Moores on the move

Had to pack up at Coober Pedy in the rain.  It is meant to be hot out in the desert isn’t it?  Cold and wet instead.
Full day in the car heading towards the rock.  Second free camp for the holiday.  Couldn’t get any better.  About a half dozen vans in a truckstop, fire and beer.  I am made to be on holidays.

It is a wierd spot Coober Pedy.  Reminded me of Tattooine, Luke Skywalker’s home planet.  Carolyn thought it looked like Total Recall.

This was Crocodile Harry’s place – where they filmed parts of Mad Max!

Anywhere 80% of people live in caves they have gotta be a bit eccentric, I guess.  Spent the day checking out underground churches and houses, some dug by hand.  One took 3 ladies 10 years!  Who likes opals that much to want to live out in the middle of nowhere in a cave?

We slept underground in the mine at Ribas underground camping.  Does that make us hobbits?  Better go shave my toes.

Goodbye normal everyday life, we are finally off on our trip.  Only 12 months late.  An early start, bed at 1 am up at 5 am to be on the road just after 6am!  What a beginning.  I’ll put up with being tired to finally get away on this trip.

Renmark was our destination on day one, before moving on about lunchtime.  Half hour out of Renmark and I had my first close encounter with an emu just wandering across the road.  I had to jump on the anchors to avoid cleaning him up, all with Carolyn yelling “EMU EMU EMU” in my left ear!

What a drama!

We had a few calls from people wanting to buy our Santa Fe  but we decided that we didn’t want to sell it, we wanted to keep it.

That was until we went to Porepunkah and had some minor dramas with it.  Nearest Hyundai dealership was 1 1/2 hours away.  It got me thinking what if we were in Kununurra?

So we were back in the market again.  Decisive aren’t we…. 

Anyway we re-advertised our Santa Fe and straight away a few calls and wow someone bought it.  Jeepers, we needed to find a new car and quick!

Welcome “The Beast” as Carolyn has named it.

Now we are ready for a real trip!

Six shorts weeks to go and heaps to do!  How are we going to get ourselves on the road if we can’t even decide what car we are going to take?

We decided last year to buy a Hyundai SantaFe for our trip/family car.  One of the reasons was because they are more accomplished off road than something like a Holden Captiva (that Carolyn had her heart set on).  After owning it for about a year (and me chipping away at her) we decided to upgrade to a “real 4WD” for our trip.  Even changed the itinerary to go the places our SantaFe might not have got us.  We then advertised our car for sale and waited…..nothing.

We then decided that taking our car is not such a bad idea and just as we get that sorted, the phone call.  Someone now wants to buy the SantaFe!

Oh what to do?  To sell or not to sell?  That is the question for this week.