Days 3,4 and 5

Day 3

After a good night’s sleep we repacked the van and hit the road again.

2 & ½ hours later, so as not to disappoint Nathan, we stopped at Burra bakery so I could have my regular Pie. This time I added a Cornish pasty that was recommended by Joy (thanks Joy)

On the road again (sounds like something out of a Willie Nelson song) we headed for Port Pirie.

Once there we booked into the motel for the night that Ange had won at the Melbourne Caravan and Camping Show.  Then we went for a drive for a bit of a look around and took the kids to the local skate park.  Ange and I went for a walk along the swimming beach whilst the boys scooted to their hearts content.

Back at the motel the boys decided that the pool was looking inviting, that soon changed once they hopped in and found that it was freezing!!

The boys then went back to the skate park while Ange and I got dressed for tea. We then walked to the Sportsmen’s Tavern for a nice cooked meal of Steak and Vegies and home to bed for an early night.

Day 4

Up early and the boys again went off to the skate park whilst Ange and I hoed into a cooked buffet brekky, packed up and yep you guessed it hit the road again to Port Augusta with a nice view of the Spencer Gulf along the way.

Stopping at Pimba we unhooked the van and sped off to Andamooka to check out what this Opal country stuff is all about.  Driving into town there was this big sign about “The Long Bus” which is supposed to be some big Opal exhibition and tourist spot, so we thought that’s the place to check first.

Andamooka is not what you would call an organised township in fact I reckon they dropped 200 houses from about 10klm’s up in the sky and left them where they fell as it was just a rabble of shacks and shanties.  We found The Long Bus where we had a welcoming committee of a shabby looking woman who waved us up into her driveway.

She went onto explain that the bus hasn’t been used for about 15 years but we were welcome to have a look and then come up and have a look at her exhibition of Opals.

The bus took us all of 30 seconds to look in as it was just shelves of red dirt and nothing else.  So, up to the nice ladies exhibit where she gave a spiel about how Opals are found and cut etc before trying to sell us some polished rocks of all shapes, sizes and prices. We managed to avoid handing over our “hard earned” (shut up Nathan) and decided that “Noodling” for our own fortune was the way to go.  So off to the public noodling area for a fossick which (is no surprise) left us throwing a couple of nice looking rocks into the car.  We headed back to Woomera for a look at the Rocket and missile exhibit before hooking up the van again and driving to Lake Hart, our stop for the night.

We set up the van just in time to have a beer and watch the beautiful sunset over the salt Lake.   There were many other caravaners at the stop and we met a couple from SA called “Thorpey and Di” (well that was on the back of their caravan anyway).  They were really nice and were heading to Finke River.  They invited us to call in and camp a night with them later on.

 A night time walk down on the lake before settling in for a good nights sleep.  

Day 5

God its going quick!!!!!

Whilst the boys went for a run we got up for breakfast and a quick walk back down to the salt flats of the lake before packing up and hitting the bitumen again to drive to Glendambo for fuel and on to Coober Pedy.  Pulling into town we went to the visitor centre to find out what we could do whilst here.  It was here that we settled on the Big 4 Park instead of Riba’s Underground park because it was in town whereas Riba’s was about 5 K’s out of town. After setting up we went for a walk  to a look around town and due to Thomas’s interest in Opals we visited every Bloody Opal shop in Coober Pedy.  We also had a dig around in one of the public Noodling areas that provided us with a bit of entertainment as well as a pocketful of rocks. In fact one friendly shopkeeper polished up some of the boys stones for them to take home.

Back to the park for some nibbles and Beer..... As the sun was beginning to go down, we walked up to “The Big Winch” to watch the sun set over Coober Pedy’s red dirt before heading back to cook a tea of Pasta and salad whilst the boys had a swim in the pool.

Mitch’s Question of the day:  “Is there a beach at Coober Pedy?”  Obviously he was excited and studied where we were going!!    NOT!!

The first couple of days

After a few goodbye's with Tina, John, Loki and Nanna G we finally hit the road at around 12.15. We made a short stop at Stawell to pick up some things from Lindy's, We grabbed some pies for lunch from Chris n Di's bakery and back on the road. Hopetoun was our next stop for a toilet break and a change of drivers, Ange had her first go at towing a caravan and handled it with aplomb. We changed back just past Ouyen and I drove thru to Mildura. Fuel stop here then back on the road towards Renmark. It was now getting dark as we came through Lake Cullulleraine so we decided to find somewhere to stop for the night. A truck parking / wayside stop was found about 5 k's past Lake Cullulleraine and it was decided that this would do.
We had a quick tea before setling in early to watch Kung Fu Panda and off to sleep. The night was restless due to trucks driving past as well as stopping and  I think because it was our first night on the road.

Day 2 started off early with us packing up and heading into Renmark.
We found the shopping centre and while we shopped for groceries the boys made their way to the Skate park which was across the road, Macca's was our next destination for a late breakfast then down to the river to set up camp.
Our camp was at the end of 23rd street at a place called Plush's Bend. We found a perfect clearing right beside the river where the boys could fish, kick the footy and we could relax.
The boys did some fishing with no luck, in fact they snagged the lures and Mtch went for a swim to get them back....... did he holler when he stepped into the water, he reckons it is the coldest water he has ever felt and he has swam at the beach in warnambool in the middle of winter and not complained so it must have been freezing.
When the camp was set up to our liking we decided to go for a walk and find a geocache. It was about 2klms away and after I led them on a couple of wrong turns we found where it was supposed to be.During the recent floods it had washed out and opened up, we gathered what we could of it and replaced it in its hiding spot.  On the way back we passed a couple of fishermen who had landed a couple of Carp, this had the boys excited about fishing again. The rest of the arvo was spent relaxing with a few beers, kicking the footy and fishing.
When night fell we had some tea and settled in for Kung Fu Panda II.... About Kung Fu'd out now.  The boys then hit the Swags for their first night outdoors on this trip.