The Breakaways

The Breakaways

Underground Mine

Underground Serbian Church

20/5/2012  -  It is a beautiful morning today.  We woke nice and snug after being able to have the electric blanket on whenever we wanted last night.  Had bacon and eggs for breakfast.  What a treat.  I did a load of washing and we had a chat with the neighbours.  The Airds came and said goodbye.  It was just lovely sitting out in the sun.  We went down and filled the car up at the Shell Depot in the back street.  It was $1.66 a litre so the cheapest in town.  The other servos are $1.69.  We came back and had lunch, I did a bit more on the blog and we got organised to do the tour.  We went around to the office at about 2.30 and the guide picked us up at about 3pm.  There was about 10 from the caravan park on the tour.  We started off visiting the Desert Cave Opal Shop and the guide told us all about opals and how they are formed, the types and how to tell a good one.  It was really interesting and there was some beautiful jewellery there and I might say expensive.  After that we visited the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum.  They had an opal shop there too with some lovely things.  We then went underground to see where 2 miners in the early days had made a 2 room with entry dug out and how long it took them to make it.  Then we went into a more modern underground home.  The living room was really big, designed for entertaining, it had a small kitchen and then a couple of bedrooms.  On the way out of town we saw the entrances to some of the homes that are under ground dugouts.    The soil in the Coober Pedy hillside is stable enough to allow huge ceiling spans in rooms and it is not unusual for a mining family to buy an adjoining property and tunnel to link two dwellings or even three or four.  Some mansion style homes spread up to 450 square metres underground. The diggings was the next stop where there are large piles of dirt and holes where the miners have been digging or are still mining.  After that we went out to the Breakaways, a series of large hills in all shapes, sizes and colours.  We were there around sunset so the light was great to take photos. Then we stopped at the dog fence that is about 5, 500 kilometres long and was erected to try and stop the dingoes from the north entering into the south.  The underground Serbian Church was the next stop.  It was lovely with beautiful large shaped ceilings and wonderful accoustics and a series of 3 sculptures that were sculpted into the sandstone walls.  The guide took us back and we had a drink in the only underground bar in Australia.  It also had the only underground gaming room.  When we'd finished he dropped us all back at the caravan park. It was well worth taking the tour.    We had tea and I thought I'd catch up with today's blog just incase we don't have service for a few days.

Salt Lake

Outside Coober Pedy

Stuart Highway

19/5/2012  -  Up early again this morning and left Pimba about 8.30am.  The land is still very barren with no trees.  We stopped at a lookout to take some photos of one of the huge salt lakes out here.  I had dropped my glasses when I got out and didn't realise until I went to write in my diary as we left the lookout.  Thankfully I did that or I would never have known what had happened to them.  So lucky too as we could have run over them on our way out.  After about 20 kilometres from Pimba there were trees and huge dry salt lakes.  One of the lakes called Island Lagoon had chunks of salt sticking up out of it.  We called in through Glendambo to check out the price of fuel at both their servos and it was $1.71 at the BP and $1.70 at Shell.  There was a sign on the way into town to say the population of the area was 22,000 Sheep, 2 Million Flies and I didn't catch how many people but I don't think there would have been many.  We stopped at Bon Bon Rest Area for Moko and I think most of those flies were there having Moko with us.  Just after there was a section of the highway that was signed for use as the Royal Flying Doctors Airstrip in an emergency.  It was nice and wide with no guide posts and a turn around section at the end for the plane to turn.  When we got to about 80 kilometres out of Coober Pedy we started to see Opal Mines or remnants of some on either side of the road.  The town itself is a bit hilly with underground houses located in the hills around the town.  The main street has lots of Opal Traders/Jewellers, a supermarket, chemist, bottle shop and post office, a few restaurants and take aways.  We checked out all the caravan parks and decided on the Opal Inn which was right behind the pub and motel.  It was $30 for a site but no water.  None of the parks here have water to hook up to.  We parked up, had lunch and went for a walk down town.  We went into an underground museum which wound around into an Opal shop with lots of lovely jewellery.  The salesman there explained to us what the different types of opal were.  The museum we first walked into had been dug by 3 women back in the early years.  When we got back we had neighbours that we discovered were from Tin Can Bay and later that afternoon a van pulled in across from us and it was Jeff and Anna Aird.  Jeff  has the cleaning contract at Tarong.  We booked a guided tour for tomorrow to have a better look around the area so that should be good.

