Geocaching up north …

Today was going to be the warm one and it certainly was. We broke camp early with the group splitting up. My plan was to spend the day geocaching, camping somewhere on the northern Yorke Peninsula.

There were a few more caches to find before getting to Quorn. One involved a walk in to a lone grave from the old mining days. It is believed to be linked to the Comstock Mine.

Following on from Quorn there were a few caches to grab through the Pichi Richi Pass. At one point it involved walking through a few hundred metres of high grass so I was always looking for the elusive snakes that may have been lurking.

After crossing the railway line to venture to yet some more remote graves, there was a train whistle. What a bonus, to actually see a train travelling on the old Pichi Richi Railway. After grabbing the geocache, I followed the train down through the Pass, getting some more photos on the way.

It was really starting to warm up when I got to Port Augusta with strong northerly winds. I continued to geocache through the afternoon when the temperature started to tip 41C. This really had worked up a sweat so grabbed a shower at the BP roadhouse before heading south towards Port Pirie.

There were blue skies above but over to the east it was black and thundery and on checking the weather radar it wasn’t looking much better to the west and it was heading my way. I don’t think I would be camping out tonight.

I remained in Port Pirie until dusk geocaching, but the weather had made it to me. It was still hot and the winds were still strong and you could see some rain coming down but it never reached the ground. What did make the ground was lightning. It was time to head south.

The farmers that hadn’t already reaped their crops were out in force trying to get what they could in before either the rain or lightning got to them. The lightning show continued all the way to Port Wakefield and normally I don’t mind a lightning show but it is different when it is hitting the ground around you as you are driving.

So instead of sleeping out in the scrub in the rooftop tent, it was home in my bed.