Long way to Coober Pedy

Well finally where on our  the way

 as with most trips there is alway the last minute things that you find to do. A walk around the camper trailer and the car to make sure all was well. Found a loose connection on my UHF arial so quickly fixed it and the rest was good. Next morning up at 6 am breakfast locked up and where ready to hit the road.

3 trips backwards and forwards into the house for things I forgot to turn of or just plain forgot. Finally out of the gate locked it and were gone, as we figure if we haven't got it we don't need it. The first day was pretty straight forward headed to Parachilan in the Flinders ranges for our first night camp. We stayed at the local campgrounds as it was getting a bit late to look for a bush camp.  Mind you Rosemary my wife did make good use of the hot showers ( I am still thinking about one as I write this its only been a 3 days Brut body spray works well.) We were both pretty tired, I think just from the excitement of it all, we were in bed by 7 pm. So it was of no surprise that we were up and ready to go by 6 am the next morning.

It only took us 1 hour to have breakfast pack up and hit the road. Our destination for the day was a place called Coward Springs a lovely camping area about 60km. south of William Creek. It was great country to drive through, most of it on bitumen. Not our preferred option but none the less it was enjoyable. We enjoy the dirt roads as they add an other dimension to the journey. Well when we finally arrived at Marree the place was soaked and it was still drizzling lightly. For us this was not a good sign as we still had about a 140 km to go for the evening camp. We drove around to the local police station to see what was happing with the road conditions. But he was out doing his rounds. So back to the local pub, where outside we found a truck driver and his primer mover. I got out introduced myself and had a bit of a chat, he informed us that had there had  been quite a few mm of rain here in the last few days and more to come. I’d asked him what he was doing he told us he had to leave his trailers out on the Strezlecki because he could not move them any more and that he just got back into town himself. So now he has to wait it out till its dry enough to pick up his trailers and head on home. Most Australians are a optimistic bunch as he said “ better in here by the pub then out on the track on your own.

We wished him well and said “we’d better get moving if we don’t what to spend a few days here ourselves”. Well too our surprise as we headed out of town we were greeted by a large sign telling us that the Oodnadata Track was closed the only section open was the road to Roxby Downs via the Borefield Track. So a decision had to be made, do we wait or continue driving taking a 200 km detour to Cooper Pedy Via Roxby and Woomera. You guessed it we decided to keep moving beats sitting around. We also get to see country that we haven't passed through before.

Well bugger me the first 10 km were pretty hard going in thick sticky mud. Slipped the Landrover into Hi 4 and at 40km per hour, and as my wife would say “ it just waddled through” all 5 tone of it. Well as we committed ourselves we just had plod along hoping it would get better it did. I was grateful that when I purchased new tires for the trip I brought Hankook Mud Terrain Tires best decision so far.

Then to our surprise about 40km out of Marree we came across a lone bike rider that was making his way to Adelaide from Darwin and this stage he was riding  from Copper pedy to Marree. the poor bugger was struggling with the patches of mud. I informed him that it wasn't going to get any better and about 10km. from Marree it gets even worse. I don't think I made his day.   Anyhow we just plodded along making our way to Roxby Downs , Woomera then Pimba. Once we reached Pimba a quick fill up with fuel then onto the Stuart Highway heading to Cooper Pedy .  Nice steady drive listening to country music chatting and the odd sleep (just joking )

As we were driving to Cooper Pedy we stopped to help a young fella change a tire. Not that he wasn’t capable of doing it, Just that he was from a mine and the vehicle had been used underground for a period and things where a bit rusty and hard to get undone. So he was pretty grateful for our assistance. As he said if we or someone else hadn’t stopped he would have been their well into the night. So guess what, we didn’t make it to Cooper Pedy. about a 100 km short but found a nice Bush camp and well get there tomorrow. Fill up with fuel, as there is no fuel for the next 750km. and I don't think I’ll do much more then 20 litres per hundred kilometres. We carry 280 litres of fuel. I’ll have a chat to the local police to let them know what were up to and hope that the Anne Bedeall Highway ( track) is passable.

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