Trip to South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales #3

13^th September.  Today was a free day so we got the washing done and rested.  The afternoon was not real good as I had a bit of a Meniere’s wobbly time and it wasn’t very pleasant.

We also received word tonight that our dear friend Wayne Adams has passed away.  We sent our deepest Sympathies to Marie and family at this very sad time.

14^th September we took the car into the Goyder Auto Service and Tony replaced the Turbo airhose for us.  Car runs great now.  We then did a drive to Clare, Penwortham and down to Kapunda and then up the Tothill Belt to Black Springs road and then back to Burra.

At Penwortham we stopped off to see the John Horrocks’ Cottage c1839. This is the ‘oldest stone building in the States, north of Gawler.  It was built by Joh Horrocks at the young age of 21’.

 John Horrocks cottage

  Happy Wanderer plant

  Darryl could just stand under the verandah

  scar tree

  Canola field

 Gazania's in Kapunda

  Wattle in Kapunda

 Tothill Belt shows on a lot of our ancestors BDM certificates so it was great travelling up the road.  There are about 30 wind-turbines along the Tothill ridge and we even say the Tothill Belt Farm.

  The Tothill Belt Road with the windfarm on the western side of the road up on the ridge

 Tothill Belt and Tothill Creek intersection

  Love that they must leave the old homes on the property until they disintergrate

 lovely dirt road.  Was so smooth

  We went to the La Percora Pizzeria in Burra for dinner that night

The wind started to pick up this afternoon and became very strong during the night.

Sat 15^th.  Today is my brothers, Trevor and wife Karen, 28^th wedding anniversary.

We didn’t do much today as we had very strong winds (gusts up to 80kmph) and rain squalls.  Two other campers that were to pull out that morning decided that -- the weather was not conducive to travel – and would pull out in the morning.

Sun 16^th.  Up early and pulled out by 9am.  We made our way down the Barrier Highway (missed out turn) and arrived at Saddleworth before turning up to Auburn and then down towards Balaclava and on to Port Wakefield.  We arrived in Price at about 2pm.  The wind had been picking up gradually as we drove and we were getting hit from the westward side – so time to pullover.  The caravan park here has mainly permanents with only 4 traveller sites.  By 6pm the sites were all full and there was still the occasional squally shower.  We went for a short drive out to the jetty on Wills Creek and checked out the history.

  Loving the green and gold colours

  Welcome to Yorke Peninsula

 Price was proclaimed in 1882 and a causeway was built to connect the village to the Wills Creek, a 12 metre timber wharf was constructed in 1890.  The wharf was extended to 45 metres in 1900 and the wharf was used to load grain and salt and transported to Adelaide.  One of the streets in Price ‘One and All’ is named after one of the ketches that used to dock at the wharf.  The last load of salt was shipped to Adelaide on the ‘Annie Watt’ in November 1969.  Salt is now moved by truck.

  Price Wharf on Wills Creek

  Wills Creek at low tide

 where we were standing on at the end of the road that touches the red circle in bottom left of photo

  Salt waiting to be shipped out

 We did a drive into Ardrossan to get some groceries and on the way we came across ‘Tiddy Widdy Beach’ a small village to the north east of Ardrossan.  A cute little village facing the East and a lot of the homes have magnificent views across the St Vincent Gulf. 

 Tiddy Widdy Beach

 a field of Gazania's

  Darryl found a full array of MENZ sweets

 At Ardrossan headland

 Ardrossan has some steep red cliffs and two long jetties.  One is used by the fisherman and the other is used for grain and salt transport.  There is also a ‘Walk the Yorke’ trail right around the Yorke Peninsula.  You can walk and/or ride the trail and there are parts that you can do in a vehicle.  There are big poster-boards at various locations showing you the distance and approx. time to the next location and if there is a shelter and points of interest.

 One of the 'Walk the Yorke' picture-boards

  The cliffs of Ardrossan

  a resting seat on the 'Walk the Yorke' trail

 a sculpture in town

 The golf course here has oiled greens and Darryl said it would make for interesting putting.

  One of the Oiled Greens at Ardrossan

 Another lovely old home

We then made our way back to the caravan and passed through two small rain squalls on the way.

Mon 17^th  I sent Darryl off to do some fishing.  He said the wind wouldn’t bother him as it was coming from the north and would assist him in throwing the line across the creek.  He was gone about 2 hours when he returned to say that the wind had changed direction and coming straight down the creek and throwing his line back at him – so he gave up.  We went across the road to the pub for tea BUT they don’t cook on Monday or Tuesday – so back to the van and Darryl made a nice chicken and rice noodle soup instead.

