Leaving Kings Canyon meant having to back track to the Lassiter Hwy and then onto Erldunda again, this meant backtracking about 600km – we had to do this to avoid going on an unsealed road – we do not have an off road caravan and didn’t feel like we wanted to be shaken to kingdom come on a dirt road.

I had seen all the same trees, flowers and roadkill, it was hard not to be bored, although there is always something to see. We would go stretches without seeing something then we would come across these birds that would play chicken with the car – they were like kamikaze birds, small flying is flocks, very interesting to watch – don’t know what they are called. We saw many hawks and black eagles feeding off the roadkill kangaroos, sometimes the eagles would be a bit slow on take-off and we would almost hit them, but they managed to escape being hit.

I have to say it was a long drive, up the Red Centre with no internet or phone service – our car speaker was playing up so we couldn’t play our music either….. still we managed counting down the mileage to the next stop.

As we were getting closer to Alice Springs, we noted the landscape was getting hilly not what you would expect, it had been dry scrubby grasslands, it was still dry but more small mountains around, when I looked it up its part of the Macdonnell Ranges which made sense. We thought it was a pretty town, it was quiet, we went looking for a camera shop (which I had googled, and there was one in town) so I could put my brand-new camera in for repair after I dropped it – I was mortified when this happened, in one spit second, it fell and I think I have damaged the lense, not even two weeks old, I was so cross with myself for days, even now writing about it, I’m devastated. Anyway, Ian dropped me off in town to find this shop, and alas it was not where google said it was – funny that. I rang the number and a man answered and said he was away for another week and there was no one else in town – so it’s still not repaired. It was now late afternoon, so we went to our caravan park we had booked – Alice Springs Tourist Park – we were only staying for 2 nights. It’s always nice to get to a caravan park, all our electronics gets charged, we have great long showers and I do the washing. We didn’t have a huge bucket list of things or places to see in Alice – however I did want to go to the Telegraph Station, my friend said it was worth going to so…. that was our main aim, plus some shopping for restocking food.

The Telegraph Station Historical District did not disappoint, it’s about 4km from the centre of town – both Ian and I are not born Australians, so it was fabulous to hear the history of Alice Springs – the tour guide was excellent and so knowledgeable, it was almost like she had swallowed a history book. Everyone says Alice Springs is the centre of Australia – however where the Telegraph Station is the exact centre of Australia. The buildings have been restored and the River Red Gum is about the same age as the telegraph line was built between 1870 and 1872 – about 153 years old. It was fascinating to hear and read about the early days of the township, the lives of the early telegraphers and their families, as well as touching on the stolen generation.

When reading the display of the history of Alice Springs, particularly about the stolen generation, it bought me to tears, it reminded me of when I first came to Australia, arriving from South Africa via ship, my mother said, “don’t tell people where you are from, they don’t like SA because of the apartheid rules” – I aways wonder how Australia could be so righteous with their “all white policy” back in the day when I was a child.

After the tour we had lunch – decided not to do a walk – however there are great walks available, we went into town for some shopping. Alice Springs has a Target, they have a good choice of shops, however we did think it was a quiet town when we were there. Another good place to go was the ANZAC Hill, you get a great panoramic view of the town, and you see the MacDonnell Ranges surrounding the town – it also has a nice walk, which I did. We also took the opportunity to wash the car, I have never used the pressure hose to wash before so this was a whole new experience for me – I did enjoy it, just as well it was a beautiful sunny day. On our way to the shops, we passed the Catholic Church, I stopped to light a candle, alas there were none, however that didn’t stop me from enjoying the artwork (first time I have seen Aboriginal Art in stained glass) and saying a prayer. We replenished our pantry, had dinner at a nice restaurant and had an early night – we enjoyed Alice Springs. Oh, I forgot after ANZAC Hill, I spotted a Hungry Jacks, and just had to have a soft serve ice cream, it’s been ages since we’ve seen fast food, of course Ian had one too.

On our way now to Tennant Creek, I did not know what to expect of Tennant Creek, as I had mixed reviews about the place – everyone has a different opinion.

