2010 On the road: April 2010

Carlsruhe to Wodonga, Mildura, Wilpena Pound, Arkaroola, Port Augusta, Andamooka, Woomera, Coober pedy, Uluru, Kings Canyon.

Hi all, having spent the last 3 months with our family and house sitting we now have left all of that behind and are in Alice Springs, so well and truly into 2010 travel, as promised I will once again keep a blog so that those who are interested can see where we are.

Wodonga our first stop, Biankas sister, stayed for a week on her driveway doing some maintenance

I had intended to do while in Melbourne, after leaving Wodonga we traveled to Mildura with a overnight stop at a free camp at Benanee Lake

we arrived late and I had the pleasure of cleaning both the car and van due to the large amount of locust on the road, these have plagued us almost constantly as far as Port Augusta and I cleaned the car half a dozen times from top to bottom by then.

In Mildura we met up with Ian and Marilyn and spend a great week with them, made lots of camp fires, and

visited a few places, stocked up on food etc.

Decided to fit the Van out with Solar Panels in Red Clif f at a very good price so we are now set to do some serious free camping

without having to worry about the fridge or light etc as we fitted 200 amps a good size.

After the fit out we moved on to the Flinders Ranges, along the road some of the trees decorated

After our stay at Peterborough we travelled to Hawker for a short stop and fuel with a look at the panoramic painting of the surround of Wilpena Pound, painted by by Geoff Morgan he also had a few other very large paintings of a brook and creek absolutely beautiful seeing that the size was around 6 – 10 meters in size.

Wilpena Pound from the lookout within the Pound

the Pound looking inward,

stayed here for 4 night, had visitors as you can see,

this area speaks for itself in beauty, We got here just after the rain, talking about green, the Flinders Ranges is showing its glory

We visited many of the places as (you can see we are back into walking)

around Wilpena

these are Ocra pits the Aboriginals use in this area,

travelled to the town of Blinman than further west from here and went to the pub for lunch at Parachilna at the Prairie Pub and had the Feral Lunch consisting of Kangaroo, Emu and Camel mmm it was great.

Then Arkaroola, we ended up staying at Copley as we were unable to take the CV into Arkaroola due to road condition and weather as you can see, a lot of the creek crossings where flooded,

we waited and on the Thursday we took the chance and drove to Arkaroola lots of water crossing with one so deep (this is the crossing but lower as it was the next day and they had closed it)

that it reached the door handles on the Prado but no water entered either the motor or the interior of the car it was a bit scary as the previous few days 8 vehicles had drowned at the crossing we tackled, after us a vehicle drowned due to taking a slightly different path.

We stayed in their accommodation for the night, that afternoon did our own river 4wheel trek to Arkaroola Water hole, boy it was exciting driving through river beds of sand and stone with the Prado performing well through this rough rocky terrain-river bed.

Next day the Ridge 4 wheel drive tour so well worth it, we traveled into the hills and mountains along some of the most rugged terrain and ridges

one can imagine scary and yet thrilling with the greatest views.

Than back to Copley picked up the CV and headed south once more as it was Anzac day the next day we stayed at Quorn the home of the Pitchie-Witchie Rail and did the train to the work shop and museum

very interesting and worth the time.

Sunday dawn service and generally relaxed, Monday on the road and arriving in Port Augusta staying for a few days to provision up as nothing decent till Alice from here on.(no photos)

After leaving PA we headed north and decided to visit Andamooka, what a town it looks like a moon scape

and unfortunately the main road is the river bed and after the rain it washed a lot of mud into its only attraction the cottages

from an era gone by and destroyed a lot of it, the Beer bottle building entirely build of beer bottles drank by the locals? as we had the CV with us decided to stay at the $2.50per night camp but the Garage where one had to pay had gone out of business so it ended up being Free, its like parking on the moon, note the back ground. another couple also stayed it was great.

Next day we traveled to Woomera and visited the rocket museum and the display of various rockets tested here this is the jindivic target plane

including the Ikara naval torpedo rocked

I know so well from my days in the Navy.

Coober Pedy nextboy has this changed since we were here last it is almost a metropolis and real touristy,

we booked into the Stuart Range CP, nice park electricity but no water to be connect to, you pay 20 cents per 40 ltr when you fill the tanks, Showers @ 20 cents for 3 minutes, diesel is going up $1.49 a ltr managed to get it for $1.37.

Did a great tour here showing us the metal tree and large mine winch and bucket,

the mining of Opal, underground house bed room

Underground Church, The BreakAways and the Dingo fence with a world of knowledge coming from our Driver/Guide, post cards for the folks back home.

Bianka Opal noodling as it is called, unfortunately did not find our fortune.

Headed for Ularu ( Airs Rock) stayed overnight at a free camp half way and decided to head for Curtin Springs with Free camping and able to leave the CV, next day drove to the Rock and and the Olga's.

I climbed the rock

but only 3/4 of it, this took me 2 1/2 hours return at the 3/4 mark I had had it, I was stuffed, the up part is like walking up a roof 100 times boy is it hard got back alive. Bianka watched from the bottom.

Watched the Sunset on Uluru

we had a perfect day, visited the Olgas,

then back to Curtin Springs and of to Kings Canyon , now this place is aw inspiring, we walked the Rim and Gorge,these are the steps up to the rim, the view of the Car park and canyon in the back ground,