Whyalla

Thursday 27^th October

On the way north out of Port Lincoln we called in at the Axel Stenross Maritime Museum. This is a museum dedicated to the life work of two Finnish Boat builders who settled at Port Lincoln in 1927 and spent their lives building wooden boats of all shapes and sizes. 

Part of the museum encompasses their workshop with all their original tools, many of them made by them, on display. 

Several of the boats they had made were also on display, donated back to the museum by their owners.

From Port Lincoln we followed the coast line through more wheat fields, and then through open farm land to Whyalla where we arrived at about 3.30pm.  It was quite interesting watching the outside temperature gauge on the car as we travelled north.  It was 16 degrees when we left Port Lincoln, and by the time we got to Cowell, about half way to Whyalla, it had risen to 19 degrees.   

We stopped for lunch on the side of the road just north of Cowell, and when we started off again the temperature was 21 degrees.  It was about 100 km to Whyalla and in about the first 30km, the temperature climbed to 33 degrees.  The thermometer was clicking over about as fast as the speedometer, and the temperature had more than doubled since we left Port Lincoln.  It then slowly started to fall back until when we got to Whyalla it was reading 27 degrees.

Whyalla is a port town almost at the head of the Spencer Gulf and has a population of about 23,000.  Its main industry is a huge Steel Works where Iron Ore from nearby mines is smelted down to several different kinds of steel.

There is a maritime museum with a WW2 Royal Australian Navy Corvette, the Whyalla, on display which you can take a guided tour through, and we hope to do that while we are here.

We have managed to chew through the two rear tyres on the back of the Pajero, so we have booked that in for two new ones to be fitted tomorrow.  We are a bit disappointed with the mileage we got from them, just under 20,000km.  We had them fitted in Alice Springs, and had hoped they would get us right round Aussie.  Must be wear and tear from the caravan, as the front tyres are only about 20% worn.

Friday 28^th October

The car was booked in for 11.30 to have the two new tyres fitted, so the school day was a bit longer than usual. When we dropped off the car they said they would need it for about an hour.  Going by our past experiences we decided to give them about an hour and a half.

After dropping the car off, we had a walk around town, what there was of it.  After about half an hour we had more than seen it all and as we walked back past the tyre place, there was our car parked out front all ready to go.  We couldn’t believe it.

We drove up to a lookout overlooking the port and the steelworks. 

As usual for this part of Australia, the wind was blowing at about 100 mph, but at least it was quite a bit warmer.  We had no sooner got there than it started to rain. After grabbing a few quick photos we went back to the van for a late lunch.

The weather cleared up a bit after lunch so we headed off to see the Maritime Museum and hopefully get a tour of the Warship Whyalla which forms part of the museum.  We were in luck and had a very interesting look over the ship. The Whyalla was actually built here in Whyalla, hence the name, and saw service in the Pacific during the war fulfilling many roles including that of minesweeping.

At the end of her service she was to be scrapped, and the local community and council got together and bought her for $5000,  but then it cost them $570,000 to get her hauled out of the water and the 2 kilometres over land to where she now rests at the museum.

After our tour of the ship, and a look through the rest of the museum, it was time for some grocery shopping and back to the van for beer o’clock.

Saturday 29^th October

After a late breakfast we headed into town to look for some new jandals for Christel.  Although there was a nice blue sky, the wind was still blowing at 100 mph, so we decided to go to the Indoor Aquatic Centre to let Cameron blow off some steam. Then it was back to the caravan where Christel cooked up one of her famous dampers for lunch.  This time she tried a slight variation to the recipe, adding a can of beer instead of the usual water and cooking oil.  Yummy, but we all preferred her other tried and true recipes better.

After lunch we took a drive out to nearby Point Lowly which is about 30 km further up the Spencer Gulf from Whyalla. There was nothing there except a light house, and of course, a lot of wind. 

From there we drove back to camp.  A fairly nothing sort of day.  Tomorrow we will continue on up to Port Augusta at the head of the Spencer Gulf for a couple of days.

