The Only Thing Missing Is.......

So The Wudinna Hotel Motel was OK value for money. It was cheap! The trucks stopped bothering us after a while, the dog only barked on the quarter hour and the compressor from the fridge next door was not THAT loud. I slept like a baby.....I woke crying every hour. Old joke. I actually slept OK. Marjan less so, she found the bed uncomfortable, and then the other stuff started to bother her. It was, however, the cheapest place we had stayed at so the fact that only three holes in the shower rose produced hot water was to be expected. They did have coffee and toast and muesli so we survived.

We spent a bit of time discussing what to do this morning. More granite rocks, hills, mountains or bluffs were OUT. Instead we decided on a east-west run through the Gawler Ranges National Park. We had done a north-south run without stopping last time, we had to make good time, so we could check it out a little better this time.

Up through grain country again, skipping past the school bus picking kids up on the farms. The newly washed car was getting dusty again. Before too long the farms finished and we were travelling through mallee dunes again. Eucalypt, cypress and causarinas dominated the upper storey. We were soon in the national park and having a look at Mount Allalone. Apart from standing on its own, and being famous for having Eyre stand on it and look around, it is made out of pudding stone. Think that is rubbish, it tasted like normal dirt.

The saltbush country was very dominant until we got into the hills where the red Rhyolite started to come to the fore. We stopped at a couple of places to look at wild-flowers, the old Panney homestead and a lovely gully where the moisture seemed to bring up even more flowers.

The sun was beginning to be obscured by some serious clouds and it was time to start heading back out. So back on the road. Whilst driving to Streaky Bay to pick up supplies we spotted a man by the side of the road who looked exactly like my brother after losing 10kg. Well the clouds cleared and by Streaky Bay it was sunny. We had lunch at our favourite little cafe and I watched fascinated as an older trio of women virtually begged the pleasant staff to spit in their food through their rudeness. Anyway we lunched and we got our supplies and headed south.

I had booked the next place specially for our wedding anniversary so I hoped it would be OK. We had a couple of minor stops along the way, to have a look at Venus Bay from a different angle. Meh! And to walk along the beach because we had got to Mt Camel Beach before our allotted time, so keen were we. Anyway, we finally got there and it was pretty good. 250 acres of beach frontage, all to ourselves.

We set up the bluetooth music player with Aretha, chilled a Rose, broke out some dip and olives and enjoyed the view. Marjan said 'The only thing missing is a dolphin swimming by.' I replied that I had ordered one and it would be by later....shortly after........very shortly after........the dolphin arrived, surfing the waves and just being very dolphiny. We were both blown away by the timing. A good start to our anniversary stay.

We are contemplating not taking the padlock off the gate into the property and just sitting here for three days. We have shelter, water, food, a beach, music, yummy pork products.....and each other. I was not sure about the order of those last two.