We were up before sunrise and surprised to see clear blue skies and little wind. The ground still showed the evidence from the rain we experienced overnight.
We had a leisurely breakfast and the preparation for our departure was smooth. Then things started to happen. The reel where we store our power cord decided to break and then the GPS flashed the word “Garmin “, then refused to start. We have a spare GPS but details of this trip were not stored prior to our departure. After we swapped the GPS, we headed out only to realise that we didn’t check the rear lights on the caravan. Not a problem, a quick stop proved that everything was working normally.
The drive to Port Augusta was actually delightful. There was very little traffic around but that was only until we turned right onto Port Wakefield Road (the major link from the south) where it felt like we were back in suburbia. The only thing different are the roadtrains, all 55 metres of them.
Prior to turning onto Wakefield Road, you have to travel across the lower part of the Flinders Ranges. The Nissan was exceptional pulling the caravan over these ranges and the last 6 or so k’s down the hill was done with the foot off the accelerator and at a speed of just over 100kph. We hardly knew we had the caravan behind us. The view of Spencer Gulf from the top of the range is sensational and reminds us we are about to head into the real outback.
We were early at the caravan park but they allowed us to check in. We have a fairly large site and whilst it is not absolutely flat, we managed to level the caravan with our ramps.
“He” managed to fix the GPS after locating a problem with the power supply. It is now working correctly. The broken reel was also fixed. “She” did a quick clean of the caravan and managed to wash our towels. Now we have to get them dry.
After lunch we headed into Port Augusta to find the railway station as we are travelling on the Pichi Richi Railway tomorrow. After we managed to find the station, we went to an old water tower that you can climb and it afforded excellent views of Spencer Gulf to the south, the Flinders Rangers from the south to the north and the start of the South Australian outback that we believe starts about 5k’s north of Port Augusta. We also managed to do a quick shop at Coles.
We decided to have fish for tea from a local shop which was obtained after searching Google. I will not mention the name of the shop but the fish was very small (it was tasty) and the chips were full of grease. It was an average meal.
“He” spent the evening writing this blog and watching the football. “She” read. It is starting to rain again.