Tuesday 18^th.  We were out of the van park by 9am and heading southward through Ardrossan, Curramulka, Minlaton, Hardwicke Bay to Warooka and then westward to Corny Point.  Corny Point is ‘on the top of the boot’ of the Yorke Peninsula.  Again the wind was picking up as we drove and we had a solid headwind as we pulled into the caravan park at about 11.30 and set up.  The van park has got bore water to its taps and we were advised to not use this water for drinking.  It has a lot of lime in it and would build up scale in the kettle.  The mobile internet reception is also a bit hit and miss but thankfully they have free Wi-Fi in the camp kitchen.  It still takes forever for messages to send.

This afternoon we went for a drive out to the lighthouse to the west and then down the west coast to Berry Bay.

  We had rain as we went through Hardwicke Bay

 The beach at Corny Point

 The lighthouse was built in 1882 and shines out into Spencer Gulf.  In 1920 the lighthouse became automated.  In 1891 the local school children visited the lighthouse and planted 80 around the keepers cottages.

 There is only one of these visible today and it is referred to as the ‘horizontal pine’ as it is growing along the ground rather than up in the air.  It is thought that the prevailing winds prevent it from growing upwards.

 The coast line along here at Berry Bay and Annie Point is battered constantly from the Southern Ocean but there are some lovely long white beaches for you to walk on – as long as you keep an eye on the weather and the surf.

 Wednesday 19^th. Today is my brothers, Ian and wife Wendy, 26^th Wedding Anniversary.

Today we drove down to Gleesons Landing, Marion Bay, Stenhouse Bay and Innes National Park and then out via Foul Bay and Sturt Bay and up to Warooka.  There are fees to get into the Innes National Park and the signs say it has to be booked on-line.  They have a computer and keyboard outside the visitor centre and you use your credit card BUT if the centre is open the staff there will process your fee for you.  It is $8 per vehicle per day or $15 per day to camp.

 A camping bay at Gleesons Landing

 Coastal Pigface

  yellow flower

 Anchor and Canons outside the Marion Bay History Society

 arty-farty boardwalk

 white flowering shrub

  Rhino Rock from the Stenhouse Bay info centre

 a Fowl in the info centre carpark

 nice

The weather was great and the views magnificent.  After stopping and looking at Marion Bay and then the Stenhouse Bay jetty and the Gypsum mine.  

 Stenhouse Bay jetty with the Gypsum mine in top right

 pink purple

 orange

 On our way away from the jetty we came across five Emu’s having a drink from the overflow puddle from the water tank and then they were grazing amongst the daisies. 

 Emu grazing on daisies

 We then made our way through the park to West Cape Lighthouse where we had a fantastic 360-degree view.  We could even make out Kangaroo Island in the distance past Althorpes Island.

 View from West Cape lighthouse

 Coastal pigface flower

 [As we travelled this road, there was lots of Emu scat on the road and at one point we found about 20 adult Emu’s and 7 chicks drinking near a water trough].

We stopped in and checked out the wrecks of the ‘Ethel’ and the ‘Ferret’ before making our way to Inneston Village

  boiler of the 'Ferret' on the beach

 Skeleton of the 'Ethel'

 This village was built in 1917 and worked the gypsum mine until the Great Depression of 1930, when the village and the mine was abandoned.  Over the years there has been terrible deterioration of the buildings [and I suppose some vandalism demolition also] but some of the main cottages have been restored and are now available for short-term rentals.  We did the walk around the village which took us about an hour.

  arty-farty stump at Innes lake.  The lake is salt water and below sea-level

 Post Office on the left has been restored, then the general store, then the bakehouse with the stables at the far right

 bakehouse ovens, that I think they use regularly as they are very clean with newish utensils

 wattle

 more wattle

 Emu's grazing at the Inneston village

 succulent with white flower

 We went to the Cape Spencer Lighthouse and the wind was starting to pick up again and the temperature was dropping.  This is quite a new lighthouse structure and not nearly as tall as the Corny Point Lighthouse.  In total there are 5 lighthouses that shine out their warning beacons along this westward coastline of the Yorke Peninsula. [Cape Spencer, Althorpe Island, West Cape, Wedge Island and Corny Point].

  cliffs at Cape Spencer lighthouse

 love the colour of the water

 Cape Spencer lighthouse

 button grass

nice yellow daisy bush

 another yellow flower

We made our way back to Marion Bay and had lunch at the café before heading north east towards Foul Bay.  We pulled in to Meehans Hill lookout and noticed that they had blocked off the road and made a new one and a small carpark.  When you walk out to look at the scenery you can see where most of the original carpark has fallen into the ocean.