Stuart Highway out of Port Augusta

Stuart Highway

Sunset over Pimba Rest Area

Pimba Rest Area

18/5/2012  -  Up early this morning and left Rawnsley Park Station.  We had a good stay here and will return if the chance arises.  We backtracked back through Hawker, Quorn and on to Port Augusta.  We weren't really impressed with the town as it isn't very RV friendly making it very hard to find parking spots to shop and the town itself is not that well maintained.  We topped up with bread and milk and fuelled up at the Coles Express servo for $1.47 that was using discount vouchers.  We also bought an electric blanket and a couple of fleece blankets to try and make the bed a bit warmer at night.  We should be able to run the electric blanket on low settings from the Inverter.  We headed out of Port Augusta and on up the Stuart Highway heading up the centre.  The land is so barren up this way.  It is like driving through a desert with small clumps of plants a bit like spinifex. We are hoping to get up to around Woomera today. Had lunch at North Tent Hill Rest Area where there was so much litter so we ate fast and headed out.  We got to Pimba just down the road from Woomera and stopped for the night at the Rest Area opposite Spud's Roadhouse. Heaps of vans were already parked up there when we got in but a lot more arrived after us.  There must have been at least 40 vans in there for the night.  We were all just parked up in the dust but there were showers and toilets there and it was free.  It was a bit noisy at times with lots of trucks using the road and the roadhouse but that wasn't a problem for us.

Sacred Canyon

Flinders Ranges

Flinders Ranges

Flinders Ranges

17/5/2012  -  Another beautiful morning, even nicer than yesterday and not as much breeze.  We are off to explore a bit more of the area in the Flinders Ranges today.  We called into Wilpena Pound again  to check our emails and then headed on to the Sacred Canyon which was 13 kilometres up a dirt and corrugated road but the Canyon was worth the drive.  There were aboriginal engravings in some of the rocks there but the rock formations and colours were worth the drive in.   Some of the huge rocks were so rounded and smooth and it just shows how the water gushes down through the canyon and down the river in the wet season.  It was then on to Bunyeroo Gorge stopping at a couple of lookouts on the way.  The views from these were just magnificent.  We could see the layers of sediment that make up the ranges and the colours were great.  Some of the layers looked like they had been painted on the mountain.  The road into the gorge was dirt and was quite steep and winding.  On the way into the gorge there were quite a few emus grazing beside the road.  As we were driving down through the gorge we were actually driving along a dry river bed with cliffs either side much like the Brachina Gorge yesterday but Bunyeroo was not quite as big or interesting. When we came out of the gorge we headed over to the Aroona Ruins which were situated up on top of a hill so they would have had great views from there.  The stone house was build in 1854 and belonged to a sheep farmer, John Hayward.  He was the first pastoralist to bring sheep so far north. He described his home as a “splendid bungalow”. There isn’t much  left of the original building, just rock walls and stone steps down to what was once a cellar.  We had lunch at one of the National Park campgrounds nearby and headed back to the camp.  We had had enough of dirt, corrugated roads.  I did a load of washing and we got  organized to leave here tomorrow.  Pa did a bit of investigating this afternoon and reckons if we stay here again we should get site 18 as it has its own fire pit, is up the hill a bit and is close to the amenities.

