Day 28 It's almost over in our 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 We had a cruisy start to the long day of driving, (8 time out of 10 we have had a cruisy start to the day...) heading into a deep mist, of the windscreen fogging up on the outside! After that was wiped down, we headed into a mist of the weather kind, with the Clipper's disappearing into it, and not being able to see more than 100 metres ahead. Eventually it cleared up and a beautiful sunny day appeared and we headed to the NSW border. We stopped in at a bakery for coffee in Broken Hill, i did wave to my grandparents as we went past where they now reside on the outskirts of broken hill, i always do... then we did the main street show off drive to turn heads, before heading out of town.  Broken Hill, for those who aren't family, is a childhood holiday destination of mine as my parents are both Broken Hillbillies, or hillites or brokenhillians or whatever you call broken hill natives... brokeacastrians? so i always like going though the silver city that always feels familiar to me , cause not much changes from visit to visit. We hightailed it to Wilcannia, and had lunch by the river, before continuing on to Cobar for afternoon tea. We lost half an hour with the time change between states. wilcannnia actually looked a lot better than it has in the past too, maybe things are on the improve there as well. 

There were kids everywhere beside the road (being school holidays and all!) and the goats had eaten the green grass and made it look as flat and smooth as a bowling green or golf course. now go back and think about the kids everywhere line.... it took me a while ...We are not used to seeing this area being so green. We saw Emus roaming the paddocks and the odd kangaroo, (we didnt see any normal ones just odd ones) and sheep and cows. We arrived at Nyngan  after driving about 780km today, and booked into the Riverside caravan park, our favourite spot here. The Bogan river is quite full too. that is, its full of water not bogans The sun was setting, as we found some spots and camped up for the night. We couldn't see the stars tonight and rather chilly, but enjoyed our last dinner together. It's hard to believe that a month has passed and our big adventure is almost over. We have packed in so much and travelled over 10,000km in such a short time, and we are not home yet. 

 

Day 27 It's all part of the adventure too, in 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 The other day, when we were deciding which direction to head home, we decided to see if we could get a flight over Lake Eyre, to see it in all its fullness and awesomeness. Ian managed to find a flight for the 5 out of the 6 of us who were keen to go, leaving from Marree (which is why we detoured to the Flinder's Ranges and headed to Marree yesterday). This morning we got up early and watched the sunrise, in all its majesty and glowing warm rays, over the dawning day, as we waited in the cool morning breeze for our flight at the airport at Marree.

 We got on board the 14 seater Cessna and David scored a front seat ride with the pilot, while Matt and I had the back seats with extra leg room, but also the responsibility of opening the doors, if need be. We were all fitted up with inflatable life jackets before we went on the plane, as were flying over water. The plane was full too. We had a great pilot, who performed a very gentle and smooth take off, and we were soon up flying above the rugged terrain we had been driving through. The hills and mountains, no longer seemed so big, but rather flat. The green plants and grasses highlighted the water channels and passages the water had been flowing down, rather looking like blood vessels in a body. It was amazing. It also reminded me of google earth images.

As we headed closer to the southern part of Lake Eyre, we could see sandy plains and soon water. The sky quickly clouded over and Matt's side of the plain was all in cloud but my side was not. A little rain also began. As David had the head set on as he sat up the front, he was privy to hear the conversations between our pilot, and the pilot in the plane 10 minutes ahead and further north of us. But we would soon find out that the weather was very cloudy and raining up north and we were best not to go further, as no one would really see anything much. Sigh! We did see some of the bottom of Lake Eyre, and the sandy coloured waters, but no birdlife. The plane banked as we did a turn back, and although we could still see a lot, it was sad that we would not be seeing what we had come for and also missed out on flying over the mysterious Marree Man (the huge rock outline of a man on the ground that no one knows how it got to be there). It wasn't long before we were told we would soon be landing, and again the pilot did a very smooth landing. We were told that as we had paid for a scenic flight, and we didn't get that, we could either rebook or the company will work out some sort of refund. 

