Caravanning Camping Touring
Let me share some of our stories with you. I'll try to keep it fun and interesting, with heaps of photos, hints, tips and reviews all relating to life on the road.
Broughton Valley & Worlds End
Our drive from Lake Hart to Broughton Valley led us through acres and acres of canola fields, and unlike the earlier fields we passed through, most of these were in full bloom. I don’t need to tell you how pretty they looked.
It was a bit hard to find the campsite at Broughton Valley, even with help from Wiki Camps. In the end, we simply followed the river along a dirt road until we could go no further. While Peter checked the water level, I wandered away and as luck would have it, I found the campsite. We would have driven straight past it if we hadn’t had to stop.
We spent a couple of nights in idyllic surrounds camped on the banks of the gently flowing Broughton River. We were surrounded by lush green meadows and really happy sheep. I mean with this much food and these views…why wouldn’t they be happy.
We’re suckers for an interesting signpost. That’s how we got to the Centre of Australia. I mean who could resist a sign saying ‘Centre of Australia’? Not us! 😊 So we really had no way of avoiding a sign that said ‘Worlds End‘.
Not only was this a great place to stay (we were there for four nights) but it’s super popular, and with good reason. Worlds End offers a large areas for camping, with many fire pits scattered around, a few walking tracks to keep you busy and plenty of hills to keep Peter happy.
Of course it’s not all about keeping Peter happy, I was taken care of too. While he was out striding up hills, I was out stalking the local birds and I was thrilled to spy another first. A family of Adelaide Rosellas, along with some Galah’s and White-Winged Choughs (pronounced cough).
So, where to from here? Well, we’re heading into the big smoke, sort of. Our next stop is Adelaide, and we are really looking forward to it, and to getting the caravan fixed. 😊
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Lake Hart, Woomera and Andamooka
Out of necessity, Adelaide is our next destination. We have car and van repairs repairs and we’ll take advantage of the big city to catch up on our regular medical check-ups. Ahh, the joys of getting old(er). 😊
But there’s still plenty to see and do on the way.
Not least of which was Lake Hart.
My oh my, what a pretty spot this is, if you haven’t been there…go!
Like Lake Eyre, Lake hart is for the most part a large (16,000 hectares when full) dry Salt Lake. However, it is far easier to get to than than Lake Eyre. Just a short way off the Stuart Highway, you can park your RV in the large rest area (overnight stays are permitted) then a short, easy walk, including a tunnel under the railway track, to bring you to the very edge of Lake Hart.
We walked onto the lake for quite some distance and apart from a few pockets of water, the lake was dry, though damp underfoot. We presumed that Lake Hart was in the process of drying out after all of the rain. After an hour or so exploring we enjoyed a very pretty sunset, and went back home.
I think the most intriguing thing about these salt lakes is the “moveable” water. Do you recall I spoke of the water in Lake Eyre moving? This is due to the fact that the water is so shallow and the lakebed so flat that the wind actually changes the position of the water. Well, if you ever doubted this, I now have proof.
We could see the lake from Chunky Bum, and the next morning I was surprised to see what looked like reflections. Could it possibly be water? I quickly grabbed my camera, went back to the lake and yes, where we had been walking on a dry salt bed was now covered with about two centimetres of water. I was gob-smacked. Its one thing to be told of these things, quite another to actually see them. The water moved by no less than a kilometre.
It seemed the wind had changed directions overnight and had blown/pushed the water back towards the shore. I got a big kick out of that, and still do. Quite extraordinary!
Peter finally dragged me away from Lake Hart and we made our way south. We called in to Woomera, which is an operational rocket and missile testing site. Peter loved it there, he pointed out the Jindivik, Ikara, Malkara, Bloodhound missiles and even a WF 44 weather radar that he used to look after (ancient past, ancient technology, ancient …) well, you get the point. But I have to say, it surprised me how much I enjoyed it – very interesting to say the least.
