The Breakaways

The Breakaways

Underground Mine

Underground Serbian Church

20/5/2012  -  It is a beautiful morning today.  We woke nice and snug after being able to have the electric blanket on whenever we wanted last night.  Had bacon and eggs for breakfast.  What a treat.  I did a load of washing and we had a chat with the neighbours.  The Airds came and said goodbye.  It was just lovely sitting out in the sun.  We went down and filled the car up at the Shell Depot in the back street.  It was $1.66 a litre so the cheapest in town.  The other servos are $1.69.  We came back and had lunch, I did a bit more on the blog and we got organised to do the tour.  We went around to the office at about 2.30 and the guide picked us up at about 3pm.  There was about 10 from the caravan park on the tour.  We started off visiting the Desert Cave Opal Shop and the guide told us all about opals and how they are formed, the types and how to tell a good one.  It was really interesting and there was some beautiful jewellery there and I might say expensive.  After that we visited the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum.  They had an opal shop there too with some lovely things.  We then went underground to see where 2 miners in the early days had made a 2 room with entry dug out and how long it took them to make it.  Then we went into a more modern underground home.  The living room was really big, designed for entertaining, it had a small kitchen and then a couple of bedrooms.  On the way out of town we saw the entrances to some of the homes that are under ground dugouts.    The soil in the Coober Pedy hillside is stable enough to allow huge ceiling spans in rooms and it is not unusual for a mining family to buy an adjoining property and tunnel to link two dwellings or even three or four.  Some mansion style homes spread up to 450 square metres underground. The diggings was the next stop where there are large piles of dirt and holes where the miners have been digging or are still mining.  After that we went out to the Breakaways, a series of large hills in all shapes, sizes and colours.  We were there around sunset so the light was great to take photos. Then we stopped at the dog fence that is about 5, 500 kilometres long and was erected to try and stop the dingoes from the north entering into the south.  The underground Serbian Church was the next stop.  It was lovely with beautiful large shaped ceilings and wonderful accoustics and a series of 3 sculptures that were sculpted into the sandstone walls.  The guide took us back and we had a drink in the only underground bar in Australia.  It also had the only underground gaming room.  When we'd finished he dropped us all back at the caravan park. It was well worth taking the tour.    We had tea and I thought I'd catch up with today's blog just incase we don't have service for a few days.

Salt Lake

Outside Coober Pedy

Stuart Highway

19/5/2012  -  Up early again this morning and left Pimba about 8.30am.  The land is still very barren with no trees.  We stopped at a lookout to take some photos of one of the huge salt lakes out here.  I had dropped my glasses when I got out and didn't realise until I went to write in my diary as we left the lookout.  Thankfully I did that or I would never have known what had happened to them.  So lucky too as we could have run over them on our way out.  After about 20 kilometres from Pimba there were trees and huge dry salt lakes.  One of the lakes called Island Lagoon had chunks of salt sticking up out of it.  We called in through Glendambo to check out the price of fuel at both their servos and it was $1.71 at the BP and $1.70 at Shell.  There was a sign on the way into town to say the population of the area was 22,000 Sheep, 2 Million Flies and I didn't catch how many people but I don't think there would have been many.  We stopped at Bon Bon Rest Area for Moko and I think most of those flies were there having Moko with us.  Just after there was a section of the highway that was signed for use as the Royal Flying Doctors Airstrip in an emergency.  It was nice and wide with no guide posts and a turn around section at the end for the plane to turn.  When we got to about 80 kilometres out of Coober Pedy we started to see Opal Mines or remnants of some on either side of the road.  The town itself is a bit hilly with underground houses located in the hills around the town.  The main street has lots of Opal Traders/Jewellers, a supermarket, chemist, bottle shop and post office, a few restaurants and take aways.  We checked out all the caravan parks and decided on the Opal Inn which was right behind the pub and motel.  It was $30 for a site but no water.  None of the parks here have water to hook up to.  We parked up, had lunch and went for a walk down town.  We went into an underground museum which wound around into an Opal shop with lots of lovely jewellery.  The salesman there explained to us what the different types of opal were.  The museum we first walked into had been dug by 3 women back in the early years.  When we got back we had neighbours that we discovered were from Tin Can Bay and later that afternoon a van pulled in across from us and it was Jeff and Anna Aird.  Jeff  has the cleaning contract at Tarong.  We booked a guided tour for tomorrow to have a better look around the area so that should be good.