Our first stop was Barrow Creek, on our history lesson at the Telegraph Station, the young lady had told us that Barrow Creek had a terrible history and were gruesome in their treatment of the Aboriginal people. Barrow Creek just had the petrol station come hotel, it looked pretty shabby – not much of a place really – there is also the Telegraph Station like in Alice Springs, but I don’t think many people visit it. I just took a picture and that was it, we did refuel, and it was the most expensive refuel – funny, I also met a nurse that I had worked with in Esperance, who is now taking a nursing break and working at the hotel. On our way to Tennant Creek we passed the Barkly Region – The rocks are called “Devils Marbels” and there are camping grounds, however you have to get a permit – so we decided to keep going – I was talking to an elderly lady who asked me to help her get a permit – I agreed, however on reading the sign the only way to get a permit was to download via WiFi – the signage said free WiFi available – however there was no WiFi, so I couldn’t help her – she said “her husband didn’t think he would make Tennant Creek”, I did tell her it was about 120km not what her thought 300kms. I said” we would carry on and stay at the caravan park in TC” – they decided to turn back to the free parking they passed about an hour ago.

We stopped for a rest stop as Ian wanted to keep driving – we both went for a walk and a chat with other people who had stopped – people are so friendly, it’s really nice.

We got into Tennant Creek just on dusk – we booked in for just one night – you can ask for a drive through where you do not have to unhitch which is nice. At Tennant Creek they offer you a service where if you want to go to dinner at The RSL Club you ring, and they come and pick you up and drop you off, no charge- we did consider it, but we were both so tired from all the driving, we had baked beans on bread and had another early night.

Tennant Creek was disappointing – we did not explore the town, we drove through, I needed the chemist and we refuelled and that was it. Some of the shops have been boarded up, a lot of shops have steel shutters protecting the windows from being broken – the town reminded me a little of Derby in WA.

On reflection, we did too much driving through the Red Centre, not enough walking or drinking of water…….you live and learn. Best advice for me was the tour guide at the Telegraph Station – she said “for all those people who take photos, when you are taking the photo and you look up, then look down for the snake” – I think of this each time I take a photo.

We were now heading for the Queensland boarder: – then Mt Isa

540 km travelled to get to Coober Pedy a place in the middle of nowhere:, it’s a unique quirky town, it’s a working junkyard town – there is scrap metal everywhere. I did not realise that Coober Pedy is the Opal capital of Australia – it produces and exports 80% of the world opals. The weather can be brutal, but thankfully we came at the best time of the year, very manageable for us.

We booked into The Oasis Tourist  Park for two nights – on booking I noticed they offered two tours a Breakaways sunset tour and a town and mine tour. This is not usually my way of doing things, but after all our driving and stress of the last couple of days, I thought, just book it and let someone else do the driving – the best decision I made, it cost $190.00, $45 per tour per person. We then went for  late lunch at John’s pizza, great pizzas and we had leftovers for dinner – The tours  were by far the best way to see Coober Pedy for us and have a running commentary about the history and the town. George was our driver, I think he also owns the Tourist Part – he had a dry sense of humour and has done the tours in CP for over 19 years, he was brilliant, his working knowledge of the town was exceptional.

We started with the sunset tour of the Breakaways – called so as it is said to be the breakaway from the Flinders Rangers. The Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park is Aboriginal owned and the entire park is a registered aboriginal heritage site. It was about a 40 min drive south of CP on an unsealed road, I was pleased we were sitting in a small bus enjoying a tour. The first lookout  looked over the escarpment and George said that over 70 million years ago the land was under water, hard to imagine this. It was amazing to see the dog (Dingo)fence that spanned about 5600km, there were only a few original posts left– the one we are standing next to was an original post, 70yrs old made from SA hard wood tree. The dog fence crosses the Stuart Highway near  CP where these special cattle grids span the road. It’s the longest dog fence in Australia.

