Well we had a really great time with the families in Coolangata and Lismore. We had terrible weather for the first week in Lismore. Once we got to Coolangata the weather improved and we had a good time. Picked up Roger and Kids from the airport and said hurray to them the next day. We were without a vehicle so our feet became our transport. We walked everywhere and it was good. Roger and Kids came back down to Surfers on 4th or there abouts. Robert and I decided to have a break from Coolangata on Thursday and go up to Surfers and pacific fair Shopping center. We caught the bus up at Coolangata it cost $10.00 for a all day pass. Roger rang and said he was in Surfers so he came and picked us up and we had tea with them. We took our truck home that night. The next day was the day we went to Movie land with Roger and co. We had a great day. The kids loved it both old and young. Susan and I went on a roller coaster that went from 0-100 in 2 seconds. Talk about g forces. Wow. It was only 30 seconds but it was great. We took Cameron and Sommer back with us for a couple of nights. We had them for 3 days and we went swimming in the pool and walked to the markets and they got a croc and lizard that walked along beside or in front of you. We wash and polished the truck. On the Monday Robert and Cameron went and picked up Roger and Susan and they had the cabin next to us. Sommer helped me clean the van and wash the floors, a real good help she was. We had a lovely BBQ for tea with prawns, and steak etc. Rob has the flu so not to good that night. We played 500 and Judy and Susan won 2 out of 3.
We all went for a big walk for Danger point to Coolangata along the beach and through the main street. Played ball with the kids then another BBQ. Rob still not the best. Sharleen and Co arrived on the Wednesday, I have a sore shoulder, playing ball with the kids, muscles I didn’t know I had. We hired a boat for the day. It held 12 persons so the kids could walk around. Had it for 4 hours. We stopped on the sand bank and went treasure hunting, had a BBQ lunch on board the back to the van. Had a swim then rest. The kids are getting on so well. The day Sharleen was going home and Roger and co where to, we went Ten Pin Bowling. Robert won, still no feeling 100%, and I think Sommer came 2nd. Susan came down the bottom I think. Then we dropped Roger and Co off that night at the airport and Rob and I went off to the show at Jupiters. Then Rob won $400 dollars on the Roulette so we had a cheap night out. The show was great and we had dinner there as well and still came out on top. The next day we left the caravan park to go to Sharleens. Petrol was 1.25 here. The 4WD drive and caravan show was on at Lismore so Robert Glenn and Sharleen went for a look and I stayed back and looked after the kids. On Sunday Rob & I went to the show.
On Tuesday the 17th July we finally left Sharleen’s for the start of our trip. We decided to go to the Simpson Desert after phoning home to see how mum and dad were. Petrol here was 1.38c litre. We headed of and had lunch at Grafton, we traveled 288 kms and it was mostly hilly and rose to 1000m. so the fuel is going down fast. We freedom camped at Beardy Waters, 6 kms East of Glen Innis. Excellent stop right off the road but very cold we had 2 duets down to 3 degree and 5 degree in the morning at 7am.Up and away by 9am. Stopped at Celtic Country. It was like Stonehenge, 24 stones in a circle, but a great park for a very small village type place. Got to Maree tonight and stayed in Caravan park here and had a hot spa and then went to say hi to Glenns brother Pete and his fiancé Peg. Had a roast dinner and I was getting the flu as my throat was getting sore. On leaving Maree we had mostly flat road, but lots of road works. Got to Narribri and visisted the info center told us about the mountain but it was too winding to climb it. So we went to see the Sawn Rock, which was great, and then onto see the telescope. We bush camped tonight. It is a camp that is out of town near the mountain and isn’t as flash as it could be or the town ones. However in saying that it’s the only camp we have been to that supplied soap, had towels, bath mats and the chap there was so friendly. Rob had a few drinks with the neighbours I stayed inside as I had the flu and wasn’t feeling to good at all. Off up the mountain today as the wind had died down and while I was feeling OK. Rob was had a skipping competition with the girls next door, Aussie against NZ. We did 2 1 hour walks on the Governers walk, Pete said he thought this one was the best and it was. The tracks where well laid out with stairways both up and down as it followed the contours of the mountain, right to the top of the rock outcrop. MT Dowe walk was OK but nothing compared to the Governer. What a great national park. The views were fantastic you can see 3/4 of NSW from the top. Stayed another night as Rob was having a skipping rope world champ comp against the girl next door (only about 11) and he won the first morning so he had to go again the next day, which he won with 100 and the girl only got 52 so NZ wins again. They are lovely girls. Left the camp at 9.30 am Heading towards Broken Hill. Passed through Cobar where Sharleen used to live. It was drizzling here so had a quick walk down town nothing opened here except takeaways and Info center reminded me of the Old Days when nothing opened on Sundays.. There was only one petrol station open so couldn’t shop around for the best price. It drizzled all that day, had jumpers on all day. We did see the sun for 15 minutes. We