Stuart Highway out of Port Augusta

Stuart Highway

Sunset over Pimba Rest Area

Pimba Rest Area

18/5/2012  -  Up early this morning and left Rawnsley Park Station.  We had a good stay here and will return if the chance arises.  We backtracked back through Hawker, Quorn and on to Port Augusta.  We weren't really impressed with the town as it isn't very RV friendly making it very hard to find parking spots to shop and the town itself is not that well maintained.  We topped up with bread and milk and fuelled up at the Coles Express servo for $1.47 that was using discount vouchers.  We also bought an electric blanket and a couple of fleece blankets to try and make the bed a bit warmer at night.  We should be able to run the electric blanket on low settings from the Inverter.  We headed out of Port Augusta and on up the Stuart Highway heading up the centre.  The land is so barren up this way.  It is like driving through a desert with small clumps of plants a bit like spinifex. We are hoping to get up to around Woomera today. Had lunch at North Tent Hill Rest Area where there was so much litter so we ate fast and headed out.  We got to Pimba just down the road from Woomera and stopped for the night at the Rest Area opposite Spud's Roadhouse. Heaps of vans were already parked up there when we got in but a lot more arrived after us.  There must have been at least 40 vans in there for the night.  We were all just parked up in the dust but there were showers and toilets there and it was free.  It was a bit noisy at times with lots of trucks using the road and the roadhouse but that wasn't a problem for us.

Sacred Canyon

Flinders Ranges

Flinders Ranges

Flinders Ranges

17/5/2012  -  Another beautiful morning, even nicer than yesterday and not as much breeze.  We are off to explore a bit more of the area in the Flinders Ranges today.  We called into Wilpena Pound again  to check our emails and then headed on to the Sacred Canyon which was 13 kilometres up a dirt and corrugated road but the Canyon was worth the drive.  There were aboriginal engravings in some of the rocks there but the rock formations and colours were worth the drive in.   Some of the huge rocks were so rounded and smooth and it just shows how the water gushes down through the canyon and down the river in the wet season.  It was then on to Bunyeroo Gorge stopping at a couple of lookouts on the way.  The views from these were just magnificent.  We could see the layers of sediment that make up the ranges and the colours were great.  Some of the layers looked like they had been painted on the mountain.  The road into the gorge was dirt and was quite steep and winding.  On the way into the gorge there were quite a few emus grazing beside the road.  As we were driving down through the gorge we were actually driving along a dry river bed with cliffs either side much like the Brachina Gorge yesterday but Bunyeroo was not quite as big or interesting. When we came out of the gorge we headed over to the Aroona Ruins which were situated up on top of a hill so they would have had great views from there.  The stone house was build in 1854 and belonged to a sheep farmer, John Hayward.  He was the first pastoralist to bring sheep so far north. He described his home as a “splendid bungalow”. There isn’t much  left of the original building, just rock walls and stone steps down to what was once a cellar.  We had lunch at one of the National Park campgrounds nearby and headed back to the camp.  We had had enough of dirt, corrugated roads.  I did a load of washing and we got  organized to leave here tomorrow.  Pa did a bit of investigating this afternoon and reckons if we stay here again we should get site 18 as it has its own fire pit, is up the hill a bit and is close to the amenities.

