Wednesday 25th February 2015 – Lake Gairdner to Stuart Highway

Fine Clear Sunny – warm most of the day until we reached the Stuart Highway around lunch time, it then seemed to be hotter.  We travelled 391 kms today. 

We left camp early and we had several proposed spots to camp – none were suitable, so we have our own camp now.  Down a track off the Stuart Highway about 120 kms north of Port Augusta.

 We travelled a km or so down the track and turned off and have a hidden  shady spot.  There are a lot of free camps along the road, but right next to the highway and they have no shade at all.

Check out the brakes!

We didn’t get far this morning before stopping.  As we left Yardea Station and entered Moonaree Station, this old wagon was at the grid entrance.

As you enter properties there is generally a sign and grid –  the brakes are a big hunk of wood.  This whole section had eyelet hooks which would have been had wire through to the front to activate the braking system.

Our road today was as smooth as the M1.

We travelled through a wide range of country side as well.  At some stages it looked just like Sturt’s Stony Desert, we had cream sand as well as the red sand.


More salt lakes – this is Lake Everhard.  We also passed Lake Harris and saw more of Lake Gairdiner.  We saw Lake Gairdiner from all sides.  It is one of the largest salt lakes in Australia.








At Kingoonya we crossed the Trans Australia Railway line – the line between Perth and Adelaide.  It was lucky that we took the opportunity for Glen to play chicken as even though we crossed the line a few more times today, they were not level crossings.



We turned east towards Glendambo and the Stuart Highway.


We bypassed camp 1 – Lake Hart Lookout and kept heading south to Pimba which is on the Stuart Highway and Woomera is 7 kms east.

We bypassed camp 2 – at Pimba and headed into Woomera.

There is a nice display of several rockets.

The information centre and history centre is open 7 days BUT – we close early in summer – again another little town that takes you hours to get there and they close the information centre just after lunch….  We bypassed camp 3 – Woomera Caravan Park.














I think we saw three people in the town.  It is military built and looks it – everything is just practical – add some snow and you could be in Russia.  At its’ height in the sixties it would have been a hive of activity and a thriving place, but now it has slowly died.

A quick tour of Woomera for you

Even though we only did a short distance travelling south on the Stuart Highway, it certainly was scenic and a nice road.