Cobar to Merriwa

 

On Tuesday, we had our longest day on the road; 460klms from Broken Hill to Cobar. John bought fuel at Wilcannia, it’s a shame an old country town is in such a sorry state. Any old buildings that are left are damaged and barricaded up.

Grand old hotel in Cobar

We saw emus and wild goats on the drive. Cobar was our overnight stop; we have stayed in the caravan park before. We drove up to the mine lookout before we left. Cobar is known for it's copper and zinc mining.

                        
                                                                   Open cut mine

We had an early start after breakfast today, thinking of our drive to Dubbo and an overnight stop.  Our friends from Melbourne were planning on meeting us but unfortunately they couldn’t make it. We had decided now on one night in Dubbo, but got there at lunchtime and decided to drive further to be closer to home. The country side is nice and green, the sheep and cattle look healthy and plenty of water in the dams.  We passed through the towns of Nyngan, Trangie and Narromine. There is a large cotton gin at Trangie.

 

Cattle near the road.

Wattle

 

John drove 491 klms and we are at Merriwa tonight, about 200klms from Newcastle. The caravan park is a council run one at $25 for the night. We should be home by lunch time tomorrow.

 

Wild goats

What a great trip it has been, seven weeks on the road, over 10,000 klms. We have seen every season in that time, from 0c on the New England Highway to 35c in Darwin. We have seen large properties in the outback where it can be 100 klms to the front door over an unsealed road, with giant solar panels on poles near the road to supply the energy needs.

 

We have enjoyed the last thirteen days on the road every day; it has taken that long to get from Darwin to within 250 klms of home. The red dirt, termite mounds and the flat plains have changed to green hills and paddocks. 

 

The motor home will have to be cleaned and we will start thinking of the next trip as soon as we feel the urge to go away again.
Maybe sometime next year.
August 21^st.

 

Broken Hill

We woke to a chilly morning in Peterborough. It had been raining through the night; luckily by the time we left the park at 8.15am the rain was easing. I changed the cotton sheets on the bed for warmer ones for tonight. John stopped in town and I bought us a coffee to have on the drive. I pack a thermos every day in case we feel like a rest stop, always handy to have it with us.

We crossed into New South Wales around 50 klms before Broken Hill, our stopover for tonight. The drive today was 260klms. We saw wild goats on the side of the road, no other wild life today.
At one time we had to get off the road for a large truck with a 7 metre wide load. It took over both lanes. At other times we have seen wide loads, but none as large as this one.

There were lots of motor bike riders on the road, we realized later were the group, Black Dog, who ride for an organization to rise funds for the prevention of depression and suicide. We waved to lots of the riders, they were heading to the Red Centre.

We arrived in Broken Hill about 1pm, time to take a look around the town, go to the bank and book into the Broken Hill Tourist park where we have camped before. John went into a hotel and was told he could go up to the balcony to take some photos of the town.
We have a long drive tomorrow, 460klms to Cobar.

Grand old bus now a motorhome.

19th August

Woomera and Peterborough

Rocket Museum

Woomera is an interesting stop on the Stuart Highway. Woomera village is a small remote Australian Defense Force base established in 1947 as the domestic support base for the Woomera Test Range. It is a step back in time, also rather eerie. It is a town full of accommodation and a school, police swimming pool etc. There are several mines in the vicinity. Now there is only a small population of defense force staff and workers in the info centre, emergency services etc. the town has that feel of abandonment. We drove around and saw untidy gardens and lawns; one car in a driveway out of the whole street of ten or so homes.

There is a rocket museum and lots of oversize planes and rockets on the street.

We stayed in the caravan park, it cost $25. The info centre is a café as well as a souvenir shop. John and I enjoyed our first decent coffee since Darwin.

We met a German family who were parked next to us in the park and had “Happy Hour” in the weakening afternoon sun. It got a bit cold outdoors so we said goodnight.

On the way to Woomera we spotted two emus and an eagle on road kill. We had our first sighting of a lake, even if it was dry in parts, Lake Hart.

