Committed Travellers

After hanging a load of washing on the line, I drove two friends to Breakaways. This involved driving north 20kms up the Stuart Hwy then west on a well maintained gravel road. The Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park covers several square kilometres of land that was an inland sea squillions of years ago. The eroding hills are an amazing mix of colours caused by bleaching and staining from ironstone. There are three established viewing areas overlooking the basin with the eroded flat top hills in the background. We followed the park road to the dog fence which was constructed to protect the sheep industry in southern states. About 5,000kms of the fence remains from the original 9,000kms fence. It is still the longest fence in the world. Some insane idiots have been deliberately damaging parts of the fence. The park road joins the Oodnadatta Track. We followed this looking for the Moon Plains, but probably didn't drive far enough as we didn't see the petrified trees that are millio

The forecast rain fell last night and much of this morning, but it was never heavy. I saw a couple of lightning flashes last night but they were not close to us. We stayed in the Bushtracker till 11am. Blue had to go out and then have the mud and gravel wiped away. He and Tilly were very good playing quietly together on the bed. She grabs hold of him before starting her cleaning regime, and he puts her whole leg in his mouth. Some of our Roadie friends have gone on local tours of the area, but we decided touring in the Toyota will be preferable. I bought an $8 permit to allow me to drive into the Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park tomorrow. We didn't need to go on wet gravel roads today. Instead we meandered around town stopping at the Big Rig lookout and eating waffles for lunch. In most parts of the country mining operations are required to rehabilitate the land by distributing the tailings and landscaping the areas disturbed by mining activity. Coober Pedy seems to pride itself

Soon after leaving Kulgera this morning we crossed the NT/SA border. We had downloaded a border pass but there is no longer a checkpoint for vehicles driving into SA from the NT. We drove on to Marla where the cafe was busy and we decided not to wait to be served. School holidays have started so there are some families with kids travelling outback roads. At the Cadney Homestead roadhouse I was able to buy a coffee made from long life milk - drinkable but I do prefer real milk. We continued driving to Coober Pedy, completing just over 400kms today. After setting up camp we picked up some groceries from the local IGA which doubles as a hardware store. The photo of exposed earth typifies this area, including the middle of town. The flowering succulent in a private garden is a rare sight. I set up the outdoor crate for the little ones, but Tilly was more in the mood for a walk on her lead. She has really taken to wandering around in her harness, completely overcoming her resistance to this

We left the Ayres Rock Campground at Yulara about 10am, making our first stop at the dump site located a couple of kilometres from the camp. Further along the road a small group of wild horses crossed the highway about 200m in front of us. We stopped to stretch our legs at the Curtin Springs roadhouse and spotted this blue tree. I found a website that explained the dead tree had been painted as part of the Blue Tree Project to raise awareness of mental health issues. A few days after this tree was painted there was a large dust storm. This photo was downloaded from the ABC. We refuelled at the Erldunda Roadhouse and stopped for lunch in the Bushtracker. When walking Blue I saw this marker claiming to be at the Centre of the Centre of mainland Australia. There are apparently five ways of determining the centre such as the furthest point from sea, and the gravitational method. Erldunda Roadhouse at Ghan has been determined to be the centre of those five points. We continued 75kms south a

Yesterday we spent the morning at Kata Tjuta, walking into Walpa Gorge. We have to limit the time we spend in the national park because of our little critters left in their vans. The rocks at the Olgas are a conglomerate of granite and basalt boulders held together by sandstone. This is easily seen in the boulders that have fallen, but from a distance the Olgas look similar to Ayres Rock which is sandstone. Anita went with our Roadie friends to the sunset light show. Apparently the canapes and drinks were not special, but she really enjoyed the light show. I enjoyed a night at home with Tilly and Blue, and checking on the other dogs by making sure they weren't barking or crying in their vans. This morning it was a lot cooler but not as cold as down south. We drove out to Uluru and I was delighted to see a coffee van. He has only recently started this business so I happily supported him by trying his coffee which was good. While the others headed off to the Mala walk, I got my elect

Last night we went to the Tamworth Memorial Town Hall for a Beccy Cole concert. The seating was arranged around tables for eight, but two chairs at each table were not to be used. There was lots of space in the hall so it was very different to the normally crowded venues when Beccy performs in Tamworth. We were woken before dawn by Tilly turning on the microwave. There are touch controls on the outside of the door and she found them! I took Blue for an early morning walk and put Tilly into his crate so we could all have a bit more sleep. I went to town for coffee and a drive up the Oxley Scenic Lookout 3kms to the east of Tamworth CBD. The road to the lookout was built through a work for the dole program during the 1930s depression. The safety barriers are hand built low rock walls, but the road must have been recently upgraded as it is one of the smoothest stretches of bitumen I have ever driven on. The road climbs about 200m up one of the hills known as the Wentworth Mounds, part of

Anita and I spent the morning in Tamworth while our friends minded Tilly and Blue. This is a busy town with many recently built houses. During Country Music Festivals there are large crowds along Peel St. Today it was busy but I could see all of the shops and historic buildings behind modern facades. Our shows this week will be in the Tamworth War Memorial Town Hall which dates back to 1934. The 1900 Lands Office building across the road has lots of timber in its verandahs. As we walked back to our car I spotted this mural on a new block of toilets in Bicentenial Park. I'm not sure a public toilet is the ideal location for a mural depicting these stars of country music! Apparently the project was only completed in April this year so most of these entertainers won't have seen the mural. The Facebook page for the Quirindi Royal Theatre added this photo which I downloaded. Two other Roadie friends arrived this afternoon. We all went to Carmen's Italian restaurant for dinner. T

We decided to drive out to Uluru and Kata Tjuta with our friends. Blue and Tilly had to stay in the van as the area is all national park. Tilly had a play with Blue in their outdoor crate. We put her inside on the bed just before we left, and she kept paddling a shiny piece of paper with her front paws.  We walked a short way around the base of the Rock before driving to the Olgas. There are very few tourists here compared to the hundreds that would have arrived every day before COVID. While that is bad for the Yulara businesses, it is great for us having only a small number of vehicles on the roads. Our little critters were glad to have us return. Anita and I took Blue to the town square to buy some milk from the well stocked IGA, and browse the other open shops. I had an acceptable coffee from the Kulata Academy Cafe, where local Aboriginals are given on the job training. Anita and five other Roadies are going to see the Rock at sunset tomorrow, enjoy canapes and a drink, then see a