Day 96 Mount Barker to Ceduna

Today was always going to be a numbers day.  We packed up as much as we could, and set the alarm for 0600 before bed last night.  It hosed down with rain all night, and Lisa and I woke with soggy toes where the rain had seeped through the stitching around the canvas on the bed.  BOOOO!

We dragged the kids out of bed, and by some miracle, we were in the car and driving by 0800.  It was sad to say goodbye to Tania, because it has been so fantastic staying with her for a couple of nights, but I hope we can return the favour soon. 

I mentioned numbers before, but to set the scene, we started today with a very full tank of fuel, and a lot of driving.  Our minimum drive today would be Wudinna which is between Port Augusta and Ceduna (Around 600km) and we would see what happened when the time came around as we wanted to knock off as many kilometres as possible. 

Our outbound journey from Little Hampton took us on a 30km detour through the Adelaide hills, but well worth the journey as city traffic would have been nightmarish.  It rained steadily for most of the morning, but the drive was gorgeous in deep rolling hills and valleys, past vineyards and pastures with horses, cows, and sheep with frolicking lambs everywhere.

Eventually though, we came back to the highway headed North towards Port Augusta from Port Pirie.  It was an easy drive with exception of being stuck behind a couple of trucks for the last 40km, but they were rumbling on at a reasonable pace, so that was ok too. 

We stopped for lunch in Port Augusta, and all I could think of whilst I was there was...

"Move along, nothing to see here..."

It is obviously the Southern twin to Port Hedland, because it is just as featureless, and dreary.  The only saving grace was the beautiful turquoise waters out towards the Spencer Gulf.

We found some delicious bakery food for lunch, and headed over to the historic water tower to eat.  We all took the time to climb the tower to be convinced that it may not have been worth the effort after all.  Aside from that, lunch was fantastic, and we got back into driving mode and kept going.

Our next major land mark on the way out was Kimba where the BIG Galah resides.  This is another of the iconic, truly big things that adorn our country, and we couldn't help but stop for some silly photos with it. 

We had a bit of a look through the gift shop and road house, but left again without spending any money.  Good for us, but sorry to the poor lady who stood there watching us for 10 minutes to see if we would actually buy something.

On the way into town, there is a huge billboard proclaiming that we were halfway across Australia.

I'm not exactly sure how they work that out, or what exactly they are referring to, as it isn't really geographically half way, unless perhaps they are talking about the road from Melbourne to Perth...


Still, there is no reason to ruin a good story with facts, so we will just be accepting that Kimba is the fictional halfway point from somewhere to somewhere else in Australia, and today we were there.

More than anything, I think it made for a damn fine photo, and I can't help myself when there is a good photo opportunity.

Speaking of good photo opportunities...


I have been trying to collect a set of photos since we first entered South Australia.  They have two really good ideas with the roadways.  The first is that they erect a red roadside pole for motor injury victims at the site of the crash, and a black pole for fatalities.  This is a little confronting as you drive around, but it makes you aware of the dangerous bits of road, and assists in keeping you alert.

The second is that they don't have any issues saying it like we all think it on the road signs.  So here is the montage of South Australian Road Safety Awareness Signs...

 
Can anyone please tell me what a "W-Docker" is?

Priceless...

Today was a numbers game.  We made it to Ceduna.

825.5km
166 litres of Diesel
10 hours 40 minutes drive time
23 the number of times we were asked "are we there yet?"
5 toilet stops
4 movies watched by the kids
3 albums listened to by the parents
2 road trains with escorts clearing the road
1 BIG Galah

Tomorrow should be easy...and I get to play golf...FINALLY!