Flinders Ranges

Glass Gorge

Flinders Ranges

Flinders Ranges

16/5/2012  -  Up fairly early this morning to a beautiful day.  A little chilly to start with but still beautiful.  We are heading out to do some sightseeing today and check out more of the Flinders Ranges.  We had brekky, I packed some sandwiches for lunch and we headed out.  Our first stop was Wilpena Pound mainly so we can get some mobile and internet service to pay the Telstra bill and let the girls know we are okay and where we are.  We had a look around while we were there but are glad we decided to stay at Rawnsley Station now.  Wilpena Pound was okay but lots of trees and not a lot of sunshine coming through and some of the sites were tight.  Fuel was $1.75 a litre there.  We then went up Stokes Hill Lookout and the scenery was breathtaking, in more ways than one.  The wind was freezing, but the views of the ranges were worth it. The colours, contours and different shapes of these ranges are so beautiful. It was then on to Appealinna Ruins  where the rocky remains of one of our pioneering families, Joseph and Sarah Wills family home is and there is also ruins of a Mine Manager’s home and various other mine workers huts.  They used to mine copper in this area.  It was easy to see the Mine Managers house was built so much better than the Wills’ house was.  There was documentation on each ruin so it was really interesting to read all about Joseph and Sarah’s lives and all the trouble Joseph had with the Mine owners and the other landholders.  Then it was on to Blinman, an old copper mining town.  There are still many old workers cottages in the town and other old buildings and an old copper mine just out of town they take tours through.  We had Moko there and drove onto the Glass Gorge via a dirt and sometimes corrugated road.  The gorge was great with lots of really interesting rocks.  Most of them were flat just like a thick tile.  Parts of the cliffs there looked like they were made up of tiles stacked on top of each other.  We could have spent ages there but pressed on to Parachilna.  On the way there we came across a lookout. I called it a self made lookout, because it didn’t look like a dozer had made the track.  We went up, up, up to the top of this hill and wow, what a great view from the top.  (It was well worth all the fingernail marks in the seat). We crossed Oratunga Creek that was a big rocky dry creek bed and after that the landscape just flattened out with some ranges in the distance but it was really hard to believe only a few minutes ago we were surround by them. Parachilna was only a small town with a great looking pub called the Prairie Hotel that is apparently well known for its great food.  The old Ghan Railway line used to run through the town too. We ate our lunch down the road from there and we had some great views of the mountains.  From here we headed back to camp via Brachina Gorge.  The rocks exposed along  the gorge date from 500 to 650 million years old and age from west to east.  This was a great drive even though the road was dirt and corrugated but the gorge was well worth it.  Most of the drive through it was up Billy Creek, a dry, rocky creek bed with cliffs either side of it and a few puddles of water here and there.   After we came out of the gorge we drove back to the main road and back to camp.  What a great day and what great places we have seen today.  We have taken heaps of photos of the ranges but none of them will do justice to the beauty of this place.

Part of the Kanyaka Ruins

Chace Range - Part of the Flinders Ranges

Cruiser in front of Chace Range

Chace Range at Sunset

15/5/2012  -  We left Melrose at about 10.15.  Can’t rush these things.  It had been a freezing cold night so because we didn’t have electricity we missed having our little blower heater going so it was a bit of a rough night trying to get warm.  (Wish I had brought warmer bedding)  It was a beautiful morning though.  We passed through Willmington and Quorn.  Both were small towns that were so dry.  Nobody has a lawn because obviously they don’t have the water.  We then called into Kanyaka Ruins which were the ruins of an old homestead, that had a surgery, because there was no doctor in the district, an office, that was used as a post office for a while, overseers cottage, mens’ kitchen, carthouse, stable and various other huts all made of stone.  There was also a cemetery there.  It was really interesting wandering through the remnants of these buildings and wondering about the people who would have lived here.  Apparently quite a few families did live here and the buildings were actually like a small village.  Kanyaka was originally built in about 1862 for John Phillips and his family.  We found more ruins further down the road where there was a town called Wilson. What was left of the Railway Station Masters Home was there.  We worked out where the old railway line would have run just behind the house.  There were more ruins in the area but were mostly just an odd wall or chimney.  We had a walk through the cemetery here and a lot of the graves belonged to very young people and infants.  What an interesting place.  Hawker was our next town and it was very dry also but quite neat and had a good rest stop for a lunch break so we had lunch here and went to the servo where the information bureau was and got some information on the Flinders Ranges and where to stay.  I called Rawnsley Park Station and they could accommodate us so we headed out there.  The Caravan Park was located a couple of kilometers in off the road past the Station Homestead.  It was a nice park with friendly staff so we booked in for 3 nights so we could have a good look around the area.  It was $33 a night for a powered site and $22 for non powered.  They gave us some good information on what places to see and a map how to get there so we set up camp, grabbed a bottle of red and a couple of glasses and went on out to Pugilist Lookout which was a must see at Sunset.  The lookout was on top of a hill right in the middle of the ranges and from the top all the sheep in the paddocks below looked like ants. We watched the sun setting over the ranges in the west and as it was going down it cast an amber glow over the opposite ranges and brought out all the colours of the rocks.  It was just beautiful and well worth the wait for the sun to set.  Pa also found a heap of molluscs (shells a bit like small pipies) on top of the hill that were obviously deposited here when the  inland sea receded from this area millions of years ago.  After the sun had gone down we headed back to camp for the night.    

