21 April to 10 May

For our overseas readers. This is the Eyre Peninsula. If you look across the top you can see a black road, this is the main road which runs from the Nullabor Plains and Western Australia to Port Augusta in South Australia. When arriving from WA we drove straight across this road so that we could go to Adelaide and we are now backtracking to see the bits we missed. Unfortunately with the holdups with the vehicle the weather is not as good. As you can see from the rest of the following blog we are travelling down the eastern side of the peninsula and will then go back up the western side and back to Port Augusta.

The period from the Tuesday 21st April is a bit blurred as we didn’t make notes to remind us of what happened during that time, but we had heard that dolphins were following the boats into the harbour so we after lunch we took a walk along the beach to the marina and fisherman’s harbour to see if this were true. We saw several but it was impossible to get photographs of them as they were gone by the time we got the cameras focused and never knew where they would re-appear, so Merry tried filming them with a limited amount of success, and a lot of failures.



It was good to watch them frolicking in the wake of the boats as there appeared to be several mother/baby pairs.

There were lots of pelicans around that seem to think that lamp posts are installed for their benefit.

The walk to the harbour and back was a good hour so we stopped at a beach side café for coffee and cake. Defeated the purpose of the walk, but was nice and something we don’t do that often these days.

On Wednesday we went to the visitor centre which is also the Marine Museum and has the Frigate 'Whyalla' parked between the visitor centre and the museum buildings. We watched a video of the movement of the ship from the harbour to the current site which was a major engineering performance.

We then had the tour of the ship, followed by a look at the museum that included a large display of model trains simulating the rail system around the harbour and pellet plant plus another simulating the countryside which included The Ghan.

This was in addition to the marine displays of costumes, battles and equipment.

On the way back to the park we detoured to two lookouts, the Flinders/Freycinet overlooking the town and the other, Humpy Hill, overlooking the pellet plant and harbour.

It surprised me that a pellet plant still existed as the pellet plants that were at Robe River and Hamersley Iron, both closed in the 1970s. Here they still export iron ore in pellet form, but load the ore carriers by using tugs to tow huge barges out to the carrier and transfer it at sea because the harbour is too shallow for the large carriers to come in to the dockside.

Merry finds it interesting to watch other travellers parking their vans as some old hands slide great big vans in with the greatest of ease, and others tie themselves up in knots with little pop-tops. I maintain this is dependant on the instructions received from the person at the rear, plus the placement of trees, poles, fences and if the sun is in your eyes, or mirrors.

We had yet another cloudy day but no rain on Thursday. I am sure the rain clouds just look at SA and decide they don’t like it here and go somewhere else. Barry and I were always accused of being rain birds but we haven’t managed to bring any rain with us to SA.

We do however seem to be dogged by violence. Whenever we turn on the news on TV it is to hear about somebody being stabbed or shot where we were the day before. On Saturday we stopped overnight near Port Pirie and Port Germein. The following day we heard on the news that a man had been shot through the door of his car. Merry thinks the police are going to find the link and see that we were always near one of these acts of violence and decide that we must have something to do with it. Sunday we drove through Port Augusta and that night the police were shot at there.

I believe we have mentioned before that a boy was stabbed in a street in Adelaide the day after we walked down it and a man was shot, killed and left in his car in the carpark in Mile End the day after we went there to do some shopping. This was way across town from where we were staying but we needed a camping shop that was there.

We had discovered by the time we had travelled up to Port Augusta that second final adjustment to our gas system had been a dog’s dinner and our gas percentage was up to 36%. On the first Monday in Whyalla we informed Diesel/Gas of this and they posted out a selection of smaller jets, as we didn’t intend to return to Adelaide again.

These jets arrived on Thursday and I changed the current ‘C’ jet for a smaller ‘B’ jet on Friday morning

Sat 25th April Phoned Colleen (our daughter) to wish her a happy birthday, but did little else as it actually rained. There is a soccer pitch behind the caravan park so I was able to watch the soccer from the caravan annex in comfort whilst they all got saturated. That brought back a few memories of my younger sporting days.

Mon 27th April Visited the Mt Laura homestead museum depicting the agricultural history of the town. This was a bit of a let down as a lot of the displays were in poor condition.

The most eye catching items were in the garden in the form of an unusual statue, and a rose.

Wed 29th April Drove out to Secret Rock about 30 kilometres south of Kimba (we passed through here in November). The area around Kimba has many rocky outcrops, some of which are quite interesting but this one was just another rock and could be kept a secret.












From there we headed south east to Cowell on the coast with a break on the way to have our prepacked lunch at the roadside at a spot with a very pleasant view.

At Cowell we looked at the small harbour and town and then drove a short distance to Lucky Bay and watched the ferry from Wallaroo on the Yorke Peninsula arrive from its trip across the Spencer Gulf. We watched it unload and reload then depart back to Wallaroo. All the cars were put on one side of the ferry so I (Merry) asked if the ferry wouldn't tip over. After much derision the crew told us that the loading was done this way to counter balance the cafe and seating areas. There not being many cars. We discovered that they were doing half price deals on Tuesdays and Wednesday until August but we don't need to go back to Adelaide now. If we did it would be a heck of a lot cheaper than driving right around. Not though paying the full price.

