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We took a detour to Kalgoorlie to see the Super Pit. We also did some shopping and stocked up on essentials such as food, booze and DVD’s. (well, there isnt much to do in the evenings when you’re on a budget!)

We decided not to stay in Kalgoorlie and drove back to Norseman for the night. We arrived late and couldn’t be bothered getting our cooker out, so we went out for dinner. I had garlic prawns and rice and Mike had chicken schnitzel. We chose a bottle of wine that seemed to have a strong hint of capsicum. As we both despise capsicums, this was a bad choice. We still drank it though.

Or was it stolen…

The quarantine man stopped us as the West Australian Border and took our cucumber, carrots and our beloved garlic. They are worse than Kangaroos. They probably take all the confiscated fruit and vegetables home and have a feast. I am sure this is their excuse for taking it as there are no supermarkets or shops out here in the middle of nowhere.

I’m glad we had the good sense to eat our watermelon before we got to the border. We had managed to illegally smuggle the garlic through 4 states already, so I suppose it was time to get caught.

As there were no shops and we had no vegetables we had garlic-less seafood pasta for dinner. It just wasn’t the same.

We drove the Nullarbor Plain. This is a 2000 km stretch of straight road with no trees. The name comes from the Latin “nullus arbor” meaning “NO TREE”.

Anyway, with 2000km of straight treeless roads not a lot happened. Mike drove, I read my book, I drove, Mike read his book.

By the time we mucked around in Port Augusta, getting groceries, beer, gas bottle filled etc, we didn’t get away until about 3pm. We had planned to get to Ceduna but we only made it as far as Kimba. Kimba’s claim to fame is it is halfway between Sydney and Perth.

We stayed at a roadside camping ground, which was pleasant enough. We cooked lamb chops with mashed potato and salad for dinner.

Kangaroos may look cute and cuddly but they’re not. They’re evil! They sneak into the car when you’re not looking and eat your watermelon, broccoli and fresh rolls. When I tried to shoo one off it growled at me. I was scared.

The next morning they came back and started eating cardboard and paper we had left on the fire to burn in the evening. Mike has sworn to eat kangaroo next time we eat out.

Anyway, apart from kangaroo terror (they are worse than flies), we had a nice camp spot in Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges.

We did a 2.5 hour walk in an effort to burn off some beer.

After the walk I half expected to see the kangaroos at our camp sitting in our chairs, drinking our beer. Luckily they didnt come back as Mike had threatened to run them down in Dory.

In the evening we cooked a red Thai vegetable curry and rice followed by toasted marshmallows on the fire for dessert. Delicious!

We were awoken at about 2am by helicopters flying around. My first thought was bush fires, but it was a just hiker got lost up in the ranges. They managed to rescue him in the morning.

We managed to get Dory in for a service today, so that is something less to worry about. We also got a load of overdue washing done at the campground.

Port Augusta is actually a nice town. We had been told to avoid it, but it may have been a dive once, but it certainly isn’t now. There is a nice harbour and a lot of development on the foreshore.

We stocked up on food and headed to the Flinders Ranges, about a 2.5 hour drive.

Here is the route so far and we’re not even half way!!!!

Heres a slideshow of some of the stuff we have seen in the red centre over the last week.

Red Centre

We thought the Ghan might be a nice way to travel back down to Adelaide and they had seats available for Dory and us, but only in 3rd class. I didn’t really fancy sitting for 24 hours so we decided against it. Gold Kangaroo class would be the only way to travel. You get a sleeping compartment and silver service dining, wine included, but these seats sell out months in advance.

Today was a driving day so we wrote a poem about the Ghan.

The Ghan is a train
That traverses this terrain
For 3000 K’s
It’s a very long way
The journey will begin
In a town called Darwin
There’s a butler and maid
All the way to Adelaide
They’ll serve you fine wine
In a carriage where you’ll dine
In two days you’ll arrive
All relaxed and revived
Unless you travel 3rd class
Then you’ll have a sore arse.

The drive was the usual. Seven hours of red dirt, scrub, road kill, giant eagles, and numerous fuel stops. Mike picked up Dory’s fuel cap that he left at a service station a week ago. It was a good chance for me to get up to date with the blogs, as I seem to have lost my book.

We stopped for the night at Cadney Homestead and camped in a car park at the back, right beside the railway line. We sat and drank beer and watched the Ghan go by about 8pm. We were glad we weren’t on it.

We awoke early to do a 7km, 3-4 hour walk of the Ormiston Pound. I got up and immediately was swamped by flies again. I did my spastic dance and jumped straight back into Dory in search of my head net.

We headed off on our walk at 8am and it was already 35 degrees. We walked for about 15 minutes and decided the Ormiston Pound walk was boring so we backtracked and did the 1.5-hour gorge walk instead. This was a lovely walk through towering red cliffs and down to a water hole surround by lush green vegetation. As hot as it was, the green weedy water hole couldn’t tempt me in.

After the walk we decided we were done with gorges and it was time to go to Alice Springs and spend some money.

Along the way we saw some black cockatoos, which are quite rare to see. Mike crossed them off his “wildlife to see” list.

I expected Alice Springs to be a larger version of Cooper Pedy (i.e. shithole) but was pleasantly surprised. We drove in past modern homes and arrived at a modern, clean town with lots of green vegetation. We stocked up on food and we finally got rid of John’s chairs that were falling apart and becoming quite dangerous.

We cooked up a feast of chicken curry with rice. We slept in the tent for the first time since Adelaide, as Dory has been way too hot the last few nights.