We were up early for the long drive to Leigh Creek. It's around 600km and is situated between the Flinders range of mountains and the Simpson desert. After checking out of the motel we stopped off at McDonalds for a latte and then made our way towards the outskirts of the city. Adelaide looks to be quite a nice city, tidy with some pretty suburbs and a fair number of very smart looking churches. All in nice pastel colours. We headed out through the wine growing regions of the hunter valley and surroundings. As we moved further north the landscape changed dramatically. Very soon we were in the outback, the little towns became further and further apart and less populated. Still quite pretty but some consisted of just a garage, a couple of shops, some houses and of course the pub with its bottle shop. Unlike the UK supermarkets don't sell alcohol. It is sold in bottle shops, drive through booze barns or pubs.
Despite the fact that I have been to Australia Several times before I have never seen a wild live kangaroo. I was beginning to think that would be the same as we drove past dozens of Roo's dead at the side of the road. Some quite recent, others little more than a skeleton with fur. We did spot some live emu though. Big buggers. We stopped the car to take some photo's as the looked menacingly over. Wouldn't want to set too close. Still no live kangaroo though. Apparently they are quite plentiful at dawn and dusk. Surprising drivers by hopping in front of cars and causing numerous road traffic accidents.
The flinders range of mountains were quite spectacular but it soon became clear why the middle of Australia is called miles of 'nothing' the roads snaked into the distance with nothing as far as the eye could see but red desert. It would be quite a query to break down as we went for hours at a time without seeing another vehicle.
At lunchtime we stopped for fuel and something to eat. The meat pie was delicious, not quite as nice as the Tesco Meal deal scotch pie but not far off.
Matt and I shared the driving, sticking to a sensible 120km per hour and eventually arrived at Leigh Creek. Not before I had unavoidably slaughtered a quite huge lizard which ran into the middle of the road and stood there. I was traveling at speed and it would have been dangerous to try and avoid it so I splattered it. I have seen a natural history programme that these lizards are monogamous and have a partner for life. When stage partner dies the other lizard will grieve for weeks by the side of the road. I felt very guilty.
Leigh Creek is a mining service town. It has a population of 500 ish and quite a lot of temporary accommodation for the miners. It was built fairly recently and has the look of a school campus. It has a hospital, school, post office and ridiculously high priced supermarket. We were to be living at Leigh Creek Caravan Park, just off the main road. Matt had to pick up the keys from the service station and once done we got ourselves installed in the mobile home which was to be 'home' for the next 6 weeks. After that we went for a look around which took all of 10 minutes and called in the 'tav' for a beer and something to eat. I was really looking forward to a steak. It was months since I had eaten proper meat so treated us to a couple of pints and a steak dinner. It was a huge T-bone. Delicious with egg, chips and gravy. Replete, we headed back to our caravan and had an early night. Matt was working the following morning at 7:00.
Location:Black Oak Dr,Leigh Creek,Australia
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