Started out uneventful...then.........

Started out an uneventful day.

Up and on the road by 0800 hours - late for us.  Checked the maps and decided we could Ceduna to Peterborough in one day - 597.8 kms or 6 hours 15 minutes.  Definitely doable, and gave us and extra hour on the road bringing us closer to home.
The knitting surfaced as Claire took the first shift behind the wheel.  We decided this would make a good beginning on a bikini!  (I started out well, then stuffed it up and Claire had to undo and re-knit. Oh well, guess I should stick to angle grinders and nail guns!)

We had a leisurely drive and did a final top up of fuel at Wudinna, a small country town on the road to Port Augusta.  We had a couple of young tackers (4-5 years old) totally fascinated by the trailer.  We opened it up and they were boggled that it "had a plane in it!"
They were a bit awestruck that both Claire and I, a couple of old boilers, were pilots.  In good WIG fashion (Women in Gliding to the uninitiated) we told the little 'uns that girls can do anything if they set their mind to it. Feminism rules!!  AND don't mess with the WIG!

The landscape was starting to become more farmed and we enjoyed the change of scenery. Heading into Port Augusta, we passed Iron Knob, a massive mine on the outskirts of the town. Iron Knob is said to be the birth place of the Steel Industry in Australia  After nearly 100 years, mining at Iron Knob ended in April 1998, when the last ore was taken from the Iron Monarch open cut pit.

Courtesy Iron Knob mine

Port Augusta is a gateway to Alice Springs to the North and Perth to the West.  It is starting to feel like a second home as I seem to have been there so much in the last 2 years!

The low road leaving town feels like you are right on the mud flats.  Would be interesting to see in flood!

We arrived at the turn off to Peterborough, called Horrocks Pass and then life started to change along with scenery that became mountainous with the clouds hanging low over the hills.

As we were wending our way through the beautiful hills, gulping in the scenery and the old dilapidated stone farmers cottages from yesteryear, we have our first brush with Skippy!  Bounced right out of the gully in front of us! Luckily, due to the windy roads, we were only travelling at 75 kms and were able to put the brakes on and Skippy passed us by; although he was a lucky little kangaroo today as another car was coming the other way and missed him by 50 meters.  Ya just never know when it will happen.  Shock over, and we continued on into Peterborough bound for Terowrie - yes, we still don't know how to pronounce it. Note to self - ask local tomorrow......

Terowie....that was a nightmare we had to have!  We booked in to this roadhouse motel at around 1030 hours this morning.  Some trip reviews good, others bad.......believe the bad..........oh so bad!
Paid money, went to room with owner, a young fellow and his wife who have migrated to Australia from China. Very nice couple.
Showed us the room - on the surface it looks clean; old, but clean.  Then he showed us the bathroom with mould on the walls and a cracked shower screen. Not sure what he was saying about the cracked shower screen as his accent was very thick. Then he proceeded to tell us to boil the water if we wanted to drink it as it was from the rainwater tank only. No fresh water supplies.  Alarm bell number 1.  OK.....can work with this.
THEN.....I checked the sheets!  Oh my holy Mother Mary!  They smelled of stale sweat and looked liked they had not been changed for at least 3 bodies worth of visitors. The pillows were so flimsy, they had no guts to them and smelled of old man's stale Brylcreem.  Bile was rising.  Claire then smelled her bed - we both looked at each other and said "we're are not happy!"  We started to reload the car and the owner came out and asked if anything was wrong.  I said "yes there is".  I told him were were not staying and the sheets were not clean.  He offered me new ones, but the deed was done. He was very nice, I must say, and gave us a refund and apologised.  They are a young couple trying to make a go of it in a new land and they knew that the property was a little run down, but they need to do research on what constitutes acceptable provision of accommodation, even if budget.

We raced back to Peterborough and got a very nice motel room at the back of the Railway Hotel with Claire insisting on seeing the room first!  Beautiful old grand dame with all traditional fittings (should see the wooden bar fridges - McAmazing!) and we took a motel room out the back and were able to park the trailer there as well. Peterborough is very, very familiar with gliders due to Waikerie being a crow's flight down the road and many landing in paddocks or trailers passing through on the way to retrieves.

                                                              Courtesy Railway Hotel

No, the saga does not end there.  Jaysus, holy Mother Mary!  Claire can't find her washbag...are you kidding me. Yep, back to Fawlty Towers!  Dive into the car, hurtle 26 kms down the road, trying to do this by nightfall.  Arrive at Fawlty Towers and kick Claire out of the car to retrieve errant washbag with my gentle tones chortling "your on your own with this one!"  Retrieved washbag, and hightailed it out of Dodge down the road at 110 kms (or more) to get back to clean sheets and a nice meal at the pub.  I'm exhausted and so to bed and another day tomorrow.  

Claire in need of a good red to calm her nerves!  Fawlty Towers did her in as well!

Tomorrow will be either Ouyen 518 kms or Swan Hill 643 kms.  Then the home stretch!
That should give us one more charity knitted blanket square.