Coober Pedy - Alice Springs

Pippa – We have been having fun. I miss people back at home. I have been so busy going to Dalhousie -a hot spring in the middle of nowhere. We had to make a diversion to Alice Springs because we had a smashed back windscreen. We are stayed at a caravan park it has a jumping pillow and something on every night except for Thursday. Did you know that stars twinkle and planets don't? Is it cold in Melbourne? It is up here at night but at day it is low 20's to the lowest of 16.

Campbell – We went to Coober Pedy and went on a mining tour and we slept under ground. We went to Dalhousie Springs and they were 37’C. It was nice. We saw lots of dingos and at night they howled outside our camper trailer. We are staying at a nice place in Alice Springs. It has a thing called a jumping pillow. Today we went to Standley Chasm. Next we are going to Uluru.


Lachlan- The Mountains at the Painted Desert look like they were painted that’s who they got their name. The fossils there are manly shells. Then we went to a 37’C springs called Dalhousie springs. At night 13 dingoes were howling just outside our caravan. It was amazing. Then we headed of to Ulur but on the NT and SA boarder our back window shattered so we went to Alice Springs. We are staying at a place with a jumping pillow. Then we went to Stanly Chasm.

Katherine (she gets called this when she has been naughty) –
Well a lot has happened since we last posted anything. After Coober Pedy we went on what we thought was a small diversion from the Stuart Highway to the Painted Desert. This ended up being a two-day off road adventure on 4x4 only tracks. The Painted Desert was quite spectacular and we found some very interesting fossils. We met up with a couple from the Barossa in the car park – Mick and Sue (Hi guys if you are reading this) and had a great night camping by a dry creek bed with them. They suggested we go to Dalhousie Springs so we set off next morning along some very interesting tracks to Dalhousie Springs. The Springs were an oasis in the middle of the desert. While it was probably 15 degrees during the day and down to about 4 degrees at night it was a very pleasant 37 degrees in the springs. In the morning we could see the steam rising off the water as Rhys and the kids had an early morning dip (I was official photographer and therefore couldn’t go in the water!).

Just over the SA/NT border we discovered we the back window of the canopy on the Triton had smashed (can you believe that Mick and Sue after we had been talking about it the other night). There was red dust EVERYWHERE. This event caused us to divert to Alice Springs rather than going to Uluru and the MacDonnell Ranges. We are presently staying in a lovely caravan park – The MacDonnell Ranges Park – just out of Alice Springs. It has great facilities for the kids and free entertainment most nights. Last nights we went star gazing with a local astronomer with a telescope the Park has set up on site. We got to see Saturn through the scope and learned all about the constallations and planets visible in the sky. Tonight there is an Australiana concert which we are listening to from the tent.

Today we went to Simpson’s Gap and Standley Chasm which were very interesting and picturesque. We went for a bit of a hike at Standley Chasm and ended up on this ridge looking out onto amazing rocky outcrops – very spectacular. Although the countryside is very rugged out here it is also very beautiful. Lachlan managed to catch a frog – surprise, surprise. According to one of the aboriginal girls we spoke to the frogs usually burrow underground in search of water so it was a real fluke that we saw it at all.

We head off on Friday for Uluru and the Olgas then on Sunday we go to Kings Canyon to stay overnight at the resort there (for a king’s ransom) and then on to a couple of days in the West MacDonnell ranges before we return to Alice Springs for a couple of days to get the window in the canopy fitted (there was about a week’s wait for the window. In Melbourne we could have got it the same day. You realize how remote we are when confronted with such things).

We are having a great time. The nights are v.v. cold. I’ll definitely be wearing my thermals to bed tonight. I know it’s not a good look but it is meant to get down to about 2 degrees. Having said that though it got up to about 21 degrees during the day which was very pleasant.

