Coonalpyn - Port Augusta

What was meant to be a quiet night turned out to be not so quiet. First a car pulled up and headed for the unit at the back of the park, then the first of four trains passed by, and then at about 11:15pm a car pulled up at the back of the van and headed for the showers. Or at least that is what we think they did! They left just after midnight; in all honesty they made very little noise but was not sure what they were doing at that late hour.

It was also the first night in the van for a while and so it takes a little while to relax and get used to the new environment. I am sure after three months I will be used to it and will have to get used to the bedroom again.

Woke up and got ready for another day in the car, today the destination was Port Augusta where we are to spend two nights before heading off on our circle. This is the point where we turn right and head up the centre or go straight on to Perth, we are turning right!

After breakfast we headed off in a little bit of rain towards Adelaide where I was hoping to find a Harvey Norman to get the GPS fixed. Yes one day into the trip and it is coming up with a fatal error screen and I cannot see the maps. Chels wanted to know what we were going to do now, and of course the answer was, we were going back to the traditional way of travelling, with a map. I am a little annoyed that it has already broken, but what can you do, will have to get this fixed though.

Anyway, we were in the car on the way, travelling into a fairly strong headwind towards Adelaide then onto our destination. After filling with petrol in Adelaide, we continued on to Dublin for morning tea, a little later than we had planned but had trouble finding a park and rest area.


It was then onto Snowtown for lunch where we met another couple who were doing the same trip as we are undertaking. While having lunch, it suddenly came to me that this was the location of the infamous Snowtown murders. I had seen this story on the television some time ago and now saw where the bank was located.


On a positive note, they had some lovely murals painted on some of the walls which were very interesting to see.


It was a very strong headwind all the way to Port Augusta, creating a dust storm at one stage that was blowing across the road. Once we were through it, it all cleared again and became a very pleasant afternoon although the wind continued to blow.

We arrived at Port Augusta just after 3:30pm and found the caravan park, Port Augusta Big 4, our camp for the next couple of nights.

After setting up, it was time to kick the footy, just for something different, this is of course Josh’s favourite pastime.

An early night for all tonight as we catch up with some of the sleep we have missed out on!