October 2008

The first week of the month I explored Adelaide on my own and took some golf lessons whilst Darren spent time with Katherine and Christopher in Rotorua.

We had another few days together in Adelaide, a city and it's surrounding area's which we really enjoyed.

Because we took the Ghan from Alice Springs to Adelaide we had missed out on Coober Pedy, so we went along the Stuart Highway returning to the Outback.

After an exciting few weeks we were very happy to leave the dry, dusty, but always captivating red center and headed towards the Eyre Peninsula. Where we feasted on all things ocean and fresh windy beaches.

Glenelg, a suburb of Adelaide with nice homes and a great marina.

Spring has arrived, The Adelaide Botanical gardens were glorious.

The Adelaide Hills with all it's wildflowers were not less impresive.

Adelaide by night, as seen from the look out on the Hill with a clear sky.

Welcome to Coober Pedy, we saw lots of these trucks dotted around the land scape, they are called blowers, they suck the gravel from the Opal mine shafts.

Our underground bedroom, no noise, no heat, but dark and the best of all NO flies.

Golf a la Outback, with dirt, rocks for a fairway and artificial grass for the tee and rubber for the green. Not for the "Club proud" golfers!!

Darren practising for our next trip which will be fossicking when we return to OZ.

5600Km of dog fence from Surfers Paradise in Queensland to Bight in Western Australian, to keep the dingoes in the North with the cattle and the sheep safe in the South.

The Breakaways, just North of Coober Pedy, a very old mountain range with high Aboriginal values.

Woomera, a governement town, with it's roots in early British weapons testing and space rocket programmes.

Sunset in Roxby Down, at the Arid Conservation Park.

Beetongs, a nocturnal desert marsupial as seen in the Arid Park at night.

Roxby Downs, a thriving mining town with this underground mine named Olympic Dam, with the main mineral being Copper.

Andamooka with a population of 498, a rough and ready Opal mining town, known for dark matrix Opal.

Patented Australian Lawnmowers, no petrol, no catcher, no pushing but....still lots of noise!

The roadtrain bringing cement to Olympic Dam, and taking copper back to the Adelaide wharf for export.

Half Way between East and West, in this huge country.

Polda Rock, a granite hill, that was used by the early settlers to collect water off and channel it to their reservoir, without this there would not have been any development on the Eyre peninsula as it has NO natural water sources.

One of the 31 weather stations of Australia, based in Ceduna, which are used to collect data for the world weather service.

Roos "for" breakfast

Soft sandy dunes surround the white sandy beaches of the Eyre Peninsula.

October 2008

Navigation