Adelaide

19th – 23rd April 2017

Wednesday 19th

Chilled out most of the day. Went for a great bike ride from our campsite along the bike path beside the Torrens River to the city and beyond to the weir, and back again. A very enjoyable ride, which will only get better when Adelaide finally finishes all its road works.

Thursday 20th

Cousin Terry and Greg have invited us to stay at their place a couple of days earlier than we’d planned so we can dog-sit for them tomorrow and Saturday. In the meantime we have much shopping to do – back to Central Markets and another enjoyable shopping experience.

We checked in at Terry and Greg’s and spent a lovely evening chatting.

Friday 21st

Busy day today. We ordered the meat for the next few weeks (to be cryovacced), then went to visit our friend Julie at West Beach. A good catch-up over a cuppa, then back to the tyre people to check the valve on one of the new tyres. Yes it does need replacing, no it can’t be done today – come back Monday! (Not happy).

Back to Terry and Greg’s and the big cook-up started! Because much of the next 3+ weeks travel will be fairly remote I’m preparing about half the meals and freezing them, the remainder will be either from the refrigerated cryovacced meats or ‘pantry’ meals (eg tinned tuna base, etc). Exhausted by the time Terry and Greg got home from work!

Saturday 22nd

A good, fun day today. Greg’s away on a work trip today so Terry, Steve and I went out for brunch at Semaphore. From their home we walked along the beach to the pier and to a delightful cafe where we enjoyed our meals. Terry filled us in on the sites and history as we went.

Interesting sculpture, which looks much more interesting and not creepy at all in person, and the Semaphore Tower in the background. The ball, which you'll see at the base of the pole on top of the tower, used to to raised to the top and dropped at 1pm every day which could be seen by the ships in the harbour.

Interesting sculpture, which looks much more interesting and not creepy at all in person, and the Semaphore Tower in the background. The ball, which you’ll see at the base of the pole on top of the tower, used to to raised to the top and dropped at 1pm every day which could be seen by the ships in the harbour.

Back home Terry took us for a drive out to the Port (via Costco for a bit of shopping). Terry works for Defence who are building three new guided missile destroyers for the Navy. Nuship Hobart (it can’t be called HMAS Hobart yet because it hasn’t been commissioned) is nearly finished having already done a few trials and will be delivered in 6 weeks. Nuships Brisbane and Sydney are well on the way. They’re pretty impressive ships and look awfully mean – don’t attack Australia, you really don’t want to mess with these ships!

Terry, with her ship Nuship Hobart.

Terry, with her ship Nuship Hobart.

Sunday 23rd

Today we had a fabulous time in the Adelaide Hills with Terry and Greg as guides. First stop was the Stirling Markets. These are huge markets where we wandered aimlessly for a couple of hours and didn’t see more than half the stalls there – interesting stalls too with lots of local-made crafts, and food.

Autumn colours in Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. Terry and Denise

Autumn colours in Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. Terry and Denise

From here we travelled along the range to Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard, then on to Pike and Joyce, and Andersons to sample their wares.

Doing a little wine tasting at Mt Lofty Ranges vineyard and restaurant.

Doing a little wine tasting at Mt Lofty Ranges vineyard and restaurant.

The drive was beautiful, winding around the range and through the valleys, made all the more stunning by the trees covered in their autumn leaves. Each of these vineyards has panoramic views down across the vineyards where the leaves are yellowing. Lots of cherry, apple and stone fruit orchards up here too. A truly delightful place to visit.

Vineyards at Mount Lofty Ranges. Beautiful autumn colours.

Vineyards at Mount Lofty Ranges. Beautiful autumn colours.

Back at Terry and Greg’s for our last night we return to Largs Pier Hotel for dinner.

For more photos from our stay in Adelaide with Terry and Greg, CLICK HERE.

Easter in Adelaide

15th – 18th April, 2017

Saturday 15th

The big excitement today is the arrival of James and Rachael. This morning we headed for Adelaide, had a brief stop at the Central Markets, checked into our Air B&B house and headed for the airport. It’s so good to see them again and get to spend a few days with them.

