The Really LONG Drive

We finally made it to Alice Springs.  It’s been a long week through a lot of desert.  We left Armidale on Monday morning, went to Dubbo, then, Broken  Hill, Port Augusta, Coober Pedy and finally here to Alice Springs. 

Basically we drove all day, saw a lot of desert,a few animals, a lot more desert and then finally arrived at our destination where we crashed for the night and then got up and did the same thing the next day. 

All the towns along the way have basically been stopping points for people traveling along the roads (which there aren’t that many).  I found myself looking around and asking why in the world would people live here.  I’m sure if we were to stay in them long enough we would discover what make them great. 

Here’s just a brief rundown of each town we stopped in:

Broken Hill is a mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales. The world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton, has roots in the town. It’s been called The Silver City, the Oasis of the West, and the Capital of the Outback.

We stayed in a place called the Outback Inn,  It was a hotel from the early days of the colony that is still in use today.  It was really nice, I just wish we had gotten there earlier so we could have enjoyed it more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving Broken Hill we crossed over to South Australia.  I’m sure if we went far enough south we’d see this lovely ocean scene, where we crossed it was all desert. 

 

 

Port Augusta is situated on the quiet waterways at the head of the Spencer Gulf, in close proximity to the spectacular Flinders Ranges.  It’s also home to a large coal operated power plant that produces 40% of South Australia’s power. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coober Pedy was a town that Matt thought was a lot like a reservation town – hot, dusty, dry.  When this town was being built the residents discovered that they could dig into the mountains to build their homes and this way they could escape from the never ending winds and sun.  It’s estimated that 50% of the population still live underground (it really isn’t underground but inside a mountain, more like a cave.)  Many of the city buildings and churches are also underground.

 

 

 

 

 

Another interesting thing about Coober Pedy is that it’s the world’s largest opal producer.  85% of the opals on the market come from here.  All around the town you see these big mounds where the opals have been mined.  It reminded us of the movie Holes because these mounds were literally everywhere you looked for miles and miles. 

All along the way we’d see these diesels that they call road trains.  They usually had three trailers.  I don’t know how companies can afford to pay for the gas.  At one point we stopped to fill up and the gas was $1.97 a liter which comes out to be $7.45 per gallon – completely insane!!

 

At every stop we had to spend several minutes cleaning of the hundreds of bugs that had died on the windshield.  That’s one thing the Outback doesn’t lack – millions of bugs!

 

We did finally make it though!  We’ll be in Alice Springs for about a week hoping the kids will be able to get caught up on their school work as well as rest up for the next week of long travel days as we make our way to Brisbane.