We then drove south to check out Port Gibbon’s free camping spot, which didn’t impress us enough to want to use it. On our return to Whyalla we refilled the diesel and gas tanks to determine that the smaller jet had managed to defy the laws of Physics and produced an increase of gas use at 43% rather than reduce it.

Thursday 30th April

Changed the gas jet from ‘B’ to ‘A1’ which is the smallest jet.
A large group of multiple car clubs touring the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas stayed at the caravan park. Some old cars had matching old vans. The range consisted of Morris Minor, Austin A35, 1957 Vauxhall Velox, several Chrysler tanks, Wolseley 6, 1954 Mercedes sports, MG B, Morris van, Jowett Javelin. As well as meeting with local car clubs they all gathered in town

Friday 1st May

Phoned our son Garon in Melbourne to wish him a happy birthday and then attempted to change a wheel on the car as the tyre was getting rather worn. This didn’t work out too well as the nuts on the spare wheel carrier had no intention of coming undone. With the assistance of a stronger brute than me, we managed to undo one nut and sheer the other to studs. I then changed the wheel and drove around town and found an AutoPro shop and purchased two new studs and then found a workshop to grind the old studs off and re-weld the new studs on. AutoPro recommended a workshop to me and I was able to remove the carrier and leave it with them for a few hours.

I later returned and re-fitted the carrier and the spare wheel

Merry did some work for SAFE

Sat 2nd May Drove down to Cowell again, and on to Cleve to see what an inland town has to offer.

Just before reaching the town is Yeldulknie Weir built across a small valley which once had a stream running through it which supplied water to Arno Bay and Cowell. It has BBQ facilities and tables and is a pleasant spot but unfortunately doesn’t have any water.


The town is quite small but boasts several building with large murals depicting the way of life in Cleve











This trip allowed us to determine the new gas percentage of 23%, a lot healthier than before but lower than the 28% that we are trying to achieve. Changed the ‘A1’ jet for an ‘A’ jet which in theory should get us closer to our target figure.

Sunday 3rd May Packed up and moved on down to Port Lincoln. This move let us determine the effect of the new ‘A’ jet but under towing conditions which proved to be 19%. This appears low but is always low when towing because of the load and gearing (not using overdrive) have filled both tanks and will now wait until we can determine the non-towing value. We decided to stay at a caravan park about 10 kms short of Port Lincoln at a suburb called North Shields. The caravan park is sitting on top of the cliffs and our caravan is looking out over the sea about 20 metres from the cliffs. There is no beach here and no access to the sea which hits against the cliffs even when the tide is in. The park is less expensive than the one in Port Lincoln (always a consideration) and very peaceful. When we looked at the other one it appeared to be very busy.

Port Lincoln is almost at the base of the Eyre Peninsula. It is almost as far south as Adelaide and has a similar climate. When it rains in Adelaide it usually rains in Port Lincoln. There are two National Parks at the base of the Eyre Peninsula, Port Lincoln National Park and Coffin Bay National Park. In the middle is an area called Whalers Way which is a flora and fauna reserve.

Monday 4th May Phoned our daughter-in-law to wish a happy birthday but didn’t actually make contact. Hopefully out enjoying herself and received our message later.

We took a drive up through the hills which are just inland from North Shields and got some lovely views looking out over Port Lincoln and Boston Island which is about 7 kms off the coast in Boston Bay. The map shows a scenic drive which we decided to follow. We also called in to look at the golf club and find out how much a game would cost.

This is a view of Port Lincoln taken from the lookout in the hills near North Shields.

Somewhere between the 4th and 8th I did some work for SAFE and one other client.

Friday 8th May 09

We took a drive around Port Lincoln and took some photos of the bays near the town. We drove around the marina and canals to see how the other half live. There were some lovely housed and some huge boats but I got envious so Barry got out of there.

This is in the Marina.

Barry walking at one of the bays near Port Lincoln.

Apart from the two trips mentioned up until today Sat 9th May, the week has been pretty uneventful as there has been thick heavy cloud cover which has not invited you to get out and about. It threatens rain but even when it attempts it we only get a light drizzle. We could have gone to England for that.

With reference to the violence that follows us, now that we have left Whyalla, someone has tried to burn the shopping centre down. I'm hoping we manage to stay ahead of it.

Foxy has developed a swelling on one pad of her left rear leg and has been to the vet, which she absolutely hates and starts trembing and trying to escape the moment we pass over the threshhold, but medication doesn’t appear to be doing anything so she will have to endure another visit in a few days time, on Monday 11th April.

