Transfer to Glenelg

Today was the day we shifted from Dutton Bay to what South Australians - at least those who live in Adelaide -  refer to as The Bay: Glenelg.

Following from comments earlier about how  the Port Lincoln area appears to have 'branded' (cough, cough vomit at that word) itself as the Seafood Coast we mused as to how Adelaide would brand its coastline.  Frances came up with Culture Coast, which is probably a good idea of something the glitterati of Adelaide would sign up for.  I preferred the Crow-eater Coast, although that  reference to South Australians has probably joined bonza and strewth as a non-word.

As I had discovered the previous day that it was only 700km between the two residences we had a fairly relaxed packing of the car and it was close to daylight as we drove away from Vandy's Shack at 7:15.No kangaroos were harmed during the drive to Port Lincoln where we hung a left and headed for Port Augusta.  I was able to spot these cultural artefacts on the edge of the town as we headed North.

Traffic was very light: on several occasions I noticed about 20kms between crossing with another car, and I don't recall overtaking car until close to Whyalla.  The country looked very dry and barren as we went up the road.  Just about every vestige of bush has been cleared and the sown crops haven't yet germinated despite fair recent rains.

This colourful  hillside didn't show up as well as I'd hoped, possibly due to the murky cloud.  The weather forecast was "mainly cloudy": for the first 3 hours it was about 99% cloudy!

I had hoped to spot a sculpture of an emu made from rusty barbed wire but alas I didn't notice  it on this leg.  So we navigated Port Augusta and turned South, running past the Lower Flinders Ranges.

 The road was a little busier than the stretch up from Port Lincoln.  We heard a story on ABC News about how truckies were fed up with caravans driving slowly and blocking up the areas where trucks can park for the required sleep breaks.

Then we came up behind a B-double doing less than 70kph.  Sure enough, in front of it was a large campervan (like a small Winnebago, although not that make) an in between them a sedan that wouldn't overtake even though a few chances appeared.  After about 4km of this we passed a sign saying "Overtaking lane 5km" and settled down for another ~5 minutes of annoyance.

As we approached the overtaking lane it looked as though the 'van was going to speed up, but it then dropped back to about 80kph.  As soon as it could the truck pulled out and passed the vermin, dropping back in quickly so we could also get by both of them. Frances looked at the van driver: oldish male, leaning across yakking to his passenger: no idea at all that there were a dozen other vehicles queued up behind him (some of whom probably had to wait another 10km to get past).

Whatever.  We rolled on down the road and hooked in to the metropolitan area, taking the North-South Expressway.  This was an elevated expressway for a few kilometres and then dropped down to the usual narrow, crowded South Road with a subterranean expressway-under-construction next to it.

That clip from Google Earth shows the stretch covering both Port and Torrens Rds where the intersections were effectively closed.  Work on the completed bit (4.8km) began in 2011 and it appears the sunken stretch currently being worked on is to be completed in 2018: the rest of the road, from the Torrens to Darlington appears to be unfunded yet.  So they have got a few minor issues (including massive chaos for years as every East-West road south of the River has to be overpassed; buying a whole lot of land and houses) to deal with.  My guess is this will not be completed before 2040.

Whatever.  We were fascinated in Port Lincoln to see the price of diesel jump 7 cents per litre between Tuesday and Saturday.  The 'new price' 155c/l was evident everywhere until we got to Henley Beach Rd where it suddenly dropped to 146c./l at a BP station and then went even lower at Liberty.  I'm sure that this is all kosher and fuel companies don't collude.

After a minor navigational snafu by me we got to our new accommodation and moved in.  We decided to go for a short walk around the area to stretch our legs.  An early observation, at the Sturt River (now a concrete drain) was that it was totally fenced off by SA Water.  They really do seem to be a very authoritarian organisation, even by the low standards of water companies.

Then down Tapley's Hill Rd which was very busy and noisy.  I noticed this place, which must be awaiting the due process to allow high rise to be developed.

 It must have been vacant for years to get the rainwater tank into that condition!

We decided not to go as far as Anzac Highway but swung back into the 'burb.  The noise from the road died away almost completely within a block.  It seemed a very pleasant area with a mixture of old houses (such as the one we're staying in), new houses on a standard block and places were a standard block had been subdivided.  This decorated stobie pole showed that there was a bit of interest in making the area attractive..

Getting back home we had tea and went to bed.

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