To Broken Hill to find Pro Hart...and much much more in Silverton

 I led the way... (this is really just to prove that I do drive for those who think that Matt does all the driving...) from Port Pirie on.  We stopped at Peterborough for a cuppa and checked out the really cool info centre which is a really old train.  Would you love one of those in you backyard!

 Just another oversized thing...there seemed to be heaps of those on the road from Broken Hill to Adelaide...

 Beautiful old houses...I love looking at them and taking pics of them.

 WOW! Another border crossing...although it seemed to be a little quiet...suddenly we crossed. The more we cross, the more boring they become.

 At the border.  How old is this sign?

 Time for a rest.  Not far to Broken Hill, but time to stop for the night.

Finally, as soon as we have left South Australia, we see the emblem of their state!

First stop in Broken Hill was the Pro Hart Gallery.  How fantastic!  I absolutely loved it...I hope that the rest did (??)

The reward of a milkshake at the end was gooooood!

We decided to go out Silverton (25km out of Broken Hill) to stay.  Pop 50!  Our smallest town yet.  One place to stay - Penrose Park.  Pick your own spot wherever you want and only & $18 per night for us!  Brilliant!! Worth every bit.

Great plants for the desert in Silverton.

One of the galleries in town

Outside the John Huges Gallery there were these really cool painted cars (emus)

 ....Looking at you!

 This is covered in bottle tops

 One of the big attractions in Silverton is the Mad Max memorabilia...

 and the lookout to the Mundi Mundi plains where Mad Max, Priscilla, and heaps of commercials were filmed.

 There is the odd donkey around...

At the new (7 week old) Mad Max museum being run by the mad fan (in a great way) Adrian

 Adrian's car number plate..I think this says it all

 I found a sock knitter here, Jacquie, who inspired me to start knitting socks.  Life is not too short to knit socks.

This is the road to where the next Mad Max 4 will be filmed - put off until 2012 due to the landscape to GREEN!!!

 A bridge that was smashed down during recent flooding!

 The Umberumerka Dam - was empty at the start of the year - can you believe that!

 A little rumble over afternoon tea!

 Mundi Mundi

 The old Gaol - one of the best museums that I have been to

 The memorial at Silverton

 Our campsite

 campfires there...nice

Finally onto the Oodnadatta...and finding a magnificent camping spot

Slow start to the day in Coober Pedy, which turned out in our favour, the road to William Creek opened at 11.45am.  Hurrah!  Refuel, restock and the rest and we were on our way.

It was obvious as we went through the Dog Fence and the Woomera fence that someone had been on the road when they shouldn't have been - it was cut up pretty bad. 

There was a lot of water beside the road the whole way as well, and birds flying this way and that.  We had to remind ourselves that this was normally a desert!

After turning onto the Oodnadatta at William Creek, the road did get a little easier, we've certainly been on harder tracks.  We kept moving as we suddenly realised that in our rush to get out of Coober Pedy, neither of us had got cash out!  Free camping for the Dunleys from here to Maree! 

We pulled in at the Curdimurka Siding, having no idea as to what it would be like.  It was brilliant.  The boys had a great time playing imaginative games in and out of the buildings (where the welcome swallows were nesting) and we sheltered behind the corner of the building from the wind. 

A pair of brown falcons flew around, as well as the many galahs, cockatoos, orange chats and welcome swallows.  What a delight.

The flatness of the land provided the most brilliant of sunsets that I could capture.  What a delightful place.

A little bit of the mud that we picked up on the way...

and the wires from the trailer broke...again...

art along the way...from people with great imaginations

From here, we headed towards Lake Eyre.  We were not lucky enough to see actual water there, or in fact to get a picture. 

These were the only pics we got before the last of the batteries ran down...

When we got to Lake Eyre South, all photographic devices stopped working...and those who know me well enough will understand this...I curled up in the sand dune and cried.  Such a beautiful place, and no way of taking pictures.  Anyway what I can say is that it was incredible, soft sand dunes leading down to the salt lake.  The dune were covered in poached egg paper daisies and pig face and grasses.  It was all green, with yellow, pink and white flowers.  The plants were moving around in the wind and making sand patterns on the dunes. It was peaceful and quiet.

Whilst I was crying and feeling sorry for myself, Matt accosted the only other traveller we had seen that day, and asked if I could take some photos on his camera (it was way too flash to put my memory card in).  He was so kind to let me.  I am not sure if A) they turned out B) I will ever see those photos, however, it did stop me crying and it was terribly kind of him.

At Maree (I was still a little sulky about the no photo thing, but had managed to now delete enough photos off the phone to start taking some photos), we made the decision that as we had been travelling for a very long time (We left Darwin on 3 October and it was now 1 November with only a maximum of 2 nights stop anywhere) that we were travel weary.  Time to stop somewhere.

 Matt pointed the car to Parachilna Gorge at the top of the Flinders Ranges, and there we went.

time to rest