Caravanning Camping Touring
Let me share some of our stories with you. I'll try to keep it fun and interesting, with heaps of photos, hints, tips and reviews all relating to life on the road.
The Gawler Ranges
After the extended time we’d spent in SA, I thought it was fitting that we spend some time just chilling. The Gawler Ranges NP seemed just the place for that. Great location, kangaroos, emus and birds for me, and lots of hills to climb for Peter.
There are a few walking tracks near our camp area and we did a couple. The Organ Pipes…
…and Little Yandinga Falls. But that wasn’t good enough for Peter. “I want to go to the top of the falls. I think if we just follow that line and…blah, blah, blah.” So, we did.
We clambered up Yandinga Falls, over rocks, around boulders and across rock walls. I was happy enough to have made it to the top but still he kept on walking. We zig-zagged across the hill until the escarpment stopped us then skirted around the rocky hillside until we reached the top of Little Yandinga Falls.
It was much the same going down Little Yandinga as it was going up Yandinga. It was all very rough and steep and made more interesting as we crossed the hill by unavoidable clumps of spinifex. But we were careful and we took our time.
Adventurous or stupid? It’s a line-ball if you ask me, but it was fun.
The track to the base of Little Yandinga Falls 
Rugged and spectacular 
The only tracks up here are lizard tracks 
Near the top of Yandinga 
Across the hills to Little Yandinga Falls 
So where are we? 
Keep on walking, just keep walking… 
That’s our camp way down there 
Time to go down the falls 
Very steep and rocky 
Reaching the bottom of Little Yandinga
There were pockets of water in the otherwise dry waterfalls, and the combination of water and the warm rocks made a wonderful home for lizards. I counted four different types, it made my day.
The next day, while Peter found another hill to climb, (there’s no shortage in the Ranges) I went stalking wildlife.
The first bird I saw I initially thought was another Rock Parrot, but when I examined the photos, it turns out that it is an Elegant Parrot. There are a few subtle differences but the most obvious difference (in layman’s terms) is that, under the blue “headband” the Rock Parrot has a slightly lighter shade of blue, whereas the Elegant Parrot has yellow.
There were also wrens and Australian Ringnecks, and a few other birds around our camp area.
I’m no bird expert, so if I ID any wrong, please let me know. 🙂
We went for a drive to the Old Pondanna Homestead, and there were heaps of emus in the area.
While I was off stalking them, Peter prepared the picnic lunch he had packed for us. There’s a couple of Mandarins, some biscuits, chocolate and a half eaten cold sausage; A very nutritious meal, no? At least he brought stuff to make tea and coffee but…can you see a flask anywhere? Me neither. 😉
On the way home we saw a lot of kangaroos too. Once more I am amazed at the Variety of colours and sizes. But now, I have my favourite. This guy, Chunky Roo. I don’t think that’s his Latin name, but it suits him.
I decided to go with Peter on his next hill climb and we almost made it to the top, but the light was fading, and we’d come up against dense scrub and a rocky escarpment. The view was still pretty amazing though.
The Gawler Ranges is a pretty cool place to visit, we only had five nights there, but if we had not had a plan (yes, I know that’s a four letter word) we would have stayed longer.
On our last day in the Gawler Ranges, we hoped to spot a Yellow Footed Wallaby, our favourite wallaby. We’d bumped into a park Ranger the day before, and he suggested the Organ Pipes at sunrise. So, that’s what we did. We saw this little lady in the Flinders Ranges, isn’t she gorgeous?
We’d done the Organ Pipes walk already so knew what to expect, an easy walk, with some boulders to navigate near the Organ Pipes. It was here, not waterfall climbing, or vertical bush bashing, that I fell and damaged my finger. Go figure? Peter was giving me space to do my hunting thing but luckily we had taken the two-ways with us so I was able to call him and he came to help.
Seriously though, if you fellow travelers don’t have two-way radios, you should get them. They’ve gotten us out of trouble more than once. And take them with you! They will do you no good sitting at home. I can’t speak for other brands, but the Oricom handsets are tough, (they’ve been dropped a few times) and have a great range. Oh, and we didn’t see the Wallaby.
