Into the desert

Well things got a little crazy since our last post, with all weather conditions testing our little tent!

Friday night in Mount Gambier ended up being quite a torrential down pour, and so we found ourselves waking up in a puddle the next morning. This definitely made us question if camping every night really was the best idea. After utilising the dryer facilities on essentially all of our belongings, we were on our way to Hahndorf. 

Hahndorf is a little German Village near Mount Barker, just outside of Adelaide. We had a delightful campsite (thankfully not under a tree this time), and although the weather improved slightly, it was still drizzling, so the tent remained damp. On Sunday we made our way into Adelaide, walking around the CBD after finding some very delicious coffee at a cafe called Peter Rabbit (if only we could have afforded brunch, it looked amazing). 

Not long after leaving Adelaide, as we made our way to Port Augusta, we started to see everything turning red. Once we arrived, we finally had some sunshine and the tent dried out in a matter of minutes! Suddenly we were again more concerned with being sunburnt than being rained on. Waking up the next day (Monday morning) with little to worry about other than our next campsite, was a fantastic but surreal feeling, knowing everyone else was heading off to work, and we were heading off on new adventures.

Our next stop was Port Lincoln, with our most picturesque campsite to date, set up on the waters edge, right next to the ocean. In hindsight that was probably not the ideal spot, as 40km/hr winds whipped the tent around all night, and had us fearing we would either blow into the sea, or wake up without a roof! The winds didn’t die down at all overnight, and instead started to increase around 7am, so we packed up in record time and got on the road by 8.

Thankfully our next campsite was in Streaky Bay, just a short drive from Port Lincoln, and our early set off time meant we could take the scenic route. We stumbled upon another “great ocean drive”, and found our way to a beautiful vantage point of the Great Australian Bight. Such a worthy detour, and really made us realise what a fantastic country we live in!

Streaky Bay is a gorgeous seaside town, and our campsite was one of the best yet, right on the sandy beach, facing the water. And thankfully the winds had subsided! After setting up the tent, and feeling much more confident it would stay there without the howling winds blowing, we went off to explore. 

We discovered Murphy’s Haystacks, a strange group of rocky statures that looked very striking against the desolate surrounding landscape. 

The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the beach, and once again set-off early knowing we had a long day of driving ahead - this time to the WA border!