Port Pirie

Jetty at Port Germain

Original Lighthouse Port Germain

Bangor Ruins amongst Pepper Trees

NM

Our campfire at Melrose Showgrounds Campground

14/5/2012  -  Left Port Broughton at about 9.50am.  This morning was sunny but still cool.  We headed to Port Pirie and had a look around there.  It is a very dry town but we did find a spot in the Coles carpark to pull up to go in and do our stock up.  We got our groceries from Coles and were lucky to get an 8c a litre voucher from there and stocked up on our reds.  Can't be running out on the way up the centre can we.  We got our fuel from the Coles Express servo nearby and fuel was $1.51 there so we got it for $1.43 which is really good for out here.  The old girl was really thirsty so was one of those times where you hate handing the credit card over.  After that we pulled up in town beside the river and had lunch.  The weather was quite a bit warmer up here and not as much wind.  Port Germain was our next stop.  It is noted for having had one of the longest wooden jetties in the southern hemisphere at 1673 metres long.  In its heyday it was the largest grain shipping port in Australia. The original lighthouse that was situated at the end of the jetty has been replaced by automated lights so the lighthouse sits at the start of the jetty now. The town is really quite small but is somewhere we think we could stay for a few days.  Would be good to walk the length of the jetty.  There is heaps of seaweed stacked up on the beach which is common for down here at this time of the year apparently. They also use "Jinkers" a.k.a. "Spiders" like they had at Port Parham for launching their boats. After there we started heading inland winding our way up towards the Flinders Ranges.  We passed through a place called Bangor that wasn't really a town but some old ruins.  We stopped to take photos and some of the ruins are in amongst a few pepper trees that were absolutely loaded with peppercorns.  It was really beautiful.  There had been an old pub there  called The Gorge that was built in 1888 and apparently at any one time there were at least 100 bullock and horse teams camped along the creek across from the pub.  Would have been a busy place.  It closed in 1911 when the railway started carting the wheat and wool from the district.  While we were there all we could hear were the sheep calling to each other from paddock to paddock. We headed on through Murray Town to Melrose where we had planned to stay the night.  The town is a nice little place and we ended up going just out of town to the Showgrounds where there is a campground.  They charge $5 per person and if you want a powered site it was another $7 for power.  We decided we could do without the power so set up on a site where we could have a fire.  There was a huge drum there so Pa soon had a great fire going.  We had a weenie roast that night for tea, something we haven't done for ages.  It was a cold night so we weren't able to sit around the fire long but at least had time for a couple of quiet reds before tea. It ended up being an absolutely freezing night there.  Reckon we should have put a couple of bricks in the fire and put them in the bed.    

