Exploring Esperance

Well Trevor, you were right. 😁. This town and surrounding area is beautiful!!  The foreshore is so picturesque and reminds us of the Queensland towns of Cairns and Townsville and we are impressed with the cleanliness and quality of facilities.

       This probably doesnt show the foreshore at its best as they were mowing the lawns.

Our day was started with us falling about in the car laughing when Dennis manouvered his way out of the Woolies car park by going through the very tight Red Rooster drive through!! Luckily they weren't open as we hadn't put in an order - as it was the workers were giving us very strange looks! Later on we had a similar experience through a bottle shop 😳. We can always rely on Dennis to lighten our day and provide entertainment!! Dennis is also our wood collector and we've been fortunate as we've been able to cut wood from the woodpile down the back - and use the owners wheelbarrow! Dennis has been able to get his chainsaw to go - but is on the hunt for a new one!

    

     

We explored Cape Le Grand National Park and wow, on such a lovely sunny day, the white sandy beaches and blue waters were stunning. 

    

    

    

We were at this campground a few years ago and can't believe the improvements that have been made! They have enlarged the camping area, built new camp kitchen, picnic shelters, bbqs, picnic tables .... and everything was so clean - they have volunteers who probably help maintain a high standard. This is the the picnic area at Hellfire Bay - another beautiful picnic spot.

     

  Our intrepid photographer standing by Mathew Flinders lookout! 

We toured along the scenic road around the town and enjoyed the views from various lookouts.

     

So a little reluctantly we are leaving this lovely spot and moving inland heading to Wave Rock. We've enjoyed perfect weather so far and are very lucky to be still wearing shorts during the day. We have been on the road for 4 weeks tomorrow and have seen so many wonderful sights. We hope everyone is well and say goodbye till the next blog. Love from the travellers ❌❌❌❌❌

Nullabor

We had a good night at Smoky Bay around our camp fire and this morning packed up and left towards WA. Ceduna is a pretty town with a lovely beach front and we sheltered from the wind for our morning tea. Next stop was Penang where we saw the windmill museum which was pretty impressive 

       

This big one is one of the largest in Australia and has been recently restored ! It was here that Dennis produced his $2 golf club and bag of golf balls that he purchased in Moonta! Despite my reservations, it was such fun and we had so many laughs playing the par 4 - our first of the Nullabor golf links! Tops really impressed us with her swing and hit - whereas I would have been the winner if the most number of shots over par counted!! Dennis started off strongly but weakened at the putting end! Darryl was most impressed with my video attempts where I got the ground, my feet and not him!! 

        

The weather deteriorated and fortunately we decided to camp at the Nullarbor road house. The vegetation  was pretty much Mallee for the first part of the journey then suddenly it changes to a treeless landscape! 

   

    

    

     This is the original road house!

It's just as well we were here as it rained and would have been very unpleasant out bush. At least here we had the use of the camp kitchen and met some fellow travellers - a family, some young ones and unfortunately, Boring Brian!! Darryl and Dennis went to the bar for a drink and Tops and I went to bed - I think it was 8pm so no wonder the night seemed long!

And guess what? Right by us is Dingo Dens hole - number 4 hole of the golf links but number 2 for us!! I'm hoping I've improved my game!! Update - Dennis was on fire this morning and hit the ball beautifully! Darryl's game deteriorated somewhat, Tops was still hitting well and me? Well let's say I was hitting the ball straighter than Darryl but once again topped the number of strikes to the green! A par 5 was a par 20 for me 😊. Our biggest battle was the darn crow who pinched 2 balls before we could get there! He must have a pile somewhere! 

We've now left SA and entered WA - a new adventure begins!

    

Lots of love to all our readers from the lucky ones ❌❌❌❌❌

        

Towards WA

We enjoyed relaxing last day at a Coffin Bay  -we firstly went down to the local market and purchased a couple of goodies - and ran into Noel Bretag who the boys know from the footy club! Small world! We then packed our lunch and headed to the Coffin Bay National Park. 

          

      

It's a great spot and we enjoyed driving around and seeing the sights. We were very impressed with the upgraded camping area at Yangie Bay and decided it would be a great spot to stay.

        

We were entertained by a surfer who just pulled up in his trusty ute, popped his suit on and ran down the steep cliff - with bare feet - then surfed all by himself! Darryl took great video footage but unfortunately we can't share it as he somehow lost all his photos!! Still a mystery how that happened. 😳😳. We found the spot near the beautiful sand dunes and were about to hop out and relive the fun we had there 30 years ago, when we spied a goanna - so quickly I didn't feel like walking! If Darryl had not lost his photos I could have included that here! 