At Foul Bay we found the water was just a gentle ebb and flow and not the crashing waves that we had been seeing all morning.  It was the same when we arrived at Sturt Bay.  We then drove up to Warooka and stopped for a coffee in the Take-away/Butchers shop.  We also got some meat for dinner for the next few evenings.  When we came out you could see a storm rolling in from the south west and the temperature had dropped again.  We stopped at Foodworks for vegetables and came out to a very heavy rainstorm.  We drove through 36km of rain to get back to the caravan.  We utilised the camp-kitchen to cook our dinner this night.

Thursday 20^th.   Today we drove eastward towards Point Turton.  We pulled up to the north on most of the off-shoots to the beaches. 

Couch Beach was a small fishing/holiday village and quite untidy, but the beach was nice. 

The Pines was quite a decent sized village and has a general store open 7 days a week.  Driving along the beachfront street you could not SEE the water but there were about 8 different points where you could get through to the beach via a path.  Quite a bit of seaweed washed up along the beach with lots of cuttlefish.

 just about every where has tractors to put their boats into the water

 Leven Beach access was very small, and the homes here were very tidy and welcoming.

 calm seas off Leven Beach

 a lovely succulent with a huge yellow flower

 succulent with red flower

 We pulled into Barber’s Beach and there were tracks leading everywhere through the coastal bushes.  We later learnt that if we had gone to the left we would have come across a large camping area.

Soutars Beach was lovely and clean and you could see out a fair distance. 

  Darryl checking out the beach 

  Purple flower down the middle of the track

  white flowers right down near the surf

yellow and purple

 spiky purple flowers in a house garden at Point Turton

 The sea was nice and calm. We continued along the ocean front to Point Turton which is on Magazine Bay. Point Turton is famous for mining flux [ore] and exporting grain. The flux quarry closed in 1917.

There is also a wreck in the harbour, not far out from the shore and 300 metres south-east of the jetty.  You can see it by the metal boiler stack that sticks out of the water and has a big yellow X on top of it.

It is ‘The Yulta’, a steam tug that carried supplies from Adelaide to many ports around South Australia, which ran aground in 1926

 Point Turton jetty

  Clear water off the jetty

  The Yulta picture board

  The steamer funnel out int he bay about 300 meters from the jetty

 Beach at  Parsons Beach

  We pulled into the Port Turton Bakery and local store for lunch and met Isabel and Michael – who have owned the business for 4 weeks – and had a lovely chat whilst we ate.  The then headed more north-west and pulled into Flaherty’s Beach where there is an ‘annual game of beach golf on the Sunday before the dodge tide’.  A ‘dodge tide’ apparently is the same as a neap-tide in other states.  When the tide is past its lowest for most of the day.  We used to witness this in Darwin when the tide would go WAY out to sea for 12 hours and all the vessels in the harbour would be on their sides until the water returned.

 lots of these little shells are found along this part of the coastline

  shags on the rocks

We ventured through Hardwicke Bay and then up the west coast to Port Minlacowie and then Cockle Beach before going up to Parsons Beach and Bluff Beach. 

At Bluff Beach they have davits in the cliffs where they used to store their boats, before the introduction of aluminium and fibreglass boats and boat trailers.  These are an interesting construction of timber and shackles to raise the boats out of the water to store them safe.  Unfortunately, in 1954 when a very bad storm wrecked 4 boats and washed away the beach shelter, the davits were not replaced.  Two remain today but are deteriorating and are not used to store the boats.

 Explaining the 'davits' along the cliffs

 a remaining davit

 artwork in the gallery at Minlaton from beach wood

 a lovely melon-basket at the gallery

  The weather was changing and the wind picking up and coming from the north west.

We then made our way to Minlaton and visited the Harvest Gallery Centre and Information Centre before topping up the fuel and heading back to the van.

Friday 21^st.  A lovely day today so have sent Darryl to do some fishing.  I have done the washing and updated the blog.  I have done some weaving and hope to attach some of the small shells that I collected at Leven Beach yesterday. 

I have been trying to get a message to go on facebook for the past two days with no success due to the intermittent Telstra reception.  I think it starts with – this is the third attempt……

Hoping that you are all keeping well.