Heather's family in South Australia were having a family function for Heather's parents and wanted our presence, sounds like a good excuse for another adventure. We decided we would go in the Pajero 4WD and pretty much drive straight to the function over the Nullarbor with few stops, as we had covered this before, but then come back slowly through central Australia, taking in Uluru (Ayres Rock).

So we headed off for Kalgoorlie for our first nights stop via Bullfinch. Bullfinch is a gold mining town with mixed fortunes, it started as a boom town but when the price of gold waned the town almost collapsed. When we visited this trip the town was having a quite resurgence and according to the sign pictured had a population of 51 plus Lenny. We were somewhat amused by this as our brother in law Lenny lives in Bullfinch. We reached Kalgoorlie early evening and visited some acquaintances, but no bed was offered, so we camped in the Pajero.

Next day we were up and off early determined to put a lot of distance under the belt. Not to be. We only got half way to Norseman when the Pajero badly overheated, Avan pulled the bonnet and had a good poke around but nothing presented itself as a problem. Eventually decided by leaving the cap off, watching the speed and topping up frequently we could progress. We limped into Norseman somewhat later than planned, straight to the garage. The mechanic had a good look, but also could find nought. We filled her up took a quick drive to heat it up and back to the garage. Success the mechanic located a small split in a heater hose up under the dash. Given he didn't have a spare, and we were a bit desperate, he fashioned a part out of some straight hose, with instructions that it won't last, get the proper part next stop. Great, we were off, only to find it was nightfall, and following Nullarbor rains there were literally thousands of roos on the road. We spent several hours playing roo dodgem but eventually realized even the road trains had stopped, so we called it a night and camped in a Quarry at Madura.

OK, day three, drive and drive. We did, arriving in Kimba South Australia, we set up camp at a ablution block on the edge of town. Kimba is the town of the big Galah . Unfortunately all the real galahs seemed to be also wanting to camp with us. The screeching in the trees was bordering on being a bit much. Then a van pulled in and the occupants wanted to play friend of the week, normally this would be OK but we were extremely tired and they wouldn't take the hint, so we packed up moved on about another 50km, finding a small reserve and set up for some peace and solitude. 

Next day was a comfortable cruise into Adelaide, making it in time for the family function.