Written and Compiled by Robert D. Stephens          Page 5
 

  
 
 
  December 3:  Our longest day started with a 3:30 AM alarm.  Dragging ourselves onto the bus without the benefit of coffee, we went to the Cairns Airport.  The flight was about five hours, first to Brisbane, then to Adelaide.  There, we got on a bus for our six-hour ride north.  
     
 

We stopped at Stoffle Winery for a very nice lunchand brief wine tasting.  Then it was back on the bus as we continued our trip into the Outback. 

We had a brief stop to watch the Sun go down in order to get an idea about how bright it would be and how close to the horizon it was.  We figured the Sun would be dimmed by two or three photographic stops due to atmospheric extinction. 

We took another brief stop to try to see the Green Flash.  We were successful in seeing it! 

We arrived at the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna about 8:00 PM and the party was already raging.  The Prairie Hotel appears to be the local watering hole and the locals

 
 
  know how to have a good time.  It was like oil and water with some of our eclipse travelers, but most appeared to have fun. 

After 1-1/2 hours of hanging around the bar, we were served dinner.  We had a choice of steak, chicken and kangaroo.  That went well with the Emu Pâté we had for appetizers.		  
     
 
 
 
     
 

After dinner, we went out to look at some objects with binoculars.  We had trouble from all the surrounding lights, but the transparency was great.  Some of us moved out behind the railroad depot which also blocked some of the lights. 

With the Canon 10 X 30 image stabilized binoculars, we studied the Large Magellanic Cloud, Small Magellanic Cloud, 47 Tucane, Eta Carina, and many other objects. 

The stiff, cold wind finally drove us indoors around midnight.

  
     
 

December 4, 2002: Eclipse Day!  The day started out with a leisurely breakfast and a 10 AM tour of the Flinders Range.  The tour wasn’t much with a 1-1/2 hour drive to the town of Blinman, where the main attraction was looking at headstones in the cemetery. 

More interesting was a mob (herd) of camels we saw on the way back to the hotel.  Several of us, including Steve, Alex and myself got off the bus a quarter mile from the hotel and hiked up to the camels to take pictures.

After lunch, we left at 3 PM for the eclipse site. Our destination was a site about 10 km north of Lindhurst. We had heard rumors that there was a techno music festival going on in Lindhurst and that 5,000 people had shown up for the eclipse.

  
 
 
     
 

When we drove through, Lyndurst was packed with cars and RV’s, but there did not appear to be anywhere near 5,000 people present. Reports of music blaring which could be heard 10 km away turned out to be unfounded.  

Going the final 10 km across a dirt road, we started seeing hundreds of cars parked along the side of the road.  We reached our site next to a sign somebody had put up on the road designating the center line. Aram had arranged for a tent to be erected in which refreshments would be served.  A loo (porta-potty) was also provided. 

We had arrived a couple of hours before first contact, and a strong wind was blowing.  It consistently gusted 20 mph making it difficult to get high magnification views or do high magnification photography.

  
     
 
 
 
     
 
 
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  Copyright  2002 TravelQuest International and Robert D. Stephens.  All rights reserved.
Revised: October 25, 2005.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
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