Eyre Peninsular

From Ceduna we moved on to Streaky Bay our first stop on the Eyre Peninsular, this little town is a favourite of many Grey Nomads. The caravan park is owned by the shire/council and when we arrived two couples were re booking for the same time next year....it is very close to town and after setting up we took a walk and found a small town with very little shops and cafes closed, well it is Monday!! Another jetty to walk out on here too, which we duly did. But, tomorrow the Men's shed Engine Museum is open...heee haaa...
We walked back to the caravan into the on coming cold wind... we both noticed how the weather is getting cooler.

 
 





Shark proof swimming enclosure




The local petrol station had a small Information area that
included this model of a shark hung from the ceiling 

 

 

Our visit to the Men's shed Power House Museum

This place houses hundreds of stationery engines, most of which are in full working order. A small band of volunteers keeps them running. Richard was in his element! 

 



Another inclement day today it rained in the night too. We had a drive to a peninsular and noticed various sized blocks of land for sale, we always have a look at real estate when we are in a new area. The prices were very reasonable too! But no, this area is too remote for Helen!

The next day Wednesday 4 May we hitched up and made our way to a little place called Elliston. Along the way we wanted to see Murphys Haystacks, these are amazing Rock formations, we took the road up to the area and here was a very nice free camp too.

It is amazing how people on the road tell us their opinions of places and this little town was a no go. we found the exact opposite to what people had said. We had telephoned and made a two night booking, the lady who owned the park was very helpful and informed us of a 12km cliff top drive where we would see various sculptures. After setting up we headed off to explore this drive.
The seas around Elliston were huge, South Australia had been experiencing massive swells recently and they certainly were big!

Wild seas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thongs sculpture

 

 

 

 

 

Monument to a young surfer, tragically lost

 

 

 

 

 

 


Power

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Port Lincoln

Port Lincoln was our next stop around the Eyre Peninsula. We had to go there to pick up a new lamp for our bull bar that had got faulty. Richard sorted this out and we went to a nice campsite just north of the town.  We found a Kmart here and bought ourselves a pair of warm jogging pants each, it was becoming quite cold
Little did we know that the name of this town/city is from our home county of Lincolnshire. This coastal area was charted by Matthew Flinders who was born in Donnington, Lincolnshire. Everywhere around here has references to our old home area, Lincolnshire. Louth and Sleaford are names that we came across.
A drive round the bay to Billy Lights Boat ramp saw us in a beautiful residential area where we found a local swimming recreational building. Again blocks of land overlooking the amazing bay were for sale, this is a beautiful area.

Another Jetty



Lovely Jellyfish



Slightly poisonous

A very famous local racehorse

Matthew Flinders

We had noticed the weather was changing and quite fast, our plan to leave the peninsular became apparent we needed to get a move on. Our next stop is going to be Port Augusta but we managed to make Pimba near Woomera!!

 

 

 

 

 

Ceduna, Bob and Jackie

Wednesday 27 April
After saying farewell to our neighbour, who was also leaving the Head of the Bight his journey would take him was whilst our destination is Ceduna in South Australia. Here we are hoping and really looking forward to meeting our friends  Bob and Jackie, from Milton NSW they have been travelling west towards us!!
We turned right on to the Eyre Highway, we had approximately 300 kms to travel. For about thirty kilometres the highway was very quiet with not much happening, until, we spotted a road train in our rear view camera he was approaching us at some speed! The road ahead was clear so he overtook us but, before he was half way at our side he started to indicate and was going to cut us off!! Helen immediately reached for the 2 way to tell the driver not to cut in just yet!! it was a bit hair raising.
We had only travelled for another 2 or 3 minutes when coming towards us was police "paddy wagon" we thought it was strange, but then, a black sedan type car followed and Helen noticed it had WA plates on it. He was driving at some speed. He was going off the road and when we looked at our rear view camera he had turned very quickly and started to follow us. We could see he was wanting to pass and did, but once again he nearly cut us up....we soon realised this wasn't going to be good as we spied another police vehicle heading on our side of the road and the black car was in his sights, the police officer decided to swerve his vehicle sideways as to try and stop the black car! Only for a second the black car stopped and somehow went around the police vehicle and there we were looking face to face with the police office who had quite a task to turn round and give chase......soon after the other police vehicle overtook us and gave chase too. Richard grabbed the two way and told the police to get the "bas&&rd"  this all happened hundreds of kilometres from anywhere.


