Planing "red centre" trip.

[NEVILLE & TRISH]

Looking for caravan park recomendations in the following towns please. Broken Hill, Port Augusta, Coober Pedy & Alice Springs. Have Top Tourist Membership.Thanks.

Regards Neville............

[jock]

G'day Neville...
Well, hate to be a wet blanket but I wouldn't stay at any caravan park in Broken Hill or Port Augusta....Been there, done that,..never again.

We head that way a fair bit and now, instead of stopping at Broken Hill, We go out to Silverton...a bit more relaxed, quiet and you can even have a campfire - they sell cheap wood at the office. It's far more primitive than the wizz-bang, rip-off parks in Broken Hill but a really better camping experience.

As for Port Augusta...Both Parks are noisy - one with highway noise and the other, a short distance away from the major East West Train marshalling yards with shunting all night and, according to regs they have to blow their horns every time they make a move. Also they are all enclosed in heavy security barbed wire fences and have a curfew. - with good reason.

60 odd kms South (on the Eastern side) is a truly wonderful little CP in a unique little town with one of Australia's longest jetties. Port Germein. Highly recommend that you stay there instead of Port Augusta. Also suggest that you stay for 2 or 3 nights. You can still stock up at P.A. on your way thru.

I'll leave it to others to give you more info on Coober Pedy and Alice..Been too long since we've been there.

Jock

[Old Techo]

I agree with Jock, PA is noisy and we have used 2 van parks at BH but next time we will give Silverton a go.

In addition to Jock's advice, I suggest this run https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Silv ... !3e0?hl=en

From Silverton to Peterborough or Wilmington (or even Melrose). In the past 4 weeks we stayed at Peterborough on the way to Oodnadatta and Melrose on the way back. Peterborough has the train museum and Melrose is a very quiet small town with pub meals 100 metres away. We've stayed there 4 times.

Woomera (interesting rocket display) or Spud's Roadhouse nearby for something cheaper.

At The Alice we prefer G'day Mate van park, just south of town but there is a new Big4 opposite G'day.

[rredbeak]

in Port Augusta we stay out of town on the highway in Stirling north CP only one there so that's it.Very old park not many stars but clean facilities n no noise,

In Coober Pedy between the TRUCK on the high steel stand on highway and coober pedy is a out of town CP bout 100m from truck n its on the right heading into town.no noise ,GREAT food restaurant,swimming pool,bus tours for daily trips start at this cp.clean fac,,,

in alice springs before the gap [south of alice 1km maybe] is heavitree gap cp..theres a builtin iga store,fuel,swimming pool,tavern.cabins,power sites,clean fac,all acc from inside or outside the cp fenceline...

we only ever free camp but theres trips we store the van in PA n just wing it for a few weeks at CP's

Please Consider the "Field of Lights" at Uluru still current till March 2018.. Its on Private property n you DONT need go inside Uluru NP if you don't want that. Google field of lights.. Its Beautifull..depending on the level of luxury it can go from a couple of hundred to thousands...but the lighs walk is the same...

Cheers Rod

[The Baz]

Hi,
Recomend Peterborough quite park, great camp kitchen, short walk to town.
Woomera is worth a look caravan park not flash but town interesting, happy hour every afternoon at Hoffs bar converted shipping container at park. Great way to meet fellow travellers.
Keep in mind no water taps in park in Coober Pedy you fill up on entry or at the main supply in town, can not remember how much per litre but not expensive.
Sites at Ularu and Kings Canyon very expensive, 25 bucks a head to see the rock and keep in mind the rock is 16ks from resort so if you wish to ride your bikes around the Rock you need to cart them out there as we found out.
As for other parks I reccomend book ahead!
Safe trip it is a great adventure.
Bazz

[Old Techo]

Keep in mind no water taps in park in Coober Pedy you fill up on entry or at the main supply in town, can not remember how much per litre but not expensive.

20 cents for 40 litres at the Stuart Range Big4.

I forgot to address Coober Pedy in earlier advice. I think there are 4 van parks. We prefer the Stuart Range because it is huge, so plenty of room. Big4 are doing major works to upgrade facilities and improve security. Trenching I saw indicates water reticulation but maybe not to sites. The amenity block inside is all brand new and flash.

Security is an issue at Coober Pedy van parks with robberies common. To quote from my eartlier post.... At Coober Pedy quite a lot of businesses have closed. The out of town Stuart Range Big4 van park is undergoing major upgrade works. Part of them are security related. $34 powered site. Boom gates are being installed now. Robbery has become a concern.

Police visited us and other guests Sat arvo warning about theft and to lock up everything. We always have. The next arvo the Police did not visit and one vanner/camper had his wallet stolen overnight. At the Oasis van park in town a man left his van unlocked to go to the shower and someone stole his wife’s purse..... whilst she was still in bed.

Not too hard to guess the background of these thieves

[Jeffie]

Neville,

We have stayed in all those places without and problems, maybe we were just lucky.

Broken Hill at the CP on the main road , probably the B'Hill CP.

Port Augusta at the almost free camp just south of P.A. beside the footy oval, No 517 in CAW 9.
Facilities at the club when open, very quiet, no road or train noise.

Coober Pedy at Hutchison Memorial, No 437 in CAW 9 ( no facilities)
Drive past the memorial, over the hill and camp anywhere you like. Room for about 10,000 camps

Alice Springs at Temple Bar or Wangardi CPs both about 10ks out and next to each other. These are probably to far out of town for the trouble makers to bother with.

Have you got Camps Aust Wide book or Wiki camps?? lots of info in these publications.

Jeff.

[rat3het]

Mount remarkable national park , Mambray creek park

south of Port Augusta

need to book by internet

reasonable price , entry to national park and daily fee

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attracti ... ralia.html

bring your own wood , toilets and solar showers

[jock]

Hi Jeff. ... Good info . I think it's worth mentioning that the 'almost free camp' near the oval in Port Augusta, to my knowledge, is for self contained outfits only. I realise that Nevilles' outfit, according to his sig. info. is self-contained but, just in case, others are taking notes.

Are any of the other spots, you mention, in the same category?

Jock

[NEVILLE & TRISH]

Thanks guys for all the great info. We have made one small change to our plans, as we will be in Peterbourgh for a few days we will stay a bit longer then go straight to Woomera bypassing Pt Augusta. With the extra days at P/B we will have a day in P/A for a look around & shopping. Have very itchy feet atm can't wait to get started......

Regards Neville......................