Apr 21-22 Woomera, Roxby Downs, Andamooka

We drove to Port Augusta and stopped for a shop up, a fuel up, a top up of water and then some lunch. Maybe because it was Thursday before Good Friday, but we didn't really enjoy Port Augusta. We were happy to keep driving and leave Port Augusta behind. We found out later that the water from the Port Augusta service station tasted terrible. Important lesson learned: always taste the water before topping up your supplies.

The "outback" arrives pretty quickly after Port Augusta. Swollen dead cows by the roadside provided the only variation to the desolate landscape. There were a couple of interesting rest areas, but not much to see until we arrived at Woomera. (Click on the underlined word to link to a map) What an interesting town! We found a place to camp just on the edge of town. We felt a little bit exposed because we were so close to town. We slept well; no traffic noise at all. The town appears to be almost deserted. There are only 240 people who live in the town but it has had a population of as much as 6000. Because it was so quiet, we enjoyed our first open air shower. (Sorry kids, don't try to think about it.) The only car that drove past us the next morning was the local copper. He kindly informed us that we were not supposed to camp where we were, but since we were already there, it was OK. We chatted a bit more and learnt a little more about Woomera. Apparently, all Australian soldiers that have fought in Afghanistan, go through training at Woomera. The conditions at Woomera are not dissimilar from the desserts of the Middle East.

The town of Woomera has fantastic facilities. It is a real oasis in the dessert. Swimming pool, tennis, squash, golf, football oval (with lights), cinema, 24 hour gym, museums and old rockets & missiles for the kiddies to play on. And because of the American influence, it also has a baseball field and a bowling alley. Not bad for 240 people! The idea of the Woomera town and the neighbouring test area is that countries can hire it from the Australian government. The Brittish hired it to test its atomic bombs at Marilinga. The Americans have done all sorts of things, as have the Japanese. The Woomera test area is huge- the area is as large as the whole of England! We think Woomera is fascinating and is a "must see" for anyone who is travelling through this area.

We went for a day trip out to Roxby Downs and then on to Andamooka. Being Good Friday,  there was not much actually open in the towns. Roxby Downs only exists because of the Olympic Dam mine. Its a relatively modern town and has excellent facilities. It seemed like it would be a nice enough place to live.

Andamooka, on the other hand, is a shabby, messy little town inhabited by hopeful individual miners trying to strike it rich. It appears that no-one in the town has ever found anything of value. We didn't spend much time here returning back to Roxby Downs and then back to Woomera.

We considered driving along the Oodnadata track from Roxby Downs. We actually travelled about 200m down the track before deciding that the vibrations of the wash-board road just wasn't worth it. Later, Jude found most of the contents of the caravan had shifted around in that short time.

Back at Woomera, we found an off-road site where some old ruins are located. Nice and quiet so we had a great night's sleep.

Morning view from the caravan

Woomera missiles and rockets

Andamooka

More classy real estate in Andamooka

Woomera views at dusk

The ruins at Woomera - note the van in the background

The ruins at dusk

Spike framed in the window of the ruins

Apr 20 Hancock's Lookout

We left Burra and travelled on towards Port Augusta. Our trusty Camps book advised of a nice camp site a few km before Port Augusta at Wilmington. After a 7km dirt track, we were getting a little worried about finding some where nice, when all of a sudden the track opened up to a glorious 180 degree view. It was one of the best views I think I've ever seen. Apart from the slow drive in, this camp site was great. No toilets or water, but we're getting used to that now.

Here's the map that was on site at the lookout

What a nice story about how the lookout got its name

Wow, what a view...

Our camp site and view

Nice view Princess!



The smell of field mice was great entertainment for the dogs



The following day we drove through the mountains and on to the flat land near the coast. This provided a terrific "reverse" view of where we had been the night before.

Apr 18-19 Burra

We have spent 3 nights (2 days) in Burra. It is a great town. The National Trust and/or South Australian government have declared the whole town to be of historical significance and so they should. They have a heritage tour, which is self-guided with a key to get into the many places of interest. We spent much of our 2 days just working our way along the tour - and even still we have not seen it all.

