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.