Wednesday 17 August 2016

Day 107: Kimba -> Port Parham

It got quite windy overnight, which kept the temperature a little higher, it was still cold but not freezing. We were able to sleep in less clothes and still be comfortable. LiAM had a better sleep up in our bed, and Tony was comfortable enough in LiAM’s. I got up and had my cup of tea and enjoyed a crisp, sunny morning, and the others followed soon after. We had a bit of breakfast then LiAM wanted to play soccer. He and Millie and I went over to the tennis courts, Millie watched (and helped occasionally) and LiAM and I played for a while. He’s getting quite good. We played to a 1-1 draw then went back to the tent so we could start packing up. I pulled all the snack food out of the tubs in the back of the trailer so that it’s more accessible over the next few days – we might not be camping for the last 2 nights of the trip so I don’t want to have to pull everything out of the trailer because I need stuff from the back – better to have it closer to the front.

I helped Millie have a shower and wash her hair then we started packing up in earnest. The wind had meant there wasn’t much dew either, so the tent was dry which made packing it up a bit easier than the last several days. The kids played over at the playground, tennis courts and football oval while we got everything organised. Before we left we made a donation towards the upkeep of the facilities – it is a free camp, with a box to donate if you want to. We were happy to put in a small amount to help maintain this excellent campsite.

We were on the road around 11 and detoured through the town to see the Big Galah – a large statue of a galah, outside the ‘Halfway Point Tourist and Gift Shop’. It was cool to see the big silos in town as well. A truck was being filled with grain, it was a bit odd to see a smallish, single trailer truck being filled, after becoming used to the road trains.

We drove through a mixture of farmlands and wooded areas. In the distance to our east we could see large hills and a mountain range. As we approached Iron Knob we could see that the hill there was terraced – obviously a mine. We got closer and could see that the bottom terrace had a railway line along the top of it, with a long train waiting there. It looked like a precarious place to put a trainline to me, but I’m sure they know wha h yare doing…

As we got closer to Port Augusta the mountains got bigger. We’d driven along the side of this range when we headed towards Coober Pedy, it was exciting to see something again that we saw so long ago. Even more exciting was when we drove through the intersection we’d gone through in mid-May, where we turned right to head up t the middle of Australia – now we have completed the loop all the way around the western half of the country!

We got petrol and then Tony went to Woolworths to get lunch, dinner, milk and strepsils (Millie, LiAM and Tony have sore throats), while the kids and I went to Big W to look at car seats. On the way we popped in to EBGames where the kids bought the last of the Skylanders games that they didn’t have (Spyros Adventure, the first one) and some Skylanders to go with it. At Big W (which felt more like a warehouse than a Big W) we found a carseat that Millie was happy with so finally bought something to replace her broken one. The kids also bought a birthday present for their aunt, whose birthday was earlier this week.

We met Tony over near the foreshore where we’d played last time we were in Port Augusta. It was cool to be in a town that we already knew our way around. We installed Millie’s seat, and figured out how to fit the old one in the car somewhere as she really wanted to keep it – by taking it out of it’s cover and putting the 2 broken parts separately we squeezed it in.

I drove for an hour or so from Port Augusta. WE went past th turn off to Flinders Ranges where we’d come in last time, and then we were on new road again. We’d considered driving straight home in fewere days from here, maybe going through Mildura – but then we’d miss seeing people and things we’d planned to see, and I didn’t think it was fair to our housesitter to turn up early on short notice, and long long days in the car really exhaust me and I’d prefer to get home with a bit of energy left. So we stuck to our original plan and headed towards Adelaide.

The countryside here was startlingly green. Lots of crops and obviously lots of water available. There was a range of hills to our left, and for a while the gulf was to our right, until we drove across the top of the Yorke Peninsula. There were also more wind turbines than we’ve seen in one place before. I counted 53 then we saw more and more. There were large tracts of water beside us at one stage, with barriers built across them at various stages, eventually we realised they we salt lakes.

We were hoping to catch up with the family we met in Katherine, and they had recommended a free camp at Parham, not too far from where they lived. We were a little worried about the weather as the forecast was for rain overnight, then figured that since we’d decided to come this way there was no way we could avoid the rain, so we headed to Parham, on the shore of the Gulf. There was a well made dirt road in to the camp, and it was a well set out campsite. We set up in a bay and the kids went to check out the beach – it was covered in piles of seaweed in between sand with lots of shells on it. The water was grey (we could see the rain heading across the Gulf) and calm. We chatted to a few of the others staying here and then finished getting the tent up, pleased to have it done before the rain started.

Caitlin got her bike out and rode around the campsite, there was a circuit she could do. Another guy had a bike and he joined her, riding round and round and chatting to people and patting the dog next door to us. LiAM wanted to ride too and the guy lent him a bike but it was a bit big. Caitlin gave LiAM her bike and he managed to ride it, so she rode the guy’s 2nd  bike and the three of them rode around. Millie wanted to join them so first Tony and then I walked with her and helped support her bike. I let her go a couple of times and she rode a short way before freaking out. The guy offered to take her around for a lap, he held her handlebars while he rode next to her and it was easier for her to balance, she did really well.

Our friends got in touch and said that the girls were unwell so they wouldn’t be able to meet up with us. We were disappointed although it was nice to then be able to just settle in to our camp. Tony put the awning up in time before the rain started, then we were able to sit in shelter while he cooked tea and we read Harry Potter.

We soon realised that our car was parked in a low point and it was surrounded by a large puddle of water, which made getting things out of it a bit tricky. It ws still hitched to the trailer and we thought about unhitching and moving it, but there wasn’t anywhere obvious to go where there weren’t more puddles, so we just worked around it. We got the beds ready – LiAM back in his own bed, Millie with us again, and got into bed as the rain started to ease off. We read a little of Inheritance and then went to sleep.

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