Day 4: Adelaide to Streaky Bay
It rained overnight, and I woke early to find our washing sodden on the clothesline. Thankfully, the caravan park had coin-operated dryers, so I searched Google Maps for the shortest walking route to a cafe and set off for a coffee. ("Could I have my change in one-dollar coins, please?")
After breakfast and drying our clothes and the tent, my son and I left Adelaide and headed north to Port Augusta. We stopped briefly in Snowtown, setting aside its grisly recent history to potter in an eclectic secondhand goods warehouse where he bought his mum a vintage David Attenborough book for Xmas, Zoo Quest for a Dragon (Readers Book Club, 1957).
But the highlight of the Port Augusta section was spotting a road sign for Perth. I was driving, and my son took a photo and posted it on our family WhatsApp group with the question: "Should we take the left fork to Perth or the right to Darwin?"
Port Augusta road sign to Perth (click for larger image)
We had planned to climb and camp at Tcharkuldu Rock. But my son said his arms and fingers hurt from indoor bouldering with friends in Adelaide last night and climbing at Arapiles, so we pushed on to Streaky Bay for a swim. (Unfortunately, the beach was as inviting as a mangrove swamp at low tide when we arrived.)
It was another long day on the road, 700 kilometres and over 8 hours with stops. For the last half hour, we headed west into the setting sun. I was driving again and could barely see through the windscreen until I pulled over, and my son washed off the dead bugs and grime streaks with his towel. But on that tiring stretch, Google Maps confirmed we'd passed the halfway point of our road trip.
