Fri, 21st June, 2024 RV Park at Old Timers Mine & Museum, Coober Pedy to Bush camp at SA-NT Border, SA (Anthony’s birthday)

Overcast, min of 12 degrees in the camper.

Our middle son’s birthday today - I still remember this birth and passing like it was yesterday not 33 years ago.

Packed up and headed out past the Big Miner opal shop for a photo of the big chap. The stone mason must have been busy back in the day.

Around to the dump point and water station. Huge queues of RVs waiting to buy some water. It was $1 for 40 litres in the van park.

Back to the Stuart Highway. The Anne Beadell Highway (another one of Len’s that he named after his wife) heads west from here. Will have to do it one day. This time though we are continuing northward.

More opal mines on both sides for a long way up the highway. 23km up we spotted a big open cut operation with huge mullock heaps.

Back to the open country with grass, shrubs and low trees and up and down rolling hills. 32km north, another big open cut mine. Amongst all this is a pastoral station. Across the grid and into Mt Willoughby Station. The sky is still grey clouds but you can see blue sky behind it - bit like the foggy morning we had before. A few spits of rain hit the windscreen as we come parallel to the Central Aust Railway line.

The sky is clearing ahead of us. Stopped for a cuppa at a rest area. Each one has had the same info but one different panel of info about the immediate area. We loved doing all this area.

Sad to see a wrecked Landcruiser then a cow about to explode on the other side of the road - it didn’t happen to long ago.

Topped up with diesel at Cadney Park Roadhouse ($2.31/L) as it just gets dearer along the highway until we get to Alice Springs where we can get it for just under $2.

Still driving beside the rail line. Across the grid into Wintinna Station. It’s a long stretch of road without too much to see but we do it with ease now with air conditioning etc compared to not so long ago when it was dirt and before that when it was horse and cart.

The clouds have thickened up again. Into Welbourne Hill Station. A least the signs give us something to read along the way.

Into Marla for lunch so that finishes the section of the Stuart Highway that we hadn’t driven before as we turned off here in 2018 to do the Oodnadatta Track etc.

Mintabie Opal Fields is off to the left as we head northward again but no signs about it as there is no public access onto the Aboriginal land which goes from here up to the NT border and west to the WA border. More blue sky appearing and a few dead vehicles along the side of the road.

Long low hill range to our left and flat topped hills here and there break up the grassy views.

Another big flat hill as we cross into Granite Downs Station.

More hills appearing in the distance then we cross the rail line - view looking south.

Into De Rose Hill Station - the same type of vegetation as all the others.

I checked the elevation on the Hema and we have been slowly climbing, now at 420m. We are going up to NT, haha.

Next station is Mt Cavanagh. No road kill or birds so far, just a few more trashed vehicles that had graffiti all over them.

A Nissan passed us then he called up on the UHF to have a chat about our set up.

Clearer sky as we reach the SA-NT Border at 427m elevation. Grabbed a photo of our new home at the border - last time we were just in ‘Pat’ the Patrol. Shame about the graffiti and all the stickers all over it. The other side says South Australia of course.

Pulled into the carpark - there are overnight parking bays further over that a few travellers have stopped in for the night. We had a cuppa and chatted with a couple who came in with a huge rig with a huge 5^th wheeler. I asked if he was a truck driver but he said no, just wanted a big set up and only stay on the bitumen. Shame there is so much of Australia to see where there is no bitumen. Got one foot in each state/territory.

We drove across the road to the bush camp area.

We stayed here last time. Spotted the couple we met at Kingoonya. This time we introduced ourselves - they are Pat and Joylene.

We set up a bit further over and realised we have driven back into SA. Someone had left a note in the dirt.

Still a cold breeze even with the sunny sky. Steve got the fire pit out and I worked on my blog for a while.

We had drinks by the fire. Pat came over for a chat but they had Starlink set up so they could watch their football game shortly so didn’t stay for too long.

The temperature dropped with the sun so inside for dinner and a movie. We still have heaps on our hard drive and a lot of TV series to work our way through too.