back about 2:30pm. It was very windy going up the chain, we almost turned back. When we got back we found out that the climbed had been closed just after we left. We were the last ones to descend. The ranger was waiting for us at the locked gate to make certain that no one else was on the rock.

We followed the dotted line...

 Made it!!

Gerd says that he is too old to do it again.

5/9/2013 Rainbow Valley

5/9/2013 Rainbow Valley

We left Alice Springs and drove to Stuarts Well, set up in the free camping area, and then drove out to Rainbow Valley. We walked around enjoying the beautiful site but not enjoying millions of flies which kept buzzing in our faces and bombarding our eyes,  even behind our glasses.  We waited for sunset to take picture of the rocks glowing red in the late afternoon light.

4/9/2013 Serpentine Gorge and Alice Springs

4/9/2013 Serpentine Gorge and Alice Springs

We got up early and drove to Mount Sonder Lookout to watch the sunrise.

After packing up we drove to Serpentine Gorge and climbed up the very steep hillside to the lookout from which we could see the gorge valley twisting away into the distance and all across the MacDonnell Ranges.

When we walked to the gorge entrance we found that, like several other gorges,  access up the valley was blocked by a pool of water.

We returned to Alice Springs and in the evening we went to the dinner provided by the local church to introduce their outreach program. Jeff Youlden was the guest speaker.

3/9/2013 Ormiston Gorge and Redbank Gorge

3/9/2013 Ormiston Gorge and Redbank Gorge

In the morning we drove to Ormiston Gorge. We did the Ghost Gum walk up to the lookout and then walked the floor of  the gorge between the high walls.

  

We returned to the caravan for lunch then in the afternoon drove to Redbank Gorge.  The country was very beautiful with wild flowers.  

We walked into the gorge. It ends in an impressive slot canyon which it filled with water. Gerd wanted to swim and explore it further but I insisted that it was dangerous without a companion and I wasn’t going along. 

On our way back to camp we drove into the 2 Mile Waterhole on the Finke River.