Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

19th July - "What is this Yellow Light?" Sibba asked me as she drove onwards from Wagga Wagga.. We have dilligently been alternating as drivers every 100km to reduce driver fatigue. I grabbed the trusty Cruiser owners manual and sure enough, the light signified "Low Oil". I was a bit perplexed as the Cruiser had just been serviced and it should be brimming with engine oil. Anyway, we stopped at the roadside and I checked the oil dip stick. It seemed to be fine. I added a bit of oil (I carry plenty of spares!) and on we went. The yellow light was now happy, or so we thought!

We left Woomera around 8am and pulled into Coober Pedy around lunch time. We had lunch and re-fueled at a Shell station in town. We then took a walk to see a bit of Coober Pedy. It's a weird place, almost like a frontier town out of a sci-fi movie. Alas, there is a space ship there from Star Wars. Don't know when it crash landed, but for sure it is real! Now we know the Star Wars saga is all true! It's a place where every shop corner sells Opals. Small, big, processed or raw, take your pick. Australia is the supplier of approximately 95% of all Opals in the world. So Coober Pedy is the center of Opal action!.

After Woomera we then stopped overnight in a pit stop called Cadney Station. We rented a very small cabin to stay in overnight. Just a bed and an electric heater. We had dinner at the Cadney pub during happy hour, when the beers were being discounted. We had a bottle of wine and a typical T-Bone steak, that was actually fine and then went to bed early. We left Cadney Station early and drove on.

We then pulled into the Kulgera Pub to have a cup of coffee. As it turns out the only coffee available was instant coffee, so we settled for a cup of tea, using our own Earl Gray tea bags. So we paid $5 for the hot water, go figure!.

The next stop was at Erldunda, just for some morning snacks. Erldunda is at the intersection of the Stuart Highway where most people turn off to go to Ayers Rock, The Olgas and Kings Canyon. The place was very busy. A big queue formed in front of the fuel pumps. The price of fuel, was just shy of $2 per liter of either petrol or diesel (Prices in Sydney are around $1.30!)

We arrived in Alice Springs around 2:30pm on Tuesday after about 2,700km drive from Sydney. It was sunny and just over 20 degrees. We found the place where we had booked our powered camping site and settled in. We then went for a short drive into town to shop some groceries in Woollies. I had decided to also grab a case of beer at the liquor store. When paying for the case of beer, i was required to show my drivers license. Initially I was flattered, but it turns out that here in the NT, you must produce an ID that is scanned every time you purchase grog. There is also a limit placed on how much grog you can buy. Anyway, we went back to our camping site and on the way the "Yellow Light" came on again. I felt there was something wrong, so the following day I decided to go and have it checked.
I was lucky enough to be able to get the car in for checking as most places here are heavily booked. It turned out that the rear oil seal on the engine had sprung a leak. This is quite common for this type of
vehicles. The seal costs around $80, but requires a lot of work to replace as the gear box has to come out to gain access to it. After some negotiations, the mechanic agreed to take the Cruiser on Friday and replace the seal. It's also possible that the clutch has to be replaced as well due to it being soaked in engine
oil. I'll find out on Friday arvo. It's lucky that this occured here in Alice Springs as it's easyly fixed. Having a Cruiser ment that all the parts needed for the job are readily available. The Cruiser is driveable, but this is something that has to be fixed before we leave Alice. The leak could get a lot worse in the middle of nowhere! Plus we don't want to be spilling oil wherever we go! We were due to leave on Friday, but have now extend our stay one more night so we plan to leave on Saturday instead. At least we are not in a hurry.

So today, Thursday we spent walking around the town centre and also over to the Botanic garden. There we hiked up a hill (Mayes Hill) and took a gander over town. Kylie was her usual self and had a tiff with a metal Emu. We also bought a book about Australian birds (NO not that kind!) It's a bird atlas as we like to know something about the bird life we see. We are not keen bird watchers, but do like to have a proper name (Other than, "Hey, we saw a bird!") for the birds we see. Australia has around 800 species, so there are plenty to see.

The weather in Alice Springs is pretty much the same every day, sunny and 20 degrees during the day and overnight it drops to around 0 degrees. Oddly enough there are no flies to be seen around. No ants to be seen either, so having lights on in the evening is fine. They don't attract anything at all.
Until next time, Simmi, Sibba and Kylie.