Travel from Port Augusta up the dirt track to Oodnadatta and back again

We left Port Augusta to drive up the dirt track to Oodnadatta then onto Cooper Pedy and back, but we only made it to the ....Ruins. Then we heard a noise in the gear box and decided to go into Adelaide to find out what was wrong with it.

After consulting eight different auto transmission specialists, we were no wiser. No one could find anything wrong with it, so we decided to trade the 4.2 auto Nissan Patrol in on something else.

We settled for another Nissan. This time we bought a manual 2000 ST inter cooled 2.8 one. We were a bit worried that it wouldn't be powerful enough to tow our van, but luckily it is. In fact, we keep it in fourth gear most of the time and it still powers its way up hills without missing a beat. We are starting to wonder if it has had a chip put in it as other travellers with 3 litre ones, lack power for towing or so they tell us.

We took out extra 3 years insurance on this one just in case of future problems.

We then went around the York peninsular. No luck with our fishing for three days, then on the fourth we caught 6 squid. My husband cleaned them and put in our freezer. At last we had a little reward for all our outlay on the new fishing gear. The next day we caught another squid and I caught a big cuttlefish, gee they are ugly but good eating so I have been told.

Fishing went bad from then on as there was an algae problem down the south of the peninsular. So gave up and decided to head up through the Flinders Rangers again and up to Hawker, Marree, William Creek right up to Oodnadatta.

This trip was approximately 800 k's on dirt roads. This tested the vehicle and our caravan. Even though the van is called an Outback and is built higher and has off road tyres it is not actually an off-road van.

I have to say it took the rough roads in its stride. At one stage my husband asked me to hop in the van for 100 or so metres just to see how much it bounced about. It was rough and even the mattress bounced up on its base. My boobs did a bit of a bounce over the bumps too, and I was so glad I had little boobs I reckon it would have been painful otherwise.

We decided to have a beer in the only pub at Oodnadatta, luckily we only had two beers each as that little stopover cost us $25. We couldn't afford many at those prices, so it was back to the van to drink our home brew. Oh, did I mention that we brought our home brew kit with us; yes we have already put down two brews, so far as we finished the stock brought from home.

We continued on up to the painted dessert, which was great, although the next morning we left and the next 45 k's took us three hours to cover as it was so corrugated, and we did not want to risk damaging our van. We then drove on into Coober Pedy the Opal mining town. Couldn't afford to buy any opals though.

Returned to Pt Augusta the next day after looking in a couple of mines.

Travel tip: If you lose your little sink plug for your caravan, like I did, then try using a wine cork. The one with the plastic top on it. They work great and don't cost you anything,