10th May 09

We drove to Tumby Bay which is about 30 kms back up the coast from Port Lincoln. This is a pretty little coastal town which we believe is very popular with tourist in the summer. We spotted this rather nice wooden sculpture of a dolphin on the beach which we were impressed with. On the way back we drove inland to have a look at Cummins. This is just another farming community and there was nothing there that invited us to stop the car for a photo. Still we have been there so we wont be wondering if there was something there that we would have missed if we hadn't gone. We drove back down some graded roads through the hills to North Shields.

17 March to 20 April 09

Tuesday 17th March

In the morning, we drove into Port Pirie for some shopping and Centrelink business (no fight this time).

In the afternoon drove about thirteen kilometres into the Southern Flinders Range to explore Telowie Gorge, which is more like our type of interest rather than towns, beaches, jetties and war memorials. We walked in to the Gorge for about twenty five minutes along a well defined track to the end of the so called tourist part, where there would have been a cascade of water into a small pool if any significant rain had happened in the last year or two. The literature claims that if you sit quietly, you may see a rare yellow footed wallaby, but the latter part didn’t happen, so ten minutes later we climbed over the imaginary cascade (didn’t get my feet wet) and walked on along the gorge for another ten minutes before sitting quietly again, with the same result. We were told the gorge goes right through the range to the other side (about 29 kilometres but that was not our intention). We were rather impressed with the tree growing around a large stone which has become imbedded in the tree.

Wednesday 18th March

Did a day trip to take in some of the relatively nearby towns and attractions so headed initially to Murray Town which involves a pleasant winding drive though Germein Gorge, and as nothing of interest lives at Murray Town went on to Melrose and Mount Remarkable which boasts some trails to a Cathedral Rock and the summit. The signposts give you information on the severity of the trails but no idea of where you are going. Consequently, we didn’t get to either place. The summit would have been a major achievement as the track was exceptionally steep and rough and 12.5 kilometres long. Whilst the track we did take split off later with no indication of where any of the tracks went. Having driven and walked about half way to the summit and/or Cathedral Rock, we gave it away to seek out somewhere to buy some lunch. The only place was the local pub which claims to provide all types of meals and drinks, but seems to lack anybody to serve them, so we gave that away as well. So much for Melrose and Mt Remarkable which proved to be anything but, and moved on to Booleroo Centre (which we thought was a centre for something but it wasn’t) and found a cafe/bakery that provided a reasonable meal but the rest of the township offered nothing so continued on our way to Wirrabara and followed the sign to Wirrabara Forest. Fifteen kilometres of dirt road later we came to a locked gate across the road but no forest other than pine plantations so backtracked and headed for Laura which is quite a pretty place with a well tended median strip and a larger than life bronze sculpture of some dude outside the art gallery. I only took 2 pictures all day which is very unlike me but there was nothing much to inspire photos. The one above was taken from near the monument at the base of Mt Remarkable.

We turned off here to go to Beetaloo Valley and Hughes Gap, but again once you leave the bitumen there is a distinct lack of signposts at ensuing junctions, and the local map doesn’t help, so ended up back on another bitumen road heading back to Port Pirie and on to Port Germein. All in all a wasted day and fuel with nothing to show for it although patches of scenery were okay.

Barry omitted to mention that the drive through Germein Gorge was beautiful. I love walking and driving through gorges. They are so majestic.


Thursday 19thMarch
Main street in Port Germein (almost only street in Port Germein)

Bought some bait and borrowed the trolley with crab nets and bucket from the Park office, loaded it up with chairs and drinks and then dragged it the 1.5 kilometres to the end of the jetty. Set the nets and chairs and dug in for 2 hours. The final outcome was four legal size crabs and then dragged it all back to the park where Merry did the technical stuff called cooking. It should provide enough for Merry to have two meals from it as I am not interested in seaborne meals of any description.. This was a first for both of us and was a pleasant experience with just one small drawback in the form of a crying baby. You don’t expect that a mile out to sea perched on an eight foot wide strip if wood. I was not allowed to use the baby as crab bait.

Barry caught three of the crabs and I caught one. As Barry said it was good fun. There was another lady on the jetty whom we talked to a bit and before we left I asked her how many she had caught. She said one and she had been there longer than we had and had years of experience so we felt quite proud of our four. Mind you we were allowed to catch 40. I decided that if I had taken my book so that I could read between checking nets I could have stayed out there all day. As it was two hours was enough. We do not have the patience to be good fisher people. I have often toyed with the idea of buying a fishing rod and having a go but the expense is quite off putting.

Friday 20th March

Washing day. I did some work for SAFE as I discovered that their books have not been done since I stopped doing them last July. Also we decided to pack up as much as we could, annex, awning and anything else that didn’t go inside the caravan so that we could have an early start in the morning. Heading back to Adelaide.

