We were on the road by about 0700 today – just after the sun broke through – as we were aiming to make the free camp in Peterborough before sunset…. It was freezing today and we knew we needed to stop to collect some firewood as a fire would be necessary in the free camp tonight!!

Our first fuel and coffee stop was at Wuddina – the bakery where we stopped on the way over 😊 Klaus had the mandatory vanilla slice…..

We were quickly on the road and pushed through toward Port Augusta…

The road again seemed to stretch endlessly before us….

Arid landscape dotted with saltbush was intermittently interrupted with farms…

The mine at Iron Knob was in full swing…. It loomed large to our right….

We arrived at Port Augusta….

sandwiching Gordie in between us so his lack of caravan lights would not be detected… and stopped for fuel and to make lunches in our vans on the east side of the town…

Klaus had an annoying headache that was proving unresponsive to panadol – but he swallowed a couple more and bravely soldiered on…

Trev grabbed some coffees for the road….

A large sheep carrier packed with sheep left the fuel station…. Not a good thought about the destination of those poor sheep crammed in….

We left Port Augusta and the bottom of the Flinders Ranges was in sight…

The first sign with Sydney on it was a sad reminder that the holiday was coming to an end ☹

As we drew closer to the ranges we were amazed at how green the slopes of the hills were – they had certainly had plenty of rain and the farmland and hillsides were really velvety!!

We started up Horrocks Pass…..

and did not get far when we came upon the sheep truck and a road train going up at 15km/hr!! It was a slow journey up and the narrow road made it interesting when oncoming trucks – such as the Explosives carrier below – needed to pass the road train!

The drive through the countryside was broken up by the many small towns such as Wilmington that we drove through – all with their quaint old buildings and a history to tell…

We made it to Peterborough before sundown and drove out to the free camp just on the eastern outskirts…. It was blowing a gale and absolutely icy so there was no way we could have a fire….

Everyone jumped in their vans to have dinner…. Klaus was exhausted and still suffering with a headache so he went to bed to get a good night’s sleep…. We all got together in the Hunter’s van after dinner to listen to the second last podcast on Exodus…. Thankfully the Hunters have a gas heater so we were all toasty warm!!

We went back to our vans…. And Beryl came across letting us know Klaus still had the headache – so I gave him a couple of stronger painkillers in the hope he would get a good night,s sleep and be refreshed in the morning for our drive to Broken Hill… we reassured Beryl that she could knock on our door any time overnight if he got worse as by now he had had the headache for quite a while with no relief – and that was a little concerning…..