Friday 1st April 2005

After enjoying the cool air in the evening with a cold drink in our hand prior to a BBQ dinner of T Bone Steak bought from the local butcher, it was great to climb into a comfortable bed with the knowledge the we did not have to spend all of the next day on the road, not that we haven't enjoyed the drive across the Nullabor, like we did on the previous trip.

After a lazy start to the day which included a cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast, we drove up into Streaky Bay where we completed some shopping that replenished a few more of the items used to this time, including another visit to the local butcher for some more of his magnificent meat.

It was then time to return to the caravan and catch up with the things not completed, such as web site updates, e-mail preparation and books that required reading.

Drinks were partaken at the obligatory time of Beer O'Clock (5.pm) before a dinner that consisted of a a few sweet and sour marinated Pork Spare Ribs accompanied by fresh green salads.

Life is tough....

Saturday 2nd April 2005

Another quiet day intended for today, but as our GSM mobile phone is out of signal range, the web site has not been uploaded since our first night in Norseman. Due to the number of pages and images to upload, it is a little too much data to use the CDMA mobile phone as the connection would be quite long and therefore somewhat expensive as compared to 'free time' on the GSM phone.

Our solution is to use one of the Internet Cafe's that we saw in Streaky Bay, so the early preparation of the web page and a short drive into the town should solve these problems. however when we went to the Internet shop, it was closed over the weekend so that ruined that idea. Maybe at our next location we will be able to achieve that objective.

Our friends Trevor, Bob and wives arrived in the park just prior to lunch and set up not far from us, then Trevor found us for a brief chat.

As the afternoon arrived, so did an extremely strong southerly wind that whipped up a dust storm over the caravan park and the town of Streaky Bay. It was time to close all windows and settle in for the afternoon with a good book and then a board game or two (Celebrity Heads). Being a bit slow at closing up the caravan meant that we (meaning 'One of Us') had to sweep and wipe a lot of dust out of the van. By late afternoon the wind had eased considerably with very little dust blowing, but everything outside was covered with a good thick layer. By about 6.pm it had changed to a steady rain than dampened everything down washed the dust from the outside of the vans and vehicles.

We graduated to the next door caravan annex for drinks and had a great chat to Derek and Cheryl and Rodney and Charmain for an hour or so before returning to the caravan for a dinner of steak and mushroom sauce with vegetables, great on a wet night.

Tomorrow we are heading off further east, intending to travel through Port Augusta and Port Pirie before stopping in Port Broughton for a short time. Port Broughton is a town on the north west corner of the Yorke Peninsula that impressed us last time around when we drove through. We have been told the caravan park is very good.

Sunday 3rd April 2005

An early start again today, up before 6.am and on our way out of the caravan park at Streaky Bay by 7.15 am. The first part of the journey was in pretty good driving conditions as we started out through Chandada and on to Poochera, where we joined the Eyre Highway again. The closer we came to Kyancutter and then Kimba the stronger the winds became.

We stopped for a morning tea break about 20 km west of Kimba where the patrol was refueled with 60 litres of diesel from the fuel containers on board. We then drove into Kimba and stopped there long enough to take a photo or two of the 'Big Galah' before continuing on toward Port Augusta. By the time we reached Iron Knob the wind was howling at us from the south east, making the driving heavy work for the Patrol.

On reaching Port Augusta we stopped at a Coles Service Station and refueled again as the price of diesel was 117.9 cents per litre, less the 4 cpl as we had a Coles docket. Before we drove out of Port Augusta, 'One of Us' sighted a KFC store so the 'Other One' was required to find a parking spot for the caravan whilst she darted in and bought lunch for us (She bought a family pack, but I don't think there was any intention of giving any of it to the family!)

On leaving Port Augusta we headed south toward Port Pirie and into one of the strongest winds I have driven into with the caravan. It was a good thing we had filled up with fuel because it took almost half a tank (about 45 litres) to travel the next 150 km to Port Broughton through this howling wind.

We passed through Port Pirie then on south for the last 50 or so kms to Port Broughton. On arrival we booked into the local caravan park for three nights and found it to be a great spot to 'hang out' for the next few days. The site we chose is close to the water and is well grassed, so hopefully we can rid ourselves of the sand we took on board in Streaky Bay.

We have both CDMA and GSM telephone reception here so hope to upload the web site updates over the next night or two.

The weather forecast is for improving conditions so we may wait for them to arrive before we venture too far. 'One of Us' has mentioned she wouldn't mind a drive down Moonta way. It may not be a surprise to know that Moonta is where the Cornish Pasties came from last trip that she hasn't stopped raving about so perhaps there is an ulterior motive for wanting to re-visit Moonta again.....