The day started in the same fashion as the first, late. We woke around about on time to another cloudy morning and un-promising weather. First task for the day was to get the car organised into a somewhat thoughtful arangement. With our first day we'd realised that having my tent, Rob's swag bag and the food packed into the middle of the car was exceptionally annoying as getting to it, when arriving late to campsites, was fairly difficult! Everything got thrown out of the car and a complete re-organise ocurred before we headed out to the road.
First stop was to return to the picnic spot just round the corner to grab some more water from the stream and have a quick cold wash! Once sorted, we set about making it to Mt Gambier.
We arrived in Mt Gambier around 10am and filled the empty tank of the wagon again! I'd started the drive today given some of Rob's enthusiastic attempts at over taking the previous night and missing one of our junctions we needed. Sat behind a truck that was doing 110 in a 100 Rob still wanted to get past. Having just been talking about being pulled over and how annoying that would be, as rob passed the truck and the crest of the hill we shot passed a police car that had pulled someone over! Lucky day for Rob I think!
A large charge for the fuel later and we set on again, our first stop - a Sinkhole! The weather had also began to pick up, there was sunshine and we both donned our shades! Neither of us really knew what to expect when we arrived at the sinkhole but were both rather intrigued. As we parked the garden looked like any other, some plant, trees and the odd random statue or monument. Regardless we wondered down the track towards the other end. As we drew closer we found a rather large missing part of the garden, around 40m across and 50m deep. The bottom had been re-sculpted into a garden of its own. We both had to wonder if the garden had vanished down 50m like this one, what were we actually driving on? After a while wondering and soaking in the sights (and bee hives in the rock face) we decided we really should move onwards. Our next stop was the Blue Lakes.
Despite having seen the map Rob was adamant we needed to take the first left after we left the sinkhole, needless to say, he was wrong! After a while of driving in the wrong direction I decided I would drive the way I thought it was and we got there without issue! The lakes were very blue, despite all the information and signs saying it didn't go blue until November sometime! A quick mosey around and we decided we really needed to head off.
Once back on the road we saw the first sign pointing to Adelaide, 440km away. We were guessing it would be less than that, we had both planned for it to be less than that. We set out along the A1 up the coast and hoped we would still manage to make our time frame. The further up the road we got, the more we realised we were never going to get to Adelaide in time, let alone Port Germain. With this in mind, we both decided it was time to stop. We opted for a "lay-by" that had signs for a café as well. After some 15mins of driving along this "lay-by" we both began to wonder if we'd missed something. The dirt track seemed to be meandering off into the middle of nowhere. A little further and were were on the verge of turning back. Rob suggested we see what the next set of buildings were and work from there. We arrived to find what appeared to be some houses on a dirt island miles away from anything. It was good enough for us to stop and throw together some lunch! As we parked the car, Rob noticed the back of one of the "houses" had a large number of chairs. It seems we had found the café after all!
The view we had as we ate lunch was bemusing, the sand bank about 1km away had what appeared like a wave of cloud vertically off it! It was the most bizarre thing I've see so far this trip.
We made Adelaide some 2 or 3 hours after we had hoped and planned for. A quick drive round the city centre and we set about revising our plans in a McDonalds for the free WiFi and power, although they had none of the latter. First thing was first, where were we going to watch the Rugby! We found a nice pub called The Elephant which was to be showing the game. Next, where were we to be staying for the night. We tried a few Backpackers places but all of them were fully booked! We did begin to wonder if we'd have anywhere to stay! With the though of accommodation pushed to the back of our minds we set off to the pub and would worry about where to stay later that evening on a hope we'd find somewhere from someone in the pub!
No such luck on where to stay, so Rob decided to have a single pint and drive on up in a hope of finding somewhere. I'd been driving all day nearly so pretty much just fell straight asleep when back in the car and woke a few hours later to find us in Port Germain! We tried to find somewhere to set up camp but were not exceptionally successful with both Port Germain and the first lay-by we tried being dead ends. I checked the map as Rob carried on further up the road. There was one campsite up ahead by the map - It would have to do! On route we noticed another sign for a campsite off to the left, we threw the car round the corner and onto a dirt track. Again this track just disappeared off into nothingness. We eventually found a sign for the campsite with a note about $10 per night and we'd need to call some number to get access. We both disagreed with this prospect and just put up the tent and laid out Rob's swag bag next to the gate! Camp was set!
The night was a long one, with my tent nearly being blow away, with me in it and the rain soaking through Rob's swag bag!
The start of day 3....
We awoke at different times, today Rob yelling at me to get up. I checked the phone and asked what he was complaining about, it was only 7.30am and we'd agreed on an 8am start! Rob strongly disagreed and advised me it was in fact 8am. I quickly realised that my phone had updated to Adelaide time and Rob was still running on Melbourne time. After a quick argument Rob dictated we were to be using Melbourne time and not any other silly half cut time differences! So a quick pack up while the rain hammered down on us and we were on the road again.
We made Port Augusta for 9am ish and set about finding somewhere for breakfast as we were not going to try cooking in the rain. Another McDonalds it was, this time with both WiFi and power! We still need to find somewhere to get some washing up liquid and some bits for the car and we will be on our way again.
What happens next is anyones guess....
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