me & my monkey

We made our way along the Eyre Highway heading west. The wind was bad again this morning and there was heavy truck traffic. After a roadside stop for morning tea we continued battling the wind and light rain until we reached Border Village where we were searched by the Quarantine Officials. After getting the all clear we headed into Eucla to top up fuel ($2.389 a litre) and have lunch before making our move onto Moodini Bluff Free Camp.

Very windy here again after travelling in very strong gusty winds for the last few hours. Looks like no fire again tonight.

Turtle’s part arrived in Ceduna this morning so Bob was straight up to the autoelec’s to get it installed. All running to plan so we headed out along the Eyre Highway after refuelling in Ceduna and made our way through strong winds toward the Western Australian border, stopping at Nundroo Roadhouse just to top up with fuel (so we don’t have to refuel at Nullarbor Roadhouse where diesel is well north of $2.00 a litre). We moved onto a freecamp at 222 km Peg Rest Area where we could camp amongst trees to get out of the wind.

We thought we might be lucky and be able to have a fire but the wind didn’t let up. Still it was a mild night and we celebrated the full moon with a few drinks.

We’ve just been idling the time away here. The weather has been pretty good, mostly sunny with cool nights but not to much breeze. We made our way up to the street for coffee and some grocery shopping before heading back for lunch.

After lunch we went for stroll down along the jetty and enjoyed the sun down there before returning to camp for an ice cream and a sit in the sun catching up on the news and some reading.

We are still waiting for news of Turtle’s new alternator but we anticipate that it won’t be installed until Wednesday so we booked in for an extra night on Tuesday and will probably head out after the vehicle is fixed (on Wednesday) for a couple of hours to find a free camp.

We headed up the street after breakfast to check out the metropolis of Ceduna. Did the normal Camping shop, Op shop crawl before heading to the Bakery for lunch. Bob headed off with Turtle to the Autoelec’s, while Debbie, Jenny and I walked the streets looking for the hardware shop (which we found a kilometre from the Main Street) before heading back to the Caravan Park. Bob called just as we reached there with the news that the alternator had to be replaced and it wouldn’t be in Ceduna before Tuesday of next week. We decided to play it safe and stay here until then, rather than risking a complete alternator failure while crossing the Nullarbor plain. It suits as well as Bob and Jenny can go fishing and we have power and excellent facilities at this caravan park.

We left Kimba after doing a quick grocery shop and some hardware purchases, setting out in glorious sunshine. After about an hour and a half of driving, a strong cold front began moving through with very strong winds. Initially they favoured our travel, giving a nice boost to the fuel economy but after we stopped for morning tea at Polkdinney Park , Kyancutta, we did a quick check of Turtle’s batteries and realised all was not well.The main car battery wasn’t reaching full charge which meant the auxiliary batteries weren’t being charged while driving. After we left our morning tea stop, the road (and the wind) turned meaning we were being buffeted side on. It rained on and off as we made our way to Wirrulla where we stopped for lunch.

We arrived in Ceduna around three o’clock and set up camp in the Ceduna Foreshore Caravan Park for two nights. We diagnosed a faulty alternator and, fortunately were able to arrange for the out of town auto electrician to check out Turtle tomorrow after lunch.

We went down the Main Street to do a quick shop before moving on travelling through Goyde, Gladstone and across country. We did a quick check to see if Turtle’s electrical problems had ironed themselves out but, no, they were still persisting. After a bit of diagnostic work we were able to establish that Main Battery isolator switch had failed so the Auxiliary batteries were not getting charged while driving. We really enjoyed the cross country trip, beautiful rolling hills covered in green grass. Beautiful sunshine all day.

We stopped off in Port Augusta and we were able to buy a new switch so we headed down the road to Kimba so we had time to swap out the old one and in with the new. We chose to stay at the Showgrounds (a free camp) with modern facilities. We got the switch changed over and tested it briefly but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how it works after a day of travel. Feels like its going to be another very cold night under the clear southern skies

Well Melva’s not here, so we decided we would head to Burra for the night and stay at the Showgrounds We had a great night around the fire, solving the world’s problems and telling ghost stories. The night began to close in, even colder than last night so we went indoors to get warm with the fan heater. Ready to head west even more.

Back on the road again. We left Echuca around 10 am and finally caught up with the Willies at Hattah North around 3 o’clock just in time for a coffee and a catch up. We’re all looking forward to this trip across the Nullarbor