David and Enid's Travels

Aboriginal paintings at Arkaroo Rock

We left Port Augusta this morning and drove north towards Flinders Ranges National Park.  The Flinders Ranges are the highest mountains in South Australia, though at only 1170 m, not really very high.  Much of the drive is through pastoral land, though it is very dry by Saskatchewan standards (the annual rainfall is about the same as Southern Saskatchewan, but the high temperature makes it much more arid).  The grass and shrubs along the road are very dry and crunchy.  Along the way we stopped to photograph a number of things: a flock of sheep in a pasture, a large bunch of about a dozen emus, and several nice views of the mountain cliffs.

We hiked the approximately 3 km (return) to Arkaroo Rock.  This is a very interesting site of Aboriginal paintings.  It is a bit of a climb, about 100 m total elevation gain, but it wasn’t too hot this afternoon so the climb was ok.  The rock has a broken out hollow on the side and this area is well protected from the weather.  The sandstone walls of the rock are decorated with a very large number of paintings.

We then drove to the campground at Wilpena Pound.  It’s a nice campground with lots of space between each site.  There was a wallaby eating right behind our motorhome tonight, and a large number of bright green parrots of a kind we haven’t seen before.   Overall it was a very nice day.

Outback partway between Coober Pedy and Woomera

We posted yesterdays blog just before supper.  By the time we’d completed supper it was starting to get warm in our motorhome.  I checked the air conditioner and it didn’t seem like it was giving us any cool air.  Within half an hour it was very hot in the motorhome, probably up to the outside temperature which was still running about 39 °C.  Enid sat outside, I stayed inside and opened all the windows, and with the fan on the air conditioner and the small circulating fan it was tolerable, but not comfortable.  By 9 pm we’d made a decision not to go any further north, but instead to return to Port Augusta at daybreak and try to get our air conditioner fixed.

Emu at Woomera

It did cool down a lot overnight.  By about midnight we could sleep comfortably.  The wind increased from the south and a south wind here brings in colder air from off the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean.  Morning was actually quite comfortable, and we were on the road before 7:30 am.  We drove into the very strong south wind all day, so our diesel consumption was very high.  Just after we started we saw an emu south of Coober Pedy.  We also saw three wedge tailed eagles, one in a tree but the other two eating kangaroo carcasses.  Then we saw another emu just south of the turn into Woomera.  Since it was on the opposite side of the highway I turned around in order to get a picture.  There was a hitchhiker there heading north, and I think we falsely raised his hopes that we were going to pick him up.

We got into Port Augusta in good time and asked at the camp ground registration where we might be able to get our air conditioner fixed.  The attendant told us the name of a repair shop, but when we got there they could only fix automobile air conditioners.  However they did contact a refrigeration repair shop for us and so we headed off again.  When we arrived the owner of the repair shop was just taking the seat out of  a truck to fix it’s air conditioner, but when he heard our plight he dropped that and started work on ours.  He really did take pity on the Canadian tourists.  I was able to help him some, and it took about two hours and he had fixed the problem.  We had a cracked pipe so that we’d lost our freon.  He removed the cracked section, added more freon, and our air conditioner seems to be working fine again.

Enid had a long chat with his wife while we were working.  She learned a lot more information about Australia.  It does get warm here in Port Augusta, usually going to around 46 °C, but apparently this year is unusually cool.  I imagine that is for the same reason as the eastern part of Australia is suffering from all the flooding and rain.

We won’t be making it north to Uluru now after all.  Instead we are heading back into the outback but this time to the Flinders Ranges, as the forecast is not too bad from now until Thursday with highs in the high 30’s.

Opal mining blower, Coober Pedy

We drove today to the “Opal Mining Capital” of the world.  About 70% of the world’s opal is mined here at Coober Pedy.  It is small scale mining, using small equipment.  They dig down into the sandstone rock, then vacuum the dirt out using blower trucks.  With the dirt they hope to also find opals.  We stopped in a local shop and they have lots of opal, but it is still out of our price range.  The salesman really tried to sell us, figuring he had some wealthy tourists (he thought we were British), and was going to give us 50% off the stock in his store.  However, that would still have been almost $1000 for a pendant, so we didn’t buy anything.  Yet.

Woomera protected area from Ingomar rest spot

We drove all day through miles and miles of nothing but red earth, scrub brush, and the occasional bird.  We started early this morning so that we were away by just after 8:15, and it was still cooler, though warming up quickly already.  Most of the area we drove through is the Woomera restricted area, which was used for nuclear testing in the 1950’s and 60’s.  There are also a number of very large salt lakes.  Everything is very red.  For those who have seen “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” you’d recognize the country, as much of the outdoor footage in the movie was filmed here.

The town of Coober Pedy is in some ways itself reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic world, for there is derelict junk lying around all over, a lot of which reminded me of the movie.   Someone has made sculptures of much of it.  The original tree in the town is still there because it is a steel sculpture.  They have planted some trees since, but very few.  It is also very hot, and was 40.2 °C here today at 4:30 pm.  Many of the houses are underground.  They are dug into the sandstone or into old mine shafts.  You can walk over the hills and there are ventilation shafts going down into the houses.  Water for the town comes from a well 25 km away, then it is desalinated by reverse osmosis.  The caravan park doesn’t provide water for the caravans and motorhomes, but you can buy it from the town (20 cents for 30 litres).