 So, as we didn't have more time to spare, we opted for the refund. We headed back to Marree township for that, and as we were parked up, an old Clipper club member came over to see us. Of all the places to see someone we hadn't seen for many years, here was this couple in remote South Australia! After chatting with them, we hit the road and headed back to Farina. Ian and Meredith continued to Hawker, while we went exploring with David and Brenda, via the bakery for more treats of course! We went and had a look at all the old remaining ruins and read up on the history of the amazing people that lived in such a hot and remote place, and how they lived and survived. we also saw some of the house's stone work being restored. 

We then met up with Ian and Meredith in Hawker, had lunch and Matt had to replace the fan belts, which fortunately he had brought them as spare with us, and we got back on the road to Peterborough and then to Yunta for fuel and found a good spot beside the road to park up by a creek bed, for the night. Matt and Ian found some good wood, and set up a delightful campfire for us to enjoy the evening chatting and to eat dinner around. A long day but a good one, despite the disappointment over the scenic flights. We were amazed at how green we have found this part of South Australia to be at the moment, though some is weeds, some is also grasses.This time last year, there was nothing at all on the ground for feed, and it looked so barren, so it's amazing to see this remarkable difference and turn around.

 

Day 26 Hawker to Marree in our 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 This morning we opted for a slower start to the day and posed for the caravan park managers to film us leaving for their Facebook socials. We headed out of Hawker and onto the road, heading on new roads for Matt and I. The road took us along spectacular mountain ranges, so very green from recent rains. There were views everywhere you looked. It was hard to know if I should film, take photos or just sit back and enjoy it. So eventually I did just that. You will just have to come and see it for yourself!

Our first stop was Leigh Creek, a former mining town. It reminded us of the architecture at Jindabyne in NSW. It was a very planned town, but has been in decline since the mining ended. One fellow has bought up a lot of the facilities, and is hoping to keep the town alive. We shopped for some fresh fruit and veggies at the volunteer run supermarket, where they had more staff than I ever see at my local Coles. and friendlier too even though they are 12. We moved on and drove past the very poorly rehabilitated mining mounds. Shame to the mining company there.

Our next stop was at the historic ruins town of Farina, home to an underground bakery, that has been restored and being used. They have also restored one of the original houses, and that now houses the rest of the bakery shop and cafe. We enjoyed a very tasty sausage roll, spicy beef pie, and bought some of the underground bakery baked bread, a blueberry muffin and cookies for the road. The bakery is run by volunteersfor two months of the year only, and they come from across Australia to work there. There was a steady stream of travellers and tourists enjoying the freshly baked food. There are labelled town ruins all over the area and it has an interesting history. the quest of the volunteers is to raise funds to pay for the rebuilding of sections of the town of Farina, they started with the bakery as the oven pictured below is built underground to keep it insulated and is wood fired. it takes a week to pre heat it, and it then has to be fed wood every 6 hours or so and a good stoking and complete fill of wood at 9pm for the 330 am baking session. they've rebuilt the adjacent building to sell the bread and other bakery items in. it proves that all you need is a good bakery in a town and you'll get a crowd of travelers . there were 50-70 people there at any one time and people rolling in and out all the time, 

Our final stop was Marree. sadly, because of the length of the Clippers, we were unable to get a free camp behind the famous pub, but found powered sites further down the road at the caravan park. We ventured back to the pub to read up on the history, and read more about the Birdsville mailman Tom Kruse. We then took a stroll around the local streets and stopped at the police station, and chatted with the solo Police officer, who covers pretty much most of the land across South Australia by himself. He loves the job. The Police station and residence was built around 1913, and would have housed Matt's great uncle Bill, who was the solo police officer from 1947-1954, when Tom Kruse worked as the Birdsville mailman between Marree and Birdsville. Uncle Bill does get a mention in Tom Kruse's book. Uncle Bill had to do his patrols on a camel though!

