Coober Pedy to Quorn (near Port Augusta)

Thursday 29th September

We had a marvellous experience last night, visiting Josephine's Gallery and Kangaroo Orphanage. There was a lot of Aboriginal art, mostly the dot paintings, which I find interesting but Paul doesn't like. The main attraction though was the baby kangaroos, which were quite delightful. We couldn't see the 2 big kangaroos because they had had to be brought out of their outside enclosure and into the house to escape the dust storm. Apparently they were watching CSI on the TV! There was no room for 15 of us in the house, and the big kangaroos were not normally brought into the gallery, but the babies were smaller and probably not capable of damaging the gallery, so we saw them.

The kangaroos sleep with the dedicated couple who run the orphanage, the 3 babies actually in the bed and the 2 big kangaroos at the foot of the bed. The babies are kept in little pouches made by Jo,

and Terry buys dog carrying bags which have long handles to go over your shoulder, so the babies are easier to carry round. The kangaroos are all orphans, some found in the pouches of mothers killed on the road, some in the pouches of mothers killed by aboriginal hunters, and the latest one, Heidi, found wandering in town having lost her mother. They are released back to the wild if possible, or to a private kangaroo sanctuary. Quite a few homesteads are fully fenced, and the owners like to have red kangaroos on the property because they help to contain the indigenous plants and bushes by grazing them. A hand-raised kangaroo may not be able to survive in the wild and may be in danger from being hunted. Heidi is kangaroo number 71 to be raised by Jo and Terry, and we were delighted by seeing them bottle fed in their pouches,

and then being released to leap about the gallery. Alice, who was the littlest, soon wanted to go back into her pouch, but Heidi was so excited by all the new things she found, including delicious pot plants to nibble, that she bounced up and down, exploring everything and refusing to go back into her pouch.

A male older kangaroo came out too, but he was a bit big and might damage things, and didn't stay long.

This morning, we packed and left Coober Pedy, taking the opportunity to photograph the sign at the south entry to the town, which shows a typical mining machine.




Today was largely a day of driving. Out first real stop, for lunch, was at Glendambo, a sheep station, also a roadhouse and a caravan park; there is an outdoor kitchen as well, which we used for lunch. I have about nothing further to say about Glendambo that has not already been said very eloquently by the sign.





The next stop after that was Lake Hart, a salt lake. The Ghan passes close by, and we were able to take photographs as we crossed the rails - the Ghan only runs 3 times a week.




This gives some idea of the desolation of this area. We walked onto the surface of the lake, treading through progressively thicker layers of salt, but we never got to any water.




As we walked further out, the salt became progressively thicker. Where I walked, it was 3 or 4 inches thick, crunchy like snow and just as white.
Out on the lake are some wooden posts, the remains of a wooden structure that used to be a viewing platform, for viewing rocket launches from Woomera.



Woomera was our next stop, a strange ghost town of wide avenues and boulevards that originally had a population of several thousand, but now has only 400 inhabitants. It was a joint British/Australian centre for rocket and missile testing, though the Americans seem to have had a considerable part in it too.



It was created in 1947, and ceased to be so used in 1982. It is now just a mining town. There is an interesting outdoor museum with some of the aircraft, rockets and missiles, and Paul and I could easily have spent all day there. But it was a 30 minute stop, then we were off for Port Augusta and the sea.




The landscape was changing from semi-desert back to scrub and trees. We also started to see wild emus, to our great excitement - we've only seen captive ones before.

At Port Augusta, we were back at the sea, so we have travelled from coast to coast, right from the north to the south of Australia. We stay at Quorn tonight, about 30 km outside Port Augusta, where there is no wireless Internet and no Vodaphone service.

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