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Struggling to put up photos from my lap top, but here is Coobey Pedy, mining town.

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Thanks for the updates Tim. Living the dream, as they say.
Pity you weren't there while Karl made the call to the Club meeting last night. It was great to hear first hand what's been happening, and that the Chev is running like a dream. Most of us were quite envious of your adventures.

Cheers,
David
 
Whats a great trip, Dad and his mate just come back from almost the exact same trip, although they were in a Subaru outback, not travelling in style like you guys.

Will have to some and introduce myself when I see that wagon and some of the Rod events around.

Safe Travels
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
Post by mobile phone as my Telstra 4G connection has let me down, hopefully l can log in to the net later. We made it to Darwin, 4,000 km since Sunday up the centre of Australia. Just washed the wagon and heading out for dinner. I will try getting some photos up soon
 
Discussion starter · #24 · (Edited)
Finally managed to get a connection. Here are a few shots of landmarks we have seen in the last couple of days.
Met plenty of interesting people on the road, with local and international travellers all making for many of the same road houses to fuel up.

Devils Marbles

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Heading North

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Northern Territory border

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Daly Waters Hotel

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Daly Waters was home to a WW2 air base used by Australian and US air forces so we went for a walk around the old run ways and hanger.
passed three other former war time air strips coming into Darwin.

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Discussion starter · #27 ·
We reached Darwin on Thursday evening and booked into a caravan park until Sunday. In Melbourne its a chilly 11 degrees, but mid winter Darwin its shorts weather and 25 plus.

Spent Friday at the Darwin war museum which incorporates WW2 gun emplacements and contains many relics and history of the Japanese bombing of Darwin. Bombing went on over a period of two years from February 1942.
In a strange twist the salvage rights to sunken ships in Darwin Harbour was later granted to a Japanese company. The giant guns defending the harbour were also sold to the Japanese for scrap.

Gun emplacement

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We also went to the Darwin air museum which tells the history of aviation in the Northern Territory, including the defence of Darwin from bush air strips.
The museum contains wreckage of some of the nine Kittyhawks shot down in the first raid along with the wreckage of Zeros and other destroyed aircraft.
Most spectacular is a giant B52 Stratofortress, simply too big to photograph properly.

B25 Mitchell Bomber

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Discussion starter · #32 ·
Spent another day doing the tourist thing in Darwin. Went to the museum and crocodile display. Salt water crocs are common in the Northern Territory, their numbers having exploded since the end of hunting in 1971.

A mature salt water croc is seriously big, about 6.0 metres and 800kg, although they are not very co-operative with efforts to weigh them.

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The 57 at rest in the shade.

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Heading back towards Melbourne tomorrow via Ayres Rock or Ularu. I'm going to miss this warm weather!!
 
Seeing that, now I understand how they could take a fisherman off his boat, and not much would ever be found........yikes. Glad thay don't live around me.

Mikey
 
Discussion starter · #36 · (Edited)
Retracing our steps south again towards Melbourne. Spent last night at Dunmurra Road House after driving all day from Darwin. Road houses are dotted along the Sturt Highway every 300km or so and are home to some great characters and are an opportunity to meet fellow travellers.
Chatted with a couple of road train drivers last night. Road trains consist of a prime mover and up to four trailers and can be upto 53 metres long. These are the main source of supplies into Darwin.

Barrow Springs Road House
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Dunmurra Road House
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De-restricted speed limit for a stretch of about 200km out of Alice Springs.
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Heading to Ayres Rock tomorrow.
 
Discussion starter · #39 ·
Back home, its dark, cold and wet; but l'm getting ahead of myself.
For much of the last few days we have been unable to get mobile phone and internet connection as we moved away from larger population centres.
We drove from Alice Springs out to Ayres Rock on Tuesday which is a journey of about 470km. The trip was well worth the effort as the rock has a presence and majesty that photos cannot fully convey.

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Aboriginal rock painting
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We spent a few hours walking around the base following various tracks before heading off to our stop over at Curtain Springs. Curtain Springs is another characterful road house, pub and camping ground accommodating travelers to the rock.

Curtain Springs
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On Wednesday morning we made a start towards home and covered 1,250 km in the day finishing at Port Agusta about 7:45 pm. Another full day on the road with 1,050 km covered back to Melbourne. The warm weather was well and truly behind us as we drove into rain storms while crossing South Australia.

Goodbye sunny weather!
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It was a fantastic trip covering almost 8,700 km in eleven days. The 57 didn't miss a beat the whole way traveling at 100-130 kmh for hours on end interrupted only by fuel stops. We saw plenty of interesting sights and wildlife including dingos, emus, kangaroos and camels. Met some great people from across the world and local characters along the way. Thanks Karl for the journey.
 
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