Nullabor 2010

Ceduna to Port Augusta ...

Limited (and expensive!!!!) internet access here, so today's full adventures and pics to come ... but can at least tell you we had a DRY RIDE!!!

UPDATE:

We’re woken early morning to the sound of HEAVY rain!! I thought those clouds late yesterday evening looked a bit too ominous, even though Chris thought they wouldn't amount to much if anything … ha! Famous last words! By breakfast though, the rain had cleared, by saddle-up, the sun was out more than hidden! Phew!

Two pairs of tandem cyclists we originally spotted somewhere between Bordertown > Ceduna, had made considerable progress during our rest day – into a headwind, we rode past them again the other side of Poochera – Chris noticed their two support Campervans had “Perth > Sydney” written on their sides!

Rest stop at Poochera - checking the map, to the sound of full-bore Melissa Etheridge "Someone bring me some water ...", blasting of of one of the nearby houses! ;-)

Food-stop at the local Bakery of Wudinna … great Beef Pepper pie and real coffee - just caught it though as the shop is open only during the good old fashioned Saturday hours of 9-12! It had just gone noon, and the owner was pulling in the street sign, but she was happy to make us a dose of caffeine and nuke something, as everything else in the pie-warmer had been sold … we weren’t her last customers in the door either – the window blind finally got drawn and door locked at 12.15 ;-)

On our way to Perth two weeks ago, we had noticed from the road how impressive Iron Knob is, so we decided to take a closer look on our way back and dropped in to Iron Knob township, but what a total disappointment pictorially … the best viewpoint of Iron Knob was definitely from the Highway itself, the afternoon sunshine showing off the full colour range, but there is nowhere off road to stop! The vast and spectacularly sculptural Flinders Ranges: again, in the mid afternoon sun with shadows cast by clouds, the best pictorial view point was from the highway but sadly no roadside stop to take advantage of! The SA Tourism Commission (?) really needs to pull their socks up!!

Slightly ‘lost’ into Port Augusta (missed the turn), almost hardly worth mentioning, but just out of habit … ;-)

And the significance of this pic is? ;-)

Accom sorted and bikes unpacked, we stretched the legs with a walk across the western Port Augusta Bridge – busy with road-trains and other afternoon traffic, it was a relief to find stairs down to the river bank, and access the much older original bridge, which is now open only to foot and bicycle ‘traffic’ … lovely and peaceful!