2/8/22

Today was the long drive from the Flinders, down to Port Augusta and onto the Stuart Highway for the drive up the centre to the Alice. 1222 km.

We left around 9.00, and parked in the street in front of a wonderful old abandoned emporium at Quorn for a bowl of very cold muesli for breakfast in the van. One of Australia's captured Turkish field guns is displayed here in Quorn.

Ian was very tired by the time we pulled up at Glendambo service station for the night. The 'caravan park' is a bit of a misnomer. For $30 you pull up beside a power pole in the expanse of gravel. 




The toilets were yuck, but did actually work. We didn't dare brave the showers. However, the service station is new, has barista coffee and a quite extensive shop, and there's a good pub where we had dinner with the couple in the van at the next power pole, and watched a little bit of Aussie rules on the pub TV before falling into bed. It's still freezing out here, with a chill wind, although the sun is shining.

3/8/22

We got away at 7.00 am and had a much shorter drive to Coober Pedy, arriving at 10.30. We're at the Oasis caravan park, parked all in a row under a long awning. Wonderful new amenities and lovely drinking water - reverse osmosis!

We went on the excellent Undooma opal mine and museum tour with an enthusiastic and knowledgeable local girl. We saw the history of the area from the original inhabitants to today, and then went underground to see an original dugout home, followed by a modern underground home, complete with chandelier!  In the bedroom, our guide turned off the lights - complete and absolute darkness. Not for me! We walked through a tunnel showing old and new mining methods before returning to ground level to drool over the stunning opals on display.

 



Tonight, believe it or not, we're going to the drive-in movie theatre to see Where the Crawdads Sing, which I missed seeing in Noosa. Who'd have thought?

Off to the Earldunda Roadhouse, and from there to Uluru. No updates now until the Alice.


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