I was talking to Sam on the phone around 7PM our time and I got him to lookup the weather radar picture for where we were and he said we would get hit in about an hours time by lots of yellow and red stuff. Well did we get hit! We heard this massive wind gust coming for I’m not sure how long before it hit. Suddenly the hindged section of the camper with the bed on it was lifting up against the ropes holding it down and the legs dropped out. The whole car shook and moved violently as the heavens opened. We could hear people and stuff going everywhere outside.

I managed to secure the camper in the driving rain and the odd bit of thunder as well. I did not notice at the time but all our mats and shoes had gone missing from the front door of the camper. I got back in and we noticed that the group of campers across from us were in a spot of bother with a tree across their caravan. The pine tree had snapped off about 2M above ground level and just missed a tent but landed on their caravan. I went over and lent a hand to cut it up and help lift it off the caravan. The temperature dropped from 28 degrees to 18.5 in a matter of minutes when the storm hit.

It was a poptop caravan and the little legs that hold the pop top up were broken. He went in and got one that was now a triangle and he indicated the other one had been punched through the top of the cuboard and he had not located it as yet. Luckily nobody was hurt and the damage was easily fixed. He said the dents added character to his van that was not worth much anyway.

Middle of vacant site

More limbs

Another guy came over from nearby and the same thing had happened to him but the pine tree fell away from his van onto the road. There were small branches and limbs everywhere. I walked over to the toilet block and a woman told me she was locked in her van when a tree fell across her door. There was a quite large limb in the centre of a campsite near the toilets, luckily unoccupied tonight. I got back and went in search of our mats and shoes that I luckily found spread around about 20M away in another campsite.

Ouch

The rain and wind abaited for a short period and then it got wound up again and Sharon tells me it really bucketed down around midnight. The camper held up really well in the big gusts but the fly may have gone to China had it been on? It was amazing how much the truck shook when it hit.

Debri around our site

We survived and because it blew all night the camper was pretty dry in the morning when we packed it up. It was sunny when we got up but quite cool as it was only 11 degrees and the wind chill was high and still blowing. We had a look around the resort and the walking tracks and headed off to have a look at the impressive solar instalation that AGL has installed to run the resort hidden between some low hills out of sight.

AGL solar, battery and generator site

We then headed off and had a look at a tree made famous by Harold Cazneaux a famous photographer. The tree still looks very much like the photo shown taken in 1937. Down the road a while and we visited another aboriginal rock art site called Arkaroo. The paintings here were well preserved behind a wire cage to stop all the dickheads scratching their names or other mindless stuff on them. It was also a pleasant 3Km walk up to the base of some impressive hills along the Flinders with great views.

A famous tree

Only way they can stop the idiots

We drove through to Peterborough for lunch where the Indian Pacific stopped just behind us while preparing lunch. We drove to just short of Renmark to a spot by Lake Bonney and a free camp tonight. We can see the lights of Barmera across the other side of the lake. Not sure what our plans are tomorrow but it will involve a bit of driving I am sure.

Lunch stop, notice the jumper and jeans…..

Indian Pacific behind us