Monday, 11 Mar 2024
In the morning, we headed into Port Augusta. Finally, the flies seemed to be less of a problem than they were farther north. So, we spent the morning at the Arid Lands Botanical Garden. I had never before been to a botanical garden that was not lush and thick and green. So, this was a new experience. We saw a few new bird species here, as well as a shingleback skink! It was so neat! It let us get really close to take it’s picture. It’s tail was large and stumpy and almost the size of its head. I’m sure it’s a good decoy for predators.
It was still incredibly hot, so after an hour outside wandering around the garden, we were ready to get into the air conditioning at this point. So, we headed to the landromat and also the grocery store to top up our supplies. We had a look at the weather forcast for some of the other towns coming up on our route, and decided to leave South Australia as soon as we could, as just across the border into West Australia, the temps dropped about 10 degrees celcius. We were all really looking forward to less sweating and feeling hot. So, we headed in that direction planning to spend 2 really good long days on the road to get away from the heat.
About an hour later, Darren pulled over and announced that the power stearing on our vehicle had stopped working. So, we drove to the next town, which was Kimba for the night. They had a really lovely free campground with showers, flushing toilets, an awesome play ground and lots of space.
Tuesday, 12 Mar 2024
In the morning Darren got in touch with someone who could send him the pump he needed to fix the car. Early in the morning, it was cool enough to go for a walk, so I took the kids to the nearby Roora Walking Trail. This trail was a 6 km return walk past animal sculptures made of metal. We found another shingleback on this walk and read signs along the way that told us about the early pioneer days in the area. At the end of the walk before returning, there was a large sculpture of Edward John Eyre and his aboriginal guide. It was this man who discovered Lake Eyre and who the Eyre Peninsula and the Eyre Highway are named after. He was the first white man to travel much of the southern outback in the 1800s. We learned of his many near death experiences, due to the heat, lack of water and lack of food on his journeys.
When we got back from our walk, the heat had returned, so we didn’t do a lot more that day. The kids played at the park at the campground, and we discovered that if we got wet in the shower and then kept our clothes on while wet, that we felt much better. The temperature was around 38 Celsius (100 F).
We also learned that while it was not nice to be stuck with a broken vehicle, we were actually stuck for another reason. The Eyre Highway that we were heading towards was actually just closed due to flooding. The floods were caused by once in a 100-year rains in the desert. In the desert north of the Nullarbor they got a year’s worth of rain in a few days. So, we were at least very thankful that we weren’t stuck in the floodwaters, and that we had showers and toilets to use while we waited.
Wednedsay, Mar 13 2024
On this day, we checked out he playground in the town of Kimba. They had a jumping pillow. I had never seen anything like this before in a park. But, it was awesome, and the kids loved it! Near the end of the day, I bought some electrolyte tablets to put in our water and found that we felt much better after having these. All the heat and sweating had depleted some of our mineral stores. When we spoke to some locals, we found that it normally was not this hot here, but that they were having an unusual heat wave for that time of year.
Thursday, 14 Mar 2024
Darrens package with the needed part arrived in the morning and the vehicle was fixed by lunch time. The Eyre Highway was also open again, so after lunch we packed up and carried on with our journey. Before leaving Kimba, I got a picture of the halfway across Australia sign. It’s hard to believe that we still have so far to go before we arrive at our destination, but we will be going at a much faster pace now, as most of what is ahead of us is barren desert with only a few things to stop and to see. There are a few things on our list though, so after 3 nights of rest and recuperation we carried on west. We drove to Cedunda and spent the night just outside of town in a quiet camp site just off the road.
Inquisitive Bird 