Flinders Ranges

Glass Gorge

Flinders Ranges

Flinders Ranges

16/5/2012  -  Up fairly early this morning to a beautiful day.  A little chilly to start with but still beautiful.  We are heading out to do some sightseeing today and check out more of the Flinders Ranges.  We had brekky, I packed some sandwiches for lunch and we headed out.  Our first stop was Wilpena Pound mainly so we can get some mobile and internet service to pay the Telstra bill and let the girls know we are okay and where we are.  We had a look around while we were there but are glad we decided to stay at Rawnsley Station now.  Wilpena Pound was okay but lots of trees and not a lot of sunshine coming through and some of the sites were tight.  Fuel was $1.75 a litre there.  We then went up Stokes Hill Lookout and the scenery was breathtaking, in more ways than one.  The wind was freezing, but the views of the ranges were worth it. The colours, contours and different shapes of these ranges are so beautiful. It was then on to Appealinna Ruins  where the rocky remains of one of our pioneering families, Joseph and Sarah Wills family home is and there is also ruins of a Mine Manager’s home and various other mine workers huts.  They used to mine copper in this area.  It was easy to see the Mine Managers house was built so much better than the Wills’ house was.  There was documentation on each ruin so it was really interesting to read all about Joseph and Sarah’s lives and all the trouble Joseph had with the Mine owners and the other landholders.  Then it was on to Blinman, an old copper mining town.  There are still many old workers cottages in the town and other old buildings and an old copper mine just out of town they take tours through.  We had Moko there and drove onto the Glass Gorge via a dirt and sometimes corrugated road.  The gorge was great with lots of really interesting rocks.  Most of them were flat just like a thick tile.  Parts of the cliffs there looked like they were made up of tiles stacked on top of each other.  We could have spent ages there but pressed on to Parachilna.  On the way there we came across a lookout. I called it a self made lookout, because it didn’t look like a dozer had made the track.  We went up, up, up to the top of this hill and wow, what a great view from the top.  (It was well worth all the fingernail marks in the seat). We crossed Oratunga Creek that was a big rocky dry creek bed and after that the landscape just flattened out with some ranges in the distance but it was really hard to believe only a few minutes ago we were surround by them. Parachilna was only a small town with a great looking pub called the Prairie Hotel that is apparently well known for its great food.  The old Ghan Railway line used to run through the town too. We ate our lunch down the road from there and we had some great views of the mountains.  From here we headed back to camp via Brachina Gorge.  The rocks exposed along  the gorge date from 500 to 650 million years old and age from west to east.  This was a great drive even though the road was dirt and corrugated but the gorge was well worth it.  Most of the drive through it was up Billy Creek, a dry, rocky creek bed with cliffs either side of it and a few puddles of water here and there.   After we came out of the gorge we drove back to the main road and back to camp.  What a great day and what great places we have seen today.  We have taken heaps of photos of the ranges but none of them will do justice to the beauty of this place.