At its peak Woomera played a vital role in the development and testing of rockets and missiles and was somewhat of a pioneer in launching satellites. Properly known as Woomera Rocket Complex, it’s still carrying out important defence and astronomical work. The town is now open to tourism and is a very interesting place to visit. Unfortunately the weather didn’t want us to play, so we missed out on using the powerful telescopes there.
Andamooka is billed as an astronomical observatory but this is a bit misleading. You can use a telescope here but you have to phone a mobile phone number and if it suits the volunteer you might be able to arrange something. Andamooka has a street named ‘Pick Street’ but it would take a lot more than that to get us back there again. To be frank it didn’t impress us. It’s a working opal mining town and they are anything but attractive. It was very, very quiet and even the local pub didn’t appeal. Still glad we went there, we’re all about seeing this great country and places like Andamooka are a part of what makes it great.
Now Roxby Downs is a different matter all together. Travelling the Outback a lot we see all kinds of downs, Marion Downs, Davenport Downs Brunette Downs… But Roxby Downs is different. It’s an unexpected, pretty, well-kept oasis in the Outback. It has a really nice feel to it. It’s well-watered and green and the caravan park was really nice too.
We joined the Stuart Highway at Kulgera and headed south towards Adelaide and this is a great drive. We’ll carry on from here all the way to Worlds End.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Coober Pedy was our next destination. We had both been looking forward to this, it is another opal mining town, but bigger than Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs. In fact, the mining area of Coober Pedy is quite extensive, and still growing.
The population of Coober Pedy is around 2000, and of those about 80% live partially, or fully, underground in dugouts. The soil here is very sandy, gravelly, and lacking in nutrients. This, combined with the scarcity of water, means that Coober Pedy as very little vegetation. Instead of garden plants the locals decorate their gardens with things that can survive this harsh country (but mostly, things that failed to survive).
We checked out a couple of caravan sites in town, and they all looked pretty basic to say the least. Besides, I had decided months ago that we were going to stay at Tom Cat Hill campground; a bare, exposed campground dug out of the side of a large hill. It was also a pretty basic campground, but what a view!
I’m still having trouble resizing videos, but if you can put up with a bit of rendering, this’ll show you the drive up to our camp.
Now I don’t often mention the weather, unless it’s extreme. It gets hot, cold, wet everywhere so it’s not worth mentioning. But here at Tom CAT Hill, the wind blew to extremes and because of the exposed nature of our campsite and the terrain, we got sandblasted for the three days, this was made worse by a sandstorm on our second day there. I try not to exaggerate too much, but in this instance I don’t have to exaggerate at all.
We don’t often do the usual touristy stuff, but we did visit a few of the underground buildings while we were here. They really were quite interesting and they varied from stylish and functional to downright weird. The buildings are not dug vertically down into the ground, but dug horizontally into the side of the hills. The climate in Coober means that these dugouts are pretty much the optimum way to live. Blistering heat in the summer, cold temps during winter and that dust storm that we experienced is a common thing here.
I think the highlight of Coober Pedy was the Breakaways. This is a series of lowish hill formations that we could see from Tom CAT Hill, and I nearly said, Ahh let’s not bother. But I didn’t and I’m so pleased we did go. The landscape is quite extraordinary, with the Breakaways seeming to pop up out of the otherwise flat landscape, and we spent a good four hours exploring the area.
We were both especially impressed with the “Brown Dog, White Dog” formations, we couldn’t see the “dogs” but were impressed by the formations and the stark colour difference.
Coober Pedy was an interesting place to visit, and we’re pleased we ticked it off our list, but the phrase – Been there done that. – inferring no need to revisit, sits well with us.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
By the time we left Dalhousie Springs, the roads were mostly dry, our tyre pressures were lowered for more protection, both for them and us, (we were running out of fillings to shake loose 😊) and we were eager be on our way.
We had been following the mud map we had picked up in Oodnadatta. We knew it wasn’t to scale, but it hadn’t led us astray so rather than heading back the way we came, we thought we’d follow the map to Kulgera.