stopped at the McCulloughs Range rest area, there was no-one else around, not many traveling this road. However, when we woke in the morning there were 2 trucks and 2 other caravans just along from us and we never heard one of them pull in. This stop had Play Park, toilets and BBQ. We have to put our clocks back again today. Petrol now $1.67c at Wilcannia, not a place you want to stop for more than a few minutes. We got to Broken Hill and had a caravan park with an ensuite (Our own shower and toilet next to our van) for the next few nights. We are having a few days here for a rest. So the next day we set off to Silverton, the place that Mad Max was filmed. The pub looks the same but there are more buildings that have been restored. Most of them are painting or art galleries. It was a nice day so we walked all around and went to the museum which as very interesting. Then we set off to Day Dream Mine, it’s an authentic silver mine. You go down 400m by way of crouching and sliding on the dirt floor. I got a little claustrophobic but had to see it, it was amazing. You could see and feel how they worked in those conditions 10-14 hours per day for 7/6d. Most of them died of tuberculosis because of the dust. They mostly worked on their knees and even stayed under ground while the blasting was taking place. They used gunpowder not explosives. The dust that created was massive. It was hard to breath while we were down there let along working down there. They moved all the rocks by hand and broke the large ones by cold chisel and hammer. One holding the chisel while the other one hit it. Then had to prop up the walls with the rock as they went. It is so hard to describe what we saw and how it makes you think about how easy we have it today. Then as the day was getting on a bit we headed back to Broken Hill, but on the way we say the sculptures so we went there. We got there and you had to get a key from the info center in town so we looked from a far and decided that was enough. Went up to the Café Restaurant to book in for a meal but had to wait 15 minutes for a train to go past. I have never seen one so long. When we got to the café decided just to have a coffee and we would eat at home. The café was built on a slime dump that over looked the town. And would you credit it, on the way down we had to wait for the same train as it had to back- back to let the Indian Pacific, (The train from Perth,) come into the station. We left Broken Hill on Wednesday 26th July and got onto the straight roads. We saw an emu with ½ dozen chicks. They only came up to the emus, ankle. They were so small and cute. We took a back road but it was like a main road, no traffic, and straight as, and bitumen to boot. We stopped for lunch and I walked across the railway bridge and along the road to get some exercise. We have turns at doing this so that we get a stretch and some exercise. Got to Peterbrough about 3.30pm. We choose to go to a caravan park tonight so that we can start to get things ready for our Simpson Desert trip. We did a town tour for $10.00 which was OK for a small town tour, it looked liked there was nothing there but they make it something as it took us one and half hours to see it. The Petrol here is $1.48c. Did a little grocery shopping, no idea when we will be able to get fresh fruit and vegetables again. Left Peterbrough at 9.45 and headed up through Orroroo through Hawker and onto Copley, just past Leigh Creek, where we are going to leave the caravan. We arrived and we were made so welcome, Dave and Shirley are so nice and friendly. Shirl as she is affectively called, took us out the back and showed us where to park and around the park. Each morning at 10.15 they put on morning tea, scones that really crumble, jam and cream, tea or coffee and they light the campfire every night at 5.30 for people to met and have a drink. We went to the campfire that night, Rob went to the morning tea I didn’t want to be tempted. There is a coal train that goes from the coalmine here at Leigh Creek, to Port Augusta every day and its 2.5 kms long and has 3 engines and 168-170 carriages. It so long just a little longer than the one we saw the other day. We packed the truck the next day and got everything ready to go to the Simpson Desert. Petrol here is $1.51. They are not charging us anything for us to leave the van here and its near Dave and Shirl’s house so it should be quite safe.
Well once
this is over I wander what Robert will harp on about next. He is really looking forward to this
trip. I am too if I’m, honest. It’s a
little scary and exciting because we are doing it by ourselves and they
recommend you should always go in a convoy of two or more. But since we haven’t got anyone over here to
go with we will give it ago. We wer up and way early.We have just 40 kms of Bitumen road then we
hit the dirt for some 2000kms. The
Birdsville track is not a track anymore, it a 3 line dirt road, however it
wasn’t all smooth riding. We had to go over
a few small rivers and a lot of corrugations. Not as
many vehicles as I thought there would be. There is little dust as we had rain just a few days ago and that has the
roads are more compacted and the water is running a little. It’s greener than I thought due to the
rain.
It took us till 1.30 to get to Mungerannie Road
house where we stayed tonight, in a donger.
A small room with a double bed and nothing else, but it stopped us
pitching a tent. I asked the bartender
if he had Fox and would he be watching the All Blacks game and it turned out he
was a kiwi and wouldn’t miss it for anything.
