Adelaide for lunch

There was plenty of beautiful hot water for a shower this morning so “no complaints”! We woke up around 5.15 and started moving straight away and were on the road soon after six. We were not the first ones up and away early. The workmen in the rooms near ours were gone by 4.30 – but only Colin heard them, he complained that they started the truck up and let it run for a good ten minutes before they drove off! I heard nothing!

Once the car was loaded up we drove over the lifting bridge – that no longer is able to lift – and were instantly in the state of Victoria.

Again we defied the GPS, which wanted to take us to Mildura, and followed the signs to Ouyen via highway B12. It was during this drive that we saw our first wild animals – two rabbits! Even when we reached Adelaide we had not seen anything other than those two bunnies. We drove 2043 klm and didn’t see one kangaroo. Some of our driving was done at dusk and some at daybreak; these are times when kangaroos are the most active. Nothing!

One thing I just had to do and that was to stop and take a photo of some Mallee trees! I had spend ten years of my life in the Mallee and during that time had never taken a photo of a Mallee tree. When you see them every day, there is no need for a photograph! Mallee trees have multiple trunks and they have a very gnarly root system which, when dry, make the best fire wood you could ever hope to get.

One town we were to drive past was Manangatang. This was the nearest big town to us when we were on the farm so we had to take a tour of the place to see how it had changed – and it had. It seemed to have shrunk considerably from what we both remembered. The butcher that Colin so boasts about having made the best sausages ever – has gone and the shop is no longer a shop. It actually looks too small to have ever been a shop! Seeing the place after all these years brought back so many memories for Colin. More for him than for me.

The orange light came on just as we were driving into Ouyen to scream out that we could drive no further without finding petrol. Fortunately for us the very first business we came to was a BP Service Centre. The car breathed a sigh of relief when the hose went into the tank. There were only five litres of fuel left in the tank!

Once we were on the road again we found that we had left the main trucking routes behind. It was almost as if we had the entire country to ourselves. There were no other cars on the road. The roads were excellent and so much of the distance we covered had increased the speed limits to 110 both in NSW and in Victoria.

At one of the places we stopped for refreshments (we carried our own thermos of hot water) we noticed something very strange. I had to brush a few small snail shells of the table before I put things down and Colin noticed they were all over the seats and the posts of the shelter as well. When I looked around I could see that there were empty snail shells at the top of each of the fence posts too. We didn’t find any living snails, only shells.

On arrival in Adelaide the first thing we did was search for a park in which to have our lunch. It was while we were in the park that I rang the family to let them know that we had arrived safely and then tried out the laptop for internet coverage. Up until this time I had been unable to bring up my internet browser and was thinking that something was wrong – but this time everything worked perfectly so I could relax! There was no need to go in search of a computer whiz after all!

This evening we shall call on Graham and Nola to say hello. Good times ahead.