These Sandhills are amazing and seem to attract the sunlight! 

Darryl and I decided to undertake a walk to a lookout from the campground - and Dennis and Tops planned to meet us there. So off we set - we found the lookout but it wasn't the one we thought - so there we were lots of kilometres from the lookout where we were expected. We didn't have our phones so thought the only thing to do was to retrace our steps and hope our rescuers thought something was wrong and would come and look for us!   Luckily they did - but our 10 min walk turned into about an hours trek!! Darryl's day wasn't the best with lost photos, a mixed up trek plus a couple of disasters with knocking his head and looking like he's been in the wars! 

We packed up and left Coffin Bay this morning and have enjoyed the journey. We stopped at Venus Bay to see the spectacular coastline and lovely bay. 

 

        

We had our lunch at the iconic Murphys Hay Stack - these rock outcrops are very different.

      

We are now here at Smoky Bay.  It's a lovely little town and we are in a little park which suits us with space by ourselves and we have a campfire. As luck would have it, there's a huge tractor collection next door - which has already been checked out! No good ones there but there could be in Haslam - Dennis seems to have a good nose for finding old tractors! 

We thought we were so clever purchasing oysters from a little place in Streaky Bay - then we got here and find they are so much cheaper!! There's a lot of oyster farming here and it seems to be a very well organised business. It's a beautiful bay and the town is very tidy and neat. 

      

Tomorrow we'll keep heading West and may even be near the WA border! Our service on the Nullarbor will no doubt not exist so this may be the last blog till we get to Esperance. 

We were a little wistful knowing we were missing out on Mia's baptism as well as Sandys important celebration - plus knowing Josh and Jess were in SA but too far away to see!! -  thank heavens for social media and modern communications. 

We are excited to be setting out across the Nullarbor and hope that the whales are also beginning their migration!

Trust all is well and we send our love to you all, 

Xxxxxxxx

Coffin Bay

Our last day in Louth Bay turned out to be very successful for me as I caught my first squid! It was a ripper big one too - rather to Darryl and Dennis's dismay as they caught none. To add insult to injury, a young boy next to us was pulling them in one after another - proving you do just have to be lucky!! 

It was wonderful to wake up Friday morning and learn that big rains had come to our area - Trevor won't have to worry about watering for a while!!

          

We moved onto here at Coffin Bay which is a great little town and much more developed since we were last here.  

               

           

We set up in our usual unpowered spot away from the regimented powered sites and we're happy to be able to have a campfire. Dennis and Darryl's electrical business saw them replace a plug for Dennis's indicators and source out what blew a fuse in our van. It was a faulty wire in our car fridge so the clever chaps were able to fix it all. Meanwhile Tops and I hit the laundry!!

We toured the town and purchased some oysters and prawns to supplement the squid and four fish caught off the jetty. We are getting very used to this delicious seafood.

We toured the area and at Farm Beach, Dennis was able to eye off the tractor collection there - many of them in very poor condition!

       

We travelled 4kms of very rough road to Gallipoli Beach - where they filmed the movie years ago. To mark the centenary of that battle, they are celebrating ANZAC day at that site and we met the people getting it organised for Tuesdays service. It was most interesting to talk to them and to see the landscape which closely resembles the Gallipoli Beach in Turkey. It would be a great experience to be at that service as they will have four horses representing the Light Horse Brigade, plus a fly over of different planes. 

     

Imagine trying to scale these cliffs whilst under attack from above!!

We were fortunate to witness a pod of dolphins rounding up fish and frolicking in the shallows! 

        

Our picnic lunches have been ramped up a bit since the purchase of tablecloths!! It's actually quite practical as it keeps our food off less clean tables! 

      

Tomorrow we will explore the national park then continue on our way west. 

We've been rather fortunate with the weather as we're still in shorts but think those days may be numbered!! We hope everyone is well - till our next blog, love from the happy campers! 

❌❌❌❌❌❌❌

Touring the Eyre Peninsula coast

We left Nuttbush and turned south along the Spencer Highway, calling into see dear little towns with lovely views such as Cowell, Arno Bay and Port Neill. We decided to look at this Lipson Cove and we were very fortunate to get two sites together in a sheltered spot right by the sea.

        

       

 

 Actually we set up next to another van but they were happy to let us as they were off next morning. There are only 14 sites at this small council run camping area so we were lucky. The beach is lovely with white sand and across the way is an island - home to many birds. At night swarms of starlings fly in to roost - they make a remarkable spectacle. 