George outlined some of the native flowers seen below, and highlighted some of the Aboriginal stories such as the man with his two dogs from the unique landforms (hills) the different colouration was as a result of weathering of the rock, the brown one has not weathered at all ( I could see the two dogs, one white and one brown but I couldn’t see the man) – however, I could see the camel – the sunset was specular over the Breakaways – the photos just don’t do it justice.

The day tour started at 0830, started with the underground Churches, which are listed on the state heritage register, St Peter & Pauls Catholic Church which is the oldest underground church in CP – I even rang the bell outside. We also visited the  Anglican underground church. Next we went to the opal museum underground, watched the history of opal mining in CP very informative – naturally as my birthday had just been days before I picked out a small opal ring and necklace – funny I’ve never been keen on opals – my mum use to say “they bring bad luck”, a silly reason not to like opals. We also saw the underground living conditions – from years gone by to modern day – a three bedroom home all mod cons – but I can’t get use to the fact there are no windows – the ambient temperature is fabulous about 21 degrees – outside could reach 50 degrees. Thankfully we were there at the best time the average temp was about 30 degrees Celsius – perfect. What was lacking was wild life, didn’t see much at all – even George said that there has been a steady decline of wildlife over the last few years.

 Exploring the underground mine was great and seeing how the opals are found all interesting – what was more fascinating was the millions of holes dug around CP to find opals – The landscape in CP is littered with blowers, a blower is like a giant vacuum truck, it blows not sucks. You can lease a 10mtr squared pegged claim and that only costs about $375 to register, however you have to work the mine. To do that you need a blower which is a machine that digs the hole and blows out the dirt into a big mound – the bigger the mound the more chance you have found an opal stream. It’s all too complicated for me. This is where it gets interesting you can do something called noodling, not to be confused with canoodling or eating noodles –  there are public noodling areas, you have to be mindful you are not on a pegged claim and use no digging implements, where you go through the dirt with a sieve to see if you can find pieces of opal – not my cup of tea. The people of CP were friendly and helpful, but it sure looks like a harsh life with extreme hot temperatures. Considering you would have to start work at maybe 3-4am to get your 7.5hrs work in before the heat sets in. There are lots of opal shops in town if you are looking for an opal to buy.

I went for a bike ride around town, was asked several times if I wanted to buy a painting – some ok shops nothing special. I explored a few of the streets and came upon a dead end which had a big red rock face, as I cycled down to see it – a young man was outside doing his gardening – well of sorts it was more a rock garden, he had been planting lots of pot plants. I stopped to have chat – he was about 30 came from the Blue Mountains NSW, I said ‘wow you’re a long way from home, are you here to try your luck at opal mining” – his reply “not sure, the rent is  a hell of a lot cheaper” me “do you mind if I ask how much” his reply $200 per week – come in a have a look”. Me, “thanks, sure” – it was a great house, he says he saves on air conditioning and heating – sometimes he gets a bit cold but otherwise he loves it.

Ian and I also went to see the Serbian Orthodox Church – the Church of Saint Elijah the Prophet – its really amazing again built into the hillside – the art work is exquisite and the temperature again was only about 21 degrees. Sadly I don’t think it gets used much.

For us the tragedy about CP is that there are millions of holes and mounds of dirt everywhere. When they dig a hole they are not obligated to close the hole if no opals are found – consequently there are millions of open holes literally millions: there are signs to say watch where you are walking because if you fell in a hole it would be impossible to find you. I do wonder what will happen when they have dug a million more holes looking for that elusive opal.

We enjoyed the town of CP and its uniqueness however, probably will not return – next stop Uluru.

We didn’t see much wildlife except for these beautiful Frilled neck Lizards.

25 days on the road, all going well – left Port Augusta heading to Coober Pedy 540.2km, that’s about 6hrs with a caravan, so we thought we would free camp somewhere along the way. Again not much wild life to see, however the wildflowers were starting to blossom – I want , to say Wattle, but I don’t think they were, however they were bright like pockets of sunshine along the highway, great contrast against the bright red earth. We passed several salt lakes, most notable was Lake Heart. I keep myself busy by trying to spot wild life, crocheting or annoying Ian, sometimes I do find it quite boring all this driving and then there’s no internet! – What no service, no one told me that – I thought Telstra had service everywhere – but you go hours on end with no service. What if, yes, the what if?

