Day 98 – Thursday 11th April 2024

Today was one of those days where I’d made a plan back in October and hadn’t realised the large distances involved. Most of my plan today was to the south of the York Peninsula, which is to the west of Adelaide between Adelaide and Port Augusta, but I’d really need two days to do that.

So, change of plan and take the route to Port Augusta that’s away from the main A1 trunk road, so that I could explore a bit of the Clare Valley. However, with a long day of driving planned for the next two days I didn’t want to be on the road too late.

Away from the hotel at 08:30 and a refuel was needed before making my way out of Adelaide. Along the main motorway and then A1 trunk road before turning off and following the B roads across the plains.

A few hours passed, and the countryside was unchanging and the roads were straight. I’d had a couple of stops to answer the call of nature, stretch my legs and refocus my eyes before I reached Wirrabara. This is somewhere I spotted yesterday and was hoping I’d pass.

In Australia there are a lot of grain silos, and some of them have been decorated with silo art, and the silos in Wirrabara were a great example of this. I parked up and took the opportunity to get some photos and videos of this. I couldn’t help but think that the main character looked like Steven Gerrard (which gives the name ‘Wirrabara’ a whole scouse accent in my head!). Then back onto the road, heading for the town of Melrose.

Melrose had been suggested by my cousin Pam as a nice place to stretch, so I stopped there for a while. It’s the trailhead for a number of trails, but hiking wasn’t something that appealed today, so I bought a coffee and continued on my way.

Shortly after Melrose there was a camera sign denoting a viewpoint at Hancock’s Lookout, so I turned off the road assuming that the viewpoint would be from the roadside. Not in this case, a sign said that there were stupendous views 7km and a gravel road away. I thought that I’d give this a go as you don’t often see the word stupendous on a sign, and after said 7km of gravel and rocks the view was indeed wondrous.

Back onto the road, and the next planned destination was McLennan Outlook just to the south of Port Augusta; a view across a wide valley to the hills on the other side. It then made sense to see whether I could check into my accommodation, so after a few wrong turns within a quarter of a mile, I found the gate and checked in just after 14:00.

I wasn’t done exploring yet though. Once the car was unloaded and I’d paid a visit to the supermarket just across the road, I set off again just to the north of Port Augusta and the Matthew Flinders Red Cliff Lookout, providing beautiful views over the river to the Flinders range beyond.

Then back to the centre of Port Augusta to try and find something for my dinner; eateries seemed to be in short supply, so I stopped at a Subway for a ‘foot long’ for my dinner. Once back to the room, I put a load of washing in (there is a washing machine and drier in the bathroom that don’t cost anything) ….. I had wondered when the next opportunity would be, but this load should keep me going for a while!

Tomorrow I have a long drive; 336 miles to Coober Pedy, and I want to arrive early enough to do some exploration. Google maps reckons it’ll take about five and a half hours, so it’s a fairly early start tomorrow.