We left Uluru to be ahead of the heat, but during our ride we got information of a heat wave that would last for 5-8 days in the entire south of Australia, temperatures for today where predicted at 43 degrees in Adelaide. So we planned a visit to the Art Gallery of South Australia during the hottest hours. After that we would take a ferry to Kangaroo Island where the temperatures would be more moderate.
While it was still nice we spend around the tent. Then I found out the back door would not open anymore. Youtube to the rescue. It is a common issue on 120 series Landcruisers in dusty situations where dust gets into the lock. The easiest way is to flush it out with some WD40. So I only needed to get some WD40. Luckily there was another Landcruiser standing close to us and I had already noticed they where heavily prepared. It turned out to be a German couple who had already been traveling 9 months and still had 15 months to go. Next to spare shock absorbers and the likes they also had some WD40 and 2 minutes later the backdoor opened with ease again.
We had a swim and left for Adelaide.
On the radio we had also heard about a Corpse Flower that started to flower in the botanical garden of Adelaide, I fancied a visit, as they only bloom very rarely and then only for 24 hours, but by 10 they had closed the waiting line with the heat rolling in. Waiting 3 hours with these temperatures seems to be pushing it a bit. So we headed for the art gallery.
During our trip we had seen some small dust twisters and sometimes a dust cloud blowing by, but just south of Port Wakefield we saw a hug dust cloud, it was going straight over the road and the next few minutes we drove in a surreal world where visibility dropped to about 50 meters and the speed was drastically lowered as well.
We found a paid parking spot (just 5,30 AUD for 3 hours) and walked the last few hundred meters over the university terrain while a hot wind did not really cool us down, but was still nice.
The art gallery turned out to have free entrance and it was setup very nicely. There would be a free guided tour later in the afternoon. There was an Australia wing with some European stuff and a European wing with some Australian stuff. All in all a very nice museum with a nice versatile collection. During the visit we got a message the ferry we booked needed emergency repair. After a call we where rebooked for the next day and also our way back was rebooked.
We did some groceries for the upcoming days and headed for a camping spot which turned out to be closed. I found another spot close to the ferry. We had a nice ride through flowing mountains and winding roads, but in the end most tracks where closed, so we could not reach the camp sites we planned. We did get on top of one of the mountains next to one of those wind turbines. They made a scary amount of squeaking noises and with the amount of wind we almost blew away. We decided to go to a paid camp site we had seen nearby.
Once we got out of the car we noticed the temperature had dropped to 17 degrees. 26 degrees lower then a few hours ago. We decided to have a simple meal in the camp kitchen and a glass of whisky to keep us warm.
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