     

      

Can you spot our little campsite - this photo was taken higher up on the cliff. The sandy beach is around the corner.

     

The boys have tried a bit of fishing with no success but they don't have the right gear for sand fishing. We plan to try further down the coast to Louth Bay where there's a jetty.

Now we are set up at Louth Bay - another tiny campground - only 8 sites but we were early enough to get two sites together. We are only 20 odd kms from Port Lincoln so we set up then went to tour this impressive town. No sign of a struggling economy here - there are lovely big houses out around the marina and the business centre was very busy. 

We had lunch at McDonalds as we all wanted to get updates done but we were only moderately succcessful!! We grabbed some supplies, Tops managed to get a podiatrist appointment and the boys got more fishing tackle!! Back here they had just reached the jetty with all their gear and we were wondering how to best cook all of their catch - when a thunderstorm struck so they had to scurry back with the lines not even in the water!! They've set off again but are worried it may come in stormy again! 

    

Actually I had some success when I pulled up Darryl's crab net to find a strange fish in it -

     

We didn't know what it was so threw him back in! It's a bit frustrating when the people standing next to you pull in squid and you have nothing 😳. 

We had a beautiful sunset here tonight and think the stormy weather has cleared - hopefully it's going across to Murrabit! 

      

Sandy and Trev are doing a great job seeking out  the mice who have found a way into our house - isn't it amazing how they can find a way in? We've not had any inside since the 2011 floods. We are very fortunate to have caretakers in Sandy and Trev 😊😊

We hope all the school kids have settled into the school routine again. The SA kids are still on holidays here.

Till the next blog, trust you are all well, love from Marg, Darryl, Dennis & Tops ❌❌❌

PS the hunters and gatherers came back with 2 squid so that's not a bad start 🦑🦑

Nuttbush Retreat

 We left Wallaroo bright and early and headed north along the Spencer highway towards Port Pirie. In all the years I'd lived in SA, I never once actually drove into the town so it was a surprise to find a lovely park with great amenities by the seaside. We enjoyed our morning tea there and chatted to birthday boy James ( rather briefly as he was intent on playing with his new toys!) Its a busy household this month at Rose River with Lachlan and Hannah also celebrating birthdays. We remember Lachlans last bithday as that was the day we lost our wheel!! 

         

We arrived here at Nuttbush lunch time and set up once again in the unpowered sites by ourselves. 

             

This time however, we have no nice green grass - just dirt - plus annoying little ants!!  We were the first ones in but by the end of the day there would have been about 15 vans - mostly overnighters! They have a happy hour here which we thought we'd support and happy we were after several very full glasses of wine!! It's served in the woolshed which is also a rustic restaurant. 

       

The amenities are very clean but we're rather disappointed we can't have a camp fire and there's nowhere to walk other than the highway!! We'll use this as a base to explore Whyalla and surrounds before we head south towards Port Lincoln.

We did a quick run to Iron Knob and what a sad place that is! Even though the mine is still working, the majority of the town was derelict and unloved - certainly not a place you'd say you'd love to live in!! 

  This is the pub - no dining here 😳

      

We found Whyalla an interesting town and easily whiled away the day doing touristy things. We enjoyed the tour of the ship Whyalla - the first ship built there in 1940 -  plus the adjoining maritime museum. 

        

Darryl also found another place to have a catnap:

     

Darryl and Dennis were also very taken by the model railway which was very impressive. 

There were also lovely gardens there where we had our picnic morning tea. We toured the town and had a good overview of the town from the lookout.

      

 We had our picnic lunch along the foreshore and met a lovely local couple who told us Arrium - who run the mines, are in a bit of financial trouble - so it's nervous times for Whyalla residents. 

We came across a festival on over Easter so we strolled around through the various stalls and listened to the music by "3 Amigos plus 1" Their music was quite toe tapping. Then we just had to find Auntie Mary's house to complete the family tour. 

Tomorrow we plan to celebrate Easter Sunday by taking a picnic to visit Point Lowly with the plan to exercise the fishing gear again - so hope we are dining on seafood tomorrow night! 

We wonder if Easter bunny finds everyone - we send happy Easter wishes to you all.  🐥🐥🐣🐣

Wallaroo

Our last afternoon at Coobowie was spent hiding from the wind - or in the case of the males, getting ready for the big fishing expedition!! It took them absolutely ages to sort out rigs, bait, beer, snacks and set off to catch dinner!!

