Woomera to Coober Pedy

10th September 2023

Distance: 380 Km

This is Dry Country

Forgot that SA time is half an hour behind my watch so packed up early and arrived at Pimba before 9am. Katie and Geoff had arrived about 7pm last night so the entire family convoy was together. Andrew had a flat battery again so Geoff separated the older battery from the new one and we jump started his car.

Set off, Katie and Geoff to explore Woomera the rest off us travelling north toward Cooper Pedy with a planned stop again at Glendambo for fuel – Dale’s car only travels about 260 km on a tank of fuel so he needs to top up at every opportunity.

We travelled through various types of desert vegetation and past many salt lakes glistening in the sun.

Made one further stop at Bon Bon Rest Area where we boiled a kettle for coffee, Milo and had a toilet break. I am very pleased with my Coleman Petrol Stove, once you have got the right technique for lighting it it is so much better than a butane stove especially in cold weather. I definitely need to buy a longer nozzle lighter for it, lighting it with an ordinary cigarette lighter is quite terrifying.

Continued on to the destination of Coober Pedy – made a compulsory stop at the town’s road sign near the turn off.

Then it was on to find the caravan park while Dale and Andrew bought fuel and looked around town. They decided to stay at the Big 4 Caravan Park because it has a swimming pool!

Katie and Geoff arrived a little while later an took over a site next to ours, they were small sites but very handy for the facilities.

That evening we all met up for a few drinks in the Opal Inn bar where we spent a pleasant couple of hours before returning to the camp site for dinner.

Burra to Woomera

9th September 2023

Distance: 404 Km

Fuel: 43 Litres

In the Woomera Prohibited Zone

Had a slight problem leaving this morning, Andrew’s car wouldn’t start, the battery was only showing 10 volts, jumper leads solved the problem but hopefully it won’t be an ongoing problem.

Drove steadily to Port Augusta in convoy, Andrew went through a car wash to remove the mud caking his vehicle, a leftover from four wheel driving. Then a quick visit to Coles for supplies followed by a coffee bought from a nearby tourist information bureau before setting off for the rest of the journey to Woomera.

Checked into the Woomera Caravan Park before having a look at the town with its history as a rocket range.

It is still in the centre of the Woomera Prohibited Area where vehicles are not allowed to leave the highway.

Dale and Andrew are staying at a free camp site at Pimba about 6 km away at the turn off to Woomera township from the Stuart Highway. Not a bad facility with showers on a time payment basis and toilets – no power or water. Roadhouse and fuel stop for the town – I filled up for tomorrow’s drive.

It looks like Katie and Geoff will be joining them later this evening after an epic trip from Canberra in only two days.

Wentworth to Burra

8th September 2023

Distance: 373 Km

Fuel: 49 Litres

NSW, Victoria and South Australia in One Day

It was still windy early this morning which made it feel much colder than it was. We had decided to leave a bit earlier than usual so we could meet Andrew at a rest area on the way, we first crossed the Murray River into Victoria.

Andrew sent a Google location of a rest area – to cut along story short Google’s idea of the location and Tom Tom’s differed greatly and it was only after a phone call that we finally met up. We were in contact over the UHF radio much earlier surprisingly while still 15 km apart however reception at this distance is a bit sketchy.

We travelled in convoy until the South Australian quarantine post at Yamba where, as a caravan we were delayed by a search for fruit and veg. Andrew decided to carry on to the kennels where he was dropping off Ollie, his dog, for a fortnight. While we were delayed anyway it seemed a good time to fill up with fuel and have a toilet break. We met up with Andrew again at the turn off to Morgan and Burra immediately after he left his dog at the kennels.

There was not much traffic most of the way. (Dashcam – sorry about the reflections)

Eventually arrived at the Burra Caravan Park at about 1.30pm but South Australia is half an hour behind NSW so it would have been 2pm for us.

We had an unpowered site so Andrew got one for $10 next to ours – to be honest I think the owner thought Andrew was in our car. I drove into the town for fuel and some bread

A few hours later we were joined by Dale who had driven from Narrandera in one stint in his Jimney.

That evening Andrew cooked us Chicken Sausages which was very nice of him.

Tibooburra to Camerons Corner

29th May 2021

Distance: 143km

The best day of the trip without a doubt and the reason for taking the whole trip, certainly something I had wanted to do for a very long time.

Set off from Tibooburra at about 8.30am after the kids refuelled their cars.