Port Lincoln

Tuesday 25^th October

School work again and then off south to Port Lincoln about 220 km away.  The same boring country side of scrubby trees either side of the road with miles and miles of wheat fields beyond that.  As we got closer to Port Lincoln we noticed a slight change with a few other crops being grown.  These included oats, barley, canola, and lupin, so that made a nice change.

We arrived at Port Lincoln at about 1.00pm and were soon set up at our motorcamp on the side of a hill overlooking the bay and the headland that protects Port Lincoln from the southern ocean and making it such a beautiful natural sheltered harbour.

After a late lunch we took a drive around part of the bay and up to a lookout, before heading back into town to the Information Centre and some grocery shopping.  We had to start stocking up again after getting rid of all our fruit and vegies before crossing the border on our way into South Australia.

We didn’t want to linger outside too long with the temperature at about 15 degrees and a cold southerly wind blowing in off the sea, so after getting our groceries it was back to the van for beer o’clock.  We are booked in for 2 nights here, but by the look of things from the few brochures we got from the information centre, there’s not much to do around here.

Wednesday 26^th October

After school work we drove into town to the Visitors Centre.  We had decided to have a look around the coast line by Cape Carnot which is the very southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula.  Access to the area was through a locked gate and we had to get a key from the visitors centre.

We then drove the 30 odd km out to the cape and spent a very interesting afternoon checking out the various sightseeing spots around this very rugged coast.  A lot like the rocky rugged coastline we had seen at Albany, with huge waves smashing into the cliffs creating all sorts of interesting crevices and caves.

As well as the rugged coastline, we also spotted a couple of Emus beside the road and also an interesting little lizard well camouflaged in the sand.

Port Lincoln is home to a very busy fishing industry, and calls itself the Seafood Capital of Australia.  Sea Salmon and oysters are farmed in the bay,

and several other species of fish are caught locally. We had seen a Seafood Supermarket in town and decided we couldn’t leave town without sampling some of the local produce. We came away with some locally caught prawns and fresh fillets of snapper, which made a lovely dinner.

Tomorrow we will head up the eastern coast of the Eyre Peninsula to Whyalla a distance of about 270km.

Wudinna.

Monday 24^th October

Ceduna is at the top North West corner of the Eyre Peninsula.  From Ceduna one road follows the western coast of the peninsula down to Port Lincoln at the southern tip of the peninsula, and another road heads in an easterly direction across the top of the peninsula to Port Augusta at the north eastern end of the peninsula.

After 17days of school holidays, Christel and Cameron were back into their school room stuff this morning.  This means we are back into the routine of doing school work until about half past nine, then packing up to be out of whichever caravan park we are in, by the required 10.00 o’clock.

We decided to follow the coast road south for about 100 km to Streaky Bay, and after a look around there, cut back across to the Port Augusta Road and follow it to Wudinna where we would stay the night.  It was a heavy overcast day, and the road to Streaky Bay was long flat straights and boring.  

Because of the cold scungy weather, we didn’t call in to Streaky Bay as first intended, and instead continued on to Wudinna.  More of the same roads, long flat straights with scrubby bush on either side, and beyond that, guess what, more bloody wheat fields. 

I’m beginning to hate weetbix.  About every 30 km or so along the road we would come across huge wheat silos where the wheat from the surrounding farms is stored before being trucked out for further processing.

Wudinna is about the size of Midhurst with its centre piece being huge wheat silos.  There are also a couple of tractor sale yards with their huge tractors and other harvesting equipment on display.  The spray booms on this sprayer open out to cover a 30 metre wide strip.  These headers for a combine harvester are each 11 meters wide.  Big machinery by anyone’s standards.

In the centre of town is a huge granite statue erected to represent the fact that the area was originally settled by sheep farmers.

After a late lunch we went for a drive in the country side to have a look at some rather peculiar granite rock formations, one of which is Mt Wudinna, which next to Uluru, is Australia’s second largest rock monolith. And none of us had ever heard of it before.  Mind you it’s nothing very spectacular, as, unlike Uluru, 99% of it is still below ground.

