Coober Pedy Woomera Wilmington Broken Hill

The Friday evening tour to the Breakaways was very enjoyable.  It's always good to be taken somewhere by those who know the area.  We saw more of the amazing stark scenery around C P.

We left Coober Pedy on Saturday morning, having purchased a souvenir opal or two.  Nothing very dramatic unfortunately.  The scenery is stark, with a lot of the area no trees, but because of a good season of rain there is a ground coverage of many plants, some now in flower.  It's interesting though to see such areas and then a few minutes later we drove through areas with more mulga type trees (shrub size).  The scenery does change from time to time and is very interesting.  South Australia does have a lot of arid area.

We stopped at Lake Hart rest area/lookout and took photos and then walked down a track to the lake which did have water in it.  It is a salt lake, very salty, with crystals drying on the sand.  It was rather like walking down to the sea.  We did have to walk across the Trans Australia Railway line to get to the lake!!  I said to Roger as we walked across that we don't often (never actually) walk across a major railway line.  We had just walked across when there was a train hoot/whistle and there was a train rounding the corner.  It was a very long goods train with lots of containers.  It could have been bound for Perth, or at that stage Darwin.  That was close.

Standing at Lake Hart on the salt.  There was evidence that there had been some salt mining here in the past.

Some paper daisies near Lake Hart.  Typical of some of the flowers we've seen along the way.

The Trans Australian railway line.  The train should be in the background further along the edge of the lake on next picture.

We stayed the night at Womera.  The whole area around here is arid zone, no trees, but lots of ground cover plants, salt bush and other that have come because of recent rains.  The town has larger trees, no doubt planted in the 1950's when it was a rocket testing area, etc.  At present the town is used by the Defence Department, and was very quiet on Saturday afternoon.  We saw in the distance the now old  and out of use Detention Centre.  However we could not drive along that road, as there is a guarded gate.  This also leads to North Woomera where there is an airfield and other things?  The photo is  taken the next morning a little way south of Woomera, looking towards Island Lagoon, another salt lake.  We continued south to Port Augusta and enjoyed a picnic lunch beside the top of  Spencer Gulf which was just at the back of the town centre.  We continued on then, taking an extra loop to follow the Pichi Richi railway to Quorn.  There had been a steam train run that morning.  We however joined a tour of the sheds, which are maintained by a lot of enthusiastic volunteers.

The coffee Pot carriage, which includes first class, second class and engine all in one!

The paymasters car, which runs on rails, used to pay the station staff along the railway in the area.  A 1930's Morris body with a early Holden 6 cylinder engine with a Holden 3 speed gearbox.  This part of the rail was once the Ghan railway and also part of the Trans Australia line.

We are now in Broken Hill.  After the workshop tour we drove to the town of Wilmington and spent the night at Beautiful Valley Caravan Park.  It was wet most of the time.  We've spent today travelling on, with a Coffee and Cake stop at Peterborough, and lunch at a rest area just north of Yunta.