The dirt road started almost as soon as we turned off the highway to the track to Camerons Corner.

The sign told us that the road was open I would guess that for the first 80km we were able to travel at 80 to 100kph the road condition was pretty good there were some corrugations and gullies that required a much slower speed but generally we made very good progress. The road was a mixture of dust, gravel and rocks., with a few washouts.

We travelled several hundred metres apart because the cars kicked up a tremendous cloud of dust but used the UHF radios to warn of hazards including the occasional on coming vehicle.

The last quarter of the journey was a different matter the road was in much poorer conditions with many corrugated sections and a lot of sections with a moderate depth of dust. This required much slower speeds in fact the last 20km of road had a 60kph speed limit, though that was about as fast as you could go anyway.

We entered Camerons Corner through a gate in the dog fence and a sign which told us we were entering South Australia, Just before the entrance to the Camerons Corner Store/Pub is an area where the plinth marking the exact location where the Queensland, NSW and South Australia borders meet. The pub itself is in Queensland.

It was therefore possible to stand so that one half your body was half an hour away from the other half.

That evening there was the most beautiful sunset which we watched from the plinth.

Port MacDonnell

5th March 2019

Distance: 88km
Fuel: 9L

The weather was forecast to be showery and so it was but only brief showers of a few minutes interspersed with sunshine.

Drove the 25km to Port MacDonnell (the southernmost town in South Australia) and paid a visit to the Tourist information office which was also the local library and Maritime Museum.

Opposite were some large murals.

The museum was quite interesting showing the local history but as a maritime museum it was a bit tedious being a history of ship wrecks along the coast including one which resulted in 89 deaths

Next door to the museum was the old Customs House with a German WWII mine in the courtyard – the Germans mined the sea route from Adelaide to Melbourne.

Next visit was to the site of the old lighthouse with its spectacular coastal views.

Had intended to drive along the coast but the road suddenly ended and the sat nav showed the route via Mount Gambier which seemed a bit of a waste of time.

Stopped at Mount Schank one of the many local extinct volcanos, there was a path to the rim. It was pretty steep but the views made it worth the effort.

Funny thing was that the sound of a herd of cows a few kms away sounded as if it was next door.

Returned to the caravan park after topping up with fuel and doing a bit of shopping.

A Day in Mount Gambier

4th March 2019

Distance :25km
Fuel: 24L

Leisurely start, no rush today everything is in town.

First stop was the Blue Lake… Yes, it really was blue and the steep walls made its volcanic past obvious to anybody. It is the town’s water supply.

Next door is Valley Lake, the remains of two craters that finally exploded, joined and largely filled themselves in forming a smaller shallower lake and a large area of land that has been turned into a recreation park.

Overlooking this area is Centenary Tower which is reached by a very steep walk. It is worth the effort because the views are spectacular. To be honest I thought the tower must have been a bicentennial project but I couldn’t have been more wrong – it was built to celebrate the centenary of the opening up of the region and was completed in 1904.

Next visit was to the Umpherston Sinkhole which, like Cave Gardens, has been turned into a park and gardens. Named after the person who originally owned the land and used it as his own retreat from the heat. It used to have a quite large lake but as the water table has lowered it is now largely dry. There was also a waterfall but unfortunately the mechanism that kept it going is broken.

Had a sandwich lunch and coffee at the local cafe – actually very nice, a big change from that at the Giant Koala..

Next port of call was Engelbrecht Cave yet another but smaller sinkhole but this time privately owned and which leads to a complex of water filled caves and tunnels which are popular with divers. The caves run under the main streets of Mt Gambier. Naturally we only visited the dry bits.

The sinkhole was originally used as a rubbish dump for a distillery and the local butchers, Some quite nasty chemicals were originally dumped down it and cleaning it was quite a task – many hundreds of tonnes of rubbish were removed by hand before the cave could be used.

After dinner at a local Malaysian/Chinese restaurant went to Cave Garden to see the sound and light show which I had been told started a 8.30pm by 8.45 nothing had happened so walked back to the caravan park. The only disappointment of the day.

Am staying an extra day in Mount Gambier to get better weather for the Great Ocean Road though I have to say that I really like Mount Gambier as a town.

Mount Gambier

3rd March 2019

Distance: 220km

Didn’t leave until nearly 10am because only a journey just over 200km today, not only that, South Australia is half an hour behind the eastern states.

