While I slept, the rain & drizzle that I rode through
yesterday got ahead of me, so I could ride through it again today – sneaky bastard
weather.
The Eyre Highway was as dull as yesterday so I took a short
detour through Streaky Bay, a bit more scenic than sticking to the highway.
Decent coffee and doughnut in the bakery.
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| Streaky Bay |
Made it back onto the highway, mainly long stretches opening
out onto wide plains in places. An impressive statue of the Granite Farmer at
Wudinna.
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| The Wudinna Granite Farmer |
It turns out that there’s been an exceptional amount of rain
in the area – 80mm in two days. This caused the highway either side of Iron
Knob to be completely flooded (surely there’s a gag in there somewhere?). Riding
through these floods, this road riding wus felt like a real adventure rider for
30 seconds.
The wind was blowing an unpleasant stink across Port Augusta
so I didn’t bother stopping. Headed through then turned left towards
Peterborough. The good news was that a little way ahead were some hills (a
treat after 2½ days on the flat) – Horrocks Pass, the bad news was the black
& grey clouds that covered them. Sure enough, as I got near it started
raining - spoiled the short winding road through the hills. Near the top it was
in cloud, visibility down to 25m. What a shame, I’m sure this is a favourite
road for the PA weekend warriors. Over the top and there were more hills in the
distance – a long way away and I could see them! Skies cleared a bit and some fun
was had.
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| The rain of Horrocks Pass behind me |
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| Orroroo ahead |
10km out from Peterborough it really let it down – I was
dripping all over the reception desk checking into the Peterborough Motel (which is very pleasant).
Looking at the weather forecast for the next couple of days I
think I need to change the plan - this band of rain is heading to where I want
to be. So, I think I’ll head Head for Broken Hill tomorrow and do some
touristing for the day to allow the rain to clear ahead.
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