Saturday 21st March

Left Port Germein at 8.00 am and arrived in Adelaide about mid day. As soon as we arrived, and were parked in the same place as our first visit to Adelaide, Foxy heard our neighbour Arley. Barry released her from her harness and she leapt out of the window into Arley’s arms and wriggled around as if she hadn’t seen him for a month, which of course she hadn’t. It was quite a warm day but we really needed to put the annex up so that we could put the chairs and tables into it. Done by 6.00 pm and we were exhausted. I asked Barry if we could have a Chinese meal. So we went to find a restaurant. We did find one but it was packed to the gills so we gave up and went home for me to cook again. Watched The Bill and that was the end of Saturday.

Sunday 22nd March

I spent most of the day working for SAFE and Barry pottered about. I think he watched the Clipsal 500, which was running in Adelaide, on the television in the afternoon. We managed our Chinese meal this evening.



Monday 23rd March

Barry took the car back to Diesel Gas Australia for our 6th attempt to get the gas to work. This time he left the car there and brought home one of the mechanic’s utes. We do not hold out much hope because the mechanic said the computer says the car is using gas. If this is so it is also manufacturing gas as we are not buying any and haven’t for 4000 kilometres.

I spent the day working for SAFE and gossiping with the neighbours.

Gary phoned at about 5.00 pm and said the car was fixed but he was going to drive it home to make sure it was using gas. We still have no hope that it is fixed.

Tuesday 24th March

Gary phoned at about 9.30 am and said the car is fixed. This time I think he really has got it as the car is making the growly noise that it used to make before it stopped using gas. He actually discovered the fault as he was driving home. He was watching the computer and he saw a “Mapping Sensor” fading out as he watched. Once this sensor unit was replaced everything worked as it should. When you consider what they have replaced (practically the whole system) and the hours they have spent on it, the cost would be astronomical. Time wise it would be longer than it takes to fit the original system and as expected the replaced item was the one I suggested to them in the original instance.

Wednesday 25th March

Washing day

Thursday 26th March

Trip to Mt Barker to gain confidence in the gas system, which proved to be successful (Barry was spinning the wheels when we took off from stop signs) but the other purpose of the trip was not so good. We had been led to believe the town and surrounds had some interesting points of interest which didn’t turn to be exactly true. The old centre of town is quite quaint but the surrounds had little to show except the nearby wetlands which did provide a 40 minute walk around the perimeter, and a pleasant spot for lunch. Considering the lack of rain, these wetlands aren’t in too bad a shape. There were quite a few birds which Merry took some photos of.

Once lunch was over with nothing left to do in Mt Barker we did the only logical thing to do in this area and made for Woodside and the Melba chocolate factory for the third time. We took a round about way home down through the Torrens scenic drive to get back to Windsor Gardens. We noticed that although there has been little rain the hills were definitely greener than they had been last time we drove through them. This is not to say actually green but green in patches and not quite so brown.

Friday 27th March

Just some shopping.

Wednesday 1st April

Took the car in for a final adjustment to improve the gas/diesel ratio as it is good, but could be slightly better.

Monday 6th April

Packed up some clothes and food to head out to Dale’s house for dinner and instructions regarding feeding the dog and cat and be shown where everything is. Dale invited us to look after her house and the dog and cat for the 4 days that she was in Melbourne.

Tuesday 7th April

Settled in at Dale’s

We did some lovely walks around the area where Dale lives. There are some beautiful houses around Greenwith and Golden Grove and some really big ones. The area is very dry like everywhere else in South Australia but still the walks along the creek were very nice.

Wednesday 8th April

We took Dale to the airport in the morning and when we got back we tore up cardboard boxes and weaved them through the fence to stop Foxy from escaping while we were out.
We did a bit of shopping in the afternoon.

Thursday 9th April.

We had planned to go to Glenelg and Brighton beaches today but we could see that there was already too much traffic on the roads and because it was going to be Easter Holidays we decided that those places could do without us and we would just enjoy veging out on Dale’s lovely recliner chairs. I had a good book.

Saturday 11th April.

Shopping in the morning for the food for Dale’s family breakfast on Sunday morning and we picked up Dale from the airport in the evening.

Sunday 12th April

We had a lovely breakfast with Dale’s family. Daughter Theresa and partner Carol, daughter Sue and son-in-law Kane, son Michael and wife Jo, brother James and wife Joan and another couple I didn’t catch the names of and various grandchildren.

After breakfast Dale, Theresa and I took the kids up to a playground with the dogs.

Barry and I then went back to Windsor Grove Caravan Park for the rest of our stay in Adelaide.

Barry took the car back for another adjustment as we discovered we were now using way too much gas (53%). Barry asked Gary if we needed to hang around in Adelaide for another week to make sure the gas was OK but Gary was convinced that it would be alright for us to leave for Whyalla.

Thursday 16th April

As Audible Books took $365.00 from me in December even though I tried to stop them and tried to get the money back I decided that I might as well have the books so I spent the day downloading books from their website. I downloaded 12 books but I still have 17 credits left which I will have to get next month. I am almost out of download usage with Bigpond.

Friday 17th April

Lovely dinner with Dale (a beef stroganoff) and pecan pie for desert. It was sad to say goodbye to Dale as it could be some years before we see her again and we really enjoyed her company.

