From one extreme to the other

It’s October 6, the end of my vacation.  We are in Edithburg, at the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.  If you look at this area on a map, it looks like a boot or a Christmas stocking.  We’ve been travelling through this area for 2 days after our plans to visit the Flinders Ranges were ruined by the rainy, foggy weather.  Let me back up to where I last left off.

We left Alice Springs on Monday morning after a two day stay where we relaxed and visited not much more than the Desert Park and the Sunday market.  We needed to relax and sleep a lot. The trip south was uneventful with a stop in Erldunda for a picnic lunch at the roadhouse and a fill up on “petrol”.   The weather was a bit overcast and cooler.  Not much to see on the road, like no lizards or kangaroos jumping in front of us.  The only things I was wowed by were a tree full of black cockatoos and several wedgetail eagles eating the road kill.  They are very large and impressive.

As we got into South Australia, Leon described it as the “Great Nothingness”, which is pretty much what you see.  The terrain is dryer and sandier than in Alice, but there isn’t anything to look at for miles and miles.  We strained our eyes to see emus, but had no luck.  We stopped for the night at Cadney’s Roadhouse, about 150 km north of Coober Pedy.  Along this road, there is nothing between the roadhouses/gas stations.  So you usually stop for gas or to pee or for the day.  The roadhouse was very clean.  We parked beside 2 other caravans and got to bed early after heating up the left over pasta and chicken in the microwave in our camper.  It was very dark, very windy and it started to rain about midnight.  We ended up sleeping more than 12 hours!  Who knew driving could be so exhausting?

The next day, Tuesday, we drove in the rain, past Coober Pedy, into Port Augusta, searching all along for the elusive emu.  Everyone had told us they saw hundreds of them on the side of the road, babies and all.  I managed to see 3 at one point, but they were the colour of the bushes and we were driving at 110km/h, so it’s hard to make them out.  Because of our disappointment, we decided to drive to the Flinders Ranges to see the emus and other wildlife and do a little walking in the hills.  To make up for the lack of scenery along the way, we did search for and find the dog fence which separates the dingos from the pasture land to the south and we took some pictures of the opal mining; what looks like a bunch of very large ant hills dotting the countryside.

We arrived in Quorn, the first town in the Flinders, close to sunset at a nice caravan park where we proceeded to make a great bbq steak in the company of other, slightly soggy, campers.  The conversation was good, the meat was tender.  But I had homework to do, so I made my way back to the camper and wrote my final assignment.

The next morning, it was rainy and foggy with no visibility of the Ranges.  There was no point in staying.  So we packed up and went searching for an internet connection so I could upload my homework before it was overdue.  We found a lovely cafe in the town of Quorn and waited for it to open.  The owner was sweet and got us all organized.  To her mortification, once we logged in, her account was unpaid, so we couldn’t access the net.  The irony was that she had just told me she should take an online course too, maybe small business management.  When I asked her if her business was viable after her first year of operation, I don’t think she knew what I meant.  Yes, better look into that course soon…

At any rate, we ended up driving back to Port Augusta to use the net at Macca’s.  That didn’t work either!  So we drove to the Information centre.  Surely they could help us!  Finally, we ended up at the library where internet is fast and free.  Hurray!  Homework was uploaded, messages were checked (and by the way, still no new grandchild has been born out in Surrey, BC), all was right with the world.

So we pointed the car south and headed to the Yorke Peninsula to get in some beach time.  Our first night was spent in Port Hughes, a great caravan park and long walking beach.  Fishing is big in these parts, with a lot of squid being caught.  Not sure if a lot of squid is being eaten, though.  We had a long walk/run yesterday before sunset, then another walk this morning before getting on the road again.  Today we drove even further south to the tip of the peninsula, past barley fields, to Innes National Park.  Spectacular views and tada – emus!!!!  Whole families of them!!!!  Hurray!!!  And a kangaroos or wallaby hopping in the background too.  Great!!  We were going to camp in the park, but they don’t have running water, so we decided to keep driving so we could have a hot shower when we get up tomorrow for our last length of highway before Adelaide and returning the camper.  So here we are in Edithburg.  Leon is checking the pictures I took in the past few days, I am writing the blog.  A great team, as usual!