Coober Pedy to Port Augusta

We are starting our last five days of riding on the Stuart Highway and the Outback.

A few photos of the Opal fields around Coober Pedy as we headed south out of town.

We then entered the Woomera Test Range - the Stuart Highway passes through it but is subject to closures when they do rocket firings.

It was cloudy and cool from the start today with showers all around and a strong crosswind from the west. Late morning it rained, sometimes heavily, temperature as low as 12 degrees in the rain, a far cry from the 44 degree temperatures of two days ago.

The wind was even stronger in the afternoon. Thanks Helene for your tailwind wishes, but that was not to be.  It cleared by the end of the day. The sun was warm, but it still went down to single digits - - about 7 degrees - during the night. Another gorgeous sunset...

 

 

...and an equally lovely sunrise the next day...

 It was a slow day with a strong headwind almost all the way.

Part of the highway was marked as a landing strip for the Royal Flying Doctor Service which has a large operation throughout Australia.

We were carefully watched over by this photogenic hawk at lunch...

The next day was again a strong headwind which slowed us down but at least kept us cool.

Terrain varied from the scrubby stuff above to these elegant trees behind Ursula...

...and then salt flats...

Along the way there was a large flock of parrots feeding on the ground near the road.

We had lunch at a rest area overlooking Hart Lake and were encouraged to go down and ride our bikes on the lake... that was amazing, the flat surface, the brilliant white salt...

Overnight was in Woomera where there are great exhibits of various rockets that were tested there, all related to either British or Australian programs. I hadn't realized that they had launched a satellite into orbit from here in the early seventies.

...and there were even a couple of real airplanes that require pilots to fly them. The missile behind it is the one that launched the satellite.

Then another day of great headwind...

a family of emu in the early morning light leaving Woomera

sheep country down here



Australian Magpie

Dome from old NASA tracking station

After a month of almost flat desert, we're now getting some mild hills

Another bare campsite at a roadside rest area

We probably disturbed this poor bird whose nest was under the roof over the picnic tables...

 The views from here were great looking down towards the Spencer Gulf on the South Ocean

...and ever-changing tones as the sun went down...

Sunrise for a short (62 km) ride into Port Augusta and a day of rest...

After getting into camp, we went to the nearby Arid Lands Botaniocal Garden and found a number of birds taking advantage of the water that is there.

 Port Augusta