Saturday 18th April

Started early on the pack up to leave Adelaide for the 3rd time. We were away by 9:00am after a sad farewell with Arley and Jenny and Barry and Rene all of whom we had become friendly with during our three stays at the park. Barry and Rene are leaving in two weeks to go to Kalgoorlie prospecting but Arley and Jenny are still at the whim of their health issues.

We stopped overnight at Port Pirie. Apart from a walk around the caravan park, which was on the main road not in Port Pirie itself, we didn’t do anything else. However, we determined that the second final adjustment to the gas system still left a lot to be desired, as it is still injecting too much gas (37%) but not as much as before. As we do not intend returning to Adelaide again, they are posting out some smaller jets that I can change myself to reduce the gas use back towards the 28% we desire. Rather than alter the computer settings. This can be done when we reach Port Lincoln in a few weeks time.
If only they would let me have the computer program on my computer in conjunction with the ten minute training, which is all they appeared to have had, I could also apply my own guesswork.

We arrived in Whyalla at about 11:30 am and spent the rest of the day setting up the annex and getting everything out of the caravan. We are getting quite good at setting up these days but Barry still gets frustrated with the caravan parks various problems when trying to park the van. Our site had a light pole dead opposite and a tree trunk right where we needed to reverse the van. Both made it necessary to juggle the van backwards and forwards until he got it into the right position. As usual the site was not level and we had to use 2 jockey wheels to get the front of the van low enough to make it level, juggling back and forth between the 2 until we were there.

We took Foxy for a walk along the foreshore in the evening. It was extremely windy and we were quite glad that we were too stingy to pay for a foreshore caravan site, they were about $5.00 a night dearer. We could see a lookout which looks inviting and a mariner where fishing boats appear to come in.

Monday 20th April

Spent half the day standing in Centrelink waiting to hand in our rent assistance forms. It is the only thing that makes me wish I was home and not having to keep handing the damn forms in. We could post them but if we do that we have no proof that they have received them and then we might lose our rent assistance. It is only a pittance but it helps. We have to put a form in every time we move and as this can some times be daily if we are travelling any distance it can be quite a few forms.

After Centrelink we called in to the Tourist Bureau to see what Whyalla has to offer to tourist. There are a few things for us to do but being a mining town rather than a tourist destination there is not a great deal to do.

We took Foxy for a walk the other way along the beach in the evening. There was nothing special to see this way but we did have a chat with some of the other travellers as we were passing their site.

27 Feb to 16 March

Friday 27th February

Moved from Minlaton to Kadina in the northern end of the Yorke Peninsula and set up for weeks stay.

War Memorial and town hall.

Saturday 28th February

This involved an early start to travel back to Adelaide (about 2 hours) to visit the Caravan/camping show which meant dropping into Windsor Grove caravan park to drop Foxy off with her favourite dog-sitters Arley and Jenny.
The show proved to us that the caravan we have is better than most others without spending in excess of twice what we paid. The alternative would be to settle for a fifth-wheeler, but as that would involve selling our house, it is not going to happen.
As is the case at these shows, everything you have managed without for years is reduced to a special show price so that you now can’t mange without it, and if it is food or drink it costs a small fortune.
After the show we spent some time with the dog-sitters and then took ourselves and Foxy to Dale’s house (Ann’s sister) in Greenwith, who we got to know when Ann and Ashley were visiting, and stayed the night.

Sunday 1st March

Returned to Kadina in the afternoon after enjoying Dale’s company in the morning.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday passed uneventfully other than some rain (rare) and wind, shopping and housework.

Thursday 5th March

Returned to Adelaide to have our gas system checked (fourth time) as it is still not using any gas with the diesel despite their previous attempts which involved flushing the lines, changing the filter, changing to a bigger jet, increasing the regulator pressure and deciding we must have a load of bad gas and is therefore not their problem. We didn’t agree with this theory and called the Perth people who contacted Adelaide while we were there on our fourth visit, although this wasn’t appreciated by the Adelaide crew. However, this time they decided the microprocessor unit was defective and not passing out any signals so they replaced that and retuned everything. We are still not using gas. When we made our first visit we actually told them what we thought was the problem, and will let you know when they eventually change that unit and achieve success.

Called in to see Dale again for a cuppa, and then returned to Kadina with a bag full of peaches straight off Dale’s tree.

Friday 6th March

Washing day.

Saturday 7th March

Day out at Wallaroo to check out the town and driving around the Heritage Trail. We had lunch on the beach but the amount of weed didn’t inspire a walk for Foxy but we did have a walk in town and through the Nautical Museum which was quite good, and most importantly allowed Foxy in.

There is a tourist train ride available from Wallaroo to Bute via Kadina but we didn’t do this.

Only the smelter chimney remains from the good old days when a copper mine processing plant was here complete with a sulphuric acid plant. This was also used in the local fertiliser plant to make superphosphate.



Wheat and barley are dispatched from this town.

