Day 5 Port Augusta to Cooper Pedy
We all awoke with a start due to the people next door, setting off the fire alarm at 0645hrs.. arrghh is it so hard not to burn toast? Really. We all settled back to sleep when they started packing.. Bang bang bang with the door then it became a competition with them all to see who could bang the screen door the loudest. GRR
So I gave up as did David, and he finsihed his geosetting whilst I read emails. By the time I had had shower and gotten the sony laptop to do some work ( A struggle at the best of times) it was after 9am.. OOPS. We had 500km to travel today tomorrow being 783km...
On the road, the Stuart highway to Cooper Pedy and David saw a few lager lizards but they always vanished before we got to stop. Still no roos, but lots of dead ones. Least that is proof that they are around. Flooding still evident in the standing water by the highway and the side roads being closed. This is not a good sign for tomorrow.
We had the Painted Desert planned and the roads are most likely not going to be open. :-(
We got to Pimba where David turned off as he had always wanted to go to Woomera. Woomera has a lot of history, mostly war related as the British and the Australians tested rockets here in the 1940s-1970sn or so.. I don't have access to the internet atm... so checking will have to occur later. (if at all or my readers can comment corrections..)
It was around 40C and we all resorted to hats and for me (for ppl who know me) sunglasses. It burns!!! The missle park was pretty interesting as was the little history museum nearby. The main visitor's centre was less interesting and more expensive. I suppose it depends on what your interests are. (Of course) For me the old photographs taken from area6 were very interesting and live shots of missles taking off. I wonder how they got permisson to take them as a simple xmas card caused for security breaches in 1945 (ish) The boys seems to enjoy it and a few hours were spent in woomera. As a town, I like it. But then, I like military built towns.. neat tidy all the buildings the same.. heeheehee and large streets. No stupid wiggle streets too narrow to drive a car up.
I photographed some bees that were black and white striped but smae sized and the normal honey bee. Hmm. Pics when I get home and can sort them (Mind you, I am still doing the Great QLD trip of 2010...)
Onwards to Cooper Pedy, David did a double back for a train heading south but that was OK.... it was only 10km or so...
He did manage to stop in time for us to see a largish lizard, some sort of monitor, but it vanished as soon as my camera was raised to my face. :-( We hunted around but it was gone. Most likely into one of the holes. Bummer.
Cooper Pedy was as always a pile of heaped rock. You can see the opal fields long before you see the rather desolate town. It has been 7 years since D and I had been here with a tour, we were helping on the Ozback tour in 2004, and i was dismayed that this town, now a tourist centre was a shitty as ever. Stay classy..
Locals in the street drinking, police taking their cask bladders off them, then getting annoyed and getting another.. etc etc etc. Nothing has changed. Still not a town you walk down the street at night unless you are asking to be rolled. SIGH.. some places will never change. I still see Cooper Pedy as a necessary evil. There is just no where else to stay over night and pushing to Alice is just too far.
Went to the pub we had eaten at 7 years ago.. Yes it still served food.... and the miners ate there so it cant be all back.. Asked for a schooner and this is where it all went wrong... I got a middy. SO I complained I asked for a schooner.. a miner next to me said, as I did, thay I was given the wrong size. The bar man explained that a middy in SA was a Schooner, A Schooner (all over australia) was called a pint .. and before he continued the miner next to me told the bar man in no uncertain terms that a pint was much bigger and if he served him a schooner size for a pint then blood would be spilt. ... Give the lady a real schooner.. so I got 425ml of drink.. and got charged $4.70. For a coke?? I hate this town. Stunning countryside but geez the town is a shit hole.
Now I had to google this stupidity.
ALL OVER AUSTRALIA EXCEPT SOUTH AUSTRALIA 425ml is a schooner. A pint is 575-600ml this state is just wrong and it is a way of over charging people as they are getting less than they paid for.
fuck you publicans of South Australia its a fucking legal standard size fucking serve it.Dicks. This state is stupid.
The hostel is underground. As it is a hostel, the toilets are upstairs arrgghhh so of course it is a hike to get to them. The rooms here are underground in an old mine and thankfully the car is locked in a compound. It is a LOT cooler down here that on the surface which is why the locals live in dugouts but it means no internet or telephone.
:-( And no power points either. I am sitting in a corridor next to a romm filled with giggling gen Y girls.. I do hope that they go to bed. A lot of people are going to bed early due to the lack of anything else to do. Not being able to walk the town and no link to the outside world in your room leaves only two other activities.....
um
anyway
Tomorow is looking like a wash out. Tim tells me the roads we need to travel on tomorrow are all closed. I am
hoping against hope that the 9am inspections allow at least the painted Desert road to be open. PLEEEEEASSEEE!!!
keep your fingers clossed for me Y'all!!!