 

it was great to see the place where i had heard stories of since i was a kid, and ive read books about the birdsville mailmen from this area ( yes i can read books, i just usually choose not to unless they interest me ) 

 my uncle Bills police station

We rested up after the stroll and I wrote this up for the day, and then we headed to the pub for dinner, and had a nice dinner. Matt tried a camel sausage, emu pattie and roo fillet on a saltbush dukka mash with a red wine and berry jus. Very yummy. We watched the state of origin, though I piked half way through to finish the day.

 

 

 

 

Day 25 Taking the scenic route home in our 'taking the scenic route to the beach!' trip

 This morning we were blessed with the pleasure of an awesome sunrise, across the very flat Coober Pedy horizon. The flat land seemed to stretch out until it met the sun climbing up over the horizon, until the sun filled the whole sky with colour and joy and warmth. We restoked the fire to warm us, and the coals made for great toast. 

i got up way too early to get these photos and beat the sunrise by about half an hour. and it was freezing. and only 4 people will read this and see it. i'm sleeping in tomorrow. happy with the photo though... 

We headed back to the Stuart Highway and continued towards Port Augusta. We have had lots of enthusiastic waves, thumbs up, 'hang loose' waves and the two finger Aussie driver salute on our travels, and it makes us smile when we can bring surprise and joy to others. its amazing how many drivers can wave with both hands and drive at the same time.  especially those road train blokes. We had one car that kept overtaking the 3 Clippers today, and we would then find him further down the road taking photos of us, several times. We obviously made his day! three times the fella over took us, then photographed each of us as we went past , then over take us again and do the same thing. i guess it kept him awake. We had about 6 1970's Citroen 2CV cars going the other way and returning enthusiastic waves to us too. That would be a slow trip for them. and you thought WE were stupid...Today the scenery was so green for one, but was constantly changing from dead flat plains, to raised areas, to sand flats where water had been, and Lake Hart that had water in it for a change. We saw Dorpa sheep, some with black heads and some not, kangaroos dead and alive.

We stopped at Glendambo for morning tea and ate lunch on the drive along (the pro's of being in a motorhome), as we tried to get to Port Augusta to help Ian do a search for the shut off solenoid for his engine. We could see the silhouette of the Flinder's Ranges as we neared Port Augusta. When we arrived at Port Augusta, we were mildly amused when one guy said over the CB, that ' we were air streams and there had been 8 of them in Darwin a couple of weeks ago'! Well if Katherine is a part of Darwin, and 3 looks like 8, sure!! But air streams are caravans, so it was another case of someone being a know all, no nothing. Unfortunately we were not able to source the part for Ian's engine, but the stop gap fixture Matt installed yesterday will get Ian home anyway. 

As this trip has become an evolving adventure, and we hadn't really planned too much of it, except the Nhulunbuy section, it has continued to evolve on the return, with us now heading to the Flinder's Ranges. Tonight we have stopped in at Hawker. It is so green in this region, and compared to last year, when the ground was just bare dirt, it is wonderful to see the change that rain can bring (except that we also noted that some paddocks are sadly full of weeds), and that it is evident that farmers destocked to cope with the drought and the remaining sheep can't keep up with the rate the greenery is growing. 

everytime ive come to the flinders its been dry and a red dirt  / saltbush type of landscape. not green at all, so this time is the greenest ive ever seen it. it luminous. mostly weeds but green!.  it makes it all look so different. We had a little wander around Hawker before the sunset and saw quite a few loved and unloved old buildings with some dating back to the 1860's. got to photograph more corrugated iron. my favorite.  The mountain ranges provide an amazing backdrop, as we are surrounded by them. The photos and videos just don't do them enough justice. We were last in Hawker in 2002, when we only had 3 little ones, and I had no. 4 baby on board, and my brother joined us for the adventure. And like all our family holidays, it was also a fun adventure that Matt and I treasure. Tomorrow I am sure will bring more new roads for us to travel down. 