Woomera rocket display

Well, we wanted it warm and dry and it certainly is.  It was 38C when we arrived here today.  We drove north into the arid region of South Australia today.  At first we were in agricultural country with large grain fields, but as we got farther north, from Port Augusta on, the land becomes dry desert.  Once into the desert we saw several dead cattle and sheep on the road or in the ditches.  I assume the ones on the road were struck by vehicles, but wonder if the ones farther off the road might have died from other causes.

The South Australian highways are by far the best we have driven on.  For the most part they are straight, and flat, and easy to travel on.  Of course as we got into the desert they are also quite deserted.  They drive long “road trains”, semi-trailers with three long trailers on them. 

We stopped at Woomera which is where the Australian’s used to launch rockets from during the space race.  There is a large display of old rocket parts here in an outdoor museum.  They even have the remains of the rocket which launched Australia’s first satellite in 1967.  Unlike the US ones where the boosters all crashed in the ocean and were never recovered, this one fell in the desert so they have the actual demolished parts on display.

Murray River at Blanchetown

We packed up in the rain.  I wore only my shorts and sandals as it was pouring rain as we did so, and I was very wet by the time I was finished.  We drove through rain for several hours, but it gradually got to be less and less,  and it had stopped by the time we ate lunch at Mallee Fowl rest area.  The country that we drove through today is very deserted, and for the most part, very wet.  There were several spots where the water had been overrunning the road recently (probably last night).  The fields look like lakes, and the ditches (though they are very shallow) are all full of water.  We did see a number of emus in Yamba National Park. 

By the time we crossed the Victoria – South Australia border the weather was very much improved and sunny.  We had a few carrots left after lunch, so dumped them in the garbage can at a rest stop on the border.  You can’t bring any vegetables or fruit (except canned or frozen ones) into South Australia, as they are trying to prevent several plant diseases.  There was an inspection station just inside the border, and the guard checked our refrigerator, pronounced it OK, and so we drove on, but not before we had chatted with him about the weather.  He said they had four inches of rain last night.

We stopped at a supermarket in Renmark, the first big town across the border, and restocked with fruit and vegetables.  They had a very good selection, including the first cherries we’ve seen at what was a reasonable price.  We bought a bunch of cherries and had them for dessert tonight.  I remarked to Enid that they probably did a good business restocking the tourists fruits and vegetables in this town.  We stopped at a self serve fruit stand just before we got here tonight and bought a big bag of oranges for four dollars.  They are going to last us for a long time!

Rest Stop near Victoria - South Australia border

The weather here is warm and dry, and thank goodness for it feels so much more comfortable than constantly being wet.  When we arrived at this cravan park I remarked to the manager that it seemed like the weather we have at home in the summertime.  He asked what part of Canada we were from, and when I said the prairies, we began a discussion of grain farming.  They had a bumper crop here last year.  We drove by a lot of empty land today, and the soil doesn’t look very good, mostly red and very rocky, and for kilometer after kilometer not much except open scrubby looking grass.  The farms must be huge as it is a very long way between buildings.  Closer to the towns they do irrigation, and in the Renmark area grow a lot of grapes and citrus fruit.  We saw a lot of fields that have been combined and a few large tractors out working the soil.

We are parked along the Murray River tonight, and it is starting to flood.  The water is now running through the trees.  The river here is about 1/4 the width of the North Saskatchewan in Prince Albert, and it is very muddy.  The manager said they expect it will go up about one and one half metres more from all the water that has fallen farther north (where we have just come through).  There are many birds here: pelicans and cormorants on the river, some ducks, rosy gallahs, and very noisy white cockatoos.  They will doubtless wake us early tomorrow morning.

Aftermath of flooding along the Murrumbidgee River, Hay, NSW

Once again we are going to have to change our travel plans because of the weather (read rain and more rain).  We had planned to travel around the border area between New South Wales and Victoria, camping along the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers.  That won’t be possible.  Flooding here in December has barely receded, and the ground around the rivers is saturated.  As we drove here from Wagga Wagga this morning all along the way the fields and ditches were still full of standing water.   It was ironic to see huge irrigation sprayers and their booms standing in water.

The ground itself is very flat.  In many ways it reminds one of the country in Southern Saskatchewan around Regina.  There are a few more trees, but we drove on a very straight flat road for much of today.  There weren’t many cattle or sheep either.  At first as we left the area near Wagga Wagga we saw some very large paddocks of sheep, but later on we saw none.  We did see the a big John Deere combine though.

