3 June to 21 June 09

Wednesday 3 June 09

Still on the Eyre Peninsula

We drove back into Coffin Bay stopping on the way at the lookout that overlooks the bay and the town for some photos. The views from here are really spectacular with some interesting streaks in the water, I think caused by the sand and the seaweed.

Once we got into Coffin Bay we discovered a walk beside the beach which we walked along for about 700 metres. We felt like we were walking through everyone’s backyard as the path skirted them and there were no fences. As the backyards were small this added to the sense of trespassing.

I had spotted a little jetty with dozens of pelicans sitting on it which I wanted a photo of but when we got to where we thought it was we couldn’t find it. We walked back and looked back and there it was. It must have been behind an inaccessible bit of the beach. I had a go with the zoom to see if I could get them but it was a bit far away.

Coffin Bay is a really pretty little fishing and tourist town (really what I would call a village). Quite a few of the small houses we walked past had signs saying holiday rental. As this is winter the town was very quiet but I can imagine in the summer it is really busy. It is a very popular holiday destination as is Port Lincoln especially among the fishing fraternity. King George whiting is one of the most commonly caught fish in this area but I saw several salmon trout being caught.

On our way back to Farm Beach we stopped in at Dutton Bay and West Dutton for some more photos. Neither of these places is particularly appealing just little fishing villages with no more than a dozen houses in each. Most houses had great big tractors by them which are used to take their boats into the sea.

Thursday 4 June 09

We drove to Wangary, another small town which appears to service the small fishing villages of Dutton and West Dutton as well as the surrounding farming community. It was big enough to have a football team. We called into the local general store to get some bread and find out where we could get some drinking water. The assistant directed us to the local footy ground which we drove around twice without finding anywhere where we could get water. There were some people in the clubrooms so we went in to ask where we could get water but they were just cooking for the evening footy match meal which we were told attracts about 200 people each week. They couldn’t help with water. We could see several rain water tanks around the place but none with suitable fixtures for attaching our hose to fill our caravan tanks. We decided to wait until we got to Elliston and hope we could get water there.

We decided to take a drive in the other direction from Coffin Bay going north up the coast to a place called Frenchman. We could not see this place marked on any map we had. This turned out to be several spots where you could drive off the road to get a view of the cliffs. The cliffs were fairly high but quite attractive. We had sheep on the road on our way home and had to wait a while behind the farmer until he got them off the road. We would have been quite happy to wait until he got to the farm gate which wasn’t much further down the road but as he had pushed them off the road we waved and went past.

Back to the caravan and yet another pack up ready for the morning move. We took down and packed up the annex and put away as much as we could. This still left quite a bit to do in the morning but as it was not a real caravan park we were not obliged to be out by 10.00 in the morning. I don’t know whether we mentioned earlier that we were paying $5.00 per night for this park. This saved us quite a bit of money for fuel to look around.

Jenny and Bill had decided to leave the next day as well so we agreed to meet them at Elliston and look for another cheap or free site to stay at.

Friday 5 June 09

Packed up by about 10.30 and drove on to Sheringa Bay where we had been told the camping spot was good and the fishing excellent. When we got there we decided that the camping spot was not that good and the cost was a bit high, $9.00 per night, for a camping spot with virtually no facilities other than a toilet. We decided to move on to Walkers Rock which was on the other side of Elliston. Barry thought it likely that the cost would be the same as it was in the same shire, which turned out to be the case.

We stopped at the tourist information centre in Elliston to find out about water and get some local maps. The centre had rain water tanks which we could connect to and fill our tanks.

We stopped at Walkers Rock beach and set up camp. We did not bother with the annex because we were only planning on stopping for a couple of nights just to see the area and possibly do some fishing. The fishing did not happen. Had a quick look at the beach but as there was not much left of the day we just set up the generator and the satellite dish and watched a couple of hours of tv. Barry picked up the satellite within 3 minutes which was a relief as it can be very frustrating messing about for ages trying to find the satellite. Buying the angle finder has proved to be very useful. You can find out from the internet what angle you need and with the finder it is very easy to get the right angle. It is then just a case of pointing the dish in the right direction. Unfortunately there is no channel ten which is picked up by the Optus 2 satellite so we miss out on a few programs we like to watch.

