SA: Leaving Adelaide with a cursed car20 Jan 2006
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| The time has come to depart Adelaide and its lovely airconditioned hotel room and get back to some real life camping. Leaving is painful, particularly as the heatwave wont let up and we are both a little frazzled. At least we've paid some bills and the car is supposedly fixed and once again ready for the road. Mmmm. Can't leave Adelaide before we have one last swim, so we head to West Beach and find ourselves swimming just near where that poor kid got taken by a shark. It is so weird swimming in Adelaide because while everyone is in the water and seems to be having fun, no-one really seems to stray any further out than waist deep. Wimps that we are we follow suit. Unfortunately that lovely sensation of being cool only lasts while in the water. We're leaving Adelaide with no real agenda, just a definite need to hit the road. Stu and I are being unpleasant with each other and while the car might be working, the GPS system isn't and we end up stuck in McDonalds for lunch. Things just aren't going well. We end up heading out towards the Clare Valley and towards a monumental stuff-up where we find ourselves around 400km out of Adelaide and arguing about who suggested we end up where we are. It's ugly, we're hot and tired and every time you open a window it feels like a giant hairdryer is being pointed at you. Not good, but you have to have your bad days to appreciate all the others I guess. The funniest thing about fighting on the road is you have to bury the hatchet because you're stuck together whether you like it or not. Once a truce is reached, which isn't that hard, we head to Port Augusta for dinner. Port Augusta is a weird place - the cross roads where you either head to WA or NT (photo link). It's dusty and shabby but I reckon it's quite charming in its own way. It's getting on dusk and still as hot as hell so we decide to keep driving towards Port Lincoln in the airconditioned comfort of the Rig. At around 10pm we pull off the road and drive towards the coast to find a campsite. It is pitch black and that damned hairdryer is still going strong. We find a camping spot at Franklin Bay, about 10km off the main highway and pull in, just as the car dies. Unbelievable. The electrics seem to be completely gone but it's too hot to deal with so we set up the tent and climb in. It's hot, clammy and almost unbearable but we're buggered and it's too late to do anything but sweat and try to sleep. I swear to God that car is cursed. |
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