Wednesday 1^st July

Driving from the caravan park across the bridge to Mildura is where you enter Victoria

Left Mildura about 1pm heading to Burra an historic copper mining town to the north east of Adelaide. Again being a passenger due to this old aged knee, was a not such an interesting time. Again the roads are long and straight and the countryside is flat with some areas of cultivation but mostly not.

Driving along one side of the road is cultivated with a lucerne type grass and the other is a la natural

The guys on the land out here really do live an isolated existence. Mez even commented at one stage to say ‘If I lived out here I would end up in a lunatic(not politically correct) asylum’.

Today was a shorter travel day only approx. 350Km.

On the road to Burra on the Goyer Highway. A secondary highway.

Arriving at Burra Caravan and Camping Park at about 5pm. We have stepped into a new time zone and are half an hour behind Sydney.

Had our first home cooked meal tonight on the camp kitchen. Fish and veges just lovely. We haven’t been able to buy supplies as we have had to cross boarders and they are very strict. On our way to Burra form Victoria to South Australia everyone is stopped and they come into your van and check out what fruit and veges you have and take all that are not allowed.

So being in South Australia for 5 nights is good so we can stock up. The prices of fresh fruit and veg here are ultra expensive being so isolated.

Thursday 2^nd July

We had a slow start to the day catching up on a bit of washing etc and had a late ‘cook up’ as my brothers would say for brekkie.

Not the healthiest brekkie going

Bit chilli but not as bad as the morning before being minus 4

Headed into Burra township on foot as I STILL can’t ride the bike, which is a real bummer as we wanted to do the 11k historic self tour of the area. Not feeling the best today have had a cold coming on for some days now. At school, just before I left it was mentioned that they hoped I didn’t get sick after such a hectic end of term and end of full time teaching career. Think they may have jinxed me. Made an appointment at the local clinic, got drugs and hopefully they will kick in quick.

Every old town has a rotunda. And to the left is a memorial of the soldiers that lived in Burra and lost their lives in WW1

Looked around the small township. Not a lot happening in downtown Burra. A few antique shops, a wonderful book shop with thousands of books from every era and a few nic nak shops. Took a few pics of the town which is quiet pretty.

Got ourselves a bit cultured by checking out the town’s copper mining history at the old town hall.

This is all that is left of the once underground copper mine that was closed down then reopened into this open cut mine. Many moons ago this area was used as a swimming pool for the locals and they even held swimming events there. Now of course you can't use it just in case you scratch yourself on a bush on the way down!!!!!

 Had a wine (actually wanted to have lunch but the chef had finished early -1.45 as he wanted to go the tip - country time)at the Burra Hotel chatting to some colourful locals. It was interesting to chat to a local shearer- they get $2.85 per sheep and they do anywhere between 200 and 400 sheep per day depending on their expertise. He was at the pub having a few quiet ports because there had been a little rain today so shearing was off.  Then back to get sorted for the road trip again tomorrow.

Took a few selfies at the town's miniature harbour bridge

We are thinking of heading to Woomera to free camp that’s if the diesel heater is working as it has a mind of its own at the moment.

Keep you posted.

Friday 3^rd July

Up early and heading at this moment to Woomera but we may even push on to Glendambo so the next days trek to Coober Pedy isn’t as long. Following the GPS it is sending us directly west and then heading north along the Spencer Gulf to Port Augusta.

Can be a bit slow going when you get stuck on the country roads behind these monsters

Stopped into a sleepy town called Crystal Brook for a cuppa and some brekkie. The lady serving us suggested that Woomera had nothing much there now as the Military had pulled out many years ago. It was also interesting to hear that underneath the massive aircraft hangers there are 3 levels of military cars, jeeps, trucks, you name it anything that the military used they just left behind. She was saying it was like one day some said ‘ok lets go’ and they walked out.

Main street of Crystal Brook

Well we are heading north at last hopefully in the pursuit of warmer weather.

The road north at last to Pt Augusta

And wow the first sight of the Gulf and large expanse of water.

First sight of water

Another long day on the road again with vast expanses of nothingness. There were some interesting changes to the scenery occasionally along the way.

Just past Port Augusta there were mesa's doting the horizon for a little while.

Then there were grid signs which indicated stock grids across the road. Just on the other side of these were signs, like the one below, stating to be careful of livestock as the land was unfenced. The signs also indicated that the land belonged to a new station after some of the grids. We were a bit perplexed by this. Nothing else to be perplexed about??

We saw a few areas that were lagoons and it was evident that the dry season is upon us as they were very dry.

This is a magic shot of the dry lagoon, out of the passenger side window travelling along.

We have decided to push on to Glendambo about 250ks from Coober Pedy. Stopped for lunch at a spot called Spud's Roadhouse at a place called Pimba. Nothing there but you can stay the night in the carpark. It has food and a bar and looks like there would be a few wild nights there.
Have just arrived in Glendambo and are staying at the back of the pub that has powered and unpowered sites. Red dust everywhere. Nowhere here to free camp it is a bit isolated.
Since we arrived about half an hour ago the place is filling up.
Think I might make us a bourbon seeing it is nearly 5pm.
Keep you posted.