Sturt Peas and crossing into the Northern Territory

You knew it had to happen at some stage. This short post has pictures of Sturt Peas. I think I have been very good about not taking snaps of all of the beautiful wildflowers but who can resist the Sturt Pea?

We crossed the border and parked the bus in Northern Territory and the car in South Australia. Talkies soon X Son n John

Marla

There's a small town on the way to Alice called Marla. If you drove straight through you would think its just a roadhouses but as it was getting hot we decided to stay at the little caravan park at the back. It was like an oasis in the middle of nowhere. Green grass, shade and even a swimming pool. Nothing flash but cool and inviting. There we met Trevor and Carol who had come through Queensland and gave us lots of hints about good places to stay and different attractions to see. Marla is just south of the NT border and is a small town with just a few houses as well as a police station and post office.

One thing we noticed since leaving CP (and all the way to Alice), is the amount of burnt out car wrecks on the side of the road. It seemed that there were wrecks everyn10-20 Kms or so. Haven't come accross this before.

Talkies soon X Son n John

Streaky bay to Coober Pedy

Seems to take a bit to get back to the blog some days, so sorry it's been awhile. Welcome to my friend Tracey to the blog. It's nice to have another reader :) We had to leave a very lovely Streaky Bay and head on to reach Coober Pedy. After all I was going to make my fortune with finding opals. We went through Port Augusta but decided to freecamp the other side about 60 ks or so. This was only after we stopped at Pt Augusta to buy yet another inverter having accidentally fried it (for the second time) Oh we'll this has led to the solution and now it won't happen again. Fingers crossed. So at least we still have our TV for the evenings when free camping although by the time you set up and cook dinner each night we are just about asleep on our feet. We have met some very nice people and before I forget any names I want to mention - Sue and Cliff, Mandy and Bruce, Greg, Sue and Ian, Janine and John, Sylvia and John. Thanks for great company and campfires so far. At one stage there were three Johns together. Before getting to Coober Pedy we free camped about 90 ks south of and watched the sun set on a very vast horizon as far as the eye can see. I tried very hard to find my riches in opals but not to be and so look forward to sapphires and emeralds in Queensland. Instead I bought myself some opal earrings (very inexpensive but quite pretty). We have been to C P before so had seen just a couple of things but not the Breakaways which are spectacular on their own. Some movies have been made here ie Mad Max, The Black, Priscilla Queen of the Desert to name a few. We passed down through the Oodnadatta Track to get to the Breakaways and also checked out the Dog Fence which basically keeps the dingos north of farmland and stock.

I can't tell you how bad the flies were in the bush but have a photo that shows some only after we had tried to shoo them away and used the aero guard.

And of course we visited the local cemetery to look at history. There were some rather unusual headstones and I'm sure they won't mind me showing you the most interesting couple taken with respect.

You can't walk around any of the mining areas even though it looks safe. There are a million shafts in the ground and they advise you never to walk at night and never walk backwards especially whilst taking photos.

The houses that are "scooped" out of the underground are wonderful. They are cool and you don't need to paint at all. Anytime you want to add another room you just scoop out another one.

We also visited the Old Timers Mine which is a wonderful display of the mining and the town over the years. Much like a museum as well as an Opal mine. We also took a few pics of around town to show you.

After 2 lovely days in CP it was time to hitch up and move on to our next destination. See you there Talkies soon X Son N John AKA mum n dad, nana n grandad.

Haystacks and more

After a wet and windy night the rain eased up a little today and we were able to get out in the Suzi to see quite a few places. About four Kms from town is a waterhole that John Eyres used in one of his exploration expeditions. An interesting historical snippet.

Then it was on to Murphy's Haystacks. They are a fascinating group of granite rocks that are various shapes and sizes. Quite amazing and well worth the look. There's a perfectly good reason how they came to be but I can,t remember much except they are part of an island under the surface.

We drove to the top part of Baird Bay and it is a beach that you could easily spend a day with the family there. The water is shallow and on a hot day would be wonderful swimming.

We visited the ruins of an old town called Calca where there is an abandoned church and hall plus the old post office.

We also found the original school site which is marked by a plaque but no real evidence that a school was ever there except perhaps the circle of very old trees that surrounded the site.

There are great surfing beaches here as well and some of the pics of the wave sizes are incredible. Just a bit cold to go in today though..

After a great day out of sightseeing we were back to the bus for a drink and enjoyed one of the local pizzas here at the park. We sat at our usual place and thoroughly enjoyed it. By this time the weather is well and truly clearing and looking good for a sunny weekend. One couple told us it hailed when they stayed at the Nullabor Roadhouse last night. Washing and recharging is all done so we're off in the morning heading to Pt Augusta before our next leg to Coober Pedy to hopefully find an opal or two. So take care everyone, we are really enjoying ourselves and could get used to this for a long time to come... I did buy a slik pik for tonight so fingers crossed. See you all. Please leave a comment or two Love to all and I talkies soon Xx Sonia n John xx