Happy 30th Birthday Renee!

The Flinders Ranges are so beautiful but we were distracted by our excitement of seeing the family!!  It was wonderful to see our Mums and kids and grandies. We spent a day with Paul, Bec and the kids at King Pin at Norwood where we played laser skirmish and could shoot them all!!  Steve, Bec, Naomi and Renee all cooked us wonderful meals and Jess made an amazing bread and butter pudding.  Renee had a fabulous 30th birthday, Masquerade Party where we caught up with other family.  We crammed so much into the nine days we were there. We have an awesome family and are very proud of them all.
Once back on our travels we headed North to get into better weather.  At first we thought we would go over to WA via the  Nullarbor but it was too cold so we will head west once we get to Dunmarra.  It will depend on the condition of the 400km dirt track.  If not, we will continue up to Katherine and turn left.  Even though we travelled this way 9 months ago, we are seeing things we didn't see before.  We stayed in Coober Pedy for two nights in a hosted bush camp so we could leave the van and drive to William Creek.  The round trip took 6 hours including lunch at the pub and the drive was so worth it.  The road was good and we stopped a few times to look at things and feel the silence of being in the desert.  Heaven!  We even found Opal!!
Now in Alice Springs - love this place!  We did so much last time we were here but today we visited the National Road Transport Hall of Fame and the Ghan Museum.

Back on the road again tomorrow!

Naomi and Renee with their Daddy

Steve, Paul, Bec, Peter and Jess

Owen and Jess

We are off to William Creek for lunch!

The start of the track across the desert

CooooWeeee!

Lots of old wrecks along the way (I'm talking about the truck)

William Creek signposts

Space junk that fell into the desert

The Pub at William Creek.  Population of the town - 6

Lunch time!

Back to Coober Pedy

The entrance to Anna Creek Station Homestead, the worlds largest cattle station.

It's roughly 6 million acres and has been owned by Sir Sidney Kidman 

and his descendants since 1899.  It is now FOR SALE!

Goodness knows how long this wreck has been there.  

We couldn't identify what type of car it was

People live in those holes over there.  

They probably open up into massive homes under ground.

I'm atop one of the many mullock heaps in Coober Pedy.

We found two opals in this dirt!

What a thrill to find an old Bowmans Bus at the National Road Transport Hall of Fame

in Alice Springs.  Note "Tea Tree Plaza" on the window!

This emu is made from truck parts!

The Dining Carriage on the old Ghan train circa 1941

The kitchen carriage - Note the old stoves

An old steam engine

Who remembers when trains looked like this?