Our Air B&B is just perfect. It’s centrally located in Gilles St, and is set up with everything we could possibly want; groceries, wine, fresh fruit, shampoo, etc, etc, including a couple of bars of Lindt chocolate – definitely my kind of rental. And it’s a beautiful little cottage that has been renovated with a lot of class.

Our Air B&B, Adelaide

Our Air B&B, Adelaide

Dinner tonight we’ve booked in to Madame Hanoi, a Vietnamese fusion restaurant in the Adelaide Casino.

Easter Sunday there’s not much in Adelaide that’s open, but all the vineyards are. James was keen to go to the McLaren Vale vineyards. We happily sampled wines at Alpha Box & Dice, Coriole, Shingleback and D’Arenburg. At Shingleback we’d booked in for lunch. Chef Horst takes a select number (10 today) and discusses the food with us while he cooks it. It was beautiful food and the experience was well worth it.

Lunch at Shingleback with Chef Horst preparing our meals.

Lunch at Shingleback with Chef Horst preparing our meals.

Monday we drove around Adelaide, Glenelg, back to Largs Pier Hotel for dinner (we’d told James and Rachael how beautiful it is) and finished the evening with a game of 500. Altogether a good day.

Sadly Tuesday morning we farewelled James and Rachael, back to DC for them. We packed up the Air B&B and headed off to the Adelaide Caravan Park where we get serious about planning for the next month or so of our travels.

For the photos of our Easter with James and Rachael CLICK HERE

To Adelaide

8th – 14th April, 2017

Saturday & Sunday 8th, 9th

We can’t get our tyres repaired until Wednesday in Adelaide so we’re just moseying slowly in that direction. Bowman Park outside the little town of Crystal Brook was recommended to us and it is a lovely camp spot. In 1847 it was appropriated from the indigenous peoples for use as a pastoral lease. A stone cottage, gardens and stables remain – the rock-wall enclosed garden is being renovated and cared for by a community group. There’s also a function hall here and a lovely grassy oval where local families picnic, etc. Several walking trails showcase interesting parts of the property.

We spent a reasonably quiet night only disturbed by some rustling in the drawers and Steve claiming, very indignantly and noisily, that a mouse ran over him while he slept.

Sunday moved into Crystal Brook which is a lovely town with many beautiful stone houses and a really good cafe in what was once the bank – the vault now holds jewellery and antique giftware for sale.

We parked in the free camp which just happens to be alongside the railway line. During one hour while we were chatting with friends and family about 12 trains went by!! Despite this we lazily decided to stay here the night and not return the 5km to Bowman Park’s peace. Luckily there was only one train overnight that barely disturbed us. We did, however set a mouse trap that caught a rat!!  Steve is becoming a little disturbed now about this visitor to his bed last night!

The famous Ghan. Photo taken from the door of the motorhome in our campsite, with very little zoom!! Crystal Brook

The famous Ghan. Photo taken from the door of the motorhome in our campsite, with very little zoom!! Crystal Brook

Monday 10th

Moving a little closer to Adelaide we travelled down the eastern side of Spencer’s Gulf to Wallaroo. Wallaroo is a comparatively big town with large port facilities for grain as well as a vehicular ferry that crosses the gulf to the Eyre Peninsula and a very expensive-looking canal housing development. We lunched here before crossing the peninsula to St Vincent’s Gulf. Despite needing to do some grocery shopping we eschewed all the big stores here deciding to shop in Port Wakefield, which looks quite big on the map. 

Note the swimming pool , with the protective float around it - in Spencers Gulf at Walleroo. Great idea!

Note the swimming pool , with the protective float around it – in Spencers Gulf at Walleroo. Great idea!

Not so – Port Wakefield does not have even one store that sells fresh groceries. Moving on we’re now settled into the recreation reserve at Mallala (pronounced mal-lar-lar) which does have a small general store. Lesson learnt!

