Saturday 8th June, 8.20am, 10' 113055, clear skies - HERE WE GO, HERE WE GO, HERE WE GO!!!!!

We had a lovely 2 days in Port Augusta, me catching up on the washing and my blog and Glenn catching up on his emails and finances. My washing was like watching paint dry as there was no breeze although I had the sun on my side; Chris had none so eventually she had to move her washing around to my line. Fuel wasn't too bad either, 145.9, $129.76 and 88.94L.

After our fish and chips on the foreshore we came back for our usual fix of Game of Thrones managed 2 episodes before bed at 9.30pm.

I wasn't feeling crash hot when we got up on Saturday morning. The blocked ear that I had had on and off for a couple of weeks was back and I felt like it is now affecting my sinus's. I have had a dull headache for a couple of days.

The countryside that we have been passing is more like what I expected the Nullarbor to look like, flat, dry and desert like. We have been following the water pipe and train line for miles, I am hoping we might see the Ghan. No such luck but as we pulled into Pimba about 10.25am to cross over the railway line to head up to Woomera we were held up briefly by a very long goods train, luckily we arrived at the crossing just as the last couple of cars were passing through. It's now 15' outside.

Woomera was fascinating. It's a working Military Base first set up by the British Army after the 2nd Word War to trial and test artillery hardware. We had a walk around the outside static rocket displays, one pile of twisted metal intrigued Glenn, so much so his comment was, "luck it all landed here in the same place as the other stuff!?" He was joking, I think! We then headed into the old museum for a look around. The aboriginal lady behind the counter was a wealth of information telling us the British were at Woomera at present, the French were due in a month and the Americans just after them. She was looking forward to the Americans coming back again because they "liven" the place up.

Chris was pretty sure there was another museum somewhere else that they had been into that was more comprehensive and modern. Off she sent in search and found what she was looking for at the Information Centre. There was a bank, bowling alley, souvenir shop and café. We got another hat pin and an Explorers Map to hang in the caravan and paid to go into the Audio/Visual display. When we came back out we realised that we had spent 2 ½ hours soaking up all the history of Woomera. On leaving we called into "Spuds" a local identify known for his hot chips. We all agreed that we didn't need lunch after such a generous serve for $5.50.

Off again 19' outside the warmest it's been and you get the feeling you are travelling up hill, the elevation has just tipped 201. At 2.20pm we pulled up at Lake Hart for a cold drink to wash our chips down. This could have been a possible stop over as there was a drop toilet but the flies were bad. So it was decided that at 3.30pm we would pull up at the next closest rest stop. That was Mulga West Rest Area, 3.40pm. We set ourselves up in an L shape, lit the fire and settled back with wine and nibbles before dinner. The night was still and pleasant and we had our BBQ dinner outside. I decided to do a Chocolate Croissant dessert which we had while watch, you guessed it, another episode of G of Th.

Sunday 9th June, managed to get away at 7.50am, 10', slightly overcast, 113375. I read up on Coober Pedy and we called into Bon Bon at 8.40am for a quick stop.

The scenery is still pretty barren even though we have passed small pockets of sheep and cows and even some patches of water from recent rain. I managed to even get photo of an Eagle in flight as we approached slowly to get a shot at it feeding on some road kill.

In the revision mirror Glenn noticed a couple of semi's bearing down on us. He nearly drove off the road when the first one past us, it was the FPR trailer for Frosty and Davo from the V8's who are in Darwin next weekend. I couldn't get the camera out fast enough so CB'd ahead for Chris to snap for me. The Bottlo semi passed us too and I managed to get a photo of them. A couple of minutes later up behind us came the Wilson Security Semi.

Arrived in Coober Pedy at 10.45am. Booked into the Opal Inn Caravan Park, and then went for a quick drive around town. The boys wanted to check out the price of fuel and low and behold, there was another two trailers, HRT and Super Cheap were in the Shell Servo. More photo's, Glenn was as happy as, it had made his day.

We came back for lunch and then set off again. Being Sunday and a long weekend the town was pretty quiet. We popped into the Anglican Church (The Catacombs) set into the hill and took some photos, it was lovely. The Catholic Church, St Peter and St Paul, was just as impressive with a stain glass window as well. We had missed mass but the little blackboard outside advertised a service at 9.00am Monday morning so we decided to go then. Also drove out to a place Chris and Roger went to last time, Crocodile Harry's. Harry had been a crocodile hunter for about 15yrs in his younger days and then tried his hand at opal mining. He was an eccentric character, passing away in late 2006, just after Chris and Roger were out at his property. We found his grave when we wondered through the cemetery before heading back to camp.

Lit the fire again and had a Chicken and Cashew Stirfry for dinner. My headache was catching up with me so I was tired and a bit grumpy (according to Glenn), still managed another episode and then into bed at 10pm. Glenn got a text from Phil asking if we were still awake so Glenn gave him a call. They yakked for about 20minutes.

Glenn and I got up at 8am, had breakfast and headed into church. There were a few young Pilipino people getting out of a car when we pulled up and they headed into the church too. Turns out they were only there for photo taking and that left just Glenn, me and the priest, Father Paul Burke. I have never been to my own private mass, so it was very special. The Fr. Paul asked where we were from and was blown away; he was a good friend of Father John's from our Ballajura Parish. They went through the seminary together.

Called into the IGA and collected a bit of shopping and then back to the caravan park for a cuppa before heading out at 10.30am for a tour at the "Old Timers Mine", dating back to 1916. We had to don hard hats for this tour as it was a real mine museum. The tour included a real mine with static displays, an underground house and opal jewellery for sale. This was another fascinating experience and when we surfaced it was 12.30pm. Glenn bought himself an opal chip hat pin and then we headed back for lunch at 1.10pm, before checking out some more opal shops in the afternoon. I eventually settled on a nice little pendant that only cost me $70 from Umoona Opal Mine and Museum. I could have spent a lot more but was very happy with my selection.

Chris is cooking a lamb roast tonight with Apple Cumble and Ice Cream and tomorrow we are down to do a 4 hour guided tour. Will need to top up a fuel and water before heading off to Uluru, on Wednesday morning.

Bye for now, Virginia and Glenn