Canning Stock Route 2004

Tuesday 7^th September.

Some light rain happened last night and it was over cast this morning, but it cleared to the usual bright, sunny day. We bought some dates at the date farm next door to G’Day Mate Caravan Park and then went to finish the souvenir shopping in Todd Mall. We all met for lunch at the botanic gardens (Olive Pink Gardens). Then we headed out south towards Rainbow Valley. The road in is now a very good wide road and we collected firewood before reaching the Conservation Park gate, at which point the road became a two wheel goat track. The area has been improved greatly since we were there last. There is now a boardwalk to the viewing area. We  walked  to Mushroom  Rock and Colin did a round trip behind the hills while the rest of us walked  back via the clay  pan. Everyone headed to the viewing area before sunset for photos .The colours of the rock formations were beautiful and we stayed and watched the changing colours until after dark. Two other vehicles were here tonight. Improvements included campfires with hotplate, two burner gas stoves with gas hotplates as well, near each campsite.

Wednesday 8th September.

  This was the first morning that there has been any dew. We travelled south today on the Stuart Highway and saw plenty of eagles, camels and wildflowers, including Sturt's desert pea. Morning tea was at Erldunda and then down the long straight road to Marla for lunch. It was cold and windy with some cloud. There were a couple of brief light showers in the afternoon. We decided to go to the Breakaways before going into Coober Pedy. The Breakaways are a quite spectacular area with a lot of interesting shapes and colours. Here you see part of the dog fence, which was once 9600 km long, but is now 5300 km. We and Colin and Ann shared a two bedroom apartment at Desert View. The apartments are underground, being bored out of the rock and this makes for a very dark night. There are several ventilation shafts and the temperature is comfortably warm, so no blankets are needed, even though is was quite chilly and very windy outside. We checked out the Big Winch and some of the places in town. Ann bought a lovely opal pendant. We were last out yet again and the shop shut as soon as we left.

Thursday 9^th September.

 The sky is clear and the weather cool today. The Piries left the convoy to head into Adelaide to visit family. Everyone packed up and left Coober Pedy to travel through a vast expanse of low scrubby growth with no trees along the Stuart Highway. It is along, very long straight stretch of road. However, there were dozens of Kea campers all heading north. They must have been going to some group gathering. We stopped at Lake Hart for a look and talked to two guys on bicycles who had ridden from Darwin and were heading for Adelaide!! Lunch stop was at Woomera in the park. Many buildings had been removed from the town and others boarded up since the Americans forces had left the base. It was then back to the Stuart Highway and on to Port Augusta and the Wadlata Outback Centre. Winninowie Conservation Park sounded like a good place to camp for the night so we headed there and stopped near Chinamans Creek. Between our campsite and the sand was a very thick layer of spongy seaweed, which felt rather strange to walk on. We decided to go for a walk along the sand and had magnificent views of Spencers Gulf and the ranges. Sunset was really lovely and we had another great campfire in the sand to complete the night.

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