Lake Hart

Woomera sunset

August 17^th.

 

Camped at Woomera

The drive to Peterborough this morning took us south to Port Augusta on the Spencer Gulf, the crossroads of several highways leading to the east, west, south and north. On the way we had a flock of sheep run over the road in front of us. We saw probably our last eagle as well, not too many once we go east.  John had his train fix, a goods train heading south. He managed to get a photo.

Goods train

 

Canola crop.

We passed the southern Flinders Ranges on our left. John and I couldn’t believe how green the countryside was after weeks in the dry north, where every creek was dry and smaller rivers had stagnant pools of water. We are doing a trip to the Flinders Ranges next year, so we will plan that for warmer weather.

Sheep on the road.

It was a very scenic drive east to Peterborough. John drove through Horrocks Pass, we stopped for morning tea at a rest stop below a hill but we found it so windy we opted to stay inside once John took a photo.

We stopped in Wilmington, where John found an toy and old car museum, it was shut though until 3.30, he was disappointed not to be able to look inside.

Wilmington toy and car museum

We checked into Peterborough CP ($30) and I did some washing. The drive today took us 310 klms. Tomorrow we enter New South Wales and spend the night in Broken Hill. We hope to be home on Friday. It is cold and wet tonight.

 

August 18th

Alice Springs, Coober Pedy and the roadhouses.

Barrow Creek Telegraph Station

John fills the truck with fuel while I pay and book into the roadhouse caravan park. At Dunmarra we realized they didn’t charge for the powered site. Good to get a “freebie” sometimes. It’s still hot during the day, the nights are cooler though.

Ti Tree roadhouse, our next stop was $25 per night. The laundry charge in the parks varies from $3 to $4.

Aileron Roadhouse

On the drive to Alice Springs, Aileron Roadhouse has a giant statue of an aboriginal man, also a woman and child. They are both huge and impressive. We also saw an eagle with a broken wing in a pen and another big eagle in a tree.

Eagle at Aileron

In Alice Springs we had booked into a small park close to town, Stuart CP. It was $35 per night. Simpson’s Gap is close by, after booking into the park we drove out to this lovely waterhole. We missed seeing the wallabies as it were in the middle of the day and hot. A 20 minute return walk takes us down to the dry river bed and beyond to the waterhole.

Simpson's Gap.

 

shrub in Simpson's Gap.

We replenished the food supply in town and settled into the park.

Camel farm

Today was a long day on the road. We crossed into South Australia about midday.  We called in to see a camel farm we made towards Marla Roadhouse for tonight. It’s a nice stopover, $30 for the night.

We saw two eagles on the way and the wildflowers were lovely beside the road. I suppose the hotter climate bring them out earlier than down south. Some areas were like a carpet of colours, including pinks, yellows, whites and blues.

We left Darwin on Saturday and have had some long hours on the road, just doing one night stopovers at the remote places.

August 13^th

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 Coober Pedy.

Wildflowers

At Marla John and I had a restful night’s sleep and left the park at 8.15 am for the 234 klms drive to Coober Pedy. It started off dull and looking like rain, but we were only on the road an hour or so and the sun came out. We stopped for a morning cuppa and I took some photos of wildflowers. They are not in abundance as much as we head south.

Coffee, scones with Rosella jam.

 

 I have found myself reciting bits of “My Country” on this trip. Australia is a land of ‘sweeping plains, rugged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains” I think we have seen every lovely landscape including “her jeweled sea”, except for the flooding rains as it is the dry season.

Approaching Coober Pedy.

Coober Pedy is like a moonscape as you approach the outskirts of the town. It’s an opal mining town, over the years there has been lots of large holes dug, looking for it. So everywhere are piles of dirt. It’s dry, dusty, and windy and warm here. We looked in the Desert Cave Underground Hotel, too early for the bar to be open; a nice cold drink would have been welcome. However we looked in the souvenir shop and took some photos inside the hotel. We visited it with friends six years ago and sat and had a drink out of the heat.

Desert Cave Underground Hotel.