We went for a hot spa and the artesian bore comes in here and it was so
nice to soak in the pool. We went in for dinner and my luck is in and I watched
us beat the Aussies after all. A big
group of South Australians came in and wanted to watch AFL, Aussie rules and
the bartender said no we are watching the best game around Rugby. It didn’t go down to well so they had dinner
then left. We had the bar to ourselves
nearly except of one or two workman until after half time. I couldn’t contain
myself it was nerve racking. Had good
nights sleep then up and off on the road again.
Filled up with petrol again here just in case. $1.68 per litre. We left
at 8.00am getting earlier and earlier.
We had a slight drizzle on the way and hoped it didn’t turn into
anything worse or we wouldn’t be able to go across the desert if the rains
came. We heard that a front was coming
in but not until Thursday or Friday, so here’s hoping. Sunday 30th July and again the
road wasn’t to bad, but not a road that you could go extra fast. So Rob just
put it on cruise control about 85 and we coasted along. Stopped to look at the
boat in the middle of this dry land. Read the story behind it. It rains really badly here in the wet season
and sometimes the only way to get from A to B is to use a boat. Its hard to believe when you see what we are
seeing at the moment. We stopped at the Warm night, but it must get cold, as there were
electric blankets on the beds. We ended
up doing 170 kms to get here. Up and off
today back home to the van at Coley.
Took the long way home around the back way where the mailman goes,
through the station properties. It was a
really nice drive with some rough patches and some river creek driving. We’re devil for punishment. Called in on the
way to the Pinnacles, just high rocks, then Bolla Boolana Springs,nothing there
but pool of water, then to the smelter ruins. Then onto the stations, and we
were surprised how green they were. They
had rain a fortnight ago but it reminded us of central otago. Home in time for lunch and I had salad and
Rob went to the famous Copley Bakery to have a pie. We were out of range last night but Sharleen
had left a message on the phone for Rob. We went down to the fire and met the
motorbike guys we talked to at Dalhousie Springs, they were going across the Simpson
and we had just finished crossings. They had a 4wd long wheel base and a
trailer with a long draw bar and wandered how they would get through. We had often talked about them and wandered
how they went. They got through alright but got stuck a few times. I played
cards on the computor while Rob read a book then bed. We are leaving here tomorrow so had to put
things away. No hurry though. Had a slow breakfast this morning and took
our time packing and hitching up. We
finally said bye to Shirl and Dave and Shirl didn’t want us to go yet. We went up to see Dave the garage man on our
way out to see if he could put some grease into the nipples of the van for us
and we had to wait for 20 minutes until he finished a job and then he did it
but he didn’t charge us anything. We
headed for Wilpena in the Flinders South ranges. Arkaroola is in the Flinders Ranges North. I have put double-sided tape of KIWI Nina as
she keeps falling over every time we go on bumpy roads; we call her Nina by the
way. Been a long way with us ahy. Her
All Black jumper has faded somewhat it is now brown. Never mind she stills looks good up there on
the dashboard. Called in to Hawker for
some supplies and petrol and then onto Rawnsley Park Caravan Park just about 10
kms from Wilpena. Ranwsely Park was
recommended to us by several people we met on our trip, so we took their advice
and are staying here not Wilpena. Well
worth it. Lovely no grass park, but very
clean and tidy. We went for a flight
over the Flinders this afternoon and over the Wilpena Pound. Hard to explain the Pound but its like a
Crater up in the air surrounded by high mountains, or hills. We got great views
from the small plane, only 30minutes so it was great, and we were the only one
in it, apart from the pilot that is. Had
Happy Hour with some Nissan 4WD tour from Melbourne. Very nice we were invited
to go with them on the Skyway tour tomorrow but we had already planned our
day. It was a very cold night
tonight. We only drove 207 kms today so
it was an easy day compared to some.
It’s the weekend again and the 12th August 2006 and we are
going to go through the Flinders ranger and back out tot the main road and then
in again and back a different route. Well you see hill after hill for quite a
while then you came to the Barchina Gorge, wow, it was well worth coming here
for. Its magic, you have to see it to
appreciate it, they say its 560 million years old, I don’t know about that but
its so awesome. Then we went out to a
famous pub but it did nothing for me, then but into the ranges and another 75
kms, which took us about 2 hours, to another old mining town and old pub with
great food. Had lunch, walked around the old mines and then headed back to
Camp. We had a great day out well worth
the trip and the dusty roads. Well it’s
Happy hour again and then dinner then back to the group. Next day the group went where we went
yesterday and we took a 3-hour hike up into the Pound. Great to fly over, walk
up and drive around the Pound. Had a
late lunch then did the washing happy hour again, I only drink water and have
no nibbles, late tea tonight 7.30pm. We
are going to spend a few days with Sandy and Alan on our way back through
Melbourne. We are leaving Rawnsley Park tomorrow so will sign off for now. Well I hope you enjoy reading this
newsletter, it’s lots of reading for you and great memories for us. We are heading back down to the land of the
living and green grass and ocean. Heading towards the Eyres Penisular and Port
Linclon so will let you know all about that next time.