Tomorrow we will head south down through the centre of Eyre Peninsula to Port Lincoln, where we will spend a couple of nights.

Ceduna

Saturday 22^nd October.

Happy Birthday Sid.

Ceduna is a small seaside town with a large port for exporting; yes you guessed it, wheat, and also gypsum from nearby mines.

It is also the centre of a thriving Oyster growing industry.  Apart from the wharf and port there is nothing much to see here.  Under normal circumstances we would have stayed just one night and then moved on, but we had a huge dilemma on our hands.

TV reception, in this part of Australia, is pretty much ‘hit and miss’ and we were anxious to make sure we had reception for the World Cup Final.  Because we didn’t know what the reception would be like further down the line, we decided to stay in Ceduna where we knew we had reception, until Sunday night, so we could watch the game.  The problem then was what to do for 2 days.

After doing some washing and a few other chores, we had a drive around the town and port.  At the supermarket we saw an advertisement for the Ceduna Dirt Circuit Track Race Meeting to be held that night.  Cameron and I decided that would take care of our evening’s entertainment.  Christel decided she would have a quiet evening in the van editing photos.

We enjoyed watching a brilliant night’s racing, including a ‘Burn Out’ competition at half time, highlighted by one of the contestants getting so enthused with his performance that his car caught fire.

Sunday 23^rd October

Woke up to a wet morning and spent most of the day waiting around for the World Cup Game to start at 6.30 local time. After lunch we went for a drive to a nearby bay and then down a few dirt country roads past, you guessed it, miles and miles of wheat fields.  We also came across the remains of an early settler’s house, a reminder of the hardships the early settlers to this country had to face.

With storm clouds brewing, we headed back to the van for an early dinner before settling down to watch the big match.  Just before the game started the storm that had been gathering all afternoon finally arrived.  Sheet and fork lightning and the accompanying rolls of thunder all round us, and then the rain hit.  It was so loud on the caravan roof we had no show of hearing the commentary.  Luckily it all blew over after about 15 minutes. What a cliff hanger of a game. Even drinking lots of bourbon didn’t seem to help.  Never mind we finally made it thanks to Stephen Donald.  Go the All Blacks.

Tomorrow we will head further east towards Adelaide.

The Nullarbor 2

Friday 21^st October

Wales can’t play rugby for shit!

Well, here we are in Ceduna after another marathon road trip of 507 km.  We got here at about 4.30 after going through another time zone where we had to put our clocks forward another 1hr 45minutes.  After setting up camp we cooked tea, to be in plenty of time to watch Wales thrash Aussie.  Oh Dear. How Sad. Never Mind.  Being a good solid Welsh supporter I must say Aussie didn’t win, as much as Wales lost the game.  However, after a couple of cans of Carlton, and 4 good stiff bourbons, who gives a shit.  Go the All Blacks.

Having got that out of the road, the trip from Eucla to Ceduna was pretty straight forward.  The border for Western Australia and South Australia was about 13 km from Eucla.  We knew from all the signs posted around the various motor camps, and from the brochures we had picked up, that you weren’t allowed to take fruit or vegetables across the border, so we had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure we had used up or cooked up all our vegetables and fruit.  We still had a bit of lettuce and some tomatoes left, so we gave them to some fellow campers who had already crossed the border, and were heading west.

We drove the 13 km to the border, and as we approached the crossing, slowed down expecting to join the end of the queue of travellers waiting to be searched, as we had done at Kunnunurra when we crossed from the Northern Territory into Western Australia. 

Surprisingly there was no queue, and no-one manning the border.  As we slowly approached we saw a sign telling us that quarantine inspections would be made at Ceduna, 500km further in to South Australia, so we drove on through without stopping.

This has got to be a case of Aussie Logic at its best.  Here they are making a great hue and cry about keeping Fruit Fly and other nasties out of South Australia, posting big notices all over the place about how much you would be fined if you failed to declare any vegies and fruit you were carrying, and if you knowingly transported raw fruit and vegies   into South Australia you would be jailed for one million years.  And yet they can’t be bothered manning a quarantine post at the border, but rather set it up 500 km into South Australia, right on the edge of their first major town.

