The Big Gallah, Wimba, South Australia
Despite its name, there has probably never been any snow here. We are in a very small caravan park, really just a town campsite with a couple of places to park, though it does have power, water, toilets and showers, and is really cheap at $15 for the night. We spoke to the attendant when he drove by to register us, and I asked him where the name came from. He said the first resident of the town’s name was “Snow”. He also told me a story of a Greek buisnessman who was going to buy a business in the town, but then changed his mind when he thought it would be snowing here.
Well, it’s not snowing. The temperature today was over 38 °C, one of the hottest days on which we’ve travelled. The news tonight was about the current heat wave, and the top temperature today was at Coober Pedy at 48.2 °C. We’re very glad we aren’t up there today!
We didn’t do any tourist things today, other than stop for a brief break at a store selling jewellery in Wimba, with this huge sculpture of a gallah cockatoo. The sign said “Halfway across Australia” and that would be about right. As in Canada, huge sculptures representing something local are used to try and lure in the tourists. It did get us to stop, and though we never bought any jewellery, we did buy a sweet roll iced with rasberry and cream icing. That’s the first time we’ve bought anything like that here, and it made for a nice morning snack. For the rest of the day we just drove to get to the area where we’re stopped tonight, just north of Adelaide.