NULLARBOR TO PORT AUGUSTA

The beautiful Nullarbor plain

Classy pizza and wine at Port Augusta

The tent on the left looking out to a huge green

The campsite in the morning

DAY 94 – NULLARBOR TO PORT AUGUSTA                                  Tuesday, 4^th October

Well, we all almost blew away last night!  The pole in the tent creaked all night so the kids claimed to have not slept a wink.  It is still very warm and children were cursing mum for making them wear singlets to bed last night.  Well, we WERE in the middle of the desert!!!  David cooked pancakes for all while we tried to pack up quickly before the rain poured down on us.  Unfortunately, right at the last minute, Caleb’s front wheel came off his bike and he went over the top of the handlebars into the hard gravel.  Poor thing winded himself and has some impressive grazes on his elbows, hands and chin.  Not a nice experience but David, being always one to look at the bright side of things, said:  “Chicks dig scars, mate”.

Off to Ceduna where we had a classy lunch in a carpark!  Then said farewell to the Patersons as they went off to Streaky Bay and we headed towards Port Augusta.

The whole trip we have wanted to purchase a piece of Aboriginal art for our new home.  David suggested we buy a Seven Sisters painting we saw at Mt Ebenezer which is between Uluru and Erldunda.  But, ever the cautious one, I said we should continue to look to make sure it is what we really want.  Of course, my ignorance meant that I did not realise the extent of the different styles of Aboriginal art throughout the country.  Whilst I can appreciate all types of art, I really like the traditional dot paintings, which are really found only in central Australia.  So when we got up north, we realised we had missed our opportunity. 

It has been one thing I have regretted.  BUT, God is indeed smiling on us because we popped into an Aboriginal art gallery in Ceduna, in the pouring rain, just as we were heading off on a long drive to Kimba.  And I just loved the work in there.  There were two paintings by Verna Lawrie about her mother-in-law who had travelled inland Australia, mainly through western and northern South Australia.  As a child, she travelled with her parents through the desert, sometimes by foot, sometimes with the Afghan Cameleers, and sometimes they would “jump a train”.  They continued to travel until she married and settled in Coober Pedy.  The painting is entitled “She Knows this Country”.  It just spoke to me about needing to travel through places to really understand your country and your place in it.  I just love it – and I think David does too.  Anyway, it is a fantastic momento of our trip – and also my 40^th Birthday present (did I just say 40??!!).  David decided we would take it with us in the van – it is two metres long and probably almost a metre wide!  Lucky we have only got two nights left!

It has rained ever since we left Ceduna – steady, soaking rain – so we have decided (for the first time) to be slack and get a cheap and nasty motel in Port Augusta.  It is so hard to put up the tent in the rain, especially with all the things that need to sit outside the van at night (most importantly, our new painting!)  Kimba looked like such a lovely town too.  But all of this will be for our South Australian holiday!  We are dying to come back and do the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas one day before the kids are too old.

But we just wanted to get as far as we could.  The Flinders Hotel in the main street of Port Augusta is a very old hotel, with the huge bedrooms and big verandahs.  All of us are in one room and, while the menfolk went out hunting and gathering for our dinner, Alanna and I reached new levels by having to drink wine from a cheap tea/coffee cup!  Pizza was the dinner they “hunted and gathered” so we sat in our hotel room, eating from the box!  Oh how the mighty have fallen!!  We had a good laugh on the verandah after putting the kids to bed and then realised we have another huge day in the car tomorrow.  Today, at 765kms would be our biggest day.  The kids were so good for being stuck in the car all day and they did quite a bit of catching up on their journals!

We are all depressed tonight because after the last two weeks of average weather, we have all lost our beautiful tans!  Broome seems like such a dim and distant memory!