On the way back to Kadina we drove around the back of the town to the Wallaroo mine but there is not a lot left to see.

There is an amazing amount of housing development in this area. We were told that the Copper Triangle (Wallaroo, Moonta and Kadina are among the fastest growing areas in South Australia but mainly retirees are going there). Saw a property in a real estate agent’s window, for sale for $284,000. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms on 3 acres of land with sea views. We could sell our house and have $100,000 left over but we would be too far from the kids and all our friends.

Sunday 8th March

Drove to Moonta, which is the third town in the Copper Triangle.

Being a Sunday they had a market by the old railway station which is now the visitors centre, and whilst the old trains no longer run in this town, there is a narrow gauge train ride through the old mine site that we chose to be part of. This was quite interesting but the speakers on the train were not the best so we didn’t hear a great deal of what the train driver was pointing out.

Our photographs were not too good either because of the movement of the train. We then drove round the heritage Trail and saw everything again, plus more.

This also included a climb to the lookout on top of a slag heap for an overview of the site, town and the old slime dams which have been cleaned out but nothing grows there because of the acid that leached into the soil.

The slag heaps are gradually being removed as the main roads department use them up on the roads.

There are some really nice old buildings in and around Moonta.

We had a trip through a “miner’s cottage” while we were following the heritage trail. It was quite a bit larger than I imagine any real miner’s cottage would be and we were told it was actually a mine manager’s cottage. Other than that it was very interesting with some nice furniture and bits and pieces.

With a nice cottage garden.

Monday 9th March

This is a South Australian public holiday for the Adelaide Cup.

We drove to Moonta again without Foxy to tour the Wheal Hughes copper mine. It is open cut to a depth of 30 metres and then tunnelled in a wide, steep spiral (1:7 slope) to a depth of 85 metres, with an air shaft through the middle. We had to dress up as miners with boots, hard hats complete with lights and belts to carry the battery packs, and then travelled in one of three carriages drawn by tractor down to the portal. We had to tag on before we could go into the mine with a tag that had been given to us with the other kit. We placed this tag on a board outside the underground part of the mine.

We then descended another 25 metres underground to some of the old workings. This showed the drilling pattern for the explosives and the relatively modern drilling equipment. In its earliest days the blast holes were hand made in candle light. We did go down to a second level and 57 feet and the tour guide turned off the lights to show us how difficult it was to work with 2 candle power. He then showed us what complete darkness was.

It was quite interesting to see where the copper seams had been and the pillars that remain between levels which we were told needed to be there to stop the rest of the hole from caving in. the tour guide also pointed out different methods of securing against rock fall some was what looked like huge screws that were fastened into the rock at various intervals with what looked like flat bits of metal which the screws were holding in place. He claimed it kept the rock safe but I couldn’t work out how. There was also some metal netting which was draped around like you see on road walls that are subject to rock falls. Again this looks precarious.

Lower depths are not available as they have not been secured against rock fall, and are permanently flooded. We tagged off and handed in our tags when we got back to the surface. Interestingly they were missing a tag and we left them busily panicking about where the missing tag was.

We were a little disappointed with this trip as it was basically just a big hole with some evidence of blasting and drilling. It was very untidy compared to the copper mine that Barry worked in and I toured in Zambia. It was very wet underfoot and I was very worried about slipping on the slopey ground but I managed to stay upright.

Tuesday 10th March

The morning was spent locating the local diesel/gas agent to have yet another try to get the car to use some gas, and having spoken to him, I got the impression that we might be about to have success. I then found a garage to arrange for the car to have its oil, etc changed.

Returned to Moonta in order to go to Moonta Bay and check the beach, etc, which had some piles of weed but still had plenty of room to walk on the beach, and we also walked out along the jetty.

There is a lot new residential building happening despite the fact that doesn’t appear to be much work available other than a bit of fishing and wheat/barley crops which couldn’t supply work for the whole town. It was suggested that it is to accommodate retirees but I don’t think so many all have the same idea at the same time, and some of the building represent serious real estate.

Whilst in the area, we drove along the coast to Port Hughes but was not particularly impressed so returned to Moonta and had afternoon tea in a café in town before returning to Kadina.

Whilst driving around, we heard on the radio that there had been a burst water main in the Adelaide area. Since being in the Adelaide area we have seen on TV, or heard on radio, of at least a dozen burst water mains (almost one a week) that loses millions of litres of water whilst everybody’s gardens are suffering badly because of the water restrictions.

Wednesday 11th March

Took the car into the Diesel/gas agent to have the gas injector fitted which was sent up from Adelaide in readiness and then the car went for its oil change. This bit went alright but the gas mob had decided that the problem was the converter (regulator) and had arranged to have one sent from Adelaide and would fit it on Friday.

Thursday 12 March

Visited the local Information centre come museum called The Farm Shed which is quite impressive with a huge array of old trucks, cars, tractors, farm implements, dairy implements, telegraph equipment, school house farm house, etc with interactive sections.