13/5/2012  -  Mothers Day today.  Had our coffee outside and surprise, surprise, the wind had started already.  The girls, including  Zara,  phoned to wish me a happy Mothers Day and I also got a lovely call from Con.   I opened up my e-cards then.  There was one from Pa, Kirmy and Lee Lee which were all beautiful.  So after that lovely start to the day we had our brekkie and went for a walk into town.  By the time we got back the wind was even colder. I collected a jar of shells off the beach behind us and did a couple of loads of washing and put that on the clothes line which the wind decided to blow over anyway. This afternoon I got another lovely e-card which was from Zara. Pa cooked me a lovely yummy roast lamb and veges for tea and we had apple crumble and yoghurt for dessert.  We're moving on again tomorrow - somewhere warmer we hope.

Caravan Park Port Broughton

View from Beach

Our Site at Port Broughton

Beach behind our Site

12/5/2012   -  It was a beautiful morning when we got up.  We had our coffee outside and there wasn't a breath of wind so we were hoping we were in for a lovely day.  Didn't take long for all that to change.  The cold wind came up about 9 o'clock and the clouds rolled in. The day ended up being cloudy and showery.  We spent pretty much of the day in the van but were able to get a stroll around the park in in the afternoon.  We are well and truly over this weather.  It is just too cold and windy down south at this time of the year.

History of Port Broughton

Jetty at Port Broughton

11/5/2012  -  It was a bit overcast here on our first morning in Port Broughton.  As the morning wore on it did clear but was quite windy.  Windier than yesterday.  We had our brekkie and I did a couple of loads of washing.  Then we went for a walk downtown to check out the jetty and shops.  The jetty is really good, nice and long and was only refurbished last year.  It was pretty cold out on the jetty though so we didn't stay out there too long but it looked like it would have potential for fishing as the water gets much deeper at the end of the jetty.  We went on to check out the shops.  There is a small IGA, Bakery, Butcher, a few cafes and a pub.  Not a big shopping area at all but it does have the basics.  We wandered back to camp, had lunch and tried to stay out of the cold wind.  There is a guy fishing out in the water from the van and I bet he has some woollies on under his waders. We've noticed the fishermen here drag a box out in the water with them, usually a polystyrene cold box, which we think they have all their fishing gear in it and then they use it to put any fish they catch into. They have it tied to them and it just floats near them.  Pa was given a bag of "Tommies" (Tommy Ruff) this morning by a man in the park who had an excess so we are going to try them for tea.  We would prefer to smoke them but have to get some sawdust first and can then probably smoke them in the Weber. We'll probably just do them in Lemon Pepper on the grill plate in the Weber tonight, so it will be interesting to see what they taste like.  Hopefully okay.  We'll see!!!

10/5/20

Clydesdale Statue at Maitland

Jetty at Moonta Bay

Port Broughton

  

This morning was beautiful.  The sun was shining and the wind, well what wind!!!!  We got up and started packing up. It was great as we didn't have to race to be out by 10 and we knew we didn't have far to go today so we took our time.  Pa rinsed the car off and reorganised it and while he was doing this I cooked us scrambled eggs.  (I know it doesn't sound too exciting a breakfast for most people but for us with our new diet it was a treat, no bacon mind you)  We finished our packing up, picked up a bit more fishing tackle, fuelled up at $1.51 and had a look at the local market.  It was mostly craft work but I got a few good ideas from it.  We then headed out of Maitland thinking we were so glad we had stayed there.  It is a lovely little town with friendly people.  Our first stop was Moonta on the west coast.  It is a great town, quite big, with lots of lovely old buildings and homes and lots of shops.  The only bad thing about the town was its streets.  They were like a patchwork quilt and so overdue for repair. Port Hughes, just on the coast out from Moonta was a lovely town with lots of new homes, a nice long jetty and a good little caravan park but in bad weather would be very exposed to the elements.  Moonta Bay had a great jetty with a good little caravan park but it was a bit tight.  Next town was Walleroo which is not worth the drive, very dirty and just badly looked after.  North Beach was just out on the coast from Walleroo and it was just all new homes on a marina but obviously there was a water problem as none of the homes had any grass, everything was just dirt.  Even the caravan park sites were all dirt or on bitumen.  We actually got to drive the cruiser and the big girl on the beach here.  We got to the end of a street and had no place else to go so we could see it was nice and firm so away we went.  We had to stop for me to take photos of course.  How good was this.  We are only hoping some of the beaches we have been hearing about in WA are as firm as this and we can camp on some of them.   We had a look at the ferry that goes from Walleroo to the Eyre Peninsula but it was really expensive to use it.  We stocked up the wine cabinet before we left Walleroo because it has been a dry argument for a while so at least the town had something going for it.  We drove on to Port Broughton and booked in at the caravan park.  It is costing us $30 a night and if we stay for 7 nights we only pay for 6.  We have only booked till Sunday night so we will see how we go after that.  We have a good site right beside the beach so we set up camp, had a very late lunch and went for a walk along the beach.  We think if the weather is kind to us tomorrow we may be able to launch the kayaks and go for a little fish.  There is also a good long jetty here.

