Coober Pedy to Port Augusta

Coober Pedy to Port Augusta

Hey Everyone!

Back on the road again today for the second half of our road trip. Day six we accidently slept in and left an hour behind schedule because we forgot to set an alarm and there was no morning sun in our cave room. We got a glimpse of The Big Winch on our way out of town. No Aussie road trip is complete without seeing a "Big" something.



Back on the highway and heading south, we saw more lizards, eagles, emus and willy willy's (dusty whirlwinds). The terrain was mostly flat sparse salt bush and clumps of grass. We passed several dry salt lakes, they looked frozen until you wound down the window for a better photo and the 38 degree dry heat blasted you in the face.



We stopped for lunch in Woomera - a tiny town built for the missile testing area in the 1940s. There is an active Royal Australian Air Force base there too. Luke has been there a couple of times for work and gave us the grand tour. It didn't take very long.



A meat safe - people used to keep their meat in one of these, hung from a tree so the wild animals couldn't get it.
I prefer my fridge.
We saw a freight train on our way - the kids counted 98 carriages, but I'm not quite sure how accurate their counting was - more likely it tookk about 98 seconds to drive past at the croossing. I wonder if our furniture was on it?



We drove on to Port Augusta and officially made it from the North coastine of Australia to the South coastline. The kids had a play on the playground and got out some of their pent up energy while Luke and I sat under the gum trees watching the seagulls.




We went out for dinner to the Commonwealth Hotel for schnitzel night - honestly the best beef schnitzel I've ever had! The pub was in full Christmas spirit and decked their halls with boughs of holly and every other room with everything that glitters, flashes, sparkles or just shouts Christmas. I think I'll unpack my Christmas tree as soon as we move in.