Beautiful sunset over Andamooka that evening. Had another surreptitious coffee the next morning before bidding a reluctant farewell to Andamooka.

As we headed back towards the Stuart Highway the first port of call was Roxby Downs, the town that belonged to the Olympic Dam mine. The company had built this town for its workers, and it was well built, clean, with all the services you could ever need. But apart from that there was not much to it, and not much to see or do. Apparently they do a mine tour, but at this time the mine is closed for maintenance, so it wasn't running.

So we spent a short time topping up supplies and making use of the free wi fi at the library, before moving on. Next stop was Woomera. We had stopped here briefly on the way up, but had not seen much. It was a very different town to Roxby Downs, an army town. Houses were basic and all the same. Streets were dusty and rough.

It was almost lunchtime, so we tried to find a nice park to sit and eat - none existed. But as we were looking, we came across a large emu with several chicks walking around the middle of town.

The Woomera Museum explained all about the history of the area. It had started as a joint venture with the British just after the war to develop missiles and anti-missile capabilities. They had been devastated by the German intercontinental missiles and the only way they had been able to stop them was to take out the launching sites in Norway. So work continued on missile research and guidance systems etc for a while, but when this was no longer needed, they used some of the developments to help is space research, which became the flavour of the month in the 60s and 70s. Later on when this was also no longer needed, it became an army base, then infamously also spent a short time being a refugee detention centre in the 90s. Many changes over the years.

From there we headed on to our rest stop for the night - Lake Hart. We had seen a few salt flats along the way, but they were all quite small and muddy. Lake Hart was a proper salt lake - large, flat and so white. There was a great rest stop there with many travellers either set up, or passing through. A path led right down to the edge of the lake, but there we were met with a large sign saying 'Prohibited area, military use.' We heard they occasionally let off bombs on the lake, so after a short photo opportunity, we headed back.

However later that day and evening many other travellers came and walked out over the lake, so the next morning we got up the nerve to try it ourselves. It was glorious. And no bombs.

The rest of the day was highway driving on towards Coober Pedy. The land was flat and desolate, with red dirt and grey green tussocks as far as the eye could see. These areas were also cattle stations, and we wondered what the poor cattle could find to eat. But we did see a few cows this morning, and a small herd of sheep. No more emus though.

We pulled into Coober Pedy by lunch time and settled for the day. Impressions of Coober Pedy next time.

GeorgeY's bit

Roxby Downs is a neat little town. A very well-appointed centre connecting the Tourist info centre, through to the museum, then the library and café, and next to an outside water park and playground. Across the road is the shopping centre. Some say it is a smaller version of Laurimar Village with has as much or even more class.

As a town Woomera had a checkered history both on purpose and on funding. Glorious moments and successes flashed past and now it is left dry. Not a blade of green grass to be seen in the public park with picnic area, nothing we checked again, nothing still.

Best view of Woomera is in the rear view mirror of a speeding vehicle. Unfortunately the motor home is low on acceleration.