Day 43 - 5th November

Macclesfield to Streaky Bay

Distance Travelled - 758.7 km

Woke early (well for me anyway) at 6.30 am but stayed in bed for another 15 minutes before getting up. Showered, had breakfast and packed the last remaining items into the car. Made sure the flat was secure, turned off the water and the hot water system and was ready to leave by 7.30 am. Headed off locking the gate behind me and started the trip to Streaky Bay. The weather was still overcast and rainy which slowed the traffic considerably, particularly as I travelled through the city. Stopped at a Maccas in the city to post the blog and then continued on my way. Stopped at a couple of Westpac ATM's but they were both out of order so decided to get money later.

The drive was rather boring with nothing to photograph and lots of rain. It probably rained for half the day on and off throughout the duration. Stopped in Port Augusta to stretch, grab some money and a pie from the bakery for lunch before continuing on.

Drove through to Kimba where I got some fuel and had another walk to stretch the legs as they were feeling a little cramped and tired. Having fuelled the car I summoned some concentration and drove the last leg of the trip through to Streaky Bay. Once there I went to the information centre and talked to them about the forecast for the night and tomorrow. It appears from the forecast that it is meant to be clearing with a 5% chance of 1-5mm tomorrow whereas today was a 30% of 1-5 mm.  I drove about 5 km out of town to the Eyre's Waterhole campsite and found a couple of other campers in vans and motor homes already here. I chatted to them for a while before retiring to the car to veg out and listen to some music on the ipod.

Organised and ate some tea then went for a half hour walk whilst waiting to see what the weather might be doing. I am not real keen on sleeping in the car with big km to drive over the next few days but neither do I want the tent to get too wet or have to move from the tent to the car during the night due to bad weather. Coming back from the walk I listened to some music for another hour or so before writing the blog. At this stage I am leaning towards tenting tonight but will wait until the last minute before making a decision.

Tomorrow I head towards Eucla, stopping overnight at Koonalda Station if the recent rain hasn't made the dirt entry road too bad. After doing some photography there the plan is to camp overnight and then head off over the border (another 80 km along the highway from the station turnoff) and see how far I get before pulling up for the night and finishing the remaining distance to Southern Cross the next day. I should be able to post this in Ceduna and then the next post may be from home.