Picture this.  We arrive at the South Australia Border loaded up with fruit and vegies full of nasty fruit flies and other naughty little beasties.  Had there been someone at the border they would have promptly relieved us of all those nasties and that would have been the end of the matter.  Border protected and all is well. No nasties getting into South Australia.  But no, we put our inspection station on the outskirts of our first big town, 500 km inside the border.

So, what happens?  If we haven’t already chucked our fruit fly infested fruit and veggies out the window, somewhere along that 500 km, thereby infecting South Australia anyhow, we open our caravan and car up for inspection  right on the edge of their first big town, and all the little nasties fly off and infest everything handy around town.  How’s that for Aussie logic.  No wonder they can’t play rugby.  That requires a certain level of intelligence!!!!

Right, having safely crossed the border we headed east along long straights and perfectly flat land.  Mile after mile of mallee scrub, and nothing much else.  Not an animal or building or anything to be seen except scrub and occasional grasslands.

The Nullarbor is definitely the most desolate part of Australia we have seen.  We had travelled through outback New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia, but none compared with the desolation of the Nullarbor.

After 200km we came to the Nullarbor Roadhouse, and at last we started to see the real ‘Treeless Plain’.

Miles and miles of flat low scrub and grasslands, and not a tree in sight.  This was more like what we had expected to see.  We fuelled up, and when I went in to pay for our diesel, I had to wait for a considerable time while this stupid woman in front of me stuffed the attendant around, buying this and that, getting him to put it through on her Credit Card, then changing her mind putting half of it back and buying something different.  I had to admire the patience of the attendant, and complemented him on it when he finally got around to serving me. 

We ended up having a really interesting chat, and he told me some great stories about the various arseholes he had to deal with in the course of his day. One particular one related to a Lawyer who came in and tried to lay down the law to him about what he could and couldn’t do in his own Roadhouse.

The Nullarbor Roadhouse had one of the highest prices of diesel we had paid in a long time, at $2.05 per litre, and apparently he got a lot of flack about it.  They also have a lot of trouble with people driving off without paying, and they have a certain rule to help prevent this, and this is what the lawyer had been having a go about.   Remind me to tell you about it some time.  No complaints by us mind you, after all they have to get the stuff shipped out there, but some of his other customers apparently saw fit to abuse him, and he had some classic answers for them.  We had a good laugh.

While we were at the Roadhouse, a Highway Robber turned up and tried to rob the Roadhouse. He wasn’t successful, and before he got on his motorbike and rode off before the cops arrived, Cameron went over and had a chat to him.  He looked like Ned Kelly, but I think he’s dead.

Soon after the Nullarbor Roadhouse we rounded the head of The Great Australian Bight,

and then continued on to the Nundroo Roadhouse where we stopped for lunch.  A Road Train called in while we were there, and Cameron, true to form, went and had a chat with the driver. 

Within a very short time he was invited to sit in the cab, and even got to turn off the engine.  A process which required turning off about three different switches and keys, before hitting the ‘kill switch’.  Guess who’s going to become a truck driver once again.

From Nundroo the countryside changed dramatically, small hills and lots of trees to help relieve the boredom.

As we got closer to Penong, (where do they get these names from?), the countryside opened up again, and we started seeing more huge paddocks of wheat. We fuelled up at Penong, and continued on past miles and miles of wheat fields, some harvested, and others waving golden heads of wheat in the wind, until we finally arrived in Ceduna.

On the outskirts of the town, we finally came across the quarantine checkpoint.  It all looked fairly deserted with nobody queued up waiting to be searched.  We pulled up at the checkpoint and the guy on duty wandered out and had a very casual look inside our caravan and waved us through.  The whole exercise seems like a complete and utter waste of time!

After looking forward to crossing the Nullarbor for so long, suddenly, after two days, it was all behind us, and here we were in South Australia looking forward to the next stage of our trip.