Saturday 1st June. Glenelg to Port Augusta

Woke up to  a grey old day, lots of rain overnight.  Went for a walk around the marina.  We were particularly interested in an old sailing ship that has been converted to a restaurant.  This was visible from our motel (with marina view) window.


By passed Adelaide city and drove to Gawler, there were a number of overpass bridges names after battles in which Australia has been involved from World War 1 to Vietnam.  Stopped for lunch in Claire had a really nice potato and corn soup and drove on to the Port of Germaine.  This little town has the longest wooden pier in Australia.  We started to  walk out on
it, but it was very cold and the wind a bit fierce so we turned back.

Travelled through many thousands of hectares of freshly planted grain.  Guess the farmers are loving the rain.

We are stopping overnight in Port Augusta at a quite nice motel. Had a nice Indian meal (butter chicken David) in their restaurant which was quite large to our surprise and packed out.  Good job we thought to book when we booked in.

I receive a weekly newsletter from Westprint, a 4wd map company and read that the Stuart Highway is closed for 4 hours today and tomorrow.  Hmm guess where we have to  travel tomorrow?  Apparently the defence force is doing 'range testing' and are closing 80km of the highway from 10:00 until 2:00.  We have to be in Coober Pedy tomorrow eveing so will just have to cope.  We hope to get to the beginnig of  the closure at 12:30 to 1:00.  We will have a wait of an hour or so then we will go on to Coober Pedy.

After all this luxury, outback camping is getting closer.  Am I pleased or sad? Hmmmm.