The town was established because of a copper mine around the mid 1800s. In fact the town was owned by the mining company - not sure if that has happened any where else in Australia. At its peak, it was the largest inland town in Australia. Lots more interesting history, but I won't bore the blog with too much.

We have never seen so many beautiful stone cottages in one place before - there are hundreds of them. It is actually odd to see a house that is not made of old stone.

One of my favourite points in the tour was a whole village of stone building ruins - Hampton. The last inhabitant only moved out in 1960. Sad in a way to see it go to ruin, but fascinating to imagine what was there and the hard work that went into creating it in the first place.

Some other places of interest along the tour were the mining and smelting works, the old gaol, which also served as a girls' reformatory, dug-out homes along the river bank and the old brewery with its network of underground tunnels to explore.

The Burra copper mine stopped producing a long time ago, so for many years, Burra has been in decline. But they are doing a very good job of turning the town into a major tourist attraction for South Australia.

Exlporing the ruins of the Burra Monster Mine

How did you dogs get in there?

One of the chimney flues for the massive boiler that powered the crusher

The powder magazine - where they kept the explosives

The miners' dug-out homes in the banks of the river

Those metal bars don't stop everyone...

Entrance to Hampton - the village of ruins

Exploring some of the ruins

Impressive dry-wall stone buildings

More exploring at Hampton - could this be where the last inhabitant lived?

The Redruth Gaol - also Girls' Reformatory and sometime private residence

The exercise yard at the gaol

The escape deterrent on top of the gaol walls

The dogs explore the old smelting yards. Note the use of slag on the walls.

Entrance to the brewery

Underground at the brewery

More underground tunnels

And for Peter, here is the Google map link: Burra

Apr 17 Barossa to Burra

We spent the morning back in Nuriootpa. My father grew up in this area of the Barossa Valley - in Light Pass actually, which is a couple of kms south of Nuri. As a child, I spent a few holidays in this area. We went in search of my Nanna's house and the graves of my grand parents and great grand father. We found the graves and I think we found the house. We also visited a lovely old house museum opposite the graveyard called Ruhr's Cottage. We've been there before in 2003 (with Emily, Ruby & Julia), but we were happy to visit again.

The grave of Robert's great grandfather - Triple F Koop

I think this is Nanna's old house...

Ruhr's Cottage - Dressing table made from kerosene boxes

We set off for Burra, which is an old mining town. We passed through Kapunda along the way, another old mining town. They celebrate their history with a large statue of a miner - an obligatory photo opportunity.

We stopped for lunch at Winklers Park just outside of Saddleworth. A very nice park with toilets, drinking water and lovely scenery. We would have stayed the night there, except that it was all fenced off to stop vehicle entry. Therefore we drove on another 50km to Burra as was the original plan.

We set up camp in the Burra Showgrounds and are very happy here. It costs $10/night, but we have power, toilets, water and one hot shower. A further attraction was watching some girls and their horses practicing their show jumping.

Our campsite at the Burra Showgrounds

Horse jumping free entertainment at the Burra Showgrounds

Moon rising at dusk

Princess, earlier in the day, after digging holes chasing something. Note the wads of dirt and grass stuck in her paws.

Apr 16 Barossa Valley

Due to popular demand, here are some photos of the Kia getting bogged. They were on Jude's camera, which is why I have posted them a day late - not because I am embarrassed about getting bogged. Not at all...

At least I now know the limitations of our car (the front wheels don't do any driving when the back ones are bogged). And the dangers of driving over newly grassed areas on the edge of a recently flooded river.

We packed up our camp site on the banks of the Murray River and drove on to the Barossa Valley.

Beautifully framed as we pack up our van

First stop was Mannum, a tourist town also on the Murray River. We found a lookout and took some nice photos of the Murray with plenty of water flowing at the moment.

The view from the look-out at Mannum

The drive on to the Barossa Valley was very nice and took us through some hilly and picturesque country.
Some of the landscape was full of rocks. Some artistic types have obviously been hard at work painting messages on some of the roadside rocks. I liked this one rock, although some idiot had tagged it so its hard to read.

"Do something everyday that scares you"

We spent the night at Truro, just north of Nuriootpa. Nothing special, just a road-side rest area, which was pretty noisy when the trucks went by through the night.