Rhys - from Coober Pedy we headed off up the highway then turned off to the Painted Desert, very remote and rough, we saw some cows as we went through and apparently they are so tough they can live of rocks! Bush camped with a couple from Kupunda SA very memorable night sitting by the fire, a roast meal then marshmallows for desert! From there off to the Pink Roadhouse for a Pink Milkshake in Oonadatta, a must for all travelers. Along the track for a bit then off to Dalhousie Springs, very tough country. Camped at Dalhousie Springs, where the Dingo’s sung us some songs. Woke up early in the morning and in the Spring water to see the sunrise through the steam coming off the water, very memorable. Many little fish in the water that liked to “nibble”, also had trouble with the Lachlan and Campbell piranhas, fortunately I survived the repeated attacks.

Leaving Dalhousie was a bit of an adventure for which we had to detour for. Broken water pump (on the camper, thought we had lost all the water), broken rear window on the car and a punctured reserve water tank in the rear of the car and low on diesel fuel left me feeling a bit venerable with such low water supplies in a very isolated and desolate location. Set off for Finke in the hope of getting fuel, no fuel in Finke! From there directly to Kulgara for fuel ($2.14/l). Carrying 180 litres of fuel we got there with the fuel light on and only 1 jerry can filled with fuel. Glad we took this route as it got us fuel but meant another 250kms for driving, DVDs are a good thing for 8 hours driving in a day.

In Alice now, what a beautiful town set among the MacDonnell ranges with white trunk gum trees. Fist days here chasing up bits to make running repairs. It is amazing the little things that break. Many “local” sites to see. Went to Simpson’s Gap then to Standley Chasm today great place to explore (especially further on from the first Chasm where virtually nobody else goes). Tomorrow shopping packing up getting ready to head off to Yulara, Kings Canyon, Finke Gorge back to Alice then off north again to chase the sun.

Averaging about 15.6l/km from the car when towing the camper. Does not seem to matter if you are doing 20-80km/h on snotty outback “tracks” on 115km/h on the highway. So far have traveled about 4200km of this about 1000km on outback “tracks”.

Pt Agusta - Whyalla to CooBer Pedy

Campbell – we were sleeping under the ground. It was an old opal mine. We went on a mine tour. Did you now only 93% of opal is good opal the rest is unformed opal worth nothing.

Lachlan- we slept under ground in a tunnel. We could not tell the time! The night before we went on a tunnel tour and learnt how to dig opals and we also learnt who to tell which opal is which. We are going to get as close to ulur as we can.

Pippa-We went to Whyalla and saw the bay from the look out. We played at the playground. We went on the beach and got shells. At Coober Pedy we went on a mine tour.

Rhys – traveled from Pt Augusta to Whyalla, back to Pt Augusta then to Woomera then to Coober Pedy. The kids were impressed to sleep underground in CP. It’s a very long way between drinks. I liked the rockets at Woomera, its great that Australia was the forth county in the world to put a satellite into orbit, but, it’s a pity we are not as involved in that sort of work these days. All the locals were exited that we brought a few showers of rain with us!

Kathy – we stayed at Port Augusta a couple of nights and fully set up the annexe which was very civilized! We went to Whyalla for the day so Rhys could visit clients. For a mining and steel town it was actually very pretty. The sea water was azure blue and the bay area was surrounded by lovely hills that made it look like a picture on a tropical island brochure. We are now in Coober Pedy which is much better than I remembered from my Year 10 outback trip. We stayed in an underground room at a mine/caravan park and did a mine tour at night which was very interesting. Although Campbell stole the show by sharing with the group about his star role in the Honda motorbike advert!

Mildura to Broken Hill

Kathy – Today we did some shopping for essentials in Mildura – including a jacket for Rhys so he doesn’t keep trying to steal mine! We saw my dad’s art exhibition at Gallery 25. It was great to see his works all displayed in one spot in such a great setting. Very impressive Dad! We made a detour to see Big Lizzie, a huge steam engine, in Red Cliffs. I remember seeing it as a child.

