5th March 2010 - Adelaide to Streaky Bay

Distance travelled: 711 kms
Cumulative distance: 2360 kms

We left before dawn this day to avoid the rush hour. Mable guided us through Adelaide to the Port Wakefield Rd and north. En route we passed through Adelaide waste precinct and many places familiar to Colin. Later as we barreled up the highway we passed the tip at Dublin and Inkerman - both of professional interest to Colin. We skirted Port Pirie which has one of the highest chimneys in the world to get rid of the fumes from the zinc smelter!

First Stop was Port Augusta the cross roads of Australia. It has a road sign outside the town with Darwin (2800 kms) to the north and Perth (2400 kms) to the west. We stopped for morning tea and couldn't find a parking spot it was so busy! Port Augusta is booming because of the nearby iron mines and steel smelter. There were the usual sea front developments to rival Adelaide.

We stopped at Iron Knob for petrol which is Australia's oldest iron ore mine. In fact the hill you see behind the excavator is made of iron ore and is being slowly dug up and shipped to Whyalla for smelting.

The country side reminded me of the spoil dumps outside Johannesburg, but were natural mesas. We continued west along Hwy 1. We had a very nice lunch in a little place Widunna called Gary Owen. We were served by a Scots girl who was travelling and working around Australia. This was the first of many such young women we met along the way. We arrived in Streaky Bay at 5 pm and went to the camp site to erect our first camp! It was beside the sea, in fact on the beach. Then we returned to Streaky Bay, which reminded me of Port Campbell and was a popular resort town. We had a beer on the terrace of the Town Hotel overlooking the jetty and later had a delicious meal nearby - served by a girl from London.

We return to our tents for our first night under canvas - that experience will be for the next blog entry.