A constant discussion between Ian and myself was when is the best time to stop – for me as I’m the chief cook and bottle washer, earlier is better. That way I can get a little walk and contemplate what we will have for dinner. However, Ian likes to push the boundary to darkness, which is not my option, so I spend my time convincing him to take time to watch the sunset. Next discussion is which free camp will we choose – for Ian, there has to be someone already parked and a little away from the road – me. I’m not so fussy so I don’t mind – the compromise is if its before dark he gets to choose, if after dark, the first one we come to, sounds fair. Any way on this occasion we stopped at a place called Bulgunnia about 120km short of Cooper Pedy – there were two other caravans parked, so we parked in the middle. I went for a short walk exploring our position and taking photos of the wild flowers with my beautiful new Cannon camera, so was in 7th heaven. Ian sat having a beer relaxing. I came back just intime to get photos of the sunset with both Ian an Fat Cat – ( I think I have mentioned Fat Cat before, he is our holiday mascot that the grandchildren love to see in the photos and see what he’s been up to). For me it was a little confronting when we stood and watched the sunset, looked 360 degrees and just saw nothing but outback – red dirt and small shrubs, no trees and no internet or phone service. I was grateful to see two other vehicles around us – the people didn’t come out, but that didn’t matter, the sun had gone down and so must we. Our gourmet meal was beef stew that I had prepared in advance. We were both tired, its surprising how tired you get driving these long distances, even sharing the driving – for me I have to concentrate to keep the van steady….. its not like driving the car where I can do more than one thing….no only joking.

We decided on an early night – our track record of having early nights has not been very successful, so I was a little weary, any way bed time it was.

We were woken up with the caravan shaking, rocking, the wind was howling, I thought what the hell? “Ian what is happening”, I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz when the house lifted into the tornado – I was terrified. The front window cover was flapping, I thought it was going to blow off – “Ian can you go outside and close the flap” – Ian – “you’re kidding me…. NO”, I reached for my phone – SOS no service – it was 11pm. We laid awake for 3hrs listening to the howling wind and the caravan shaking and rocking, too afraid to go outside….. we must have finally drifted of to sleep. We woke about 7am… I ventured outside to see what damage was done – none all was good, the other two vans were still there and our front window cover was still attached to the van – we were all in one piece – what a night.

I went to get the car keys and open the car door when the car alarm went off, WTF, I couldn’t open the door – the alarm kept on going. I manually opened the drivers door but the alarm still was going off. I wet to Ian, “the car alarm won’t go off”, Ian, “have you tried the key?” not the response I wanted – with that I went into the caravan and gave him the keys and said “go and look at the car please?” He came back looking very sullen – “what’s up” I said – Ian – “the battery is dead” – I said – “OMG No” then I thought for a moment, “no worries, you bought that new beaut battery charging thingie….. lets use that”, Ian – “oh yes I forgot about that, do you know where it is” – “sure in the back of the car”. We had not even looked at the gadget we had bought before this day, sorry, no Ian did charge it – the sales man said, “just hook it up and press charge” – not the simple, it did not work – no internet to you-tube how to use the battery charger!! It was the blind leading the blind. 120 kms out of Coober Pedy… WTF now. Ian even resorted to the car manual – but alas, nothing worked.