Saturday 6 June 09

We went into Elliston and picked up some more water from the tourist bureau. Did some shopping and then we took a drive along a scenic drive south of the town overlooking some more cliffs. We took a few photos of the town and then had lunch at a small café opposite the tourist bureau. The waitress told us how to get to another scenic drive which took us around the cliffs north of the town of Elliston. Lunch for me was a really nice steak sandwich and a latte. We managed to get instant coffee for Barry which was nice because he doesn’t like percolated coffee.

In the afternoon we did the second scenic drive which turned out to be very unusual. Quite a few artists have made sculptures which have been placed around this loop in various places. Some of the sculptures were very good and some were not my idea of art. For example there was a giant pair of thongs and a little fat man on a bike which were a bit ordinary.

On the other hand there was a sculpture of a Cobb and Co wagon which was excellent. Some of the sculptures were a bit weathered and one of a group of albatross which had fallen over. I imagine this was quite spectacular when they were standing as they still looked quite good on the ground.

There were painted chairs scattered around the cliffs which looked like litter. Barry thought the whole display looked like litter. The following day we passed a paddock which had a pile of tyres dumped in it and Barry asked me if he should stop so that I could get a photo of some more “art”. There was work done by the community, some done by school children and some done by recognized artists. I thoroughly enjoyed myself getting photos of the sculptures good and bad and the seascapes when and where they were accessible. Barry staid in the car virtually the whole way round. It rained a bit so some of the pictures may be a bit spotty.

When we got back to Walkers Rock camp ground the heavens opened and we had a deluge. Unfortunately this meant Barry had to almost swim to his door of the car the following morning as there was a huge puddle.

Sunday 7 June 09

Packed up to move on. Packing takes a bit longer now because we have to put away the generator, the satellite dish and the solar panels and because it doesn’t get light very early we haven’t been leaping out of bed very early.

Our intentions were to go to Baird Bay 50kms south of Streaky Bay because again we had been told that it was a great camp site with good fishing. When I looked at the camping book I saw that it said small vehicles only and as I wouldn’t say we were small I called Bill and Jenny and asked them to let us know whether we could get in there when they got there. Bill called back a few moments later and said that they were going to Perlubie Beach which was 21 kilometres north of Streaky Bay rather than try to squeeze into Baird Bay so we agreed to follow them there.

We stopped for lunch at Eyre’s Water Hole, a well which Eyre had found and used on a couple of his trips of exploration. One of which was across the Nullabor to Albany. I walked down the track and got a couple of photos of the well.

We drove straight through Streaky Bay without stopping and discovered that Perlubie Beach was a great camping spot with toilets and cold water showers and only $4.00 per night. Bill and Jenny weren’t there when we arrived which was a bit odd as they were ahead of us when we left Elliston but it turned out they had turned off to go and look at Murphies Haystacks (a rather unusual rock formation) about 40 kms short of Streaky Bay. The rest of the day was spent unpacking and walking along the very messy (seaweed) beach. There are about 6 shade shelters on the beach which we discovered were put there by the local pony club, who obviously meet out at Perlubie Beach.

Monday 8 June 09

We spent the morning doing hand washing. It is years since I did so much washing by hand in cold water. It is one thing washing out your smalls each evening, but hand washing jeans is no joke. We ran the generator so that we could use our washing machine to spin the water out to make rinsing and drying more efficient. Jenny and Bill took advantage of the generator and spun out their washing as well. The afternoon was just relaxing. We were able to sit outside the caravan under the awning as the sun was shining and it was quite warm. Barry did an oil change on the generator. Monday evening Jenny and Bill joined us in our van and taught (or re-taught) us how to play Skip Bo. A very simple card game which is quite good fun for several people and not too taxing if you want to socialise as well. We only played 3 short games but it was good fun.

Tuesday 9 June 09

We drove back down the Lincoln Highway to take a look at Murphies Haystacks. We were very impressed with this group of rocks, some of which look like haystacks.

One looks like a shell band stand. We should have called in like Bill and Jenny did when we passed the turn off but not being sure of the road we passed by.

We had to pay a couple of dollars because the rocks are on private property but the owners have put toilets in and a compressed rock path to walk around the formations so we didn’t object.

