Mambray Creek - Broken Hill

5/10/08 Port Lincoln - Whyalla - Port Augusta - Mambray Creek  394(15182) kms

We travelled to Mount Remarkable: the Mambray Creek section which is about 50 km from Port Augusta and about a 400 km hop from Port Lincoln at the bottom of the Spencer Gulf. We had intended climbing Mt Cavern the following day for its spectacular views over the gulf and then driving across to Canberra to see my brother and his family. Unfortunately, Sue's back has had enough so we have had to turn instead for home. Actually, she is homesick and the last straw was having her pyjamas stolen in Port Lincoln. Suddenly, but not surprisingly, she just wants to be home in her own bed.

TODAY'S PHOTOS

6/10/08 Mambray Creek - Peterborough - Broken Hill    424(15606) kms

An interesting place and lovely old buildings. Sue dropped in to the Pro Hart Gallery for 15 minutes before it closed for the day and we drove out to look at the Living Sculptures, a series of sculptures on a hill looking back toward the city. Back to a supermarket for some groceries for tea. No time to do or see anything else.

Driving to Cobar tomorrow and then home on Wednesday. All good things they say ...

Raining

To quote a Bob Dylan song "... and the rains came down..."

The appearance of rain - or more correctly the sound of it - at 10:30 pm on the previous night, certainly changed our plans for the day. With a wet tent to pack and the certainty of further rain in the Flinders, it seemed pointless contemplating packing here and unpacking further north in the same conditions. Therefore, we had an extra day at Port Augusta.

Nothing outstanding or of note took place, just routine matters of school which we had left for such a time !

It rained for most of the day and in doing so, became the first day of rain we had experienced for the trip. Being our 60th day out, we had no reason for complaint. In fact, we had only one other episode of rain on the trip and that was during the night at Carnarvon Gorge NP during the first week of our trip.

Setting up in the TV room, the children worked studiously for about five hours and only finished when the Phantom of the TV Room entered and ignored their efforts at scholarship in favour of 'The Wheel of Fortune". We left as Adrienne and Baby John were engaging in the first banter of the evening.

The rain was gone by the early evening, leaving behind a cool night with a slight breeze, but inside the dome, we were snug as that oft mentioned bug.

Port Augusta Shopping

The morning was occupied with washing for me and grocery shopping for Sue.

During the afternoon, Sam and I returned to the shops, to purchase a new sleeping bag and air mattress for him. Chris had destroyed the zipper on his sleeping bag and Sarah had a recurrent air leak in her mattress. Since Sam had been a constant hard worker and looked after his gear well, he had earned the new equipment.

The weather was beginning to look inclement but we continued on with our plans to depart on the following day for the Flinders Ranges.

Evening of television, finished off a lazy, pleasant day.

Port Augusta

Coober Pedy to Port Augusta Glendambo, Pimba (Stuart Highway) 553 kms

If they had gone to bed with smiles on their faces, then by the morning it had gone from Sarah's at least. Unfortunately, she decided to have one of her "difficult" mornings and the whole camp was set off on a destructive path which sunk us to our lowest depths.

The road south was a silent one for the first 100 kilometres.

Morning tea was a roadside stop after 230 kms, as towns were scarce throughout the five hundred plus kilometres we were travelling during the day. The discovery of green algae in our on-board water supply reduced our desire for a cuppa, so it was a dry argumentfor the adults.

Pushing on through Glendambo, we sighted ourfirst salt pan lake - this area of Australia being famous for this particular type of geographical feature. Lake Hart was one of the smaller salt lakes, but had a good coverage of blue water, rimmed spectacularly, with a white salt crust. As this was between us and the sun, the shimmering water caught the sun in a beautiful display.

Our second fuel stop for the day - Coober Pedy being the first - was at Pimba, which is just off the Stuart Highway, about 9 kms from Woomera. Calculations revealed a vastly improvedfuel consumption result over the previous day's driving - 13.3 litres/100 kms as compared with 18.9 - and this was a massive relief. Despite lots of head scratching, the only reason we could find was the possibility of poor fuel obtained at Erldunda. I determined to look further into this matter.

Salt lakes

Lunch was another roadside stop, this time 20 kms south of Pimba and over looking Island Lagoon. An unpleasant wind and no trees made it a less than perfect stopping place, but we managed, by judiciously placing the the trailer to maximise the shade provided by its bulk.

Continuing south, post lunch, we caught ourfirst glimpses of the Flinders Ranges to our south east and as we approached Port Augusta, they loomed ever closer and larger. We knew we were approaching civilisation again, as the mobile chirped to life 35 kms out and gave us the messages which had been recorded since our last reception at Uluru. This was piece of planning which had
proved to be very successful, for although we had many times been outside of reception areas, the Message Bank had faithfully recorded incoming calls. I was able to check by land line if calls had come in or the service would call us as soon as we appeared on the network.

Port Augusta was another of our changes of plan wrought during the course of the trip and we had decided to stay two nights so all of the washing could be bought up to date. The following eleven days would not be offering many opportunities to wash clothes, as we stayed at Flinders Ranges and Mt Remarkable NP's, so this task and shopping would be performed at Port Augusta.

Our destination was another of the excellent Big 4 chain of caravan parks and the grassy sites and high standard of facilities reminded us again why we always looked for their sign when choosing caravan parks.

A recommendation for tea took us to Pa's namesake, Barnacle Bill and a good value serving offish and chips, consumed with gusto.

The children couldn't believe their luck, as it was TV for a second consecutive night, but after 550 patient kms in the car, they had earned this privilege. It was a treat for me as well, as I was able to watch The X-Files for the first time in two months !