Gismo Queen and her King

Day 51 - Coober Pedy to Port Augusta

Today was all about driving. Coober Pedy to Port Augusta is 538 kilometres, and that was the biggest towing drive I have ever done. But we did it in about 7 hours, including two stops - even at my "grey nomad" speed as Paul likes to describe it.

A cold, cloudy morning in Coober Pedy this morning. We commented that we haven't seen cloud at all on this trip. We suspect that is about to well and truly end. We packed up and were on the road before 9am, although Lisa and Paul left before us (so they could go faster!) because Harrison wanted to see the Cultural Centre in Port Augusta and they needed time to do that.

Today's drive involved very little scenery to describe to Greg. And when I say very little, I mean very little. I think I could count the number of trees I saw on my fingers. Leaving Coober Pedy, it was understandable as we knew the annual rainfall was so low and mining obliterated the landscape. But it went on like that for hundreds of kilometres! We stopped in Glendambo for an early lunch 240km down the road. After that, the landscape became even more moon like (if that was possible). For a short time, the landscape offered relief with a couple of lakes. One was obviously freshwater, while the other was salt.
But after that, it was back to very flat, treeless plains for as far as the eye could see. Even the emus stood out like sore thimbs because they were so much taller than the landscape. Good thing Greg and I had a rattling good book to listen to!

We set up in our caravan park in Port Augusta (the same one Greg and I stayed in two years ago) and as this was our last night of travelling together with Lisa and Paul and family, we went out to a local bistro for dinner to mark the occasion. From a question Greg asked Lisa more than six months ago ("how would you feel if we gate crashed part of your caravan trip?!"), we have spent the past month together and it's been amazing. We spent the night reminiscing about our time together, the things we've seen and done, our favourite places and times. Lisa and I have done lots of travelling together, and Lisa, Paul and I have done quite a few trips too, but this was such a major trip, with our loved ones, and that has made it very special.

We then had the pleasure of catching up with a long lost cousin of Greg's. Through the wonders of facebook, and some titbits of family knowledge, Greg thought Belinda was living in Alice Springs so we made plans to catch up there. But, it turned out she and her husband had moved to Port Augusta so given that was on our route anyway, we made plans for here and Belinda joined us at the bistro as we finished our meal with Lisa and Paul. Family catch up finished a lovely night of reminiscing and enjoying company.

posted by Tracey @ 11:14 pm