So, my aim was to travel from Esperence to Adelaide, a journey of around 2200km. Unfortunately I had no travelling companions handy and my car only had a radio and you don't get much reception in the middle of knowhere. It was going to be pretty damn boring.
My aim for the first day was to start early push on and get to the WA/SA border by tea time, only a journey of around 900km. As it turned out I managed to get within 80km of the border and spent the night camping at a roadhouse. All was going swimmingly, the car was going well and I was feeling pretty good.
Another early start had me on my way eastwards again, and I had various stop offs along the way to look at the beautiful coastline of the australian bight. At a couple of places the car started playing up a little, making worrying clicking noises instead of starting, but I managed to breath life into it each time. Each time that is until I got to the Nullabor roadhouse, where I got plenty of clicking noises but no starting of the engine. A quick consultation with the mechanic and a pair of jumper cables later and I was on my way again, chased by a gigantic thunderstorm. After realising I had a bit of a dodgy battery, probably because of the heat and the length of time I'd been driving, I was reluctant to stop so I pressed on, my aim for the day had been to get to Ceduna a town at the SA end of the Nullabor. However, when I got there I had a drive around town and wasnt too keen on stopping, so I decided to see how much further I could get.
Several hours later I made it to Adelaide with the minimum of stops, including a couple of cat naps and food breaks along the way, and that was my slightly eventful trip across the Nullabor. So I arrived in Adelaide on the 21st of December, and have been very hospitably put up by my friends Matt and Kelly.
They even took me round to various family occasions on Christmas day before letting me crash a 3 day break up to the Clare Valley(just next to the Annies Lane winery Shell) they had planned with some of their friends.
They don't have wifi internet beamed across the desert? Susan and I bought some books-on-tape before doing long drives (Townsville -> Alice Springs). Unfortunately, all books called "A History of Britain" are actually just histories of England, except for the brief periods where they're having battles. Bummer!
Posted by: Andrew Birkett at January 6, 2004 05:26 PMYay! Annie's Lane hmmmmm yumm my favourite.
Posted by: shell at January 9, 2004 07:21 PMMake sure you get a new battery before moving on! Could be your batteries not getting charged properly so that's the alternator that might be buggered.
Sounds fantastic over there, still very jealous!!!
Al
Posted by: Al at January 13, 2004 10:48 AMStill sounds like you are having too much fun. I liked Adelaide a lot when I was there, spent lots of quality time asleep in the botantic gardens.
Heat dosent normally do your battery in. Take your wheels to the Oz equivalent of KwikFit, they should do a battery test for free. If your battery is ok your alternator is f*cked and you should replace it before you do any more long distances.
Hi Craig What aboutEast part 2 ? It would be interesting to know what you are up to and comforting to know you are alive. Mum and Dad.
Posted by: H amilton Thomson at January 19, 2004 12:20 PMHi Craig! Make sure you get your car sorted before doing any more long drives. Don't think being stranded in the middle of nowhere with a dead battery would be much fun. Hope you had a fab Christmas and new year. Thanks for my postcard (heheh). Take care darling.
Bx