Port Lincoln, Victoria to Wilcannia, NSW - 951 kms 10:13 hours.
I set out in the morning from Pt Lincoln up the coast of the Spencer Gulf towards Pt Augusta. I went through Whylla and 4 hours later and passed through Pt Augusta for the second time.
Once past Pt Augusta, I come across Lake Bird. This is yet another "lake" that is basically a dried up version that turns wet when it rains. The main water discharge from a power plant stopped after it was shut down. What remains is this dry, smelly salt pan.
Once past Lake Bird, I came across a series of wind turbines. As I got closer, I saw large array of solar panels.
Among them was an array of reflectors aiming their rays at a central tower. It is rare to see a mix of so many renewable sources - solar panels, concentrated solar power and wind turbines. Solar panels or photovoltaic cells convert sunlight directly to electricity. But with concentrated solar power, sunlight is reflected by an array of mirrors that focus it all on the top of a tower. Here, it can be used to heat up water to create steam and power steam turbines to generate electricity. It could also be used to heat up water for other purposes. You can see the tower below.
Turns out the two are somewhat unrelated. The solar panels and solar reflectors power a sophisticated greenhouse facility at Sundrop Farms. This place grows 15,000 tons of tomatoes. It desalinates water and generates power.
But the wind turbines and some of the solar panels are further down the road and belong to the Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park (PAREP). It generates 320 MW of power in a mix of solar and 50 wind turbines.
It is one of the rare hybrid setups that have more than one source of energy. Two thirds of it comes from wind and the remaining from solar.
Soon I was on my way and came across the town of Peterborough. Being a bit of a rail nut, I was delighted to come upon a couple of steam train models on display.
According to the signs, there was a rail museum nearby. This is the problem with driving around, hardly stopping anywhere. You come across promising sights but you have miles to go before you sleep. You have to ignore them and move on. But hey, there was something interesting still happening. Seems like it is a town parade headed my way. I settled down into my car, whipped out my phone and started shooting. The first vehicle was the police car leading the parade. The officer in it turned around to look at me and looked a bit startled. As the rest of the parade passed through, I found out why. Oh oh!
Turns out it was a white pride parade! I didn't know what to do, so I kept filming. I was largely ignored but I wonder what the participants made of the car parked on the side of the road with a brown guy in it, filming them.
Once the parade had gone past, I exhaled and was on my way. But there was a small problem. The route I had to take meant following the parade at roughly the same hearse-like speed. No worries, I took a side road and raced up to overtake it. But every attempt to rejoin the road seemed to just come up to the middle of the parade. And the side streets were full of sullen looking people returning after watching the parade. I just waited on a side road and slowly trailed the parade at a safe distance. Finally, they took a fork and went up a hill and I bolted down the other side.
Soon I was flying down the road at the NSW border towards Wilcannia. Soo, I passed through Broken Hill, where I grabbed a quick bite. Soon I got back on the road and it slowly became darker and darker. And so it was pitch dark and I had still not reached Wilcannia when - THUNK!
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