Tuesday 11th

Today we go to Adelaide. Wow – big city lights, and traffic! We’d nearly forgotten what it was like.

We haven’t previously seen much of Adelaide but the one thing we do remember from quick trips down is the Central Markets. We spent a happy few hours here revelling in the variety of foods available – such a treat! From here we went to cousin Terry and Greg’s for a catchup and great free camp for the night. Dinner tonight was at the very beautiful and historical Largs Pier Hotel. This hotel was the primary port of call for new immigrants to Australia between 1882 when it first opened and 1892. More recent history has seen it as a popular music venue. In the 1970s and 80s it  was the breeding ground for Australia’s rock music scene with rockers and bands such as Jimmy Barnes, AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Split Enz, Mississippi, Skyhooks and Little River Band performing regularly. It’s been beautifully maintained and restored. Food was also delicious.

The very beautiful and historic Largs Pier Hotel.

The very beautiful and historic Largs Pier Hotel.

Wednesday, Thursday, Good Friday 12th, 13th, 14th

It’s our wedding anniversary today (Wednesday) – 42 years! At last, we’ve got the answer to life, the universe and everything!

After getting the tyres fixed and rotated we headed down the Yorke Peninsula to Moana Beach where we’ll stay until Easter Saturday. It was good to just set up camp and sit back and relax. The campsite was spacious and not many here … until Thursday night when they started rolling in, and by Friday lunchtime it was packed!

We went for a drive to McLaren Vale township and had a general look around one day and especially enjoyed a bike ride along the beach cliffs from Moana north on another day.

Late afternoon bike ride at Moana Beach.

Late afternoon bike ride at Moana Beach.

To see our photos from this part of the trip CLICK HERE.

West and Central Eyre Peninsula

1st – 7th April 2017

Saturday 1st

After a quick restock in Port Lincoln we headed to Coffin Bay. I was pleased to see that it was Flinders who named this location after Admiral Coffin, and not that it got its name for some other macabre reason.

Across the oyster beds to Coffin Bay township.

Across the oyster beds to Coffin Bay township.

Coffin Bay is a fisherman’s dream come true – 20 kilometres of protected seaways and apparently an abundance of sea creatures to be caught. Not being particularly interested in that aspect, other than when our lovely neighbour at the caravan park gave us some freshly caught and filleted fish, we cycled (illegally) the Oyster Trail for 6 km along the foreshore before heading out to dinner at 1802 Oyster Bar. We both had oyster entrees. Steve’s were pistachio-crumbed grilled oysters, mine were natural in gin and tonic – talk about heaven!

Lovely bike ride (even if we shouldn't have been riding!). Coffin Bay Oyster Trail.

Lovely bike ride (even if we shouldn’t have been riding!). Coffin Bay Oyster Trail.

Sunday 2nd

This morning was a walking day – we walked to the lookout then the other direction of the Oyster Walk (from yesterday’s ride) – about 8 km. Oysters were originally dredged, which unfortunately led to their near extinction by the end of the 19th century. In 1969 the Japanese Pacific oyster was successfully trialled and that is now the predominant oyster grown here, though there are attempts to reintroduce the native Angasi oyster.
As it just so happened we had to walk past 1802 Oyster Bar on our way back – I felt I’d earned another half-dozen gin and tonic oysters!

These were the most amazing oysters ever! Coffin Bay

These were the most amazing oysters ever! Coffin Bay

In the afternoon we practiced changing the tyres on the motorhome. With our remote outback travel drawing ever closer we wanted to be sure we had the right equipment.

Monday 3rd

Before leaving Coffin Bay we took a drive into the National Park, went for a run on the beach, then headed north along the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula.

These pedestrians were in no hurry to cross the road - we waited patiently. They know what it means to live in a National Park, at Coffin Bay.

These pedestrians were in no hurry to cross the road. They know what it means to live in a National Park, at Coffin Bay.

To see the photos we took in the Coffin Bay area CLICK HERE.