We then went to Mungo National Park. We got there on dusk. It was not particularly warm but we were able to get a fire going which staved off the cold.

In the morning we went on the driving tour of Mungo National Park and walking on the cliffs of the ancient salt lake known as the Walls of China. We were able to see sea shells and fossils of plants as they had dried in what would then have been mud.

We then made the long and dusty drive from Mungo to Broken Hill. We went on what we now realize was the back road! There have been heavy rains up here and you can see how impassible they would have been even only a few days ago. We are now staying a couple of days in Broken Hill.

Rhys – from Merbein we traveled to Mungo National park where we stayed the night. Very cold wind blew all night. Had a fire and Kathy cooked a nice chicken & cous cous dish. Went for a night walk with Pippa and saw many spiders that had “glow in the dark” eyes. Went around Mungo Lake and climbed a big sand dune which we ran down. Also threw paddie melons at each other. Mungo was well worth a look.

After Mungo we traveled to Pooncarrie, Menndee to Broken Hill. Met some people in the club that had children living in Mooroolbark! 300km of gravel road, with some good ruts, it is very slippery after a bit of rain! Average speed was 89km/h consuming 14.5 l/km.

Pippa – I loved the sand dunes but there was no water around anywhere. At the visitors centre there was a sheering shed that has not been used for 30 years and you can still smell sheep. We saw Big Lizze an old steam engine. We went to My Grandpa’s art exhibition.

Lachlan – The sand dunes at Mungo were very tall and fun to run down. We saw a dead cat and some rabbits. Every time you tried to get up the sand dunes the sand would just make you slide back down. I threw paddie melons up the hill and it would roll back down most the time anyway. We saw many fossils their and tracks in the sand. Dad was a whuss he didn’t run down the hill without any encouragement. The paddie melons were huge. To day we are going to go maybe into a mine. Dad has to work today. Animal tracks we saw were dingo, goat, kangaroo, pig, rat, bird, lizard and wallabies.
Campbell – When we went to the sand dunes I had lots of fun. It was very hard to climb the sand dunes but it was still fun. I went up and down.

Mildura

Pippa – today I was in the car for 7 hours. Tonight we are staying near the Murray River. We went to the pub for tea. We sore Big Lizze an old steam engine that came from Melbourne.

Campbell – it was a very long drive. We watched some very funny movies.

Lachlan- Today 13/6/08 we to go on our trip around Australia. In the car for 7 hours was not the best start I think but it was worth it. The place we are staying has a T.V., ping pong table and a little room with a fridge and other kitchen essentials.

Kathy – Well, our trip has begun. We traveled today to Mildura and are staying at a nice caravan park just outside Mildura by the Murray. The seven hour trip was quite OK – the DVD player was particularly helpful in keeping the kids occupied. Tomorrow we will see my Dad’s art exhibition in Mildura and then start on the way to Broken Hill. So far so good!

Rhys - saw many crops have just sprouted, these hold the hopes of the farmers. My hopes and prayers are that this year we get sufficient rains to get a decent crop. Triton got 14.5l/km with an average speed of 99km/h. Paid $1.79 for diesel in Melbourne, diesel in Mildura $1.85. Will be interesting to see what the highest cost we pay during our trip.

Car Pics

This is our new "home". It comes complete with two queen size beds. Walk out (outside) toilet, kitchen sink, two burner gas cooker, 80ltr water tank, 2 jerry cans, 2 gas bottle, onboard battery, big dog box. all this for only 450kg!







This Trition hopefully has all the gear one could want for our adventure. some of its features are, UHF radio (we usually sit on channel 24), dvd player, long range fuel tank, dual battery, ARB suspension, diff locks, canopy, bull bar, driving lights ect..

Getting started

Here's our home for the next 15 weeks - clean and in one piece. We'll do a before and after for you!

We've also included a photo of Rhys' new beaut Triton, for all you blokes out there.