Day 2 - Sunday 17 June 2007

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Last night we dined on a well deserved steak and a good bottle of local red wine. Headed home, knackered after a fulsome day, hopefully to a toasty warm hotel room. A shocking night’s sleep as grotty old room is totally freezing + Steve’s phone decides to light up at midnight and then Steve wakes at 02:10 thinking it’s time to go so lights on, “wake-up Simon”, etc - mmmmmph!

Steve driving - eventually back to sleep and up as planned at 04:45 and away (thankfully!) at 05:00. Bloody cold around 3c on leaving but drops to -3c at various parts during the early morning drive in swirling fog/mist - forced us to find fog lights. After yesterdays experience (yet to be disclosed!) we top up with diesel at the first BP servo before crossing the Murray into Mildura and Victoria.

Mildura looked a far better option for accommodation choice rather than Gol Gol - lesson here is don’t take the first option, that said we were knackered after a very long day and just took the first thing to come along which must be happen all the time hence our getting ripped off!

GPS Jill was proving to be a nagging pain so we sacked her and changed the GPS voice to “UK English Male” - GPS Joe sounded a lot more reassuring than the nagging old GPS Jill! ;-)

There have been notices all along the drive so far about declaring fruit (as there was yesterday!) for fear of fruit contamination as this area is a major fruit producing area. It turns out that a 'Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone' has been declared covering approx 3,500 square kilometres. We therefore ate as much fruit that Susie brought us for the trip as we could for breakfast and hence Steve's 'upset' later in the day :-(

Head west along the Sturt Highway and into South Australia (SA) by 06:27 (121 kms). A little later on (06:35 EST, 130 kms) at Yamba (a name Steve and I recall from when we were hunting for a name for what became Yambay) where we went through an SA check point and declared all of our as yet uneaten fruit which was promptly confiscated – better than a $11,000 fine? Allowed to keep our nuts as seemingly no flies on nuts!

Reach Renmark at 06:48 (147 kms) and onto B64 heading towards Morgan and Burra. For some reason the GPS decided to take us off piste and across two ferry crossings over the Murray! At the first crossing (Waikena, 07:50, 226 kms) we run into a very droll Scot who said it was colder than being on North Sea trawler and the second (Cadel, 08:22, 257 kms) by a husband & wife team – no nagging as he is working when she’s at home and vice versa hence his claim that he is boss when at home? The Murray very low but did not appear so at crossings as between locks.

Simon driving - just outside Waikena at Ramco (08:00, 234 kms) we changed drivers after the first ferry crossing. We head through Morgan (08:40, 269 kms) and around now fog lifts and temp around 5c. Simon at last perfected the ‘Outback Wave’ a laconic lifting of fingers off the wheel to around 45%. Basically the truckies (top of the pecking order here) hardly ever do the wave but most others do!

For most of the journey we pass though vast farmland with early crops (winter wheat) looking really good; talk is of record crops to come after years of drought. We pass through wine territory (Claire Valley) past Oxford Landing (Yalumba, 08:13, 244 kms); see wild (!) emus, bee hives, horses, cows, sheep, lambs, orange orchards, olives, etc. All looks in great shape!

At Burra (09:30, 352 kms) in the Claire Valley we top up the car and advised to head to Sunderland which we do hitting the start of the Southern Flinders Ranges – excellent run through rolling hills following a water pipeline for miles (kms!). Pass though Gulnare (413 kms) and joined the A1 (10:41, 445 kms) heading north (getting worried that burning a ‘W’ into the GPS screen!) up to Port Augusta which we get to at 12:45 (549 kms). The A1 will do us now all the way to Norseman (other side of the Nullarbor) in WA.

Steve driving - after visiting the Visitor Information Centre in Port Augusta eventually back on the road around 12:20. Pass Iron Knob (smutty jokes allround which when pasing White Knob a few clicks along didnt seem as funny!) at 12:52 (620 kms) the birthplace in 1894 of the Australian steel industry, the A1 becoming the Eyre Highway around here.

Lunch stop (pot noodles with tepid water from the Visitor Centre!) around 13:30 (643 kms) and on to Kimba (14:07, 706 kms) advertised as being ‘half way across AU’ where again we top up with diesel and take a pic of the car under the ‘Big Galah’!

Simon driving – Kyancutta at 15:15 (796, kms) and on to Minnipa by 15:45 (846 kms) where in need of a fatigue fighter we buy 2 “V’s” for just under $10 – these country folk know how to charge! We press on to today's destination Ceduna entering town around 17:30 (1,015 kms) and eventually check into to the Best Western Motel (only ‘best’ in the name and almost certainly not there flagship property) after a total day’s drive of 1,020.4 kms.

At least the room is warm, so showers all round – the car should enjoy the next stage of the journey as it were doing our best to destroy the new car aroma. Hopefully, it can fight back tomorrow.

Today’s speedo reading is 4,519 making a total since leaving St Ives yesterday morning of 2,024 kms – all along the car behaving very well and a joy to drive as very effortless.

Road kill count today: Roos x7 / Fox x2 / Misc x3 - thankfully Steve refrained from direct hitting and wild-life today...