I was internally panicked. When we first discovered the battery was flat, I said to Ian, lets go and talk the people over there, no we will figure it out he said- in the mean time a couple of motorcyclist had also come and gone -Another caravan had pulled into the bay to have breakfast, the man came over but could not help, didn’t know how to use the charger and did not carry jumper leads. What is it with men, they do not want to ask for help? When everything failed – Ian relented and said to ask if anyone had a set of jumper leads. Lucky for us, the people in the other caravan always carried jumper leads, never used them but carried them – and got us started – the wife gave me tips on what to see and where to stay in Cooper Pedy as they had just left. It was so good to hear the engine running, the car was working. Still no internet or service for at least another 60kms. We set off, however the car was making a funny noise when Ian put it into gear – so he decided that we would crawl at 80km/p/h – I thought my God, we are never going to get there – we had travelled about 20mins in limp mode, when I suggested that maybe we stop at the rest stop that had an emergency phone and we could call for help, it was coming up in 20kms – either when we stop the car it might reset itself (I was thinking with computers you turn it off and it resets, maybe its the same with cars) and start normally: or it wont start and we are at square one again – or we keep going at 80km/p/h. I again asked another driver if he had jumper leads before we turned off the car – we were ready – again as luck would have it – the car started and had reset itself and went perfectly, we could now travel at 100km – we made it to Cooper Pedy – booked into the caravan park and took the car to get the battery checked – it was all good, green light- we lived to tell the tale, don’t know what caused the problem – but we were mobile and had internet and phone service – I was happy.

The moral of this story is: always carry jumper leads (which we have since bought) and try out new gadgets before you need them. We rely on technology so much that when we don’t have it we are lost!

Next blog is on our stay at Cooper Pedy – a fascinating town. I’m loving living on the road……

Written in retrospect: 16 days on the road and all is going well, no major arguments since leaving Kalgoorlie and the annex episode, needless to say we have not put it up since. Wait, we have put it half up and all went well, so learning complete. The true test will be when we put it up for a long term place. We have travelled well, Ian still likes his long stints of driving without stretching his legs. The driving is shared 50/50 and I am getting much better at managing the caravan. Reverse parking is still an issue for me, I spit the dummy once and Ian took over, since then I’ve tried to be more patient with myself. I feel we are always stopping for fuel which in some ways is good because it gets us out of the car, I do try and stop at least every three hours. I usually keep fruit, nuts and cracker biscuits as a driving snack and not too many sweets…. so I feel we have done reasonably well. The other trap is buying crap when you stop to fuel up, this has also reduced, mainly because it is really expensive – a meat pie was $7.50. The advantage of having the caravan is you can quickly make a sandwich and cuppa and that too saves money.

Interesting stats to date, in 16 days we have travelled 2,594km, 452.79 litres of diesel costing $1,031.31 – clearly I’m keeping a spreadsheet of the mileage and fuel used. Ian worked out that we use approx. 5.7km per litre of fuel, that seems awfully expensive in my book, but he said it is reasonable given we are towing a 20 foot heavy caravan. I’ll take his word for it.

We have done some free camping mainly single nights when our focus is reaching a particular place and its worked out well for us.

The Eyre Peninsula is just so beautiful, the days were warm, sunny and the nights still cold- our first stop was Streaky Bay, Venus Bay, Elliston, Coffin Bay, Port Lincoln, Cowell, Whyalla and Port Augusta.

Streaky Bay is an attractive town, it services many surrounding towns and also has a hospital and an old style jetty. Steaky Bay is know for its seafood -oysters, King George whiting, tuna etc. We stayed at the Streaky Bay Island Caravan Park (visit steakybayislandcaravanpark.com.au)- we had ocean views with great sunsets, the water looked like glass and I have to say they have the best ablution blocks (toilets) I’ve ever experienced for a caravan park. The more nights you stay the cheaper it is. We originally were going to stay two nights but after the first night decided we would stay for 5 nights – great decision.

We used Streaky Bay as a base and did some sight seeing of the area. Our first day we explore the town and walked the jetty. Second day trip was to do the Cape Bauer Loop Drive, which included the Whistling Rocks & Blowholes, it is a long platformed walk down to the coastline – there was not much happening at the blowholes, but the coastline is just divine – the ocean was just so blue and intense, just amazing.

We had dinner at the local pub (Streaky Bay Hotel, great atmosphere) and watched the Matilda’s play -good game.

The town has some beautiful unique shops, there was a delightful craft shop which I spent hours just sitting on the floor reading the patterns which dated back to the 1950’s, I just wish weight was not an issue when travelling in a caravan otherwise I would have bought the lot. There’s a great bakery and a couple of second had shops – all worth a look. The guy in the Post Office was super helpful and the Information Centre is a great resource, very friendly & helpful – also does photocopying…. worth knowing when travelling.

