Alice Springs To Port PirieAuthor: jawapro
Date: Sun 27/01/2008 10:42 PM
Been a while since I last blogged – but there’s a reason for that. We’re now a day behind.
We started off from Mount Isa – where we had a nice camping spot in the shade. Unfortunately Klutz decided to wait until the shade had gone before getting up – so we packed up in the heat. I decided from now on I was going to wake him up earlier and pack up before it got so bad.
We didn’t have any milk we trusted (Klutz’s fridge wasn’t keeping things as cold as we liked) so we went shopping for some more milk (and I bought an esky bag and ice to keep things properly cold). So we stopped on the side of the road out of Alice Springs to eat our breakfast cereal – and drew strange looks from the locals.
After leaving Alice we settled into the long drive to Coober Pedy. It was a little later than expected due to the shopping trip, but we should have still made it to Coober Pedy.
Along the way we stopped at a Kulgera (no Lear Jets) where Klutz attempted to flirt with some German tourists and sent them all scurrying back to their bus and high tailing it out of there.
But then disaster struck.
Between Kulgera and Marla (the two road houses that pass for towns around here) we started going through a lot of fuel. We wouldn’t have made it – except we had the jerry can in the boot.
When we got to Marla we had a better look, and discovered two problems. First up, the radiator was leaking a little – but that was quickly fixed with a little stop-leak. It hadn’t causes a problem yet anyway.
The real problem was we were leaking fuel.
It only happened when the car was running – but it was a fair bit of petrol. That was why we were using it so fast on the last leg.
After a lot of phone calls to Klutz’s dad (who’s a mechanic) and talking with the Road House staff, we discovered that a mechanic would be there the following morning – and decided to camp the night.
I sent Klutz inside to find out the price of the caravan park – and he came back with the keys to a motel room – claiming there wasn’t a caravan park there.
So we moved into our motel room, with a great view of the non-existent caravan park out the back door. As much as I bagged Klutz out about not knowing there was a caravan park – it was very nice to use the air-con all night. 16 degrees is my sort of temperature!
The next day I woke Klutz up early and we were waiting for the Mechanic at 8 in the morning, as we’d been told that’s when he’d open. Turns out that on Saturdays he doesn’t open to 9 though – or slightly after. At least I’d gotten Klutz up earlier.
The mechanic was pretty useless though. He said he’d have to drop the tank out – and would need his hoist for that – but the hoist was already tied up and would be until Wednesday. But we could wait until the next day and get out car shipped to Adelaide on a truck that would be coming through.
My preference would be to find a tourist going our way and beg a tow to Coober Pedy where we’d find a better mechanic. It was only about 200ks away.
But Klutz talked to his Dad some more – and got some instructions. We had to find the inspection hatch for the petrol tank. First we pulled the boot apart.
But no petrol tank hatch in there. So we partially repacked the boot, found some shade, and pulled out everything in the back of the car – including the seats.
After more calls between Klutz and his dad (all via pay phone – no signal here) we found the hatch and opened it up – and one of the fuel lines was obviously cracked.
We bought some new fuel line (pipe) from the useless mechanic, and Klutz (with a little help from me) proceeded to replace the fuel line.
In far less than the four days the mechanic would take (we only took about 4 hours) we had the car fixed and put back together again.
Klutz was of course, very proud of himself for this. His Dad seemed pretty impressed over the phone too.
We travelled to Coober Pedy, where Klutz’s parents had agreed to put us up in a cabin for the night. We were now officially one day behind (we should have been here the previous night).
On the way to Coober Pedy, I took this photo especially for my sister Emma (aka LittleSis).
On our trip in 2000, we had visited the range of hills called the Breakaways – but by that evening Emma had forgotten all about them. This is just to prove that they do exist.
The above photo is of one of the trucks used in Opal mining in Coober Pedy. It’s the Opal mining capital of the country. Sorry Emma – I didn’t find any.
That evening we had some pizza from one restaurant after Klutz had decided the first restaurant was too Italian to make good pizzas (I worry about him sometimes), and took a look around the sights (most of which I’d seen in 2000).
First up – the Underground Church. Underground as in in the side of the hill. Think a man made cave. They hold services here every Sunday (Anglican I think).
This is the Shopping Trolley parked near the wreck of a crashed space-ship. Quite common-place in Coober Pedy, as lots of movies are filmed here.
The ship is from the movie Pitch Black.
Another early start was attempted today – but once again Klutz dragged his feet a bit. But at least we were away earlier.
We travelled from Coober Pedy to Port Augusta – and a little further.
Most of the day was just driving – but we did stop at Woomera for a look. Woomera was the home of the rocket testing range - so there were lots of rockets in a park. The museum was shut, and we didn’t want to spend too long there anyway.
That was me doing my Dr Strangelove impersonation.
Before long it was time to blast off.
We passed through Port Augusta – and I managed to convince Klutz to keep travelling for an extra hour or so – to Port Pirie. Klutz likes to leave late, and set up camp early. Not a good combination to make long distances.
Port Pirie seems nice – and is a lot cooler than previous places – and the flies are far less around here – but now we have mozzies to fight at night. Ah well….
We had a quick look at the map too – and I declared that the place Klutz mentioned as a possible overnight stop should be our lunch-stop. I think I’ve scared him a bit – and we’re going to try and put in a good day’s travelling tomorrow.
Stay tuned…
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