Desert Sculptures

Approximately 15klms from town on top of a hill is a series of sculptures done by carvers from all over the world. This amazing display is in a very arid area with kangaroos and emus wondering around and of course the odd snake and lizard.

We planned to go out to one of the more isolated national parks and check out the local rock art but unfortunately when I took the truck in to get the tyres rotated we discovered that the two rear tyres where totally shot and too dangerous to drive anywhere let alone 260klms of very ordinary dirt road. So here we sit waiting for two tyres to find there way here from Melbourne. With luck they should be here tomorrow and we will head out of here on Monday to the Kinchega National Park. Weather fine and hot 36 today, might be a pool day LOL.

Mad Max or Bitchy Beryl?

Yesterday we went in search of the road used for the Max movies and found it just past Silverton. As you can see they are quite proud of the cult movies.

Just in case you haven't heard, they are about to start making Max 4 and the town is starting to buzz with excitement. They could pick the extras out of the local hoons that do burnouts every night at 3am or drive down main street acting like demented baboons. Perfect place for another Max movie, don't even need to hire actors LOL.

Today we are off to the desert sculptures so tomorrow should have some good pics.

Ron's Rock

Hello from Broken Hill. We finally decided that we couldn't stand the wind and cold any longer and left Petersborough yesterday. The trip was a bit wild with strong winds particularly the last 50 - 70 klms through the open plains. Lots of dust in the air but the weather slowly got warmer the further we went.

Ron's Rock finally arrived and is very impressive, definitely the best stone we have found so far. It is approximately 3.3 cts and 10.8ml long by 5.4 wide and when in the sun is dazzling.

Broken Hill seems to be loaded with art. Gallery's everywhere so I will be in seventh heaven while he will grin and bare it, or just send me on my way while he goes to the supermarket LOL.

The romantic 30's posters of TAR

Lately we seem to be doing lots of train things. We arrived at Peterborough on Friday afternoon and what a pleasant place it seemed to be. As we were setting up at the park I thought I heard a familiar voice and sure enough two sites away Denis and Caryll were setting up their van. We last saw them at Derby WA 12 months ago. Of course that evening several drinks were had exchanging tales of adventures over the last year.

Yesterday (Sat.) we did the Steamworks (NO not a sauna) which has the most amazing collection of trains and carriages. Some great examples of sleepers from the 30's and 40's. Ron and I could happily spend some time here getting them back into shape, especially the first class lounge. An Erte here a Chirparis there and a couple of good painting and the carriage could be rolling around again.

Today we were meant to be heading to Broken Hill but last night the weather blew in and all night we had a gale with heavy rain and this morning we woke to 10 degrees and a vicious southerly. We managed to get the awning in without being blown away, so we are going to sit here until things improve.

Funniest thing happened yesterday. Denis and Carol are here on a Rock Art tour which has been invading (in the nicest possible way) farms in SA looking for new art sites. Yesterday they were about 50klms out in the hills checking out some carvings and 6 car loads went out and 6 cars came back but NOT everyone was accounted for. One women who shall remain nameless left her travelling companion out in the bush !!!!!!!!!! Much drama occurred about 6pm when it was discovered that they were one short LOL LOL LOL.

When the Lyns ask you out for lunch you should be worried.

We have just arrived back in Port Augusta after four great days in Port Lincoln with the Lyns. Wining, dining and picnics were the order of the day and we all had a great time catching up and telling new stories.

Off to Peterborough tomorrow and from there onto Broken Hill

Toot Toot and we're off

All aboard the Nichi Pichi railway to Quorn. Thanks to the company of Maryln and Kev the trip to Quorn was a fun day and the conductor and car captain made sure we all had a good time and lots of laughs. Quron is an interesting little town with lots of great ol' pubs etc but badly needs bucket loads of money thrown at it to get everything back to original condition. The train trip was great. It's been along time since I have been on a steam train and of course the first thing I did was stick my head out the window and get a face full of soot LOL.

We finally left Port Augusta for Port Lincoln yesterday and arrived here just in time to catch the Moto GP on TV. Go Casey, what a race. Last night we had dinner with the two Lyns and LD even baked a banana cake for us. We're being spoilt already LOL. Today off to see a couple of new foals from LP's horses and then we are cooking dinner at LD's.

Welcome back Bruce and Di where are you ????? Estonia WHY ??????

If I was that cow I would be worried too

Still in Port Augusta where the weather is decidedly cool and windy. We are going on a steam train trip tomorrow. The trip is to Quorn which is about 50 mile north of here on the way to Wilpena Pound. The train is the original 30's carriages from the Ghan and is pulled by a steam train. Marilyn and Kev are arriving in town today and they are doing the trip as well. The Lyns are also threatening to come for the trip so it could be a very funny day and a couple of wines might be had LOL. All going well we will be off to Port Lincoln on Sunday to spend a couple of days with the Lyns. Standby liver.

Bullseye

Finally the wind has died down and we can get on our way to Port Augusta today. Unfortunately the temp. is still in the teens and we have had to find jumpers etc and dust them off.

