Adelaide to Darwin Part 1

 via The Stuart Highway

Stockport to Woomera

After a good tow through Adelaide, sticking to the A15 coastal road and passing the airport, we managed to get to Port Adelaide in less than an hour. We travelled past Gawler, eventually turning of the highway to a small township called Hamley Bridge. It was so quaint with brick built dwellings. Our campsite was about 8km away in a very tiny place called Stockport, we had telephoned to reserve a place but on arrival we could see that it wasn’t necessary. There was a lot of land and most of it covered in old cars in various states of disrepair….needless to say Richard was in his element. Gary and Cheryl were the owners and so friendly. Gary let Richard loose around the old cars and Rich even helped change a fan belt on an old Jaguar XJ40!! We had a nice conversation with Cheryl about how they had bought the property and then we talked about the “Flu injection” which we are conscious of getting. Later that evening Cheryl came to let us know that she had been speaking with the local Medical surgery and informed us that they would gladly sort us out with the “Flu Jab”, we thanked her and off she went. Hamley Bridge is where the doctor was and we were able to make an appointment the next afternoon. Well, to cut a long story short we met a fantastic doctor called John Smith who administered the injections for $21 each. The following photographs or of the Stockport Caravan Park!

The larger town of Kapunda had a really amazing museum (yes another one) all about the discovery of copper which saved the prosperity of South Australia and even the information centre in the Library housed a very informative small museum.

The Big Miner on the main road approaching Kapunda

We decided to add an extra night to our stay, even though the weather wasn’t too good. Friday night we had a really lovely evening with other campers and the owners, who supplied beautiful homemade soup around the campfire. Cheryl and Gary are super campsite owners who are building a nice business by providing a bushcamp setting for travellers. We wish them well and may even return one day.

Anzac day, we travelled north and through several lovely towns and saw numerous wreaths laid at every commemorative statue, the aftermath of every town’s Anzac day service. We did feel guilty about not attending a service but as we were moving north we would have found it difficult.

We eventually stopped at a Showground in a very nice little town called Melrose.

Melrose Showground

The wonderful thing about showgrounds is that you don’t have to be side to side with another caravan, there is plenty of space! We didn’t unhitch the ute as we had a great level spot. After getting organized we walked into the town to look around and to partake of a drink at the local pub/hotel etc, there were two so we had a drink in both. Nothing much happening, a very quiet little town so we headed back to the showground before it got too dark. As we walked on the country path that lead back to the caravan we were being watched by lots of kangaroos, they are so curious!!

Sunday morning, and we had a little bit of drama as the slide out on the caravan wouldn’t close correctly!! So a repair job had to be done, it turned out that a cable connector had come apart and so it was fixed quickly.

 

We set off towards Woomera, a journey of 241kms. We had telephoned ahead for a pitch for three nights and we arrived to a very well organised campground….it had a bar!! So in there to meet other caravanners for an evening drink before dinner (prices were good too $4 per drink).

Woomera is owned by the Australian Military and you are not able to buy a house here…everyone rents, but it is taken out of their wages at source. This is where the British and Australians (also the Japanese!) tested Rockets, as in the 1960’s they were trying to get into the space age!! The trajectory for these Rockets was towards 80 mile beach in WA. This town is so interesting, Richard, in particularly had read about Woomera when he was a child and in those days wondered where Woomera was? Here we are to see it in its real state!

The town centre was full of rocketry, so many displayed, it was only after visiting the museum that we understood about the many rockets in the town centre. It was from Woomera airfield that the powers that be coordinated the testing of the Atom Bomb. We saw films showing the test sites and the bomb being set off.  I will digress a little here as we have met a lovely couple who gave us a CD to listen to which was a talk by a man called Len Beadell who was called upon by the Australians to find a suitable place, in the middle of nowhere that the Atom Bomb could be tested. If any of you feel like googling his name you will be fascinated as this man Len Beadell as he built thousands and thousands of kilometres (he uses the word “miles”, obviously) of roads,  he opened up the centre of Australia enabling people to head west and east, north and south…. His most famous road out here is “The Gun Barrel Highway”

Woomera, is once again going to be an operational RAAF base. In the past there were many American Military here but it was seen as a bad posting for any American military. Woomera was a tracking station for satellites and moon shots….we think Apollo 11 was tracked from here. There are a few military staff around but the general public are not allowed near the base…we couldn’t even see the airstrip which apparently can cope with the Space Shuttle! The locals that we spoke to are looking forward to the base being opened up again as this will bring in some well needed money. A trip to an opal town called “Andamooka” was on our list, this little town was near Lake Torrens which we thought we could take a look at but we never found the lake!! But, no it was a long way off.

Andamooka

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We met some lovely people in the town who are on the campsite with us…. Little did we know we would all meet up on the road much further north? On the way to Andamooka we passed a sign for the town of “Roxby Downs” this town was approximately 90km down the road from Woomera. We decided to call in and take a look on the way back. A very nice and prosperous little town too, with schools, Woolworths supermarket and some lovely houses, all due to the Uranium mine (Olympic Dam) which was not too far away. Another evening was spent having a drink and chatting to other travellers in the camp bar. We seemed to hit it off with a lovely couple who had been on the road for 11 years, Paul and Chris. They too were heading to Coober Pedy and we will hopefully catch up with them. We had a good look around this area even though there is not much to see……it’s just little towns off the Stuart Highway that we are so pleased we did take the time to visit.