John Deere Tractor towing an Air Seeder

9/5/2012  -  We woke up to a very foggy morning.  We were hoping that was a good sign that it was going to be a beautiful day.  We have decided to stay another night in Maitland at the Showgrounds.  We want to go fishing today so we rigged our rods up, had breakfast and headed for Port Victoria on the West coast of the Yorke.  When we got there the wind was really strong and the water was rough so we turned around and drove over to the East coast to Port Victor hoping to get out of the wind. On the way we had to get right off the road to make room for a tractor and air seeder.  It took up most of the road. Port Victor was only about 35 klms but when we got there we found that they didn't have a jetty which is where we wanted to fish from today so we headed back north to Port Julia.  Thankfully there was a jetty there so we went fishing even though it was quite windy there too.  Pa caught a baby King George Whiting and I caught a slightly bigger fish that was quite dark and looked like a Whiting but we weren't sure what it was.  We ended up catching 3 squid, 2 for Pa and 1 for me.  As the grubs were gnawing at  us we headed back to camp via Ardrosan.  We got back and all the other vans had left so we were by ourselves tonight.  We cleaned our gear up, had a bite to eat and went and stocked up at the supermarket.  Salt and Pepper Squid and whole Mullet was on the menu for tea.  Also another cold night tonight.  Moving on tomorrow.

Port Minlacowie Camp

Maitland Showground Campground

8/5/2012  -  We had a light shower of rain this morning before we got up so that didn't bode well for the day.   We decided to move on from here with no definite place to stay for tonight.  We left at 9.40 and by then the wind had increased.  Minlaton looked quite nice with lots of shops and the van park looked quite good.  We were punching into a really strong head wind and needed to pull up for the day or we would use too much fuel so our next town was Maitland.  It is only a fairly small town but we ended up staying at the Showgrounds for $15 a night.  We washed the van which was good as it was covered in dust from the dirt roads we had travelled on yesterday and this morning.  Then we went for a walk down town to check it out.  It isn't very big so it didn't take us long but they do have a supermarket, butcher and baker.  We came back to camp, had lunch and did battle with Telstra.

Wool Bay Jetty

Point Turton 

Gravel Bay

Gravel Bay

7/5/2012  -  Wow, what a night.  The wind was really strong just before we went to bed and kept up all night just getting stronger and stronger.  We were woken up during the night with the awning blowing around and the van rocking.  We got up early and did battle getting the awning rolled up.  At least it was a bit quieter with it up.    The Sun was shining but it was too windy and we didn't want to go through another night like that so we had breakfast, packed up and hit the road at about 9.30.  Port Julia was the next town. It was quite small with lots of older houses and a good campground for $6 a night.  Port Vincent was just down the road with quite a few shops and a nice clean caravan park.  Stansbury was just lovely with a great caravan park and the town was nice and clean.  We could spend some time here plus Stansbury is famous for raking crabs when they are in season.  Wool Bay had a lovely jetty and there were old lime kilns on the hill above the jetty. Just outside of town was Port Giles where there was big grain silos and a wharf where they were loading a ship.  Then we passed through Coobowie, Edithburgh that had a great van park and we could spend some time here too.  Fuel was $1.55 and $1.60 for unleaded here.  Sultana Point had a big wind farm and lots of new houses, Yorketown was quite big with all services, Warooka was small and then on to Port Turton.  It had a good van park which was $21 for the night but it was quite a tight little park.  It was right across the road from the jetty so would be close to do some fishing.  We had lunch there.  We kept heading south to Marion Bay but it wasn't very nice and would have gone to Stenhouse Bay but it is in the Innes National Park and we would have had to pay $12 just to drive into the park and then $7 if we wanted to camp.  We didn't know what it would be like so we gave that a miss.  We drove up a corrugated dirt road out to Gym Beach was was nice but it was also National Park.  Gravel Bay was lovely too but Corny Point was just a dirty little town with dirty toilets so it wasn't worth driving to.  Hardwicke Bay had some new homes as well as a row of fishing shacks on the water. There was lots of weed there too.  We needed to pull up for the night so called into Port Minlacowie Rest Area.  Well,  we thought it was the rest area but it was actually down the road at the boat ramp but had a no camping sign up.  Anyway we had a water view for the night and the wind was not blowing which was just great.  We had tea early and went to bed.