Westall Way Loop Drive is a day trip again a great drive with magnificent ocean views – if you continue down the Sceale Bay Rd, you pass Sceale Bay, its a smaller bay it has some interesting houses and a beautiful bay and not much else. Continuing down the same road, you follow the coastline, I spotted a flock of pelicans in the water fishing, I called out to Ian, “stop, look, let me take a picture, see all the Pelicans”, dutifully, an stopped – poor Ian spends most of his time waiting for me to say ‘stop’ for a picture or two. As you continue, you reach Point Labat and this is where there is a Sealion Colony – there is a small walk out to a viewing platform where you can watch the sealions playing or fighting beneath you. Best remember to bring you zoom camera or binoculars, best thing about it is, there are no charges. On our drive back we went via Murphy’s Haystacks a 1500-million-year-old geological wonder -its on private land with an honesty box, again don’t forget your camera. There was nothing at Port Kenny except they say the pub does a good lunch, we did stop to look at the dilapidated jetty and then drove on to Venus Bay.

Venus Bay was equally divine, its smaller than Streaky Bay, if you want less shops and more beach time, then Venus Bay is for you – the water was icy cold but crystal almost like glass, it was really tempting – I almost succumbed to its temptations.

Coffin Bay a picturesque town – this was were we saw so many Emu’s just walking the streets, in peoples gardens, it was quite amusing. Its a busy little town, quite the fishing village – it has a commercial wharf and you can watch the fisherman unloading and best of all you can see all the Pelicans and seagulls trying to get a free feed. Ian certainly got his full of oysters…….55 he shucked and we ate together, followed by another 2 dozen oysters – he likes his oysters.

Port Lincoln was great, we stayed two nights at the Port Lincoln Tourist Park at $44 per night. There were lots of nice shops and I found a brilliant camera shop to get my new zoom camera. We stayed two days, found a Kmart for some essentials for the caravan, a beautiful craft shop called the Patchwork Pear – my happy place, just delightful. We put the caravan in for a service which cost us about $1200, but better to be safe than sorry. Now on our way to Port Augusta.

We stopped at Cowell for fuel and not much else, Whyalla was a bigger town in SA, with many shops and quite industrial – we only drove through as our destination was Port Augusta.

We arrived late in the evening, I hate arriving at night to a caravan park, its the pits. Navigating the parking bays for me is a nightmare and its dark. It was cheap, $25night if we paid cash or $29 if we paid by card. The caravan park was a bit out of town but we didn’t know that till the morning. Port Augusta was a surprise to me, it was quite spread out and its shopping precinct was lacking in brand shops – we had to get new tyres for the car, thankfully only two. We decided to stay for 4 days at $25 per night, this allowed us some free time before the trek up the middle of Aus. When we got the tyres changed I asked about a hairdresser – the lady said “honey its Friday, we have 4 saloons and you won’t get in” – lucky for me there was a cancellation and I got a badly needed hair treat. I wouldn’t go again to Port August.

We did a day trip our to Quorn and Hawker not part of the Peninsula but it was a great day out, such beautiful old buildings and history. – and managed to see some of the Flinders Rangers.

life in the caravan – it takes me less than an hour to tidy up, that is sweep the floor and clean the toilet. I love having a toilet it saves having to go out in the night – the down side is emptying the toilet a the dump sites, but now I’m use to it so all is good – it didn’t take me long to work out how many times we can use it before having an overflow – you only need it to happen once then never again. The best thing is to empty each time we stay somewhere then we never have any mishaps. There are so many products on the market that odour is not an issue – keep the toilet vent open is another good strategy.

Cooking, I’ve been sticking to simple meals – we bought a slow cooker and I put it on in the morning and the meal is ready when we get back, this will keep us going for a couple of days I just mix up the veg that goes with it. Some times beans on toast is also a good solution. I cant wait for summer then Ian can do the BBQ and I’ll do the salad.

We have gotten into a good groove now in setting and packing up, we each have our own jobs and get it done in half the time.