North to Coober Pedy

After saying goodbye to Woomera we headed north, (always north) to Coober Pedy, our next stop where we will find the Opals to make us millionaires ha ha... the highway ran parallel to the Woomera Prohibited Area for 300km, this is the area spoken about earlier. Our ‘Ute needed fuel so at the next roadhouse (Glendambo) we filled up. Helen went into the café area and order two coffees and gave the lady a $10 note to which the lady said “$11.50 please” crikey, these were expensive coffees. The café lady also spoke to Helen regarding a middle aged couple who had just left the café. She thought they hadn’t paid for their coffees!!! The local policeman was discussing a situation with the lady behind the till in the shop area, apparently she had let some people have fuel without payment and they promised to come back. Strange place!! Helen took the coffee out to Rich and told him the good news about the price, the middle aged couple then said how expensive their food had been in there, Helen informed them that the lady thought they hadn’t paid….this was not true! We stood around for a wee while chatting and telling each other where we were going and it turned out we were all booked on to the same campsite! Bob and Jackie are from Milton, NSW and are travelling in their motorhome. Jackie asked Richard about our 2 way radio, they had one but it was so crackly they couldn’t hear anything so Rich fixed it for them, much to Jackie’s delight. Off we all went on towards Coober Pedy, using the 2 way radio just checking on each other…another friendship had been made!!

 
 
 

The Big Winch high on a hill in Coober Pedy

 

After a drive of 371kms Jackie and Bob checked into the campsite before us and immediately disappeared. The campsite gate would be closed at 10p.m. until 6a.m. we were told, so if we took the car out we had to be back! Showers had to be paid for at 20cents for 3 minutes.  Water for Coober Pedy is from the Artesian wells, paying for it is not a problem for us and on leaving if we needed to fill tanks in the caravan we were able to us the water bowser in town at 30cents for 30 litres, not bad. We had a good pitch, set up and went for a walk into town. Here we found numerous underground shops, hotels, cafes etc. also many Aboriginals in large groups just sitting or standing mainly in the shade of a building or a tree. Walking back into the Campsite we spotted the couple Chris and Paul. We had a little chat and we all will be on the same trip to the “Breakaways”.

 

The next day we took the car and went to visit “Faye’s House” this was an underground house that a lady had dug out herself over a period of about 10 years… it was quite something, it reminded us of the troglodyte homes in the Loire Valley of France.

Faye created an area just above ground for her indoor pool!

 We filled up with the cheapest fuel we had seen in ages too. A visit to the “Big Winch” saw us high above the town! A very strange town too in Helen’s opinion! The next afternoon we took the tour of the Breakaways to see the wonderful country and the Dog Proof Fence. Chris and Paul were with us and another couple who again we had seen along the way. It was a very good trip with George our campsite owner taking us out in a clapped out Mitsubishi people carrier, but it did the tour!! He showed us a petrified forest with the remains of a tree laying on the ground. George showed us some good sights but unfortunately the sunset wasn’t too great tonight!! We headed back to the campsite where we chatted again with Chris and Paul they had decided to do two free camps on the way to Uluru and so we would probably meet up with them on the track. 

The house underneath this sculpture was used
in the Movie Mad Max in fact,
 a lot of filming was done in this area
as there is just red soil everywhere

Part of the Breakways

Breakaways

 





Dog Proof  Fence

Sunset over the Breakaways... (not a good one tonight)

Once back, a couple came over and asked us about the caravan, they were waiting for their new Silverline which they would take delivery of in July. We hadn’t had this for a few months (people wanting to look in the van) so another long chat about caravans occurred. Jackie and Bob came over to see us they had been checking everything out in the town and decided to stay in the underground hotel before leaving the area.

 Richard realised that he wouldn’t have enough beer to last until our next stop so, he decided to take the Ute and go to the local “Bottle shop”, where a police officer was on duty and he had to have his driver’s licence scanned before they let him out with it.  This is because the other bottle shops would know if he tried to buy more than one slab of beer!!

 

The next day we set off in reasonably time to head to north, after exchanging telephone numbers with Jackie and Bob. The road was monotonous, we pulled in for more fuel at Marla and met Chris and Paul, who had just had their coffee. Once again, we discussed free camps and would meet up with them on one.  Helen took over driving with Richard looking for a free camp, we past a beauty called Agnes Creek but, Helen was going too fast and we missed it. The next free camp was really good with 3 other caravans there for the night but no Chris and Paul!



Our first free camp on the Stuart

Sunset view from the free camp

 

We decided to stay and saw the most amazing sunset. Here, we cooked up our tomatoes, due to the fact we may get them taken off us at the border.









Next morning, up and off in reasonable time heading to the Northern Territory and nowhere was there a border control!

We turned off the Stuart Highway on to the Lasseter Highway towards Uluru. We couldn’t believe the sight we saw on the way, we thought it can’t be Uluru and no, it wasn’t, it was Mount Connor!

Mount Connor

Our next free camp was at Curtin Springs roadhouse and once again we weren’t disappointed, lovely people and good facilities. Up and off in the morning to Ayers Rock resort, we had reserved a three night stay, they had a deal, pay for two and stay for three.