Day 127 - Thursday 4 May - Hello Central OZ

Day 127

Thursday

4 May 2017 

Coober Pedy – Marla -  Kulgera – Erldunda – Curtain Springs Homestead (Camps 8 NT#68 )

We woke to a wonderful clear blue sky and as Paul wanted early. We were up and at it by 7.30am. Some of the other caravaners were also up and readying for the next part of their journey.

Showers, breakfast and the van sorted, we were on the road by 8.30am. We stopped just short of the town so I could take some final pictures of the signs that are dotted around the opal mining areas. We drove into town one last time for fuel, mil and to fill up with water at the pay station and then we joined the Stuart Highway once again in our quest to drive north.

Not far out from Coober Pedy’s reaches we saw our first dingo. It had it’s breakfast in it’s mouth, but dropped it on hearing us approach.  There wasn’t much out here, as we have become used to over the last few days. After you pass the mining holds, the land is flat and spread out beyond you. We wondered at why the road needed bends and curves, as there were no obvious physical features needing to be driven around.

The endless landscape filtered by as the kilometres ticked over. We were hoping to do six hours of driving and around 600km. The only things we saw on a regular basis, other than the scrub, were wedge-tail eagles and car wrecks. Most appeared to have been driven there, broken down and left and then trashed.

We reached our first rest stop of Marla, the last major stop in South Australia, at 11.15am. We filled up with fuel again, before stretching our legs and having a snack, there were plenty of other travellers doing the same thing.  When we were done we continued our journey.

Large escarpments, in the distance, adorned the roads and had me enjoying the view. A large Eagle sat beside the road keeping watch over it’s prey, unlike the crow that scattered, on our arrival.

Just after 1pm we crossed the state line, moving into the Northern Territory. Completely unexpected was a change in the landscape and vegetation. Large boulders and rocky outcrops dominated the scene near and far and the vegetation seemed to have thickened up and was quite lush and green, particularly by the roadside, where it looked like it had been freshly mown. I guess recent rain had livened things up through here.

Shortly crossing over the border we passed through the border crossing with the boards heralding the new territory. We also drove by four Wedge tailed eagles standing by a roadside casualty. I tried to get a picture as we went past, but when moving at 100km an hour it was near on impossible.

With the crossing into the “Top End,” the road speed limit increased to 130, this didn’t affect us as we can’t go faster than 100km. With limited traffic on the road, it wasn’t affecting other motorists either. In fact the roads had been fairly subdued, we could almost believe we were the only ones out her traveling on this highway, except for the occasional car that did sneak up on us and leave us in it’s wake.

The first major centre as you drive the Stuart Highway into the NT is Kulgera, we had thought about stopping here for lunch, but as there was no BP and Paul was still happy driving we continued on a further 70km to Erldunda. We pulled in at the roadhouse and fuelled up and then parked. I went for a stroll around the forecourt and checked out the emu farm, saw two adult emus grazing, before returning to the van to make our lunch up. We ate heartily, I took some photos of our stop, noting it was christened the Centre of Australia by early explorer McDowell Stuart in 1891 and then turned off the Stuart Highway and on to the Lasseter Highway heading west towards Uluru.

Our destination was a cattle station “Curtain Springs,” about one hundred k’s short of Uluru and 160km west of Erldunda. 40 kilometres short of the station, a large rock loomed in the distance that had me scrambling for my camera. We then did a check and though it can’t be Uluru as it is 150km away. As it turned out it was actually Mount Conner.

At 4.15pm we pulled into the free camping ground at Curtain Springs, joining the others calling the place home for the night. We parked up among the few trees, took a deep breath and enjoyed the serenity.

I went off for a walk around the grounds, while Paul relaxed with a beer and his book. The small area open to the campers and passing trade was lush and green. I wandered trough the store, on to the undercover dining area, where the old homestead is now used as the kitchen. I checked out the many bird aviaries with a varied selection of native birds and then did a walk around the perimeter of the free camp area, stopping to talk to a couple who were also in a Birdsville, but theirs was much newer.  They offered to sell a park pass to me, as they were not going to use the final day.

I returned to Paul to talk over our plans for the next few days and then we went back to hang out with them and to buy the pass for $10. We were invited to check out their 2016 Birdsville model. It was very nice inside and has a couple of slide outs that make it much bigger on the inside. 

After enjoying Bruce and his wife’s hospitality and taking some photos of Mt Conner as the sun set, we returned to the van to have dinner and unwind after our big day of travel.  I did some research into things to do while here. Unfortunately we had no travel brochures, as there were no displays in Coober Pedy. It has really made me appreciate having the ones we have had and used so extensively up until now.  I feel like we will be running blind until we get to Alice Springs and hopefully pick up some things there.