We left Port Pirie at about 9am, having said good morning and goodbye to all. This included Matthew!
It was an overcast day, but the predicted temp at Hiltaba was 27 today so we were wearing just T Shirts, with jumpers packed away.
As we headed along the highway the gulf to our left was a dark broody grey/blue and we could see the new wind farm in the distance.
The wind farm, just before the sundrop area has already got seventeen full wind turbines and there are at least 7 more partially built. They are close to the highway so you cannot miss their enormous size as you drive past. The works depot for the project had 8 cement trucks lined up!
We’ve been pushing into a stiff breeze ( pushing up a lot of dust) today and decided to refill fuel at Port Augusta, adding another 37 litres of fuel ( $50) for the 333km we had travelled. Approx 11l/100km we figure.
We enjoyed a break from the interminable roadworks at Iron Knob, where we enjoyed Belinda’s delicious sultana cake and a cuppa, doing a brief tour of town, including the pub. The sign said open, but the gates were closed.
More roadworks finally brought us in to Kimba, where we bought hot pie and pasty for lunch before heading out of town. There was virtually an 80km/h limit for this whole section, with one section of stop by a lollipop man with a long wait.
Just at the town limits we saw a brown sign inviting us to a lookout. We proceeded to White’s Knob, where a metal sculpture of Edward John Eyre and friend looks down also.
In 1838 Eyre led an expedition from Streaky Bay and reached the Gawler Ranges, discovering the Sturt Pea. Eyre found a good supply of water near Iron Knob. Two years later he explored further into the eastern side of the peninsula which now bears his name, finding a spring and some good grass 45km east of this lookout (near secret rocks) . He named that place refuge rocks because at last he had food and water. The aboriginal figure in the sculpture is a nod to the aboriginial people on whom Eyre relied so heavily for their bush skills.
We enjoyed a short walk to see some local caves. These caves have been ther destination of many an excursion in the local area.
Only a short distance on we stopped again at Bascombe Rocks ( used to be a soak with permanent water and tennis courts). No water seen today, but we didn’t walk far to check either in the blustery wind.
I expected Buckleboo to be just a locality as we headed on what was now a dirt road , and there weren’t any houses, but there was an exceptionally impressive brick club rooms at the oval , along with a CFS shed and 3 excellent new tennis courts. I reckon you could probably camp behind the club rooms and use the public facilities if required. We let some pressure out of the tyres here in preparation for the long, sometimes rough, dirt stretch ahead of us.
We came up again behind a truck carrying two huge tanks and were wondering about passing the wide load when he turned off onto Karawatha Park(!) leaving us lovely open road in front of us. Not much later we passed through a gate and were driving on Buckleboo Station.
We saw some tiny lambs in this stretch. As we were both getting a bit weary we stopped for a cuppa and leg stretch just before turning on to the Hiltaba road. Here there was a stunning row of telegraph poles( still with their gleaming white insulators in place). As you can see, there was a good amount of dust in the van (particularly just inside the door)
We arrived at the shearer’s quarters just after 4 pm and were the last to arrive. Some drove all the way from Adelaide in a standard car today ( with a very early start) and beat us here by a few minutes.
There was quite a clean up required as we had been well dusted inside.
We had a lovely dinner of quiche and salad plus fruit salad and icecream for tea and learnt a bit about expectations for the week.
A well earned shower was also enjoyed as the rain started to fall.
What we’ve seen today:
- Dust
- Roadworks signs
- reduced speed limits
- White’s knob
- Caves
- Sculptures
- Kangaroos and Emus
- A giant galah
- Spinifex and rocks
- Old telegraph poles
Luvapuzzle 