After this we went on to look at Baird Bay the camp ground where we had been going to stay. The camp ground was extremely small and we would not have got in there with Bill and Jenny getting there first. There was a fairly large bus with a boat trailer and another van a bit smaller than ours. One more would have been the limit. Baird Bay was not particularly attractive and there was nothing there to make us get out of the car. There were a few houses there.

Our next stop was Cape Labatte which is home to the only mainland based pod of Australian sea lions. A very rare and endangered species so the board said. All other Australian sea lions are living on islands off the coast. Some times they are only metres off the coast as they were at Port Lincoln. So it was really good to see them so close. We had been to see them last time we visited Streaky Bay but they are such lovely creatures that you can never get too much of them.

We couldn’t see any babies but there appeared to be lots of males around so they may have been breeding.

According to the signs they breed every 18 months, summer one year and winter the following year. The females stay but the males roam hundreds of miles away.

Next stop was Sceale Beach which also had a few houses, probably fishing people. This place had a bush camp which was very well supplied with a camper’s kitchen and gas bbq, toilets and cold showers. It appeared, however, that you would have to drive to the beach so we picked the right spot at Perlubie Beach.

Wednesday 10 June 09

We did nothing today. Jenny and Bill moved on to Haslam, another free camp ground on the beach. As this was only 18 kms up the road. Barry was not interested in moving there so we decided to stay here and take a drive up to look at Haslam later in the week.

Thursday 11 June 09

We drove around Cape Bauer Loop which is a rather nice drive with several stops to look at bays and cliffs. There were some blow holes at one point but although you could hear them they weren’t blowing and the sea was very calm.

The drive took us longer than we expected so we didn’t bother with the other drive around Westall Way Loop Drive. On the way back we saw a sheep with its head stuck through a wire fence. Barry got some pliers out of the car and unwound one of the fencing wires. The sheep wasn’t very helpful and kept trying to push us out of the way but he didn’t hesitate to run off as soon as his/her head was free. Barry was quite disgusted and put out that it didn’t even stop to thank him. He repaired the fence and we went on our way feeling good about our good deed for the day.

We went back to Streaky Bay for some shopping and to do the washing in the Laundromat, sheets and towels etc.

We bought fish and chips for dinner much to Barry’s disgust. I enjoyed it. The Shell garage where we bought our dinner houses a replica of a shark (White Pointer, I think) caught off the coast of Streaky Bay which holds the record for the largest catch, on a hand line, in the world.

According to the info board the meat was used for bait. How is that for waste?

These fish are now heavily protected I am pleased to say. I also bought a squid jig in the hopes of catching some squid when we go to Haslam to see Jenny and Bill.

Friday 12 June 09

Catching up with blog and I cooked “porcupines” in the “Dream Pot”. This was rissoles cooked in tomato soup and Worcestershire sauce. For those of you who don’t know, a Dream Pot is like a vacuum flask. You cook your ‘whatever’ for 10 minutes or so on the stove put it into the Dream Pot and leave it for a minimum of 2 to 3 hours depending on what it is. You can cook scones and cakes and do a roast in it. I haven’t used it to its best advantage yet but I must start doing so. One of its best features is that you can start a meal cooking in it before you start travelling for the day and by the time you get to where you are going you have a cooked meal and you have used no energy at all other than residual heat. I haven’t tried myself but I have eaten cake that has been cooked in a Dream Pot. It was one using 3 baked bean cans to cook the mixture in.

In the afternoon 5 people turned up by the toilet block and spent about 10 minutes just standing staring over to where we were parked. They looked a bit official. Barry thought they were just sheltering from the rain but I could see that where they were standing they were not under shelter. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable even though we were not doing anything wrong and had paid our fees for the camp site. They left eventually and we thought nothing more about it.

Saturday 13 June 09

The weather was still bad with the wind blowing hard and rain. There were breaks in the rain so we decided to take a chance and drive around Westall Loop Drive.

This drive is about 20 kilometres south of Streaky Bay. One section had some rather nice sand dunes and there were some good views of cliffs and bays. An enjoyable but blustery day.

We were back at the caravan by 4.00 pm and soon after there was a knock on the door and the visitor asked us to leave in the not too distant future. He used to cart the water in to the camp site but had given the job away to the Shire Council, who presumably didn’t want to do it, plus the septic tank was not working too well and tending to overflow, so the council wanted to close the campground down as soon as possible. After a very windblown night we packed up and left the next morning and headed for Haslam despite not originally intending to go there. Perlubie Beach campsiteis now officially closed.