Kulgera is just a small town on the Stuart Highway, not a lot there, but we loved the sound of this word… highway. Any highway would do and this was the closest. We were keen to get off the dirt roads and back on the black. It was a slow drive from Dalhousie, the cars that had gone before us had made a fine job of churning up the dirt, but we soon made it to our first stop; Mount Dare.
I’m not saying Mount Dare is small, but after a coffee in the pub, we had seen it all. So, back on the road we went. We had only been driving a short while when we saw a sign we had not expected to see.
It seems that our little mud map didn’t show state borders and shortly after leaving Mt Dare, we crossed over the Northern Territory border. It didn’t really matter, this route would still get us off the dirt roads quicker and by now we both wanted that. Since leaving Port Augusta on the 14th of August to arriving at Kulgera on the 4th of September we had travelled 1,646 kilometres and of that, 1,240 were on dirt roads and some of these roads really were the worst we have ever seen!
But I digress. Still following our mud map, we drove quickly past Finke, an aboriginal settlement that didn’t look particularly welcoming. This is aboriginal private land anyway and you can be fined for going in there – so we drove on towards Kulgera. Then we saw another sign.
The road to Lambert’s centre was a very narrow, rough, dodgy track, and the skies were promising rain again, but we didn’t turn back, mainly because we couldn’t. We got a lot of tiger stripes (scratches on the car and van) as we squeezed past trees and bushes, but in the end, we did make it. I don’t know, maybe we’re strange, but it felt really good to be at the Geographical Centre of Australia.
However, that really good feeling didn’t last long. While taking photos, I happened to notice something wrong with the van. I called Peter over and said,
“I think we have a problem.” And indeed, we did.
One of the steel straps that held one of our water tanks in place had snapped. Judging by the drag marks behind us, we had been dragging it for the last hundred metres or so.
Now for a man who isn’t mechanically minded, Peter is fantastic at fixing problems on the go. After assessing the situation, we decided the best course of action was to sacrifice the tank. To do this he had to disconnect the water hose from the damaged tank, but that of course would result in loosing all of our water as the tanks are connected. So, Peter fashioned a plug from a tree branch, cut the remaining strap on the tank, disconnected the hose, rammed the plug in tight, and applied a liberal amount of gaffer tape. Job done! And we still had one full tank of water left.
Because these posts are back dated, I can tell you that we have been travelling like this for over three weeks and his repair is still holding strong.
We weren’t going to leave the tank (we pick up other people’s rubbish, we don’t leave any) but the tank weighed a ton. We thought it must still have some water in it, as I helped Peter lift it up so we could empty it I heard something, but it wasn’t water sloshing around. While it was being dragged it had split open and was collecting sand.
Apart from the tank, the lock mechanism on the drawer on the back of the canopy had shaken loose. That was an easy fix and the bolt that held one of the caravan chains in place had shaken loose, so we had been dragging that. I decided we needed a cuppa, that was when I noticed the water pump didn’t work, (so much for one tank of water left) I also noticed the table leg was missing. I found that on the floor, beside the bed. Stuff the coffee, we had a beer! When we finally made it to Kulgera, yes we did indeed make it, we discovered that the inverter wasn’t working. So, no power, unless we stayed on a powered site and of course…we didn’t.
And that is why we will be spending quite some time in Adelaide. Once more WA will have to wait.
Conclusion – corrugation and caravans can’t coexist. Well, they can you just have to keep an eye on things. 🙂
You might be thinking that we were perhaps a little silly to take the caravan on a Journey to the Centre of Australia, and perhaps we were, but consider this. Had we not made this detour, we would have been travelling faster on dirt roads to Kulgera, or worse, travelling at high speed on the highway when the tank strap decided to break. Now that would have been a whole different story.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
The ground was still firm underfoot, if a bit damp when we arrived. The rain was steady through the night and it continued on for two more days, until the ground turned into a veritable quagmire of sticky goo. There was no way we were going to risk towing the van in those conditions and we weren’t going anywhere. Just like that our overnight stop had quickly turned into a five night stay.