Later that day we drove to Streaky Bay and visited the local hospital. I needed an Xray and ultrasound, but they didn’t have the facilities for the latter, so they referred me to Ceduna hospital for both. After the scans, Streaky Bay followed up wanting to see me again. When I said I was still in Ceduna, they organised a physio appointment in Ceduna for me. The physio told me that I had dislocated my finger, and partially tore the tendons. She then told me what I needed to do to care for it, as well as giving me a general referral, including imaging, for follow up visits in Perth.
Now this all sounds like a messy runaround, but considering our nomadic lifestyle, and the fact that the doctor, radiologist, and physio were all fly in for a few days, then back to Adelaide or Port Lincoln, the healthcare given was excellent.
I take my hat off to these people who are working with limited resources, and often with people who show no gratitude or who are downright rude. I guess what I’m getting at is, if you’re ever unfortunate enough to need healthcare in a rural hospital, just show the staff a little kindness, because they are doing it tough.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
As navigator, it’s my responsibility to boldly take us where we have never gone before. So, I did my research and found us a great spot for our first night out of Coffin Bay. As we drove north-west towards Drummond Point, Peter started making noises about having been here before. I of course, vehemently denied this, right up until the point where he showed me images from my last blog post. (Maybe I should read it sometimes.) 😊 Regardless, it was a fantastic camp, precariously parked on the cliff top with the hand brake firmly on.
From there we drove to Elliston, a lovely little town, and following the Wiki Camps recommendations, we stayed at the golf course a couple of minutes from the town centre. Now this is a golf course with a view, and we were so pleased they allow travelers to use their carpark for the tiny fee of $10 per night. We stayed there a couple of nights and took the time to explore the area without having to tow Chunky Bum.
Sheringa Beach was next on our list. We’d spoken to a lot of people, and they’d all said it was a beautiful beach. I was expecting a long stretch of white sandy beach – didn’t get it. Got something better, rugged cliffs, impressive vistas, yep, they were right, it was beautiful. We spent several hours exploring the area before driving home to Elliston.
Another place on our must-see list was Venus Bay. How would I describe it? In one word…Stunning. Just when you think the coastline can’t get any better…it does. More rugged cliffs being battered by a turquoise ocean, with walkways all around. And these same cliffs offered protection to the crystal clear waters of the Bay, providing a fantastic playground for a pod of dolphins. I also saw a new bird here, an Eastern Reef Egret.
Elliston had been a great base camp but before leaving SA, we wanted one more inland expedition. So we made our way towards the Gawler Ranges, with a slight detour to Wudinna for an overnight camp. Wudinna is not really on the road to anywhere, but it is well worth the detour. There’s a unique rock formation on the property, like a mini Wave Rock, (not that I’ve seen that yet) and surrounded by a wide flat landscape, it really is quite picturesque and a great place to explore.
Although Wudinna Wattle Grove Camp is on private property, the owners have made it accessible to travelers for a donation, which we were more than happy to provide. They have done more to provide accessible bush campgrounds than any council I’ve encountered so far, and we thank them for that.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
The Port Lincoln Tourist Park has to be one of the best caravan parks we’ve stayed at to date. The sites are huge, level, and well-spaced, offering great views of Spencer Gulf from most sites so we were pleased to be spending eight days there.
We used Port Lincoln as a base to explore the surrounds, and explore we did. We concentrated on the southern tip the Eyre Peninsula (with the odd trip inland) and it was quite lovely. Each bay, each beach, each rocky cliff outlook seemed to be more impressive than the last.
The Coastline at Sleaford offered beautiful beaches with big sand dunes, and just behind the sand dunes, Sleaford Mere had a secret. The photos don’t do the scenery justice (I was focused on a couple of birds, strange that). But just behind the sand dunes in the photos is the beach and the bottom end of Spencer Gulf, before it runs into the Indian Ocean, while on this side as you can see, is an inland lake of sorts, with white rocks scattered and a couple of birds. One of which I’d never seen before, a White-Fronted Chat. That’s why the landscape escaped my attention 😊.
