What an adventure this is turning out to be

This morning we were awoken by the tow truck returning to collect us earlier than expected. We rushed to pack our things and be on our way.

Fortunately we had a tow truck driver who was great to talk to and shared many stories of vehicles, racing, his life and travels, Australia's history and animals. I had a blast from the past talking about my days in automotive service, motorbike driving, and being on a pit crew team. He too was on a team and raced cars for many years. We talked about Casey Stoner who is from New South Wales and was born a year after myself. At the young age of 21 he won world champion of MotoGP motorcycle racing and in 2011 he was the second world champion for Repsol Honda which just happens to be my all-time favourite motorbike (shown in this picture)

 We also learned about Quandong trees which grow in all regions of Australia. The aboriginals used to eat the fruit of these trees when hunting game was scarce. The fruit contains more vitamin C than oranges. They also crushed the leaves and added saliva which was then used as a topical ointment. I don't feel my future clients in natural medicine would appreciate this method so I can't say that I will ever try this but I do find this very interesting.

One of my favourite things to see on the road are these yellow signs warning of animal crossings. Only in Australia will you see ones with camels, wombats, kangaroos, and emus.

Wombat holes could also be seen along the sides of the road. For those of you who don't know what a wombat looks like here is an adorable picture

While stopping for a driving break we talked to a nice lady from Tasmania and I saw this beautiful plant that I just had to take a picture of. I think it might be a cactus and Wazza thinks maybe an aloe vera plant. What do you think?

After driving 500kms we arrived in Ceduna, South Australia. The bill to fix the ute is astronomical and we're not sure if it is worth the fix. We now have to figure out a new game plan and possible carry on without the ute. We are now officially backpackers. I have no house key, no car key, possibly no travel vehicle, I'm wearing the same clothes as yesterday and I am sure that I smell foul. Here is what we look like along with our saviour at the end of a long day.

 I also got to check out this really cool old tractor that was sitting at the Holden dealership today

At the end of the day we ended up at a really nice Caravan park close to the beach and the Ceduna Jetty where we can whale watch. It's a great place to be stranded in and we're still happy and healthy and ready for more geocaching in the morning :D