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Just leaving Uluru and heading for Alice Springs. Will write a blog later as in a rush.

Coober Pedy is an opal-mining town. They originally mined for gold but found opals. Once they dug out the mines and removed all the opal, they converted the mines into accommodation. That’s why there are a lot of underground houses, motels and hotels here.

We haven’t had much of a look around, as we want to push on to Ayers Rock. We may stop on the way back and do a mine tour.

Here are some more long road limericks.

“There was a young lass from Coober Pedy
Who was a little bit needy
She lived underground
And also slept around
She was a little bit Seedy”

“There was a young lad from Coober Pedy
Who was a little bit greedy
He stole all the opals
Away from the locals
And moved in with the girl who was seedy”

Here’s another song we wrote on the drive to Coober Pedy.

Sung to the tune of “Its a long way to Tipperary”

Its a long way to Coober Pedy
Its a long way to drive
Its a long way to Coober Pedy
Where the opal town survives

They all live underground here
In their little holes
Its a long way to Coober Pedy
Where the locals live like moles.

Here’s our route so far. You will need to join the blue lines up as this is where the GPS went flat.

We were a bit late leaving Adelaide today due to a series of events probably within our control.

First of all we had to wait for the tent to dry as the rain had rudely arrived after 80 days of drought.

Then we did shopping.

Then we had noodles for lunch.

Then we went to Kathmandu to get wind up radio

Then I lost handbag

Then we found handbag still at noodle bar.

That wind up radio actually saved us a lot of money, as I might not have realised until we got to Port Augusta that it was missing. Lucky the shops were shut on the weekend.

We have made it as far as Port Augusta for the night. We were warned not to come here, as drunken native Australians are likely to mug us for our beer. But we really had no choice. The caravan park is surrounded by barbed wire. We’ll be sleeping in Dory tonight with the doors locked.

Then

Adelaide hasn’t had rain for 80 days, and the day we are due to pack up our tent it chucks it down. Typical! As well as the city shutting down for Easter, so has they sun.

Anyway we are heading for warmer pastures today, somewhere up the centre towards Ayres Rock. We’ll see how far we get.

Although Adelaide appeared to have gone away for Easter, it is a nice city really. It’s just that everything shut down over Easter and we couldn’t get our wind up radio from Kathmandu.

After our cycle ride into the city of no open shops, we took a drive to Glenelg to see the beach and found all the open shops and people. It’s a nice beach, but very touristy. It’s a bit like Surfers Paradise but on a smaller scale.

We cooked Tacos for dinner. Yum!

Easter probably wasn’t the best time to be in Adelaide, as everything in shut. (Except for bottle shops). It reminds me of NZ about 50 years ago when shops were shut on Sundays. A source has informed us, however, that Kathmandu is open today and the sale is still on! I think we will buy a wind up radio. Our next-door neighbours have one and it sounds pretty good.

Our neighbours (who happen to be Irish) have also informed us to stay on the bitumen roads where possible. They have a Landrover Discovery, which you would think would be pretty good off road, but they got two flat tyres and broke two jacks and got stranded in the outback for a week. I think they had the wrong type of tyres on. He also mentioned that the roads were so bad they could only do 50km/h in some places. Hmmm.

We arrived in Adelaide on Saturday and tried out the bikes on a nice ride along the Torres River and almost made it to the beach. We probably rode a good 30kms. My bike only has 6 gears so it is hard work riding up hills, and my seat keeps falling down, but other than that it is fine for $50.

Yesterday we met up with Mike’s uncle and cousins. They are a good laugh and it was fun meeting them. Mike hadn’t seen his uncle since he was about 15.

The plan for today is to cycle into Adelaide CBD and buy a wind up radio.

We were too late for the tour at the Naracoorte caves so we did a diversion to the Tantasomething caves instead. They were pretty. That staligmite in the corner looks a little like me.

The rest of the day was spent driving along some very straight and boring roads. We wrote another song, sung to the tune of 3 blind mice:

“Three white lines
Three white lines
Running down the road
Running down the road
The middle one has some gaps in it
The outside ones they don’t
And now there is forth-white line
So Four white lines”

Its gonna get worse I think.

It’s Good Friday today and everything is closed. We found a very full camping ground on the edge of a lake, which was a pleasant place to camp the night. We cooked Pasta with garlic, bacon and olive oil. It was yum.

We decided to spend a couple of days in the Grampians and do some hiking etc. As we entered the Grampians the temperature started getting lower and lower until it reached 10 degrees! Then it started raining. We went for a small walk to see Mackenzie’s falls, which was quite nice.

We abandoned the idea of staying in the Grampians for a few days and went in search of warmth and dry weather.

We ended up driving for the rest of the day. It was a bit boring so we wrote some poetry and a few songs to break the boredom.

Here are three versus of a song we wrote yesterday. Make up your own tune.

“We’re going on a trip trip trip
Around the coast to the tip tip tip
Where we’re going to see see see
Kangaroos in trees trees trees”

“The grass is dry dry dry
And the trees are high high high
The road is long long long
As we sing this song song song”

The sky is grey grey grey
As we head this way way way
Look there’s a kangaroo roo roo
And he’s having a poo poo poo”

I’m guessing these blogs are in trouble when we get to the really longer, straighter boringer roads.

We stayed at Naracoorte for the night and planned to do the caves in the morning.