 

Day 24 Alice Springs to Coober Pedy in our 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 This morning, as we continue to adjust to the 'descent into Winter' as Matt puts it, we had an early start and were back on the road and leaving Alice Springs. We find Alice to be quite beautiful with the surrounding  rocky outcropped hills, now covered in green patches of bush and grass and median strips with Sturt desert peas in full flower, but growing like a weed all over the median strips. The green continued as we left town and on the Stuart Highway. you could see parts of the West Macdonnell Ranges and many other mountain ranges along the way. We haven't seen it this green before. We got a couple hundred kilometres down the road, before we stopped at Kulgera for morning tea and later we stopped at Marla for lunch and hot drinks.We were now in South Australia and it was encouraging to see it with a little bit of green on the ground for a change, though probably won't be there for long. We spied eagles, exploding cows (result of a truck vs cows incident) and the Bakers spotted a dingo today. We had idiots overtake us whilst towing caravans and driving way too fast and tailgating as well. But overall it was a good drive, until not far out from Coober Pedy, Ian calls out on the radio that his engine had cut out and wouldn't restart. It was a problem that had occurred to others in the Clipper club with Cummins motors, and the shut down solenoid was faulting. A quick cable-tie temporary fix got us to our evening campsite, a free camp on the south side of Coober Pedy. Matt was able to wind together some fencing wire to create a more robust temporary fix for Ian's engine.

 

We have this great spot tonight, with only a few other well-spread out campers, a few hundred metres away (although we can still hear someone's TV and dogs). We collected kindling for a campfire and made some coals to cook dinner on. Brenda made another cheese and bacon damper, and we baked potatoes, pumpkin and our meat in the camp ovens over the coals. I made a coleslaw and it was a great dinner, as we watched the sun set, the stars start to appear as the pink dusky sky on the horizon slowly faded and  with a darkening sky up above, it was perfect. We sat around the campfire after dinner to keep warm, as we chatted and laughed and passed around chocolate. The Milky Way was quite clear tonight, as the sky was cloud free. It was a great end to the day.

i dont have much to add other than i love this part of the country. cant explain why. maybe its a childhood thing but i always feel connected to the desert . 

 

Day 23 Travelling along on our 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 Today we left not long after sunrise, to get a lot of kilometres done today, after all the lost time from yesterday. its good to see a good sunrise now and then 

 We stopped at Tennant Creek for fuel and morning tea, posed for photos at Devil's Marbles/ Karlu Karlu and Barrow Creek for lunch (no one tried to abduct and murder us fortunately) and we checked out the old Telegraph Station there. David and Brenda went into the Barrow Creek store and asked for an drumstick ice cream, and got told 'It's Winter, it's too cold to eat ice creams, so we don't have the freezer on for ice creams!' Okay!

 From there we headed to Alice Springs in the late afternoon, and filled up with fuel, and also ventured into Bunnings, 5 minutes before closing time for a plumbing part to cap the shower water tank. on the return trip from Nhulunbuy, a rock smashed through some of the pipework under the bus meaning i cant catch the shower water into the tank. it just dumps on the ground which has been ok till now, but in a caravan park its frowned upon. waste water etiquette etc.  When we pulled into the caravan park,  we got totally parked in and surrounded by others checking in after us, and we couldn't move until they did, and then one campervan almost wiped out the side of the bus as they drove off (clearly new to driving the campervan and have no idea of its size, as they also parked so close to us, they couldn't get out their door!) 

A quiet evening and we have been adjusting to the sudden drop in temperature, from 32 degrees yesterday, to 15 degrees today. We could see evidence of recent rains and the area was so green, and looks completely different to last year, especially at the Devil's Marbles. We also saw Whistling Kites using the air thermals to float so seamlessly in the sky, and Acacia trees in full flower so prolific, that it looked like it was a plantation of them. Trying to make the most of this amazing part of our country that we so rarely get to experience and enjoy. even though we are on a tight schedule to get back, and we are expressing though a lot of the places we spent more time in last year. there's still more to see next time ... oh and there still fireworks going off in alice tonight...