We then did some shopping in readiness to move on Friday after the car was ready but then changed the caravan arrangements to leave on Saturday

Friday13th March

Car was returned from the diesel experts quite quickly so we could have moved on but having made the arrangement changes decide to stick with it. The Diesel/gas mob is confident all is now okay, we are not so confident as it still is not making the noise it used to make.


Saturday 14th March

Headed out for Whyalla which was to be about a five hour journey with lunch break, etc but decided to re-arrange the caravan park arrival from Saturday to Monday and break the journey at Port Germein. This proved to be a lovely small township with the longest wooden jetty in Australia (approx 1500 kilometres) which is useful as the tide goes out 1 kilometre. It was used for loading wheat onto the sailing ships of the era.

The other upside to stopping here is the fact that it is only about 40 kilometres to Wirrabara which is supposed to be home to another of the diesel/gas agencies should we need one.

We elected not to put up the awning and annexe as it very blowy at the moment. After we had spoken to the park manager we decided that we needed more time in Port Germein as it is very close to the Southern Flinders Rangers so we arranged to leave next Saturday.

In the afternoon we took a trip to Port Pirie to see what it had to offer other than a coating of lead, and checked out the information centre which also had an art gallery attached to it. Merry liked some of the exhibits but it looked to me like someone had too much spare time on their hands and didn’t know what to do with it. Some of the glass blown exhibits where superb and really delicate and there were some bark and glass exhibits which I could have spent money on if I had it (says Merry). We drove across a bridge and onto the other side of the inlet to look more closely at the smelter. This is the biggest lead smelter in the southern hemisphere and it looked it. We drove around what looked like a small island but there was nothing else to see except samphire and mangroves.

Sunday 15th March

The wind has dropped so we set up the annexe and settled in a little more comfortably and was informed that a women’s group at a place just round the corner provides midday meals for $7.50 so we gave that a go, and it proved to be good value, plus they make donation to charities from the profits, so quite a few people gain the benefits.
Drove over to Port Pirie again for a bit of shopping and attempted to top up the gas cylinder to see if we had actually used any gas as the indicator showed it to be still full, and as expected we got no more in as none had gone out, so we will be visiting Wirrabara on Monday if we can get an appointment. There are only two components left to change.

Monday 16th March

Called the mechanic at Wirrabara but he wanted to know about payment and when we said it would be a warranty job he wasn’t really interested in talking to us. He said he would need to get in touch with the mechanic in Adelaide to see about payment. I spent the day working on Safe (Saving Animals From Euthanasia) books as I discovered nothing had been done since I stopped doing their work last July. Since I have very little other work and I like a little bit that I can be extravagant with, I have decided to start doing this work again.

I called Whyalla and told them we wouldn’t be arriving until next Saturday and I called the Hearing Life centre and told them that I wouldn’t be able to make the appointment I made for next Tuesday and rearranged this for 6th April.

Barry tried several times to get in touch with somebody who could help us with the car. He rang Gary in Adelaide and left a message for him to call but it never happened. He called Tony the guy who supposedly fixed the car in Kadina but he wasn’t interested and said that the car was definitely using gas when he gave it back to us. This leaves us wondering what we are doing wrong because nothing goes out of our gas tank. He also said we had to stop moving around if we wanted to get the car fixed. Obviously the four attempts over four weeks was not good enough. We called Mark in Perth and his receptionist said that Mark will call Diesel Gas Australia head office and advice them of the run around we are getting. Finally in the middle of the afternoon Gary called back and said that the only way we could get the car fixed was to take it back to Adelaide or back to Kadina. We have decided to go back to Adelaide as the caravan park in Kadina is awful and expensive. This meant another call to Whyalla to advise that we would be there one day but we didn’t know when at this stage. We had to arrange for them to forward our mail back to Adelaide. I also had to call Hearing Life again and rearrange my hearing test. We need to bill Diesel Gas Australia for all the extra fuel they are costing us with trips back to Adelaide and telephone calls to rearrange our lives. It now looks like we will be stuck in Adelaide for at least another month because we can’t book anywhere else for Easter because we don’t know when the car will be finished.

Believe it or not we never intended spending much time in major cities!!!

The rain trickle has stopped and the wind has once again got up and the annex feels like it is blowing away.

23 Feb to 26 Feb 09

Monday 23rd February

Took a trip south west to Point Turton and then on to gravel roads along the north side, and half way down the west side of the foot shape of the peninsula, calling in to many of the beaches and camp sites. Amazingly, I went on a trip without my camera, but fortunately Merry had hers, so I will let her put the photos into this account of the trip. Her photos are every bit as good as mine, and invariably she takes many more shots than I do. The trip was a bit disappointing as there was no eye catching scenery and most of the beaches were rock strewn and uninviting. The was one beach in a rocky bay that allowed Foxy to have her run of freedom and chase a few seagulls, and Corny Point Lighthouse.