So I gave up as did David, and he finsihed his geosetting whilst I read emails. By the time I had had shower and gotten the sony laptop to do some work ( A struggle at the best of times) it was after 9am.. OOPS. We had 500km to travel today tomorrow being 783km...
On the road, the Stuart highway to Cooper Pedy and David saw a few lager lizards but they always vanished before we got to stop. Still no roos, but lots of dead ones. Least that is proof that they are around. Flooding still evident in the standing water by the highway and the side roads being closed. This is not a good sign for tomorrow.
We had the Painted Desert planned and the roads are most likely not going to be open. :-(
We got to Pimba where David turned off as he had always wanted to go to Woomera. Woomera has a lot of history, mostly war related as the British and the Australians tested rockets here in the 1940s-1970sn or so.. I don't have access to the internet atm... so checking will have to occur later. (if at all or my readers can comment corrections..)
It was around 40C and we all resorted to hats and for me (for ppl who know me) sunglasses. It burns!!! The missle park was pretty interesting as was the little history museum nearby. The main visitor's centre was less interesting and more expensive. I suppose it depends on what your interests are. (Of course) For me the old photographs taken from area6 were very interesting and live shots of missles taking off. I wonder how they got permisson to take them as a simple xmas card caused for security breaches in 1945 (ish) The boys seems to enjoy it and a few hours were spent in woomera. As a town, I like it. But then, I like military built towns.. neat tidy all the buildings the same.. heeheehee and large streets. No stupid wiggle streets too narrow to drive a car up.
I photographed some bees that were black and white striped but smae sized and the normal honey bee. Hmm. Pics when I get home and can sort them (Mind you, I am still doing the Great QLD trip of 2010...)
Onwards to Cooper Pedy, David did a double back for a train heading south but that was OK.... it was only 10km or so...
He did manage to stop in time for us to see a largish lizard, some sort of monitor, but it vanished as soon as my camera was raised to my face. :-( We hunted around but it was gone. Most likely into one of the holes. Bummer.
Cooper Pedy was as always a pile of heaped rock. You can see the opal fields long before you see the rather desolate town. It has been 7 years since D and I had been here with a tour, we were helping on the Ozback tour in 2004, and i was dismayed that this town, now a tourist centre was a shitty as ever. Stay classy..
Locals in the street drinking, police taking their cask bladders off them, then getting annoyed and getting another.. etc etc etc. Nothing has changed. Still not a town you walk down the street at night unless you are asking to be rolled. SIGH.. some places will never change. I still see Cooper Pedy as a necessary evil. There is just no where else to stay over night and pushing to Alice is just too far.
Went to the pub we had eaten at 7 years ago.. Yes it still served food.... and the miners ate there so it cant be all back.. Asked for a schooner and this is where it all went wrong... I got a middy. SO I complained I asked for a schooner.. a miner next to me said, as I did, thay I was given the wrong size. The bar man explained that a middy in SA was a Schooner, A Schooner (all over australia) was called a pint .. and before he continued the miner next to me told the bar man in no uncertain terms that a pint was much bigger and if he served him a schooner size for a pint then blood would be spilt. ... Give the lady a real schooner.. so I got 425ml of drink.. and got charged $4.70. For a coke?? I hate this town. Stunning countryside but geez the town is a shit hole.
Now I had to google this stupidity.
ALL OVER AUSTRALIA EXCEPT SOUTH AUSTRALIA 425ml is a schooner. A pint is 575-600ml this state is just wrong and it is a way of over charging people as they are getting less than they paid for.
fuck you publicans of South Australia its a fucking legal standard size fucking serve it.Dicks. This state is stupid.
The hostel is underground. As it is a hostel, the toilets are upstairs arrgghhh so of course it is a hike to get to them. The rooms here are underground in an old mine and thankfully the car is locked in a compound. It is a LOT cooler down here that on the surface which is why the locals live in dugouts but it means no internet or telephone.
:-( And no power points either. I am sitting in a corridor next to a romm filled with giggling gen Y girls.. I do hope that they go to bed. A lot of people are going to bed early due to the lack of anything else to do. Not being able to walk the town and no link to the outside world in your room leaves only two other activities.....
um
anyway
Tomorow is looking like a wash out. Tim tells me the roads we need to travel on tomorrow are all closed. I am
hoping against hope that the 9am inspections allow at least the painted Desert road to be open. PLEEEEEASSEEE!!!
keep your fingers clossed for me Y'all!!!
Good rant!
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