It seems that Dalhousie Springs isn’t actually a destination in itself, it’s a jump off-point for those adventurers crossing the Simpson Desert to Birdsville, (and vice versa) some 430 Km to the east. Dalhousie Springs provides a great meeting place and a good warm bath for weary traveller’s. We watched over fifty serious 4X4 vehicles come and go, plastered in layers of muck and nursing a multitude of mechanical issues while we waited for the ground to dry.
Dalhousie Springs is in the Witjira National Park. The springs are made up of over 60 natural artesian springs. We, as in all travellers, are only allowed access to the main spring. The good news is that the main “spring” is bigger than two Olympic swimming pools, and at a temperature of 37 degrees…ahh, pure bliss! So, you can guess where we spent a lot of our time.
It wasn’t a bad place to be stuck, there were a couple of walks around the area but not much else to do. We ran out of Netflix downloads on the third day (that was hard to cope with) and had to revert to old school entertainment; cards, scrabble, and…well, that’s all we can talk about.
We saw signs around the park saying there were dingos in the area. I was also pleased to see that they are protected here, well, at least they are not actively baited/poisoned. I don’t want to get on my soap box but I think Australians should be ashamed at how we treat dingos. Yes they take livestock, but so do vehicles. Road kill is a constant on our travels, including cattle and sheep. Yes dingos also take smaller native animals, but no where near as many as feral cats and foxes. More importantly, they are native to Australia and as such play a vital ecological role. I particularly feel for those dingos on Fraser Island. I’ve seen a few there and they look emaciated. With so little food is it any wonder they approach campsites trying to scavenge food to feed themselves and their young?
Anyway, on a more positive note…we saw one at Dalhousie Springs. How cool is that?
Because we had no mobile coverage at all, we were talking to other travellers in order to find out what the weather was doing. We had to wait until the roads dried fully, but we were told that there was a lot more rain heading our way, and we didn’t want to wait too long and get stuck for longer. Luckily we were able to get in touch with family members (there is a payphone there) and they kept us updated on the weather and road closures (many thanks for that). Until then, we relaxed, swam and Peter adjusted the tyre pressures, lowering them even further than he had before, hoping for a smoother drive.
Two days after we left, it began to rain again. For once it seems our timing was good. 🙂
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
We may not have been able to do the Birdsville or Strzelecki Tracks but were able to experience the Oodnadatta Track. The Oodnadatta runs from Marree through Oodnadatta to Marla and is, without doubt, the worst road we have travelled anywhere to date. It has dips and crests and creek crossings, and corrugations that would shake your fillings out. Seriously – these are not your normal corrugations, they average 100mm deep… and that’s being conservative!
We travelled slowly, 50 – 60 kph, both the car and the van coped quite well…sort of. We have a couple of new stone chips on the windscreen, courtesy of our fellow drivers who don’t slow down when they pass. The range hood went berserk (emitting a high-pitched noise that wouldn’t’ stop, no matter how hard I pressed the power button) in the end Peter ripped out the mother board. A bit of dust and some unwanted movement in the cupboards and drawers.
The first day out of William Creek was fun. I did a bit of cattle rustling, and Peter found a hill to climb, and we saw a small clump of Sturts Desert Pea so of course we had to stop to take a photo. Such a unique and pretty flower.
Trying to find an escape from the corrugations Peter became quite competent at weaving his way back and forth and driving on the wrong side of the track. His dad would have called this ‘a good hunting road,’ because you’re constantly hunting for the smoothest part.
We’d had enough by early afternoon, we pulled off the road at Algebuckina and found a camp site with water views. We were close to a bridge that was part of the Old Ghan railway; we stayed there for two nights.
The next day we made it to Oodnadatta without incident and stopped for a spot of lunch at the Pink Roadhouse. The burgers had been recommended to us, so we thought…why not? I have to say, they weren’t bad. I gobbled mine down with a bottle of pear cider and thoroughly enjoyed both even though the pink décor was a bit distracting.