We arrived in Hay in the early afternoon and got a few vegetables.  I spoke to the service station attendant and he said it had rained about 60 cm on Monday, and they expected 30 to 40 mm today.  He said that unless they got over 100 mm today they shouldn’t have any flooding.  Then we registered at the Big 4 campsite here.  We were the first people in today, though now there are quite a few more.  The campsite is right beside the Murrumbidgee River which is not flooding now.  The campground doesn’t look as if it flooded, but it must have been close.  It doesn’t look like the water crossed the street here, but another metre higher and it would have.  All the bank of the river is very muddy and there are large trees along the banks that have been uprooted and are about to fall into the water.

It is raining again tonight, and has been since we arrived.  We are very tired of the rain and so have decided to go inland into the desert around Alice Springs.  It will have to be a fairly quick trip as we must be back in Melbourne by February 7 to catch the ferry to Tasmania.  It will probably be very hot, but we’re used to dry hot weather in Saskatchewan summers, so we’ll probably be fine.

It was incredibly windy during the night, and about 1:00 am I gave up on trying to keep our refirgerator running on gas, so switched it over to battery.  I relit it about 4 am as it had calmed somewhat, and it stayed on.  However, unlike the northern part of Australia we are dry and safe, just to alleviate any concerns anyone back in Canada may have.  There is no other topic on the TV news here .  Tonight the entire hour of the news was devoted to the flooding in and around Brisbane, and now there is a one hour special.   It is hard to comprehend the concept of a flood of 20 m in depth.

When we were in Northern Queensland in November and early December it was flooding there then, though not nearly as much as it is now.  It was also flooding here in Wagga Wagga on the Murrumbidgee River at that time, but is no longer.  As we drove down from the mountains this morning you can still see the high water level on all of the creeks and rivers.  The water has now dropped many metres.  Today it was cloudy, but quite warm and hasn’t rained.

We stopped at a caravan dealer Coromal Caravans Wagga Wagga and they tried to fix our awning, but didn’t have the correct part.  They were very good about it, spent an hour or so trying to find parts, and didn’t charge us anything.  They did identify the type of awning though, so I’ve found the manufacturer’s website and hope we will be able to find someone with the correct part.

Tomorrow we drive into the “Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone” so have cooked or eaten all our fresh fruits and vegetables.

Lupins at Kiandra

Tonight we are camped on the shore of Blowering Lake.  Like all the big lakes in this part of Australia it is a man-made lake behind a dam. Completed in 1968, its role is to store the water released upstream by the Snowy Mountain Scheme of electrical dams, and store it for the needs of summer irrigation.  One of its claims to fame is that it is where the world water speed record of 317 mph was set in 1978.

Yesterday we stayed at Three Mile Dam and didn’t do much.  I wrote some.  Enid read.  We also played two games of SCRABBLE, and I lost them both.  At least the second game was interesting and close.

We left this morning and stopped at the deserted town of Kiandra.  There is a historical walking trail through the town, but only one or two standing buildings.  There were a lot of lupin growing around the sites where old buildings had been.  This town was the scene of a gold rush in the 1860’s and also the first place where downhill skiing was practiced in Australia (by Norwegian miners). 

After that we drove to this campground and spent quite a while trying to find a good level site.  Everything slopes down towards the water.  We used our inclined ramps on both downhill wheels to make ourselves level.

It was very windy this afternoon, strong gusts rocking the motorhome.  The wind howling sounds like a prairie blizzard, but it is quite warm outside.  After supper there was a large thud on our roof as a branch must have blown down from a tree.  We had planned to swim in the lake, but the water was very muddy, stirred up by the waves.  Instead we had a shower in our motorhome.  It’s so windy that it has blown out the heater in our refrigerator twice, so we hope that it will keep running overnight.

Lunch along Wallace Creek fire trail

There is a trail through the Three Mile Dam campground that has a gate just before the dam to block access for vehicles.  We walked along this trail today for about 10 km (return).  Just past the dam there is a sign to the right that says Wallace Creek Fire Trail and we followed this (to the left goes to the panoramic view lookout that we walked to on the first day here).  It was scattered cloud and sun for most of the morning so a nice morning to walk.  We stopped along the way to view the overlooks to the mountain valleys to the west and the more open meadows to the east.  There were many flowers, most of them different than the ones which we saw on our hike up Goldseekers Trail.

By the time we returned after eating lunch the sky was getting much more overcast.  As we went swimming it started to rain, just a light sprinkle, so after swimming we did wash more clothes.  We’ve washed by hand almost everything here over the last few days.  Things dried for a while, but now it is raining a bit more heavily so we’ve brought the clothes in.  We’ll hang them back later on if it stops.  One benefit of the rain is that it suppresses the March flies.

Sunset at Three Mile Dam

It’s our third day at Three Mile Dam.  We washed some more clothes this morning, but that was about the extent of the effort for today.  A man walked by before lunch and we talked to him at length about the best campsites along our route.  He had stayed in a lot of them.  I’m not sure what he did for a living, but he said he stayed in the free campsites while conducting business in the towns.

We also made a decision about Tasmania.  We checked the ferry website and it’s going to be a reasonable price to take our motorhome on the ferry.  So we’re booked to go to Tasmania on February 7.  We’ll probably stay there for a couple of weeks.