This big white hunter is very enthusiastic since his introduction to crabbing - so Greg we blame you for this new found pursuit!! At Wallaroo new rods and reels were purchased and the goal is to provide a seafood feast for Chris and Merilyn's last evening with us. The Edithburgh expedition was successful with a catch of 3 squid and 1 fish and there are great expectations to catch more squid and crabs off the jettys on this side of the peninsula. Update ......... despite new rods, reels and lots of advice, this afternoon's session only resulted in one poor whiting: hopefully we can produce a loaves and fishes story!!

          

                

We were very successful with the loaves and fishes story as we had plenty of seafood and even have some calamari left over for tonight. Mind you, it was supplemented with some chops and chips!! The seafood was absolutely delicious - whether it's because it's freshly caught, or whether it's the lovely panko breadcrumbs or whether it was the preparation and cooking - who knows but it certainly was lovely. Now we are pushing for more squid and fish to be caught by the fishermen! 

The trip to here at Wallaroo was not a long one and we stopped in Mindlaton to see the Red Baron story and his plane and we had morning tea at Port Victoria.

          

 We arrived here at Wallaroo before lunch and set up in a grassed non powered section which once again suits us perfectly. They tell us over Easter this area is absolutely full, but right now we are spread out very comfortably! The beach here is beautiful and the towns very inviting. We all enjoyed a scrumptious Cornish Pasty at Moonta when we lashed out and bought lunch! 

        Mornning tea at Port Hughes:

        

I've probably bored and confused everyone with the tours around pointing out where my uncles, aunties, grandmas, grandpas and cousins live and used to live. I'm not sure anyone could pass a test on my family history but I think they have an understanding of the mining and agriculture of the area. The Kadina Farm Shed museum was very well received and everyone thought it was the best set up and best maintained museum they've seen. Darryl and I popped to visit my lovely Auntie Lucy - mums younger sister only 95 years old!!

         

This morning Chris and Merilyn left us for the long trek home. It was lovely having their company for a few days and we thank them for making the effort to join us. Darryl and Dennis are heading out to catch our Easter seafood (our second option will be to buy some from around here!) After lunch we are doing some visiting before we leave this lovely area and head away from the coast to a station stay out of Iron Knob. I've really loved showing off this beautiful Yorke Peninsula and now look forward to showing off Eyre Peninsula.

We hope everyone has a happy and safe Easter 🐥🐥. 

Till our next blog, love from the travellers ❌❌❌❌❌

Coobowie

We found this great little park which suits us perfectly having the space to ourselves, the beach is across the road,  we're able to have a campfire and have an ablution block for our exclusive use.

          

We've had fun exploring this southern part of the Yorke Peninsula and we love the coastal towns with their prolific shacks. Dennis and Darryl even bought some crabbing nets and on the Stansbury jetty attempted rather unsuccessfully to get a few more crabs. It was however, very pleasant on the jetty.

The boys are now getting organised to hit the Edithburgh jetty and hope to catch something - even though it won't be sunny and warm on the jetty today.  

            

    

We packed our lunch on Saturday and went on a tour along the southern coast and stopped along the way for our own tour operator to read interesting facts about this rugged coastline.

          

             This was the most amazing lighthouse and quite different being brick and not white! There are a series of lighthouses along this rugged coast.

This is the wreck of the Ethel which sunk in 1904.

Our morning tea at a little place called Port Moorowie was a credit to the locals who are developing a native garden and provide excellent facilities. 

     

We explored the Innes National Park and were impressed with the health of the vegetation - but not of the kangaroo population which are being affected by tick. We enjoyed a few walks - the best of which was probably this boardwalk to Pondalowie surf beach.

     

As it often happens, one group member always has to put his toes in the water!!

      

        

Last night we experienced some of the windiest conditions and spent quite a restless night listening to the canvas flapping and worrying about things blowing away (nothing did though!)  Chris Merilyn Darryl and I this morning walked more of the Walk the Yorke trail - about 6kms to Edithburgh which was quite picturesque and despite the wind, very pleasant. And would you believe it? - we ladies found a market and Dennis sussed out a local man who collects and restores tractors. They spent a very interesting hour or so with this man who was a bit unique!! 

Tonight we are treating ourselves to a meal out at the local pub which has a good reputation - then tomorrow we pack up and head to Wallaroo North Beach caravan park and we can show the others this lovely part of the peninsula which we know quite well. We only hope these windy conditions abate and the previous beautiful weather returns.

We hope everyone is well as we all are 😊😊 Until the next blog,

Love from the happy travellers ❌❌❌❌❌❌