Across the Nullarbor and into S.A.

I know I have been incredibly slack in not having made a post since before Christmas. We are now on the outskirts of Adelaide and I guess one of the reasons I have been so lax is because we are now back in more familiar territory and it does not seem that it is quite as adventurous (a pretty lame excuse, I know). Since leaving Esperance we travelled north stopping overnight in the quaint little town of Salmon Gums, where a powered site in the community run caravan park costs all of $10, then on through Norseman with another overnight stop at a free camp on the shores of lake Cowan, a dry salt lake, before arriving in Kalgoorlie. We spent Christmas in Kalgoorlie and of course took in some of the famous sights, the most notable being the ‘Super Pit’ where we were fortunate enough to see the daily blasting operations. This massive hole in the ground is regarded as one of the top ten environmental scars on the planet and it is easily visible from space. However it is rather exciting to know you are standing beside the richest square mile of gold bearing ground on earth, and they reckon there is still at least another 10 years of mining to be done before the gold runs out.

From Kalgoorlie it was back to Norseman to begin our trip across the Nullarbor. The 1205 Km journey from Norseman to Ceduna is one that many people try to get through as quickly as possible, however we took the best part of 4 days, with 3 overnight stops. One day was a short drive because of the incredible headwind so the decision was made to make camp early. That camp was the most spectacular, right near the edge of the ‘Bunda Cliffs’ of the Great Australian Bight. Once across the Nullarbor we stayed overnight in Ceduna before beginning our journey around the Eyre Peninsular. During this part of the trip we made stops of one or two nights in Haslam, Sheringa Beach, Venus Bay, Coffin Bay, Port Neill and Whyalla, with longer stays in Port Lincoln, Lincoln N.P., Louth Bay, Lipson Cove, Port Gibbon and Cowell. Just a few of the highlights of the trip around the peninsular would be swimming with the southern blue fin tuna at Port Lincoln, walking a deserted beach amongst nesting Terns at Lipson Cove, strolling right up to massive Sea Lions at Point Gibbon and of course the fabulous fishing at Cowell

Part of the reason for our 8-day stay in Cowell was to catch up with our good friends, Bob and Yvonne from Minto who had journeyed this way mainly for the fishing. It was just great catching up with them and an added bonus was that another couple of friends we had met during our travels, Craig and Jenny, also turned up for 3 nights. The daily ‘happy hour’ turned into two or three hours and we drank a bit more than we should have. Being the expert fisherman that he is, Bob made sure there was no shortage of fresh seafood for the evening meals. I was fortunate enough to participate in 4 days of fishing with Bob in his boat in and around Franklin Harbour. Together we made abundant catches of whiting, squid, Tommie Roughs (Herring) and blue swimmer crabs as well as razor fish and stripies for bait. Bob is not only a great fisherman he is also very well versed in the best way to clean and prepare the catch, I learnt so much – thanks Bob.

From the Eyre Peninsular we rounded the top of Spencer Gulf for a few days on the Yorke Peninsular staying at Wallaroo before visiting friends at Stansbury and then overnight at Port Julia. Again rounding the top of the Gulf, this time Gulf St.Vincent, to head towards Adelaide finding us now (20^th Feb.) at Parham only about 75Km out of the city. Now that we are getting a little closer to home we will probably not be updating this blog all that regularly. We will, however be updating our location periodically on my Facebook page, if you are not on Facebook the links below will give you a look at some of our photos.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10588&id=1767032619&l=c41e306ad5

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10725&id=1767032619&l=ed2fdb528d

By the time I got to post this we had arrived in Adelaide where we are staying at the Adelaide Shores caravan park at West Beach for a week.