Sunrise 

Sunrise Black Point

Sunrise over Gulf St Vincent

6/5/2012 - We woke up at daybreak today. It was a beautiful sunrise over the water so Pa got the camera out and took some lovely photos.  I watched it through the window while I was still in bed. The Sun was only up a little while when it was covered with clouds and  then the wind came up.  The wind was really very strong last night.  We thought we were going to be blown off the top of the hill. Pa had to put the roof bars on the awning to help give it a bit more strength.  As the day wore on it just got windier and it rained on and off.  So much for being able to get the kayaks in the water today and do a bit of fishing. The afternoon just got worse.  I managed to do a load of washing this morning and got it dried thank goodness.  The weather is supposed to be bad for the rest of the week with really strong winds and a couple of cold fronts are also coming through. Something to look forward to, NOT.  We're a bit sick of this weather. We reckon its time to start heading north so we decided this morning we would leave here tomorrow morning and head south to Edithburg and then cross over to the west side and start working our way back up north and get off the peninsular to try and get a bit of protection from the winds.  So because of the weather we had a lazy afternoon computing and reading and watching the footy.

Our view from the van at Black Point

Camp at Black Point

Another view from the Van

5/5/2012  -  We left Parham at 9.45 with no definite destination planned.  Port Wakefield was our first stop at the Caravan Shop where Pa bought a new anode rod for our hot water system.  Just after Port Wakefield we turned onto the Yorke Peninsula.  I tried to get a photo of the "Welcome to Yorke Peninsula" sign but had the camera on the wrong setting so we wont have a photo of that unless we come back this way on our return trip and stop there.  Next town was Port Clinton where there were lots of tractors to tow the boats out to the deeper water at low tide and at Price the next town they collect salt from the solar salt pans there and ship it out of Ardrossan .  Ardrossan is quite a big town with huge white grain silos and a long jetty.  They load grain from the silos, dolomite that is mined in the area and salt onto ships that dock at the wharf.  James Well and Rogues Point were just quiet little fishing towns but really nice.  One house had a letterbox with what looked like a V8 motor with a couple of carbies on top and another just down the road had a set of traffic lights mounted on the front of the house.  Pine Point was next which is where we though we might stop but the caravan park was very small so we kept going just down the road to Black Point.  It is really nice here and the Campground is more like a caravan park with only 13 sites.  The front sites are $20 a night and the others are $15.  We chose one of the front ones which is a bit further from the road and probably a little bit quieter.  We got settled in and went for a walk down the beach.  The water was lovely, really calm and there isn't very much seaweed.  It looks like we may be able to get the kayaks into the water here.  There are houses right down on the edge of the beach.  When the tide comes in it laps the front of the houses.  There is a boat ramp right next to the campground so we can watch the boats coming and going.  We had a bit of fish this afternoon and Pa caught 3 TommyRough and I caught 1.  We'll use them for bait at some stage.  My first fish since we have been on this trip.  Hopefully we can catch some whiting tomorrow.