Now I hate to admit that Hans might be right, but Bruce his idea of opening an account out of Thailand has some merit. Remember he is the original traveller fully decked out in furs, bow and arrows and trading in beads so he would know LOL.

Macho Macho man ......................

or is this a present for SA. We have arrived at Woomera JUST. The trip from Coober Pedy will rate as the scariest trip yet with gale force winds trying to blow us off the road. Luckily we didn't have a head wind or we would be back in Tennant Creek by now But, the difference between the side wind and a slight tail wind was 10 litres per 100klms, very expense trip. We have checked into Woomera for an overnighter. The town now only has a population of 300, but like a good government owned town has a fantastic swimming complex which was open, but the temp is only 20 and the winds are gusting over 100klms per hour with trees down around the town. The town also has a bowling alley, museum, heritage centre, marine center ?????? and everything else that might be needed if they decided to repopulate the place.

Tomorrow winds allowing we will head to Port Augusta, if it's toooooo windy we might just sit here and hope it blows out. As I type Miss G is a rockin and rollin, could be an interesting night.

Hello from "Windy" central better known as Coober Pedy

After a hectic day of at Bathurst watching yesterday we are finally going to go have a good look around the area. This morning we are off to the Dingo fence via the Oodnadatta track and the Breakways (more rocks) and back into town via another dirt road.

I did have a look at most of the opal shops on Saturday and managed to come home without a purchase. However I did find one little opal that would have made a great earring but at $20,000 it is staying in the shop LOL. It's good to see the locals are still sitting around throwing bottles, somethings just don't change.

Some very sad news yesterday with the passing of Mr. Marcus in San Francisco. Marcus was a great help and friend to us when we were at the Laird. He was an institution in the USA Leather community and his weekly column in BAR was not to be missed. He will be greatly missed.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Somewhere hiding in South Australian Roads Corp. is a frustrated queen that wanted to be an interior designer. "My section of road is going to colour co-ordinate with the landscape" and it does. Red rocks, red sand, red road, only in SA LOL. Arrived in Coober Pedy last night after a long drive from Elrdunda. our original plan was to do an overnighter on the way but the parks were terrible so we just kept driving. We were in CP 30 years ago and nothing much has changed LOL. Most of the same shops are still here, the Croats still have a club here (they buy the opals) but the number of dining options has shrunk dramatically. Last night we went to the only "real" restaurant - Tom and Marys Greek Travena, which was good but the rest of the selection looks a bit grim. When we crossed the border yesterday we had to dump any food we had so Ron is off re supplying Miss G so home cooking tonight.

Kings is King

We have just arrived back at Erldunda after a great 3 nights at Kings Canyon. We have been blessed with the weather, which for our walk was 27 with a slight breeze. The rim walk is 7klms and starts out with a 300 meter climb up to the rim and then the most amazing walk around "Bungle Bungle" type rock formations, gorges, gullies, waterholes and some incredible lookouts. Our time at the caravan park was lots of fun as well, with new friends from Qld, WA, NSW and UK all helping to make the stay a lot of fun. Tomorrow we head south to Marla (WHERE) which will mean we cross the border into SA, so they had better get their weather together down there as we still don't do COLD. LOL

Sunset last night

Today we headed off to do the walk around this dam rock and 12 klms later we and our personal entourage of flys arrived back at the car, a little foot sore but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Over the two days here we have hoofed it about 25 klms so tomorrow will be a "foot free day" in preparation for Kings Canyon.

Go Storm

ANT DANCE

This was caused totally by the Lyns. When in Port Douglas we were all looking at some Aboriginal art, some that was very good, but mostly the mass produced rubbish that is for sale all over the country. You know, paint by numbers and put a four figure price on it. I mentioned at one gallery that I wouldn't mind doing a "Dot" painting, but something totally different from the "women collection bush tomatoes at the creek with the turtle and croc feeding in the kangaroo corpse" you get the pic LOL. So here's ANT DANCE. It is a dot painting, each ant body is made up of dots and with dot eyes. Every ant is an individual. Why ants ? well the day I decided to start this painting Miss Guided was invaded by the little buggers, so that was the omen. LOL Hope you like it.

Last pic from the west mac's

We headed south to Elrunda and did a quick overnight at the road house which is at the junction of the Sturt and lassiter Hwys and from there we have made our way to Urulu. Today (Sat.) we spent climbing the Olga's which are truly spectacular. Our first walk was the Valley of the winds which winds it's way through the peaks and across a big valley and then back up into the peaks. The colour is wonderful and the rock will have to be dam good to beat this, but that is tomorrows challenge. All going well we will leave here on Monday and head around to Kings Canyon for a couple of days hiking there.

The resort here at Urulu has really grown since we were here in the early 80's. It now has four hotels, a backpackers lodge, convention centre, shopping centre, service station and a pub which is licensed until 2am as we found out last night. With 1200 staff and heaven knows how many guest this is bigger than most towns in NT. We managed to fluke the weekend changeover for the school holidays with Vic/SA going back on Monday and NSW starting on Monday so this weekend is sort of quiet, but it must be a mad house in peak times.