At Point Turton we noticed that just about every house had a rusty old tractor parked outside and there were several sitting in a yard which were obviously for hire. We can only assume that the fishermen use them for bringing their boats in and out of the water. We didn’t take any photo as Point Turton because there

was nothing that appealed to us

We saw some waders on the beach where we walked Foxy but it was difficult to get close enough to get a decent photo.

Berry Bay was as far south as we went today and I think this was where we walked Foxy.

Tuesday 24th February

We struck lucky with another couple living permanently in the caravan park who volunteered to look after Foxy for us which gave us the opportunity to go to the bottom of the south west tip of the peninsula, to the Innes National Park. There was a $6 dollar entry fee but the $3 dollars each was well worth it as many of the views were worth $3 each. A much better day out, plus I remembered my camera. The coast line faces the Investigator Straits which has claimed 40 plus shipwrecks over the years due to gales and bad navigation. Some of these wrecks are totally submerged, but the top of the stern post of the ‘Willyama’ (near Marion Bay) is visible all of the time, and the bow is also visible at low tide, so now we manage to catch the high tides. We did manage to catch a glimpse of the bow on one occasion but we couldn't photograph it.

Marion Bay is quite a pretty little town and obviously popular with tourists. I would say a lot of tourists stay in the caravan park here and drive into the national park for the day. There were also several quite specky houses so there is a bit of money around somewhere.

Ethel bay has two wrecks, one of the ‘Ethel’ which was a sailing ship that ran aground and survived but much later after it was sold the refloat attempt failed and it was washed further up the beach. Another steam ship struck rocks and damaged its rudder and was washed against more rocks and sank but part of its boiler is on the beach near the skeleton of the sailing ship.

We visited Stenhouse Bay and had a look at the jetty and then enjoyed our packed lunch sitting in the car as it was very windy here. There was a large group of people wandering around in this area and they all had Conservation Volunteer jackets on. We couldn’t tell whether they were doing anything in the park or just visiting like we were but the park was very well looked after with no rubbish laying around so somebody was doing the work or the tourist were all well behaved.

We drove on to Cable Bay and Cape Spencer Lighthouse, stopping on the way to admire Chinamans Hat Island. The coastline has now become quite special visually and the wind dropped. There were several islands in this area but Chinamans Hat was the best from a photographic point of view. There was a beach in this area but we didn't attempt to go down to it we just stopped at the lookout for photos.

Cape Spencer Lighthouse is a semi-modern design compared to most lighthouses with Althorpe Island as the backdrop.

We next visited the heritage gypsum mining village of Inneston and checked out the ruins of various buildings and the restored Post office. This involved a nearly one hour walk to see it all as it was spread out and included a look at the lake that exists where the gypsum was removed. Because of the gypsum being white the blue of the sky reflected in the water produces a very blue lake.

We continued on to Ethel beach where the car park is on a fairly high cliff where one can look down at the wreckage of the ship on the beach or take the steps down to the beach for a close up look. We opted for climbing down about half way and use the benefit of a decent zoom lens as we were starting to run out of time and still had more to see, plus coming back was all up hill, and very steep with lots of steps.

West Cape lighthouse was our next stop but again we used the zoom lens for the photo rather than take the long walk out to it as the coastal scenery of to our right was much more interesting than a mere lighthouse. We did walk to where we could get down onto the beach to survey the bay, islands and the fishing village at closer quarters.

This was followed by a trip into Shell beach where we had a pleasant cuppa before starting our 1.5 hour trip home leaving out the last few beaches. There was a sign saying you could see Kangaroo Island on a clear day from one of the places where we were taking photos but we couldn’t see it then. We did however see it on the way home from our last call and it looked very big but we only saw an outline and not worth stopping for a photo.

The Innes National Park is one of the truly beautiful areas of South Australia of which there are many and well worth a visit for those of you who might get the chance. It took us seven hours to drive around the National Park and we certainly could have spent longer. If we didn’t have Foxy with us it would have been a lovely area to stay for a week or so. The camp sites appeared to be well serviced. There is a small charge for camping but it would be worth paying and we could see that lots of people were camping there.

The journey back to Minlaton was uneventful and we arrived home to a thoroughly spoilt dog who had obviously had the run of the caravan sleeping with Rita and Rob on their bed for the afternoon nap and walking with their daughter Nikita. Foxy took a dislike to Nikita’s friend Allison and Rita said she obviously was a good judge of character.

25th and 26th February

Wednesday and Thursday were spent catching up with the washing and messing about with the internet. We are once again having trouble with the wireless modem and will probably have to get a new one. Bigpond tell us we are just unlucky but it is infuriating when the thing drops out every few minutes and then tells us there is no modem there.

Friday 27th February

Today we packed up again and moved on to the northern part of the Yorke Peninsula. We were advised to stay at Bute Caravan Park because it was cheap and good. When we got there it was cheap but not good so we back tracked to Kadina where we are staying for a couple of weeks to get a look at the top end of the peninsula (the Copper Coast) and to try again to sort out the gas problem with the Nissan.