WOOMERA WONDERS

Reluctantly we hitched up the caravan and proceeded south from Coober Pedy, where we’d traveled north a few days ago. Because of the gale-force winds  which blow especially in spring, we have to keep abreast of the weather forecast – which predicts they’ll be really bad again next Monday.

Needing to be off the road then, we booked for three nights at Woomera Caravan Park, just up the road from Pimba where we free-camped going north. Another dry and dusty camp, but there’s nothing else in outback South Australia. That’s how it is. 

But there’s a ‘calm wind day’ on Sunday, so we set off to visit Roxby Downs. This place has never featured on my radar, as the rich mineral deposits weren't discovered until 1975 when I was living in New Zealand. What a lovely town for the miners to live in: good shopping centre, sports amenities and schools. Green grass and shady trees. We ate our morning tea at a picnic table in the shade, not far from the Information office.  The seagulls arrived to be fed – seagulls? What are they doing here? I suppose it’s only 250 kms from Port Augusta. Usually pigeons arrive.

Then ANDAMOOKA! Another opal field. I’d never been too sure of its’ exact location; great that we could visit it too. “That’s where Immo and I met”, Louise had commented on Facebook. So we did some detection work and discovered it was at the Tuckabox, when Immo was noodling for opal and Louise and her sister arrived to join their mother in Andamooka ...so I posted that pic on Facebook. They are generous supporters of Care Outreach, having a great affinity with situations beyond the coastal fringe of Australia. In 1988 they began their business, Opals Downunder, near Ettamogah Pub on the Sunshine Coast. My mother happened to buy an opal ring from them that year, when we all holidayed on the Coast, we coming over from New Zealand and Mum and Aunty Muriel flying up from Melbourne.

WOOMERA town was launched in 1947 when it became the headquarters for British testing of rockets and other scientific stuff. It’s a neat town, only been open to the public since 1982; prior to that the Defence Department were in charge. Many rockets and spaceships are on display in the town square, with interpretive boards. Some ‘junk’ is there too, having been recovered from the Simpson Desert. Did they really mean to shoot rockets in that direction?

Speaking of the Simpson Desert, on the way to Roxby Downs and Andamooka we passed through some red sand hills. Are these the precursor to the Desert dunes? Do they extend all the way to Birdsville, where the famous “Big Red” is situated? From the Birdsville side, we found ourselves atop ‘Big Red’ once – unintentionally!