The countryside is mostly grazed by sheep or cattle with some wheat. At the moment it’s looking very brown – goodness knows what the sheep are eating. We also passed several dry salt lakes, one large salt lake with water and lots of very, very rocky fields. Not inspiring countryside.

Lunch stop was at a pretty spectacular lookout – the Leo Cummings Memorial Lookout. The outlook is over the cliffs to the Bight. The Great Australian Bight begins at Cape Carnot, which we saw on the Whalers Way, and is believed to be the longest line of sea cliffs in the world, running more than 1,100 km. The relentless pounding of the ocean against the crumbling limestone cliffs is frighteningly awesome.

Stunning coastline of the Great Australian Bight as seen from Leo Cummings Lookout.

Stunning coastline of the Great Australian Bight as seen from Leo Cummings Lookout.

Would you believe it, when we arrived at our campsite at Walkers Rocks, our front passenger side tyre was rapidly deflating!

Tuesday 4th

It was late when we got in so left the tyre changing until this morning. Despite yesterday’s preemptive practice we ran into a few hitches – one jack can’t lift the vehicle high enough to put the new wheel on. We had to use two jacks – luckily Steve always carries a spare!

Bit tricky to get the motorhome high enough to change the wheel. Two jacks did the trick.

Bit tricky to get the motorhome high enough to change the wheel. Two jacks did the trick.

That done we took a long refreshing 5 km walk along the beach before setting off for Venus Bay. Here we’d planned to spend the night at the caravan park. No way – the park was full and vans were so close you could hear the person next door change their mind. We stopped in a beachside park for lunch, then did the 2.5 km South Head Walking Trail which took us along the very pretty bay side of the headland and up over the top to the rugged ocean side with its imposing cliffs. Lovely walk.

Quite an attractive walk around the headland at Venus Bay. This is the calm side.

Quite an attractive walk around the headland at Venus Bay. This is the calm side.

Venus Bay township itself though is little more than the caravan park and a cluster of small holiday shacks, mostly without lawns, trees, gardens or any other landscaping – in other words, if you don’t want to fish then Venus Bay is not for you.

Continuing on we arrived in Streaky Bay late afternoon and booked into a new caravan park on the north side of town. Talk about flash! Very large sites, tiered up the hill so everyone has ocean views, a licensed shop, lovely rec room, laundry trolleys to take your washing to the line, and the piece de resistance – the ablutions block has lots of little separate bathrooms, each with its own toilet, shower and handbasin.

Very pretty foreshore and jetty at Streaky Bay.

Very pretty foreshore and jetty at Streaky Bay.

Wednesday 5th

Streaky Bay is a pretty little town with a lovely foreshore, jetty and facilities – and good internet! We stayed there for a while catching up on personal admin before beginning the trip across the central part of the Eyre Peninsula.

CLICK HERE to see the photos we took as we followed the western coastline of the Eyre Peninsula.

Back into wheat and sheep country. The fields are ploughed and farmers awaiting the first rains before they plant next season’s crop – a fairly stark drive to the tiny township of Minnipa then on to the free camp at Pildappa Rock. On the way though we passed through Poochera, famous for its Dinosaur Ants! (See the photos linked to later to read about them.)

Pildappa Rock is a granite ‘wave rock’ and quite stunning as it rises out of the flat countryside that surrounds it.

The wave-like effect of Pildappa Rock.

The wave-like effect of Pildappa Rock.

Late afternoon we climbed it to enjoy the view over the wheat farms to the Gawler Ranges. The surface of the rock had many ‘basins’ of all sizes on its surface. Being granite these, of course, would hold water after rain but as it hasnt rained for ages down here they’re all dry. We were admiring the view when a couple of heads suddenly popped up from one of these basins – Rod and Maree, other campers, were sheltering from the wind in one of the basins and invited us to join them. It was plenty big enough for us all. We sheltered with them until time for the obligatory sunset photos.

In the 'basin' on top of Pildappa Rock at sunset.

In the ‘basin’ on top of Pildappa Rock at sunset.

