That’s Serious Road Kill

Port Augusta to Pimba and Woomera, South Australia.

We weren't too too impressed by Port Augusta, i think primarily because it was bigger than the standard towns we'd visited over the last two days and we didn't feel like figuring out where everything was. We've grown accustomed to towns where everything you need is within a 5 block square radius, we're spoiled by simplicity I guess.   We decided to hit welcome centre for maps and a quick chat with one of the people there about the highway conditions and things we should know (like where petrol is, and where the last water stop is etc).We  then  ventured another 170 km north along the Stewart Highway to a small town called Woomera.

The Stewart Highway is long and flat. And is the only sealed road up the middle of Australia. When we turned onto the highway, our GPS told us to drive 1250km then turn left. 1250 KMs to Alice Springs! Take a 8 km detour through the town and continue another 600km to our final destination. Along the way we saw several road trains (that have now doubled in size and have fixed roo bars on them). In Port Augusta we were told to be careful of animals on the highway (and the highway has caution signs in five different languages),  and i noticed an increase in cars with roo (also called bull) bars.....used for night driving in the outback. It was here that I saw my first road kill of the trip. A cow. Yes, a 300kg specimen of road kill........most likely hit by a transport truck.......serious road kill my friends.....

Woomera is a pretty neat place, established in 1947 as a joint project venture between Australia and the UK to test rockets and missiles. It was here that Australia's first satellite was developed, and sent into orbit called the 'Red Stone'. The town later became the home to the European Launcher Development Organisation and then NASA moved in 25 km from Woomera to get some action in the space development going on in the area. Acutually, the Americans were here operating a deep space tracking station.....The whole town was actually closed to the public until 1982. While still administered by the Australian military today (and it looks like it too! Very military style), there is one hotel.

The Eldo Hotel. It once was the residence for all the European and American scientists living and working in the area.  Its organised into blocks and is huge! Very clean, very nice and very interesting, cinderblocks included. It actually looks like a 1970s university dorm. I was glad that there was vacancy in the hotel as the next closest hotel was 175 km away......

Tomorrow we're slated to explore the rockets on display at the Woomera town centre, and then head to Coober Petty, translated as 'white man in a whole' in the local aborigine language.