It was a largely uneventful journey mostly using back roads to cut cross country. The only problem with these roads is that there are never any rest areas except street parking in any small town. The weather was overcast only reaching 23’C but a pleasant change from the heatwave of the previous two days. Everything looked very dry and there was no rain in these clouds.

Arrived at Mount Gambier about midday and checked into a caravan park virtually in the centre of town. The owner was very helpful with events and sight to see.

At 1pm walked to the Riddoch Art Centre to watch a film about describing how the local area was formed from volcanic activity when Australia separated from from Gondwana Land and how the weakness caused by this fault line later led to the formation of the Blue Lake and lava flows travelling for 100s of kms into Victoria.

Nearby is Cave Gardens right in the town centre – basically a sinkhole.

Returned to camp for a shower before wandering out for a walk ending up at about 5.30pm at the Mount Gambier Community RSL where we had a meal and a couple of drinks.

A Map

Just to give you an idea of the trip around Australia as a whole here is a rough map of the journey. It doesn’t show where I actually stayed – just the centre of the town – nor does it show any of the side trips.

The idea is that it gives you an overall view.

28th April–Ceduna to Nullarbor Roadhouse

Distance: 324 km
Fuel: 32 ltr
I am such a dope. I had intended to buy a Telstra SIM card for the spare phone I packed. When did I remember? When I was parked at the Nullarbor Roadhouse looking at the Telstra only phone tower! Anyway to continue…
From Ceduna the first stop was a quick sortie into Penong to see the windmills.

Then a fairly long stint with nothing much to do other than occasionally turn the steering wheel to accommodate the rare bend in the road while listening to the audio book of “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” read by Stephen Fry.
Nullarbor is not an Aboriginal word as I had assumed but from the Latin Nullus Arbor meaning No Trees (and there aren’t any)
About 15km before the Nullarbor Roadhouse is the turn off to “The Head of the Bight”. 14km of sealed road to a visitor’s centre, boardwalk and lookout. It is on Aboriginal Land and costs $5 (more for the less elderly).

Well worth the money, during the season whales can be seen but even without them it is spectacular scenery. The only thing south is Antarctica.

Finally the Nullarbor Roadhouse… What can I say? Diesel is $175/ltr, they generate their own electricity, desalinate their own bore water and charge $30 for a powered site plus $1 for a shower. I had a Nulla Burger for my evening meal and it was very good perfectly complimented by an $8 stubbie of Carlton Draught.
The original Roadhouse is still there (remember when there were only two sorts of petrol? Standard and Super).

But the new one also has a motel, caravan park and even a golf fairway.

Now this is a road sign you don’t see every day.

Haven’t seen any of the camels yet but I would imagine hitting a camel at 110kph would do a lot of damage to both of you.

27th April 2017–Port Lincoln to Ceduna

Distance: 498 km
Fuel: 41 ltr
So excited to be leaving Port Lincoln – cold and miserable place as far as I am concerned. Up early to get milk and ice from the local Coles, like the ACT they don’t have plastic bags.
Stopped a few times on the way to look at landmarks and cairns – a pet peeve – this was one of them.

Now how on earth does that qualify as a site of interest with road signage, parking, a cairn and a plaque? Talk about more having money than sense.
One place I did find interesting was Murphy’s Haystacks. I think the rock formations are created in a similar way to The Devils Marbles in NT though not as spectacular.

Arrived Ceduna early afternoon and checked into the caravan park right in the town centre.

Walked around the shops and waterfront before taking a 35km drive along a dirt road to the OTC Earth Station.

The road was well graded so it was pretty easy but the dish no longer belongs to OTC and has a much more glamorous use.

Perhaps it has been replaced by these dishes much nearer town.

I don’t know if that is so this site was totally unsign posted except for a warning that there was 24 hour surveillance and that trespassers would be prosecuted.

During the early evening strolled to the pub next to the caravan park for a beer and food. Learned all about the difference between South Australian descriptions of glass sizes and the rest of the civilised world.

The weather is much improved quite warm(ish), only needed my light jacket this evening.
I think I have solved the fuel consumption problem. I suspect it was a combination of windy, inclement weather, hilly countryside and the speed limit. Today the drive was virtually flat, windless and I set the cruise control on 100kph for the whole journey. Fuel consumption was nearly as good as without the trailer (Ok, No it wasn’t but it wasn’t that bad either).