60k north of Oodnadatta we turned off the track and continued north towards Hamilton Station, heading for Dalhousie Springs. We had hoped this road would be a smoother drive but we were disappointed (the fact that this track doesn’t even seem to have a name should have given us a clue). We were soon wishing for the familiar corrugations of the Oodnadatta Track. Who’d have thought that corrugations could get this big? Never being one to exaggerate, Peter reckons he needed four-wheel drive just to climb each one.
I think it’s safe to say that we were pushing it on this stretch. Chunky Bum is classed as a semi off-road van but the road we turned onto is more suited to full off-road vehicles. Any four-wheel drive vehicle would find it easy, but one towing a three-ton van behind; not so much. Our speedy 50 – 60 kph soon dropped to 30 – 40 kph and often to a slow walk.
The images below (all roads) were taken on the section of road between the turnoff from the Oodnadatta Track and the road to Dalhousie, about 50k. It is intriguing how quickly the roads and landscape changed over such a short distance.
It’s also interesting how long it can take to cover fifty kilometres. We camped that night just off the side of the road and went to bed looking forward to another day’s drive. 😊
The next day’s travel was interesting to say the least. We saw something moving on the road ahead of us. At first we thought it might be a wallaby, then maybe a small pig. A dingo? As we got closer, we saw it was an old red cattle dog. He was almost deaf and fully blind, but clearly well fed, so we knew he had come from somewhere not too far.
He may not have known much, but he knew he needed help, and he was not going to be left behind. Wrapping himself around our legs, constantly barking, in short making sure we knew he was there. After we’d given him a big drink, we tried to figure out where he was from. He didn’t have a collar on, so no tags to id him or his owners, so I got onto our Oricom two-way radio and did a call out to any stations in the area.
It worked. As it turned out he was only a kilometre from home, but I doubt he would have found his way back. It took a bit of effort to wrangle him into the back of the cab, he couldn’t jump up, and he became upset when we tried to lift him in, but Peter braved the kicks and the headbutts and did a fine job of getting the dog in the car.
Apparently, Taz the thirteen-year-old cattle dog, had been blind for three years, but always managed to find his way home by following the sound/vibrations of the generator. The station had recently upgraded to solar, so…no more genny to lead Taz home. The station manager was very grateful that we brought Taz home. He thanked us, then further showed his appreciation by gifting us some of his home-grown beef steak. Can’t wait to try that.
As we inched our way toward Dalhousie Springs, the road continued to get worse. Suddenly, the “Your door is open!” alarm went off. Sure enough, the gull wing door on the driver’s side of the canopy was wide open. We screeched to a halt – from 20kph to 0 in three minutes (to avoid shredding our tyres on the rocks) and got out to take a look. Peter saw that the locking mechanism on the door had rattled loose. Now if we had lost the locking mechanism, that would have been fun. Not! We found an area where we could get off the road and Peter did what he does best. He solved our problem.
We stopped to explore the Dalhousie Homestead Ruins, one of many ruins scattered around SA. It was only quick stop as we could see rain falling in the distance.
I said to Peter, “I’ll tell you something, if it rains while we’re on these roads, we won’t be going very far.”
Five minutes later, it began to rain. We made it to Dalhousie Springs campground and found ourselves a spot for the night. After a quick look around, it began to rain again, this time harder, so we locked ourselves inside and hoped it wouldn’t last. It rained off an on through the evening, and all through the night, and guess what?
We aren’t going anywhere.
I was saying that we might have been pushing it a bit going to Dalhousie Springs. I guess that’s so. When we arrived we found that we were the only caravan in sight. All the other vehicles were tricked-out 4×4’s (and a good number of 6×6’s), off-road trailers and most not towing at all. We saw two vehicles undergoing repairs and got a lot of strange looks… Looks that seemed to say. “You’d think they’d have more sense!” And later over the radio we overheard a more pointed conversation. So we held our heads high feeling proud (and a little lucky) that we made it here.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
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