Thursday 6th

Not a happy day today! We headed off to the Gawler Ranges to see the Organ Pipes rock formation. The dirt road was pretty good, corrugated in places, until we got into the National Park, then it deteriorated quickly to rocky with tough mallee roots coming in from the sides. The rangers had made detours around the worst patches, but we unfortunately caught the sharp end of a mallee root into the side wall of one of our rear tyres. Damn!

Damn! And damn again!

Damn! And damn again!

We are a well-oiled machine at tyre changing now! However, we no longer have a spare. With that in mind we decided not to continue along this road, nor do the scenic road through the park to the far side. Damn again!
However all was not lost. Just as we’d finished the tyre change along came Rod and Maree and offered to take us the 3km remaining of this road to see the Organ Pipes. One consolation, the road continued to get worse, so a good decision by us not to risk it. The Organ Pipes were very interesting, just hard to get too excited when we were both so preoccupied by thoughts of tyres.

The 'pipe' were pretty interesting.

The ‘pipes’ were pretty interesting.

Back at Priscilla and before they left us Rod and Steve had a cold beer and Maree and I had home-brewed (by Rod) Malibu and pineapple slushies – wow, that sure lifted my mood!

Following this we drove on to the little town of Wudinna where we parked in the shade, had lunch and began investigations to change all our tyres to a tougher off-road brand. Of particular note at Wudinna is a very beautiful granite sculpture to the farmers and community of the district.

Granite monument to the Australian Farmer. Note the wheat sheaves, the smaller figures representing family and the sheep.

Granite monument to the Australian Farmer. Note the wheat sheaves, the smaller figures representing family and the sheep.

Carrying on we stayed the night in Kimba Lions Park – nope, not a white lion to be seen anywhere – no sense of humour here! A good little free camp in the middle of this small town.

Friday 7th

The saga of the tyres was still consuming us and after numerous phone calls and long discussions to every relevant person or business we could think of we finally came to the conclusion that the Continental truck tyres we have are actually pretty good and we have just been unlucky. Decision made and booked into tyre place in Adelaide to have the two damaged wheels fixed as soon as we can.

Kimba has a few claims to fame; its Big Galah, which I didn’t feel the urge to photograph; being the halfway point between the west coast and the east coast; and its Roora Walk which winds through lovely arid-climate bushland, past several very cute sculptures of animals made from recycled steel up to White Knob where there are clear views for 50km all around – it’s not high, but the countryside is so flat it doesn’t need to be.

Edward John Eyre and his friend Wylie looking over the countryside they're yet to explore. At Kimba.

Edward John Eyre and his friend Wylie looking over the countryside they’re yet to explore. At Kimba.

Also up here are the quite famous steel sculptures of Edward John Eyre and his indispensable indigenous friend and guide, Wylie. Eyre is the first white explorer in this area and right across the Great Australian Bight. The return walk was about 6.5km. CLICK HERE to see some of the fauna we saw along the walk.

Back at the motorhome we moved on to Iron Knob. As you drive towards town the iron ore quarry greets you, followed by decrepit houses. This is a very sad town. Iron Knob is said to be the birthplace of Australia’s steel industry. Quarrying for iron ore commenced here in 1900, with the very high quality ore being sent to the steelworks in Port Kembla, Newcastle and Whyalla for either processing or exporting. Mining operations, however, closed down in 1998 and Iron Knob very nearly became a ghost town, only saved by the comparatively very low housing prices. 15 years later, in 2013, mining was resumed, though only for the next 10 years. The townspeople have developed a tourism business by creating a great free camping area, which we’re now in, running mine tours and having a unique golf course.

Looking over the tiny township of Iron Knob to the tailings of the iron ore mine behind.

Looking over the tiny township of Iron Knob to the tailings of the iron ore mine behind.

We complete our circumnavigation of the Eyre Peninsula back at Port Augusta.

A lovely park at the very tip of Spencers Gulf at Port Augusta.

A lovely park at the very tip of Spencers Gulf at Port Augusta.

For a look at all the photos from the Central Eyre Peninsula CLICK HERE.