Sunday 14 June 09

We arrived in Haslam about midday and met up with Bill and Jenny again, giving them a chance to teach me the art of squid jigging from the jetty in the afternoon. This was without success due to very rough water, despite the wind having dropped considerably. Yet another camp site for a small fee. These camp sites are quite good, this one even having a washing line. The town of Haslam (I use this word loosely) used to be quite a busy port for wheat export to Adelaide but these days there are just a few houses there. Probably fishing people. There is power to the town so they are not on solar panels. We have seen quite a few new settlements where the houses are festooned with solar panels and water tanks, obviously going for the self sufficient life style. It appears they do not feed back into the grid because there are no lines anywhere.

Monday 15 June 09

We drove though to Wirrulla on the Eyre Highway via a dirt road to see just how good or bad the road was, to determine whether to take the caravan along it or not, as we had been informed that the campsite there was a donation only, although you could get a key for a hot shower from the shop or the pub. The road was good enough for the van to go along which would save a lot of fuel by not having to backtrack to Streaky Bay and out to the highway at Poochera.

After lunch I had another attempt at squid jigging, again without success. Jenny caught one and Bill nothing.

I took some photos of the town later in the afternoon.

Tuesday 16 June 09

Once again we packed up and moved on to Wirrulla. This is a little wheat town just off the main highway between Ceduna and Port Augusta going across the top of the Eyre Peninsula. We had lunch and a wander around the little town. We had seen a sign that said this inland town had a jetty, which we found.

As this is nowhere near the sea it seemed a bit strange but the sign said that the only difference between Haslem, Streaky Bay and Wirrulla was a jetty they decided to add one. There is even a boat at the end of the jetty called Sea Duced. The end of the jetty is actually the tee for the fifth fairway of the golf course.

There is a general store, a motor mechanic and an engineering shop which Barry was able to take advantage of, as we needed to get a new bolt for our wheel carrier which had sheered in half where the pin went through. This bolt holds the wheel in place when the spare wheels are open on the back of the car so that we can access the back doors of the car. The cleaner left the shower door unlocked so we did not have to pay $5.00 for the shower key. We did however put $5.00 in the honour box for the general power we used. It was nice to have a real shower without having to turn the water off between rinses. Barry set up the satellite dish so we were able to watch some tv before an early night.

Wednesday 17 June 09

We left Wirrulla and headed for Kimba. Those of you who have been keeping up with our blog may remember that we stayed at Kimba on our way to Adelaide last October. This time we used the free camp site right on the edge of the highway, n a corner where the road turns to go to Port Augusta or Whyalla. This means that all the big trucks going to or from Perth etc have to gear down and break for the corner so it is very noisy. Barry did not sleep well but I don’t remember hearing them at all. We met some really nice people who came from Mandurah (Lorrette and Rod) in Western Australia who very kindly offered to look after Foxy while we treated ourselves to dinner at the local hotel. Very nice. Barry had Fillete Mignonne, with enough left for Foxy as well, and I had King George Whiting.

On our way to Kimba we stopped at Wudina (pronounced Woodna) to take a look at the new statue of “The Australian Farmer” a ten foot high statue representing the farmer, sheep, wheat and various other aspects of farming life. It was opened some time while we were in Adelaide and had been on the news so we were keen to see it and very glad we did as it is very impressive. It is right on the main highway so it was easy to get to and lots of people stopped to look at it while we were there. The statue is carved from local granite and cost over a million dollars to complete. The town is still working on the landscaping and there are still some names to add to the walls. Anybody who was associated with the making of the statue either financially or practically has their name on the wall. You can get yours added for $1,000 if you are interested. We had lunch in Wudina at a small bakery.

At Kimba we took a walk to take some photos of the sign that tells you that you are half way across Australia. From East to West Kimba is right in the middle of Oz. I also called in to the gem shop but there was nothing there that excited me.

We worked out that we were only a 1000 kilometres from Melbourne and Garon’s house and we discussed momentarily going to see him instead of heading up the Oodnadatta track but we decided that it was impractical, especially as he is about to head out to California. So the following morning saw us heading on to Port Augusta.

Thursday 18 June 09

We arrived in Port Augusta about 2.00 pm having stopped enroute for lunch.
As we have now been to Port Augusta and are not particularly fond of the town we just did some shopping, stocked up on prescriptions and filled the car ready for our trip into the outback.

