Mixed morning today. Bit of excitement…hit a Roo this morning about 80km west of Renmark in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere actually has a name Pooginook. All is good! Dudley has some battle scars and I am ok. Smurfette just squealed like a girl :). In Crystal Brook some 200km from where it happened having breaky at the servo and making sure all Dudleys bits are patched up and holding. Not game enough to take anything apart just in case I can’t get things back together.
Pooginook – 500m metres from the impact
Needless to say I missed the sun rise but I was hidden behind the grey skies and fog. I can across this interesting sign…something about being at “World’s End” – I really didn’t think I was that far from civilisation…..lol.
World’s End?? LOL
Oh boy how thick was the fog, almost like sleet. Stopped in Burra to but on my heated glove liners…didn’t think I’d need them this morning….silly girl. Fog didn’t start to lift until after Spalding – thick as pea soup, slowed to 80 kph at times cos I couldn’t see too far in front.
Down town Burra
Pea soup
Crystal Brook as mentioned above I rang Karl and let him know what had happened this morning and assured him Dudley and I were ok. Another servo breaky of machine $3 coffee and a muesli bar….the coffee wasn’t bad either. How pretty is it through this area. Zigging and zagging all the way through to Port Pirie. These are new roads to me. I’ve travelled to The Gutter before but through this way….totally different experience and glad I did cos I seemed to have dodged the rain that most everyone else has been experiencing.
I eventually popped out on Highway 1 and headed through Port Augusta (The Gutter). All new territory for me know and I have to follow the GPS. It had me take this back road with rain me along the massive pipe which seemed to follow me or me it the entire way from here on. Had me going through Alamein on this dodgy bumpy road which I’m sure now I could’ve avoided…nevermind. Below is the behind view of The Gutter.
The Gutter – Port Augusta
From here on it’s a mystery of what to expect. First stop for a pic was Iron Knob, which is an Iron Ore mining town.
Check out the colour of the landscape – amazing.
Iron Knob
Doing well, next stop is Kimba for fuel and lunch. Now Kimba is the town located “Half Way Across Australia” so you know me, couldn’t miss a photo opportunity, besides Smurfette was just a tad excited about having her pic taken again with another iconic sign.
Thanks Kimba! it was our pleasure
While I’m here a friendly face arrives….it’s Gags..Woo Hoo, so we hatch a plan to have lunch together and ride on to Wudinna together. But not before a pic of the Big Galah….LOL
You bloody Galah…ha ha ha
Tucked up out of the weather for lunch, where we meet another couple of riders (father and son) heading to Border Village also.
Tucked up with me mate!
Back on the road and the never-ending (seems to be my favourite word on this trip) undulating ribbon of road that takes to the other side of the country.
Gags was happy to sit behind me….he said something about it better a better sight looking at my butt than me looking at his (well something like that anyways). Before long we wave good-bye as he is stopping in Wudinna and I still have 2hrs to go. See you tomorrow Gags.
The Wudinna Farmer
The Sheep Farmer statue on the way out of town.
A couple of little towns come and go and then I pull into Poochera for fuel. Unfortunately there is no Premium Unleaded her so I had to give Dudley 91 instead (luck it was only about 5 litres) before we headed off again in search of Ceduna.
Poochera Roadhouse
All day we’ve had spatterings of rain or sun showers and then it would dry up but the clouds played the mind game with of “will I rain or won’t I” which kinda eggs you on to get where you need to be before it opens up. As the sun starts to slowly sink into the horizon, it casts a beautiful ray across what I think are canola fields – which are all along this stretch.
Eyre Highway Wudinna to Ceduna
Just tootling along.
There is that road again – long and straight with a glorious setting sun. The picture really just doesn’t do this scenery justice. The peace and serenity that comes along with views like this really just can’t be put into words.
We arrive in Ceduna just before 5pm and look even Smurfette is waving and happy we have stopped for the day. Now to find the Ceduna Motor Inn and get settled for the night and relax.
Checked in and I’m putting Dudley to bed for the night and who should venture out from the room next door but Nico. I squealed like a school girl!!! Just couldn’t believe it. Needless to say I was just a little happy at seeing another friendly face.
Dinner was shared that night with Nico and the Father and Son team (Lance & Dan) I met at the Kimba roadhouse for lunch.
Night everyone, I’m a bit buggered and will see y’all tomorrow.
