Over the Flinders Ranges
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| Flinders Ranges |
Woke to a hard frost and a beautiful sunrise. Days have been very chilly but today we will start to head north so we'll be warming up. We drove through the Flinders Ranges to Port Augusta and our first look at the sea for this trip. We won't see it again until we get to Darwin.
Port Augusta is a good size town so an excellent place to stock up on groceries before heading into the remote areas north. Whilst having coffee in a cafe outside Coles we bumped into some people we had camped next to two nights ago. We wasted about an hour having a chat but still got away in plenty of time to take the long road north and arrive at Woomera mid afternoon. The landscape on the way is very flat and arid though I think there is more vegetation than normal despite the fact there is no sign of water anywhere near the road.
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| Woomera |
Woomera is a curious place. The missile testing and space exploration work ended in the 1980's and since then the place has been effectively 'for hire' to countries wanting a very large open space to test their rocket equipment. The last work done was with Japan six years ago so the little town seems to have no purpose at present but the place is very tidy and well kept and most of the buildings look less than 20 years old. Woomera was established in 1947 as a joint British/ Australian venture and was busiest during the cold war. Woomera is the name of a spear throwing implement used by the local indigenous people, very appropriate.
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| Woomera camp bar |
We finished the evening in the camp bar chatting with the same people we had met earlier in the day. They are far more experienced than us and are heading off road with a special outback camping trailer for 10 days to get to Kalgoorlie.
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