We are now settled in the Oasis CP for the night, $33. We have a powered site but no water to sites in the park. We have enough drinking water and other water in our holding tank. This town has only artesian water from the underground, all filtered etc, but every drop counts. I will have a coin operated shower later, 20c for three minutes. I’ll take enough coins to have a decent shower. Usually I shower “onboard".

August 16^th.

Katherine and Tennant Creek

Edith Falls

The 300klms drive from Darwin to Katherine went smoothly on Saturday. We took time to call into Katherine NP and see Edith Falls. As we had been to the Katherine Gorge before, we were pleased to see another part of this lovely area. The Falls are 20klms off the Stuart Highway; they are an oasis in the dry. Not high like lots of beautiful falls can be but the surrounding area is lovely. John and I had sandwiches in the car park, took a few photos and moved on to Katherine, 60 klms away.

 

 

The Shady Lane CP is about $39 per night, a nice tidy park the closest one to the Gorge; we had been there in 2007.

 

We saw a jabiru on the side of the road, and guinea fowl in the park. We missed getting a photo of the jabiru; however I had some good ones from a previous trip.

 

Guinea Fowl

We left Katherine on Sunday after breakfast for Dunmarra roadhouse. Along the way I saw a dozen or so small black wild pigs running in the undergrowth. Sadly, we saw a caravan accident, the caravan overturned, but the car pulling it seemed upright. We didn’t have to stop as the road was open and police were in attendance.

 

We were at Dunmarra Roadhouse at lunchtime. It was hot and our air con wasn’t working in the "house”. The car air con is fine. The nights are cooler now were going south. We had a relaxing afternoon with no mobile or internet reception. Luckily, we had two tv channels. In the afternoon,I managed to do some reading outside.

 

Sunset at Dunmarra Roadhouse

Leaving the park this morning we saw a huge eagle on the side of the road. Another missed photo opportunity!  Later we found a smaller eagle in a tree that I photographed.

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Wedged Tail Eagle

We arrived in Tennant Creek and booked into the Outback CP. Before we hooked up we took a short drive to Mary Ann Dam and had some lunch.

Stuart Highway

 

Tomorrow we move on to another roadhouse for the night.

The trip from Darwin to Port Augusta in South Australia will take us about ten days of solid travel.

 

August 12th

Darwin

Darwin waterfront

August 8^th

John and I decided the local bus was the way to go around the CBD. We boarded it about 200 metres from the park, it only took about half an hour into the city. The waterfront was close to the bus interchange and took us about ten minutes to cross the bridge and ride the lift down to the waterfront.

 

East Point Reserve

 

 

 

Six years ago this was just a construction site and the movie “Australia “was being filmed on Darwin Harbour. We saw a Hugh Jackman during some of the filming but missed Nicole Kidman. It was a hive of activity on Stokes Wharf.

The waterfront has a wave lagoon and parkland, along with apartments and cafes. It looks like a family orientated part of Darwin.

Afterwards we booked a tour for tomorrow, the Duck about tour. It’s a vehicle that travels both on sea and land.

We were back in the park by lunch time.

Late afternoon we drove to Mindil Beach for the markets. After a good look around, John drove us to east Point Reserve for the sunset over Fannie Bay. A much better spot than Mindil Beach, which I think is overrated.

 

 

 

Sunset in the Top End.

 

 

August 9^th

Back on the bus this morning, we joined the tour and had an enjoyable hour and a half. The guide gives an informative speech on the history of Darwin during the bombing in WW2 and the aftermath of Cyclone Tracey in 1974. After driving through the streets the “Duck” made it’s way to a boat ramp and we were on the harbour for half an hour or so.

land to water in the Duck.

 

Cullen Bay.

Coming back to land.

 

 

 

We walked through the mall and had a soft drink at the pub before boarding the bus back to the park.

Darwin Mall.

I put some washing on and we are relaxing before the trip south tomorrow. It will take us two and a half weeks travel to reach home, We will probably be on the road every day.

It has been good to see Darwin again, each day has been around 32c and sunny.