We only stayed in Port Augusta for the one night.

This map covers all of South Australia but the next entries are concerned with the Far North of South Australia.

If you look near the Queensland border you will see Innamincka and moving down to the other end of the Strezlecki Track you will see Lyndhurst. Up the main road from Lyndhurst is Marree and down from Lyndhurst on the main road is Leigh Creek. Copley is not shown but it is near Leigh Creek.

Friday 19 June 09

On to Copley, which is a very small town about 6 kms from Leigh Creek where brown coal is mined which is used in the Port Augusta powerstation. Leigh Creek is a very new town built because the mine got too close to Copley. We chose Copley because we were told that the caravan park was very nice and will store your van whilst you explore elsewhere. Barry decided to put the annex up as we would be staying here for several days.

On arrival, we booked a flight to look at Lake Eyre since it is full of water from the Queensland floods. Only the third time it has filled in the last hundred years. (Actually we are told it is not completely full and has not flowed through to the Lower Lake Eyre and is already receding, so it is a good job we didn’t linger any longer on the Eyre Peninsula. We also decided to go mad and book a Ridge Top tour of the Flinders Ranges. It will mean leaving Foxy for 12 hours in the caravan, but we can’t take her with us. The Ridge Top tour goes from Arkaroola which is about a two hour drive from where we are staying in Copley. We can’t take the caravan there because the road is not sealed and not good enough to take a chance with. We are told that there are brumbies and lots of kangaroos on the road so we will have to be careful.

We had planned on leaving the caravan here and travelling on to Oodnadatta but ave decided that the tyres are not good enough to subject them to the gravel road which can be rough in places.

Saturday 20 June 09

This morning we did the washing and I cooked a stew in the Dream Pot and a spaghetti bolognaise in the electric frying pan. This will actually be five days meals as the stew will last for 3 days and the spag bog for 2 days. I did this so that we would not have to worry about meals when we come back from the air trip and the tour on Sunday and Monday. Monday’s trip will be very late back.

We met some more people at the camp fire which the owners light every night.

Sunday 21 June 09

We left Copley fairly early to drive to Marree where the flight over Lake Eyre was to leave from. We arrived in Marree at 10.30 for an 11.30 flight only to be told that they were a pilot down and had moved us to 1.30. This flight would be stopping at Muloorina, dropping us off for a walk around the water hole there and afternoon tea and then picking us up and taking us for the tour over Lake Eyre. They were sorry and hoped we did not mind. We though this was great with the additional stop so we had a complimentary cup of coffee and went for a wander around this old town.

Marree is one of the towns which sprang up in the far north of South Australia when the “Ghan” railway line was put through to Alice Springs in the late 1890s. It was a thriving little town which serviced the railway. When the new railway was put through in an entirely different area this town had nothing left to exist for but it is now quite a popular tourist spot.

This is where the Oodnadatta Track starts and also the Birdsville Track which goes up to Queensland. We took several pictures of the town and read the history boards about the railway and the buildings.

At 1.30 we went for our flight over Lake Eyre. We travelled with 2 other people. After we had been in the air for about 10 minutes the pilot announced that we would just be doing the tour of Lake Eyre and not stopping at the station and was this all right. As none of us could actually see any point in complaining and upsetting the pilot nobody said anything but we were all annoyed. We were disappointed with the flight. We did not fly high enough to get any idea of the size of the lake. We were just flying over miles of water and salt pans. The pilot pointed out several things but they were hard to see. There were no birds around and no flora of any sort. We had been told that the birds would be prolific but reading the literature later this only happens when the lake first fills before the salt residue has dissolved and made the water too salty for the birds to stay. Apparently they just go there to breed and then push off.

When we landed Barry was steaming and all he said to me was ‘We were ripped off’. He said he was going to the shop to have a piece off somebody so I made myself scarce. He came out with $50.00 in his hand and told the other couple what he had done so they followed suit and also got back $50.00. It didn’t make up for being messed about and left us no time to drive out to Muloorina and look at the lake from the ground but we were told later that you couldn’t get near the lake as there is a kilometre or so of slimy mud before you reach the lake so we didn’t miss anything.

We arrived home to a very upset little dog who had not liked being left.