Port Augusta, Snowtown, Lochiel, salt lake, homestead ruins

Port Augusta SA April 2, 2015

Ignoring the bleats from the GPS, we struck out from Nuriootpa across the open plains, heading more or less directly for Snowtown on the main highway. As you would expect, the roads were ‘C’ grade roads, a bit narrow and a bit bumpy, but blissfully empty of other traffic. We cruised along at about 80, no rush, just enjoying seeing something of the countryside. Judy kept us on the route we had chosen, the GPS kept whinging and recalculating the whole time. After about an hour and a half the GPS fell silent and it looked like we were now all on the same map and we kept tootling along as happy as a pig in mud. But to quote a much watched children show, ‘Then there was trouble!’ Completely unexpectedly, the bitumen road turned into a gravel / dirt road and didn't look like ending any time soon. No panic, we backed off a bit and got the feel of it, it wasn’t corrugated or too rocky so we simply kept going, hoping that the van didn't fall apart in the process. 

Along the way I stopped to snap a picture of the quintessential old homestead in SA :

Country side near Lochiel SA

Our rig on the dirt road near Lochiel SA

The new homestead, near Lochiel SA

Country side near Lochiel SA

As we neared the highway, we came across the first of the salt lakes:

Salt lake near Lochiel SA

Salt lake near Lochiel SA

And finally we made it onto the major highway, as could be easily determined from the vast amount of traffic in both directions. As I had done my 2 hour stint I thought we mighty go into Snowtown and have a cold drink and a rest. To say that there isn't much there is a bit of an understatement, although we did find the toilets, a broken wind-turbine vane and a fellow with a few loose roos in the top paddock, sitting next to the railway line eating a hamburger and waiting for the trains to go by. As gracefully as we could we extracted ourselves from our lop-sided conversation about main-lines, grain-trains and the ghan, which wasn't due until 9:27 the next day. We won't mention the 8 bodies found in the bank vault in 1999, nor will we go looking for it either, instead, we will kick-the-pig back out onto the road and make a hasty exit

Snowtown SA

Snowtown SA

Wind-turbine blade.Snowtown SA

Snowtown SA

Snowtown SA

The highway is only single lane most of the time with the odd overtaking lane, but it was busy: trucks galore heading toward Adelaide and 4x4 trucks with camper trailers heading out our way to the Flinders Ranges, or the coast or Perth, who knows where. All we knew is that my 95 wasn't cutting it and they and every other man and his VW overtook us anytime it suited them: corners, double lines, whatever. It’s the reason we haven't travelled anywhere at Easter for 20 years, its just lunacy with all these people trying to do 700km in 5 hours to make the most of the 4 days holiday.

We reached Port Augusta about 130 and decided that we had had enough and pulled in for the night. We did venture down the road for fuel and some food before taking some time out to read a book and do a crossword. As the sun set, we though we’d mosey over to the local pub and have a nice cold 5-seeds. Good on us!