Lessons learned: keep meals simple: have simple quick options: wash up as we have eaten, once you sit you don’t want to move again. Do not critisize each others driving!

I would highly recommend the Eyre Peninsula for a family holiday – its a great place.

Next stop Coober Pedy, Uluru, Kings Canyon & Alice Springs.

We spent 10 days in Kalgoorlie, I worked some of those days and the rest we went sightseeing. I loved Boulder, the buildings were old and the town was smaller but had a buzz to it. Coolgardie was another town that also had character – I put all three these towns together, easy to get to and a lot to see. Kalgoorlie was nothing like I remembered, having been there about 40 years ago – Hay St had changed remarkably, there were no more brothels and there were no two-up rinks. The only remnants of a brothel was the Questa Casa which has been turned into a museum, a history of the old Hay St. I was kind of surprised to see that some pubs still ‘skimpy’ bar maids. The Super Pit is a must see in Kal, it is amazing to think that 50 Billion ounces of gold goes through that mine…….. unbelievable.

It was great to have some time living in the caravan and finding homes for everything – trying out the washing machine and putting up the Annex – however putting the annex away nearly caused our divorce. we have struggled each time with the awning, the annex was actually ok, its the awning that causes us grief. Men do not like asking for help – on the other hand, me I’d ask anyone, please come and give me a hand – but no men don’t at least not Ian. As we were trying to argue quietly, which is very hard to do….. a man drove past and took pity on us…. he strolled over with this wry smile on his face, “hi guys, do you need a hand there”…. me immediately. “yes please” before Ian could think of saying no – he laughed and said, ‘these awning take time to get use to, here let me give you a quick easy lesson”. You have no idea how grateful I was. I promptly took a video of him teaching us so we had a permanant reminder. Marriage saved.

Our next leg of our trip from Kalgoorlie, through Kambalda, Balladonia, Madura, Eucla and the Nullarbor approximately1,296km and diesel costing anywhere from $1.99 – $2.99 per litre with the Nullarbor being the most expensive. We never let the tank go too much less than half before we filled up, just in case – remember towing a 20 foot caravan will also use your fuel. We free camped just past Balladonia, its a great option for a night or two – can’t seem to get Ian to stay two nights anywhere yet…… its work in progress.

The Nullarbor starts from Norseman and ends at Ceduna SA- Eucla is half way -it is Australia’s 90 miles of the straightest road – took us 2 days to cross, we spent one night at the Roadhouse – that cost $33.00 for a powered site, cheap – we had dinner at the Roadhouse and it was great food, we even arranged to meet our friends there who luckily were traveling in the opposite direction. Life has funny ways of letting you catch up with people.

The Nullarbor was not like I remembered it 40 years ago – it seemed to have more shrubbery, still no trees and the most boring road trip ever…. just kilometres of road, and not many wild animals to spot – not even much road kill.

The Great Australian Bight, or open bay – off WA, the southern coastline, was just magnificent. Just about 20 km from the Nullarbor Roadhouse heading to Ceduna, is the Great Australian Bight Marine Park. We saw beautiful whales, breeding season had been and we saw lots of Mumma and babies – just beautiful. There are great viewing platforms – Again, its worth a stop to see them, we were so lucky, we spent a few hours here, more than I had planned.

we stopped for lunch at Penong, along the Eyre Peninsula, which sounds like an Asian country but no its in SA and is famous for having the biggest windmill in Australia – the windmill is called ‘Bruce’ or Big Bruce. The windmill is part of the windmills of the Windmill Museum, if you like finding all things big, this should be on your list.

Our final leg of this day was to get to Streaky Bay, via Ceduna. We also had to pass through boarder control, no fresh fruit or vegetables across the boarder – lucky we had eaten everything and I stewed the apples so we were good. Just for information the only honey you can take is commercially bought honey otherwise in the bin. They inspected our fridge…..

We decided that we would pick up a few supplies in Ceduna, but we would explore it on our way back so just drove through, it looked pretty big. The coastline was looking amazing, and great weather. Next stop on the Eyre Peninsula was Steaky Bay.