Part of the Kanyaka Ruins

Chace Range - Part of the Flinders Ranges

Cruiser in front of Chace Range

Chace Range at Sunset

15/5/2012  -  We left Melrose at about 10.15.  Can’t rush these things.  It had been a freezing cold night so because we didn’t have electricity we missed having our little blower heater going so it was a bit of a rough night trying to get warm.  (Wish I had brought warmer bedding)  It was a beautiful morning though.  We passed through Willmington and Quorn.  Both were small towns that were so dry.  Nobody has a lawn because obviously they don’t have the water.  We then called into Kanyaka Ruins which were the ruins of an old homestead, that had a surgery, because there was no doctor in the district, an office, that was used as a post office for a while, overseers cottage, mens’ kitchen, carthouse, stable and various other huts all made of stone.  There was also a cemetery there.  It was really interesting wandering through the remnants of these buildings and wondering about the people who would have lived here.  Apparently quite a few families did live here and the buildings were actually like a small village.  Kanyaka was originally built in about 1862 for John Phillips and his family.  We found more ruins further down the road where there was a town called Wilson. What was left of the Railway Station Masters Home was there.  We worked out where the old railway line would have run just behind the house.  There were more ruins in the area but were mostly just an odd wall or chimney.  We had a walk through the cemetery here and a lot of the graves belonged to very young people and infants.  What an interesting place.  Hawker was our next town and it was very dry also but quite neat and had a good rest stop for a lunch break so we had lunch here and went to the servo where the information bureau was and got some information on the Flinders Ranges and where to stay.  I called Rawnsley Park Station and they could accommodate us so we headed out there.  The Caravan Park was located a couple of kilometers in off the road past the Station Homestead.  It was a nice park with friendly staff so we booked in for 3 nights so we could have a good look around the area.  It was $33 a night for a powered site and $22 for non powered.  They gave us some good information on what places to see and a map how to get there so we set up camp, grabbed a bottle of red and a couple of glasses and went on out to Pugilist Lookout which was a must see at Sunset.  The lookout was on top of a hill right in the middle of the ranges and from the top all the sheep in the paddocks below looked like ants. We watched the sun setting over the ranges in the west and as it was going down it cast an amber glow over the opposite ranges and brought out all the colours of the rocks.  It was just beautiful and well worth the wait for the sun to set.  Pa also found a heap of molluscs (shells a bit like small pipies) on top of the hill that were obviously deposited here when the  inland sea receded from this area millions of years ago.  After the sun had gone down we headed back to camp for the night.    

Port Pirie

Jetty at Port Germain

Original Lighthouse Port Germain

Bangor Ruins amongst Pepper Trees

NM

Our campfire at Melrose Showgrounds Campground

14/5/2012  -  Left Port Broughton at about 9.50am.  This morning was sunny but still cool.  We headed to Port Pirie and had a look around there.  It is a very dry town but we did find a spot in the Coles carpark to pull up to go in and do our stock up.  We got our groceries from Coles and were lucky to get an 8c a litre voucher from there and stocked up on our reds.  Can't be running out on the way up the centre can we.  We got our fuel from the Coles Express servo nearby and fuel was $1.51 there so we got it for $1.43 which is really good for out here.  The old girl was really thirsty so was one of those times where you hate handing the credit card over.  After that we pulled up in town beside the river and had lunch.  The weather was quite a bit warmer up here and not as much wind.  Port Germain was our next stop.  It is noted for having had one of the longest wooden jetties in the southern hemisphere at 1673 metres long.  In its heyday it was the largest grain shipping port in Australia. The original lighthouse that was situated at the end of the jetty has been replaced by automated lights so the lighthouse sits at the start of the jetty now. The town is really quite small but is somewhere we think we could stay for a few days.  Would be good to walk the length of the jetty.  There is heaps of seaweed stacked up on the beach which is common for down here at this time of the year apparently. They also use "Jinkers" a.k.a. "Spiders" like they had at Port Parham for launching their boats. After there we started heading inland winding our way up towards the Flinders Ranges.  We passed through a place called Bangor that wasn't really a town but some old ruins.  We stopped to take photos and some of the ruins are in amongst a few pepper trees that were absolutely loaded with peppercorns.  It was really beautiful.  There had been an old pub there  called The Gorge that was built in 1888 and apparently at any one time there were at least 100 bullock and horse teams camped along the creek across from the pub.  Would have been a busy place.  It closed in 1911 when the railway started carting the wheat and wool from the district.  While we were there all we could hear were the sheep calling to each other from paddock to paddock. We headed on through Murray Town to Melrose where we had planned to stay the night.  The town is a nice little place and we ended up going just out of town to the Showgrounds where there is a campground.  They charge $5 per person and if you want a powered site it was another $7 for power.  We decided we could do without the power so set up on a site where we could have a fire.  There was a huge drum there so Pa soon had a great fire going.  We had a weenie roast that night for tea, something we haven't done for ages.  It was a cold night so we weren't able to sit around the fire long but at least had time for a couple of quiet reds before tea. It ended up being an absolutely freezing night there.  Reckon we should have put a couple of bricks in the fire and put them in the bed.