Dagur/Day 13 - Port Augusta to Broken Hill

Linda's version of events: This will be written in english. For you icelanders, there is always the English/Icleandic dictionary.. Dad's alarm went off at a ridiculous hour of the morning. I tried to resist the tyrannical decision made to wake up, but got a lamp light shined directly into my eyes, making further sleep rather difficult. The tent and car were packed up with our usual efficiency (meaning it only took about an hour and half, including the time it took to take everything out of the back seat of the car again to search for some connection thingy for dad's computer). Finally loaded up, we went to check on Chris, Cathy and Jordan, who had spent the previous night in a cabin. They weren't quite ready yet, as apparantly Jordy, like myself, rebelled against the idea of waking up before sunrise. So, the viking trio headed off to get fuel. Diesel for the car, and tea for Mum. Dad got the brilliant idea of going through the drive-thru at MacDonalds for some tea. After waiting for a while at the pick-up window, and wasting some of that newly acquired diesel, we were informed by a flustered employee that we couldn't have any tea, as a mysterious "someone" had left the tea machine on the clean cycle. Apparently they don't know how to boil hot water at MacDonalds without their gizmos and procedures. Thankfully, the family was contented with hash browns instead. A crackle on the radio announced that the Andersons were on their way, so we all zoomed out of Port Augusta. The following 420kms were fairly uneventful. We listened to a segment on ABC radio about travel writing, and how the true travel books are becoming superfluous with the increase of travel blogs on the internet (particularly ironic...). It was a very windy day. We were almost blown away whenever we stopped, which was only for food and to get rid of all that eaten food (i.e. lunch and toilet stops). Morning tea was spent in Peterborough, and we went into the information centre there, which was a converted rail car from 1917. Chris bought a magnet there, whic wasn't all that magnetic as it fell off his fridge straight away. Lunch was spent in some unremarkable town with a name beginning with 'O'..... can't quite remember the rest... oh, Olary. It had a pub/hotel for sale, if anyone is interested. If you do decide to buy it, I'll take my commision in the form of free grog and accomodation. Opposite the Pub on the other side of the road was a dismantled Telstra pay phone. Apparently it had stopped working some time in the distant past. The guy fixing it took the payphone out of the booth and dismembered it on one of the two tables in the Olary park. Once we had finished our lunch, Dad spoke to the guy doing the work. It turned out that the phone was fine, but the line was broken somewhere up stream to the next town so he was off to Broken Hill to report it so someone else who can fix a bad connection so that they could be scheduled to go and fix it. Who says Telstra isn't repsonsive! Nothing exciting for the rest of the drive, except a couple of grazing emus, which meant a screeching of brakes and a whipping out the cameras. We got into Broken Hill around 3pm, headed straight for the caravan park and set up our tent in gale force winds. Lucky Chris and Cathy have a cabin (complete with funny plasticy smell, don't ask me what died in there - a Barbie doll was probably brutally murdered and then buried under the floor). Rather quiet afternoon spent relaxing, and I have acquired a complete dictionaty reference collection for a decent price, all without leaving the caravan park. Chris and Cathy went out shopping for foodstuff and a pillow, as Jordan apparantly left his pillow behind in Port Augusta. Jordy seems intent on leaving a trail of his possessions behind through all of central Australia, as his binoculars remain on top of a mountain somewhere in Kings canyon, and his mobile has gone AWOL. It is thought that the mobile is in their tent... which has been packed into a little tiny bag. I suppose we shall find out if Jordan still has a phone in Trangie, when the tent is unpacked for our last camp-out. We just had hot dogs for dinner, and are planning on going to Chris and Cathy's cabin for dessert. Cathy promised chocolate mousse!