Burnin Up some diesel - We are gone we are outa here and we done 3000km already

Gooday family and Friends

Well we are now burin up some diesel me little darlins, more verses to that little song coming for later blogs.

Sorry about the delay in blogging but you may have guessed I am not a seasoned blogger.
We have had some mobile communications problems and for those who know me you are probably saying yeh yeh whats new.
But we now have Telstra connected and we are, for a change, in range tonight. So here is our trip so far

Saturday 7th at 7.30am we headed off from Woodbine, spot on the planned time. We spent most of the day driving, stopping, eating and so on. We had a long trip up Bells line of Road to Lithgow and by the time we go to Lithgow I was up for second breakfast. We went on through Bathurst Orange to Wellington. I had never been to Wellington so we stopped off, not much to see when you are just passing through, I think you might need to stay a night or two but it wasn't on our radar. We went on through Dubbo and arrived at a rest area called Florida rest area about 50k east of Cobar. We parked up for the night, its a good lay over spot. Red Dusty earth no grass and not much of any other vegetation. I went out in of the night for a wee walk, as often do, and couldn't believe how dark it was, in fact I don't recall experiencing darkness like it.

Sunday 8th we headed off to Cobar stopped for some diesel, the old girl as burning it well. Then on to Broken Hill and backtrack 100k east to Menindee where we found my cousin Patrick camped by Lake Pamammaroo. We were about 500 yards from the campsite on the Darling River where Burke and WIlls camped before striking north where they met their fate. What a great place. We had 8k of sandy road to get into the spot but once there Heaven. great spot we will go back there for a couple of weeks sometime in the future. We stayed there for three nights had a look around the joint, wind made lake too choppy to fish and in fact one afternoon we came back to camp to find the boat swamped and full of water. Now the only problem we had at Lake Pamammaroo was Pat and I were off down the Darling River trying to trap a yabby or two and while parked out on a clay pan it decided to rain. We had a bit of fun getting out of it and back to camp. It rained heavily all night one night so the next morning we went for a drive to Broken Hill, not much to do in the camp while raining and when we got to the bitumen we found our road had been closed. So we went back to the Camp and the next day we packed up and got out of there. It was fairly slippery but the old girl did the job. Driving back to Broken Hill was the first time this trip that we struck a head wind and as you will see we had it for the next 3 or 4 days. I believe it rained again the next night at Menindee but we were tucked up in a caravan park in Broken Hill. We discovered we had a major electrical problem with the van, won’t say what as it might incriminate me. We went to an auto electrician in Broken Hill who announced he could do anything for two weeks. Underneath he van and I discovered some busted wires out with the soldiering iron and all was well or was it. Ah while in Broken Hill we slipped out to Silverton, home of Mad Max movies they say. Great little pub and some old cars replicated to look like they are out of the movie.

Thursday the 12th of July we are out of Broken Hill heading towards Port Augusta. We thought we would have an overnight 50k or so from Port Augusta. But as we moved along red light flashing problem back better get to Port Augusta so we did just on dusk. Sun shining in my eyes I mistook a sign to a lookout for a sign to a Caravan Park and we ended up lost in Port Augusta, fortuitously actually because we do not want to be staying in Caravan Parks and we saw a dirt track to the right so we ended up in a park come kids play ground tucked up behind a big bush with uninterrupted views of Spencers Gulf. Million Dollars or more.

Friday the 13th of July we are up early and off to the Auto Electrician again. He tests things and they all seem ok. He charges us $50 and all is well, for about 100km. So more roadside repairs and off we go again. We purchased our van 3 years ago brand new shouldn’t have such problems. We got held up leaving Port Augusta due to the Auto Electrician and a couple of other supplies we needed to get before leaving. We camped by Lake Hart, a large salt lake about 50k north of Woomera. Woomera is an interesting joint full of old rockets from the days of joint missile practice with the Poms. Roxby Downs is 80 k out the road from Woomera, the highway from Port Augusta was full of Police and hired buses loaded with young people going to Roxby Downs to protest to "save the lizard" which we were told by a local of seeming high repute in Port Augusta meant "stop mining Uranium and selling to other countries to send back to us in big banging packages". A random breath test about 8k north of Port Augusta was bigger than any I have seen in Sydney, overkill?? perhaps!!

Saturday the 14th the bloody road just keeps on keeping on. Nothing much to see, the odd goat, the odd wedge tailed eagle and on the road goes. Next stop Coober Pedy, Opal mining capital of the world so they say. Big holes and mounds of dirt looks like a golf course from some alien movie or perhaps Land of the giants, anyone else remember that show?? Now we were told before we left home and as we were told again while tracked along "beware of the Aboriginals in Coober Pedy" beware of what I asked, make sure you have everything tied down I was told. What did you have stolen I asked? Oh I didn’t have anything stolen but I was told to make sure I was aware of the risk to my security, "they are all drunk you know". The only drinkers/drunks we saw in Coober Pedy looked awfully white, perhaps an albino strain. We had a look at a place built underground that was interesting. As we drove out of Coober Pedy I thought bugger it I missed the side show. We arrived at a rest are called Mathesons Bore, nice quiet spot way off the highway a van or two already there. In rocks an old black holden commodore I thought beauty back to Mad Max. Five aboriginal woman and two kids piled in. One woman came over and said they had a flat tire. It was about half flat and she wondered if I could change it, I couldn’t because it had security wheel nuts, stop whites from floggin them. Another happy camper came to lend assistance and found the same problem. So we had a meeting and decided the best we could do was put 45PSI in her and send them on the way. They were heading to Coober Pedy to visit some family. One of the women, 22 or so in age was very appreciative and I asked about where they came from and she told me they were from a community in their land called Indulkana land of the Iwantja people. The car was a mess they must not have rego checks in South Australia. We met some folk from Melbourne in a big old ford towing a van with a motorbike on the drawbar, great rig. Lit a fire cooked a feed and went off to photograph some stars.

Sunday the 15th, thats today. We left and back on to the endless road. We stopped at a roadhouse at Marla, the other day we stopped at one called Spuds north of Port Augusta and later on today Kulgera and then Eridunda. They all have a Pub/Tavern, expensive fuel, Poker Machines and a very captive audience, people sick of being on the road needing a refuel or just a break. Interesting sub culture developing here. Decided that we would go and have a look at Ayers Rock once we arrived at Eridunda. My sister Rebecca told me to stay at Curtain Springs. We decided not to and went on the full 250km to Yulara we are in the camping ground here for two nights we want to go out to the Olgas tomorrow and maybe further if we can get a permit.

Ok so this is the longest blog in life sorry about that. We will try and get some pictures up here tomorrow to supplement the blog and future blogs will be shorter in duration and time span I promise.