Woke up bright and early yesterday, so we could get out of Melbourne as quickly as possible, and hopefully avoid the morning traffic rush. Almost managed it. Got a little stuck on the ring road, but eventually found ourselves out on the open road.

First stop - Adelaide. This would be probably the longest leg of our whole journey. As we have done this trip many times before, we drove on as quickly as possible, stopping only to feed ourselves, and the car.

We noticed a few unusual things as we travelled. Firstly, the scenery was much greener than we remembered on previous trips. Perhaps because we are driving at the end of a long cold wet winter.

The second thing we noticed was the plethora of bugs smashing themselves across our windscreen. At one point there was a whole swarm that appeared out of nowhere, and instantaneously exploded across our view like a fireworks display, but with a huge splat rather than a bang.

The third thing we noticed was the wild flowers. Bright yellow and orange blooms bordered the highway for miles - WA eat your heart out! Tried to take a photo, but didn't come out very well. Partly because we were going so fast, and partly because of the impact on the windscreen from the splatted bugs. We call it the Monet effect - a new style in photographic expression.

Anyway, eventually got to Adelaide and met up with Steph. The weather was warm and sunny, a world away from the freezing conditions when we left Melbourne in the morning. So we caught up and relaxed with a nice meal and a bottle of wine, sitting outdoors in the balmy evening in one of the many cool trendy restaurants on Hutt Street. You can do that in Adelaide.

Just as we were winding up and heading home to relax, Steph got a text from some friends of ours who were travelling through Adelaide for one night and thought they would catch up with her while they were there. It was a bit of a shock when they heard we were there as well, also only for one night. And they were just across the other side of the city, only a few minutes away.

So the day ended up being a lot longer than expected, and we were very happy to collapse into bed as soon as we got back.

GeorgeY's bit

Found a parking spot on East Terrace in front of Steph's unit. 4hours from 8am to 8pm. Nice spot backing on open green parks. Good value for free parkers, even without power or free wifi. Can't always have it all but, always thankful for what is provided. Thank you Adelaide, see you on the way back.