From the inner warmth to the southern cooler

It was time to hit the road again this morning, after a fairly, well...uncomfortable night at the 'Opal Inn' in Coober Pedy. We were clearly spoilt at the Underground Cave lookout hotel on our way through town a couple of weeks ago! 

But we didn't let this spoil our day. We were up with the sun and on the road even before the roadhouse was open for breakfast, muesli bars and iced coffee was breakfast on the run.

Shannon drove the first stretch this morning to Glendambo. The weather has changed and this morning was quite overcast and we even got a little rain! The change in the weather brought the wildlife out, clearly looking for water. We saw our first live kangaroos on the side of the road. While it was a nice change from only seeing roadkill and wedge-tailed eagles, they were right on the edge of the road. Shannon did very well to get around them without any damage done to animal or car.

I took over after a short pit stop. I battled a headwind and numerous road trains. Road trains are very new to me. They often have up to three long trailers carrying cattle, gas and who knows what else. They travel at fairly low speed, especially considering we were on limits of 110, some of them sit on 80 or 90. So, I passed a number of them today, carefully, cautiously, but with gusto!

This was only a small one

We only had one other stop on route to Wilmington at Port August for fuel.

We spent a little time here on the way north, so didn't need to stop again. We arrived in Wilmington at around 12:30 and found the closest park so we could have some lunch. These are welcome rest stops for travellers driving long distances. They are usually maintained by Rotary or Lions Club and have a toilet block, chairs and tables and usually bbq facilities. We had leftover sausages, so chopped these up to put in our sandwiches.

Wilmington is a very small town at the foothill of Mt Remarkable, Flinders Ranges. It is big enough to have its own Primary School, though the one pub and decent cafe in town have both closed down. We wandered into a local jeweller, which we thought odd to be out in the middle of nowhere, but he gets a lot of commission work apparently. He told us things close due to disagreements between landlords and tenants. We perused his lovely jewels and kept moving, taking a stroll down the main street. Wilmington has its own toy museum, which we may visit tomorrow, a takeaway food shop and an op shop. It does have two caravan parks, to cater for tourist passing through, but also those that hike and cycle in the nearby ranges.

The Pub that is closed

After we had set up our tent, for the last time this trip, we took a scenic drive to Hancock's lookout. It was lovely to see emus and flocks of galahs and parrots in a very green, lush area.

We will revisit the lookout tomorrow when we have better light.

We decided to drive into Melrose, about 20km down the road.

This little gem is slightly bigger than Wilmington. We had a lovely coffee and cake and booked for dinner at the North Star Hotel for tomorrow night's birthday dinner! We will return to Melrose tomorrow, to visit their country show. I am looking forward to the dog events and sheep chasing competition. I'm hoping to find excellent scones and a Bertie Beetle showbag to complete the show experience.

Melrose

Melrose

Before the Long Weekend crowds arrived

Blogging in the bush

Finally if you would like to travel from Coober Pedy to Wilmington, a distance of 581 Kms, you can, in around one minute. Shannon and I made the video below by taking one photo every five minutes over the entire journey, with one every minute whilst in Port Augusta.