Hobbs' Outback Adventure

We've just arrived home from our Outback Adventure to Coober Pedy to visit friends.  What a brilliant way to use up those school holiday weeks!!! Usually the kids have 'cabin fever' because thay can't get outside & I'm going nuts (also because they can't get outside & my house is getting waaaay too messy).  It was terrible weather home here in Victoria - wind, rain.......So I was glad we missed it!

The children travelled really well.  I was expecting the worst. You know "are we there yet", "he keeps kicking my seat", "I'm hungry", "I need to go to the toilet", crying, fighting, etc, etc....There wasn't much of that which was a HUGE blessing!  No major disasters to report :) We did have the jockey wheel on the caravan bust off @ Coober Pedy (oops), Wayne did get pulled over by the police for speeding (double oops), and everyone managed to get grease off the tow ball on their clothes (a thousand oops' when you haven't got much clothing anyway).  Other than that everything went well.

I know what you're thinking re. Wayne speeding, which I must say NEVER happens.  How can a people mover towing a caravan possibly speed? Simple. South Australia has a very logical(not!) speed of 25kmh (believe it) in roadwork zones.  Wayne was going @ a big 36kmh when he was clocked.  Why was he going so fast?  Well he was slowing down, but the caravan was "pushing him". Yeah...whatever!  He told the police officer that.  Anyway he got off the hook when the officer saw he had 4 kids in the car "It's a wonder you weren't doing 100" he said.
Meanwhile in my hurry to get the whole thing on video I jammed my coat in the rear door of the car & couldn't open it. I felt like a bit of a gonzo, but anyway.....Wayne got it out for me :)

In the Outback between Port Augusta & Pimba

Hobb's children stopped for lunch.

We had such a great time catching up with our friends Prudie, Damien & their children.  We didn't even do any really 'touristy' stuff until the last day.  The boys went to 'Lego Club' on Sat morn while we took the girls looking around the shops & the craft market.  We went to Church with them on Sunday morn (underground).  It was such an experience to see local Aboriginal people leading the praise & worship & singing in their own language. Absolutely awesome!  The kids all had a fab time in the afternoon riding motorbikes -guess what's on the Christmas list :P

We went on a mine tour, checked out Prudie's friend's underground 'duggout', went 'noodling' for opal, went to the Art Gallery with pebbles on the floor, had a look @ 'The Big Winch' & just hung out together.

Coober Pedy is soooo unique!  I love the crazy, humorous signs everywhere, the amount of rubbish.......??? Normally I wouldn't find rusty junk everywhere cool, but it kind of suits there.  It's just very quaint in a very Aussie way.

Noodling for Opals

In the underground Catholic Church

In the Caravan park @ Coober Pedy one night, I saw a little girl in the toilets who looked familiar. I watched her walk out & checked the direction she was heading.  I hoped no one saw me because they would have thought I was some kind of weird stalker.  I thought I knew who she was & went back to our van to tell Wayne.  I then decided to go looking for her parents, who are friends of ours living in Ballarat.  Sure enough, I found their van in the dark & was chatting away to all the girls!!! Meanwhile, the dad had worked out who he thought his daughter had seen in the toilets & was looking for us!  When we went back to our van, there he was having a chat to Wayne.  So we all caught up with Dame & Prudie for tea the next night:)

I also saw 2 ladies on my travels who had bought mini mae knitwear patterns! Amazing! One even had her grandaughter with her wearing the Crochet Trim dress.  It looked great!!! No photos, but I have it on video. We were out for tea in Hahndorf for Wayne's birthday when we saw them.  It was a great tea (all you can eat - just perfect for a Hobbs boy!!) & Hahndorf was a lovely place to stay.

In Hahndorf