Day 117 Tuesday 9th August

Today we went on a tag-a-long trip called Mountain Tops Adventure. We followed a tour in a troop carrier  through the mountains of Arkaba property where we looked at the mountains of Wilpena Pound. The trip took just over 4 hours and the four of us travelled in our car up hill and down through the valleys. The views were amazing. The roads were 4wheel drive tracks but were mostly pretty good. There were some very steep inclines and declines and some rocky paths and some narrow sections. One part was called Stairway to Heaven because as the road went up you couldn’t see what was on the other side. It was a great experience and the views

were simply amazing. It was very cold in the wind. Our temperature gauge said 6 degrees outside. There were many different kangaroos including  greys, euros and reds and they all seemed to be enjoying the sunshine.

There were some River Red Gum trees and lots of Cypress Pines growing over the mountain tops. The guide said that normally this area was very dry but they have had a lot of rain making it very green.

When we returned to our van we saw a male emu and 5 chicks walking around. The male looks after the chicks and not the female.

Days 113 – 116 Friday 5th August to Monday 8th August

Day 113  Friday  5^th August

It has been raining most of the night and the weather today is very windy, cold and rainy.

We had a drive around the town and went to the Winter Hill Lookout. From here you could see the town as well as Boston Island in the Bay and some of the tuna fishing nets.

Day 114  Saturday  6th August

We did some shopping today and that was about it. It is still raining but not all the time. It is cold too.  We went for a walk in front of the park to see the jetty and Boston Island in the distance.

Day 115  Sunday  7^th August

We left Port Lincoln this morning at 8.30 and set off along the coast to Port Augusta. We had morning tea in Cowell, a lovely seaside village. We passed through Whyalla which had a big steel works on the bay. Then we arrived in Port Augusta which is at the top of Spencer Gulf. There were a few copper mines along the way. We stayed in a semi-free camp. It was at the back of a football club house. They had water and a dump point but no electricity. We only paid $5 for the night so we couldn’t complain. There were at least a dozen other campers there for the night with us. Port Augusta gets their water from the Murray and it is sent in pipelines all the way down with huge holding tanks along the way.

Distance travelled today 342 kms

Total distance travelled 18397 kms.

Day  116  Monday  8^th August.

We left our camp at 9.00 and went into Port Augusta to the Visitor’s Centre is and looked at their display there. It was called the Wadlata Outback Discovery Centre. It was an interactive display with lots of stories and video clips of the early days of the area. It showed a lot about the early explorers; Sturt, Stuart, Giles and Eyre and the hardships they endured to cross this land.  It was well worth a visit.

Then we headed off to a town called Quorn. This town is at the beginning of the Flinders Ranges and has many old buildings from the early days of pastoralists who settled here in the 1850’s.

Then we went through the town of Hawker and on to Wilpena. Our first view of the mountains was spectacular, as we paid our National Park fees.  

We arrived in Wilpena and decided to stay for 4 nights. The bush setting was beautiful with kangaroos and emus wandering around. We went up to Stokes Hill Lookout to watch the sunset. The view was absolutely amazing but it was freezing cold. The wind was blowing as we stood on top of the mountain, freezing. There were heaps of kangaroos or euros all over the countryside and we had to be careful driving back to camp.

Distance travelled today 200 kms

Total distance travelled  18608 kms.

Day 112 Thursday 4th August

Day 112  Thursday 4^th August

We left Streaky Bay at 8.30 this morning with over cast skies and a lot of mist around. The caravan park was lovely especially the sites on the water front.

We stopped at Murphy’s Haystacks just outside of town. There were many inselbergs here. They are rocks of granite sticking up out of the ground and are about 30 000 years old.  The view was very good with lots of farmland and sheep pastures.

We had morning tea at Elliston on Waterloo Bay. That was interesting. Flinders Island is just off the coast.

Then we went to Coffin Bay where we bought some oysters. They were delicious. We had a dozen each ($11) of the best oysters ever, freshly shucked in front of us.

We then headed on to Port Lincoln. It looks interesting.

Distance travelled today  346 km

Total distance travelled  18021 km

Day 111 Wednesday 3rd August

We left Ceduna at 8.30 and drove the 111 kms to Streaky Bay. It was cooler today as there was a strong wind blowing. We set up camp in the caravan park and then went to Pt Labatt where we saw the seals. Standing next to the seals was a flock of cormorants. This is the only colony of Australian fur seals on mainland Australia. They have built a board walk so you can view the seals without going down the cliffs and getting too close to them. When we saw them most of them were sleeping in the sun but a few were fighting and some were riding the waves. 

We then continued on the scenic drive to Sceale Bay where we had lunch. After going to a couple of lookouts we went to Yenerbie sand hills which were quite vast hills of sand which are progressing further and further inland.  After that we went on the Westall Way Loop Drive and saw a number of fishing huts, great surf beaches, an area called Smooth Pool where there was surf and then some smooth, calm rock areas and some high cliff areas. After that we went on the Cape Bauer Loop Drive and saw the Whistling Rocks and Blowholes.

Distance driven today  290 kms

Total distance driven 17675 km

Days 109 - 110 Monday 1st August & Tuesday 2nd August

Day 109  Monday 1^st August

We free camped at about 10km east of Border Town last night. It was a great view from the top of the cliffs. We left there at 8.30 and headed on to the Nullabor roadhouse. The landscape changed very quickly and the ridge we were following soon became what we travelled on. The Nullarbor lived up to its name (no trees). We got to the Nullarbor roadhouse and paid the most for petrol on our whole trip so far. $1.99.9 per litre. Anyway there was nothing we could do about that.

We saw this sign a few times across the Nullarbor, however, we didn’t see any kangaroos or camels but we did see a dead wombat. Boo Hoo! We also saw quite a few shingleback lizards crossing the road.

We turned off about 12km from the Roadhouse and went to a place called Head of Bight. It was on the shoreline. Wow! This was amazing. There were whales all through the bay. The Banda Cliffs were really steep and there were some whales and their calves swimming right in close. They were Southern Right Whales and they come here from the Antarctic to have their calves. We found out later that there were over 65 whales sighted today. We could see heaps of them throughout the Bay.

As we continued the landscape had more trees and gradually we saw sheep grazing and pastures of green wheat everywhere. We arrived in Ceduna and felt as though we had just completed a huge trek. We had to go through the fruit fly checkpoint and declare all of our fresh fruit and veg.

Distance travelled today  485km

Total distance travelled 17355 km

Day 110  Tuesday 2^nd July

Happy Birthday Lorelle

Ceduna is a lovely place. The weather yesterday was very warm with clear blue skies, however, today it was overcast to start with and then the wind came up and it has been cool all day. The water is very clear and apparently there are many sharks in the water.

We drove around the area this morning and found a plaque commemorating the landing of a Dutch sailor in 1627. There was also an area where Matthew Flinders encountered the French vessel captained by Baudin in 1801. The beaches were pleasant. We bought 2 dozen fresh oysters for lunch ( $11 a dozen) and they were delicious. We checked out the shops and we are off to the pub for tea tonight. Luckily they have pokies here.