Police apprehending the young couple

We regained our composure and continued along the highway, hoping we may see the police catch this maniac. It was at least 70 kms later we heard from one of the Nomads coming towards us "Woodies there are police and Federal Police sorting out a car that has crashed into a tree" another 10km further we came upon the scene. Richard pulled over and ran back to talk to the officers.... The young man was in the back of the paddy wagon shouting out. Richard banged on the side and told him "You nearly killed me" the reply was "sorry sir", it seems this young man and his partner, who we hadn't even spotted in the car, have been known to them since crossing from WA into SA all the roadhouses (servos, fuel) had been told not to sell them any fuel, as they wouldn't pay anyway! They were high on drugs etc...the police wanted a statement from us and would visit us tonight. Thank goodness we are here to tell the story.

Our journey became quite uneventful and we tootled along and arrived at our destination, Shelley Beach Caravan Park, all we had to do was walk over a sand dune and there
was the sea! We had just settled in when we had a visit from Bob and Jackie, there were hugs all round it was fantastic to see them, but, unfortunately they were on the caravan park in town, we had tried to book there but no room for a large caravan. We soon organised to see them the next day and we intend to eat out together but only one place in town, the Hotel/Motel.
Later this evening the police officer found our caravan and asked Richard to read and sign the report/statement of the incident that we had witnessed. He was a very nice young man who chatted with us and told us of the various situations he had to deal with.




The very long jetty, Helen, Jackie and Bob at Ceduna



Gypsom Silo

 















Our pitch at Shelley Beach, Ceduna



Our time in Ceduna was just what we needed spending quality time with Bob and Jackie and we did go out for dinner at the motel, which was OK and then on Sunday we had lunch for $12 which was even better!!
We had to say farewell as Bob and Jackie were on their way west and we had our eyes set on the Eyre Peninsular, SA.































































































 

Nullarbor Plain

We left Esperance and drove up the Coolgardie-Esperance highway towards Norseman. This is the area of the devastating and fatal bush fires of last summer where tragically a number of people died. It reinforced the need to always be very careful in whatever we do in this harsh environment.
We arrived at our campsite, Fraser Range, early in the afternoon. Helen used the washing machine and changed all of the bedding and we went to the happy hour camp fire, swapping experiences with fellow campers.

A common site on outback properties



Tours of the station

We went on a circular signposted walk around the Station, climbed up Mt Pleasant and saw the third hole of the Nullarbor links golf course.

 

Mt Pleasant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Cairn with a microwave cooker to house the visitors book!

 

Our van in the background



The Nullarbor links golf course, 1600km long!

 

Our next trip saw us entering the Nullarbor along the Eyre Highway. We met a very large mining transport which was 8 metres wide! The Pilot warned us on our 2 way radio to get off the road, we did as he asked!

 

A very long straight road!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



We use our iPhone App "Wikicamps" to find remote free camp sites. Along the way there were a number of places to stop and take photograph, as we were right on the cliff tops in some places.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found this site at the side of the highway, very remote and absolutely deserted. We were far enough from the road to be untroubled by noise from road trains and we were able to cook food on our camp fire. Wonderful outback experience, totally remote and at one with nature.

 

Great campfire

 

The photographs below are the quick ones we took when crossing the border. Helen ran in the Roadhouse and picked up a "I survived the Nullarbor" sticker for a little boy we met 18 months ago, he has lost his first sticker...his Dad managed to contact us just as we approached the Border!! so lucky.

 

 

 

 

A late start the next day but, we seemed to travel a very long way. We found a very similar spot to camp that we had last night. We decided to go a little further into the bush on a track, unfortunately we got ourselves and the caravan into a bit of a pickle...we were going nowhere! Richard had a long walk around and found a place where we could turn the van around, yikes!! BUT, we had to clear some of the track in fact do some chopping of trees etc.... not going to do that again!! We did get out of the situation and had some lunch and coffee.

We had to get more fuel and here we are at the Nullarbor Roadhouse, what a place.

 

Further along the highway we found a flat free camp on the way into the Head of the Bight lookout and Visitors Centre. Only one other camper joined us for the night, a young English man travelling alone in his camper van, we had a very nice evening.

The next morning the caretaker of the Discovery Centre drove down and opened the gate and a number of caravanners went through down to the centre. We packed up and did the same. Such and amazing place, Helen talked about the time we saw the Great Australian Bight from a plane when we travelled last year from Melbourne to Perth. It seemed so surreal being here and seeing it for real.

Something we forgot to say, but, you all may have realised that this is the most amazing place to sight...the Southern Right Whale...but sadly we are too early!!

 

Free camp

 Head of the Bight photographs

 

 

After our visit we drove off to our next destination... Ceduna,  but, along our route what an experience we had, on an outback road with virtually no traffic... then police tonight in our caravan... Story to follow!!