From there onto Whalers Way and more traditional coastline.
We also spent a day exploring Lincoln NP. That was a bit of fun, more coastline, emus and a very interesting (some would even say sporty,) dirt track.
Have a look at this GPS image.
See the two spotty lines, that’s the “breadcrumb trail” showing where we have driven. The line with the red arrow shows exactly where we were when I took the photo. Now, it took us twenty minutes to drive the bottom trail, and less than a minute to drive the same distance on the top trail. Honest; the road was that bad. Peter had to do about a twelve point turn just to get us out of there.
But we didn’t just stick to the coastline, in Peter’s never-ending task to mark off as many roads on the map as possible, we drove inland as far as Cummins.
Now, Coffin Bay has been high on my list of places to see, and I have to say, I was a little disappointed. I think the season and the weather had something to do with that. Coffin Bay is a tiny little town, we are travelling out of season, and it was very quiet and there really isn’t a lot to do there, other than the Oyster Farm tour. And let me tell you, we weren’t getting into that water to look at someone else’s food growing. Too blooming cold! Anyway, I was expecting the turquoise waters you see in the brochures, but they must have travelled north for the winter.
Saying that, we did enjoy our time there. There were emu’s just wandering around the town. In the parks, on the roads, by the Yacht Club; strange to see. And we did try the local oysters. Oysters are not my go-to seafood, and Peter doesn’t eat crustaceans, but we found the only restaurant open and needed food, so amongst other things, we had oysters. I have never seen an oyster so big. I mean they were huge, I have to say, they were delicious ) and farmed right there outside the restaurant. (The oyster farm tours are run from the restaurant.
Be warned, these are not the most flattering photos, but just look at the size of those things.
After we left Port Lincoln, we booked five nights in the Coffin Bay NP and absolutely loved it. For the most part, we were the only people there, and again we had a great view over the bay. There were heaps of emus in the area, a couple of small groups of kangaroos, and there was one little fellow who took a shine to Peter.
While we were there, Peter even took the opportunity to get the kayak down and had a couple of days on the water. While he was paddling, I was walking.
So, we have dipped our toes into the southern end of the Eyre peninsula, now we are ready to tackle the west.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Eyre Peninsular
After two years of trying to get to Western Australia, we are finally heading in the right direction. We left Adelaide on the 18th July and we are not going back. Don’t get me wrong, we loved our time in Adelaide and our time exploring SA but…it is time to move on. Although we still have a bit more of SA before see cross the border into WA.
First port of call, the eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula. We left St Kilda around mid-morning and made our way to Blyth. For those of you who don’t know, Blyth happens to be the name of my hometown in England, so it felt a little nostalgic to be going “home” though any similarity ended with the name.
Peter took the images below at St Kilda while I was visiting mum. He got some lovely shots.
After one night in Blyth, we headed north to Port Augusta. We had decided that we would not stop in Port Augusta. It is, perhaps, our least favourite place in SA. However, as we drove through the town I said to Peter, “Bugger! We forgot to buy some wine.” Faced with this epic crisis, we decided we should stop at Port Augusta after all. Now looking for a place to stop in a built up, busy industrial area whilst towing a caravan is not always easy. But we were lucky, we passed a BWS on a main street and six, maybe seven hundred metres up the road was a parking space big enough for Big Ears and Chunky Bum. Out we hopped and strode purposefully to the bottle shop
We took our time making our selection, then went up to the counter with six bottles of red and a bottle of scotch. The customer in front of us was having trouble paying (a technology issue) but we waited patiently for ten minutes. Peter likes to pay using his smart watch and I don’t like carrying my handbag for no reason, so the watch was our only means of payment. Needless to say, we had the same difficulties as the previous customer. Then we were asked a simple question, “Can I see your ID?” We were flattered at first, until he explained that he wasn’t checking our age. It seems there ‘s an alcohol problem in Port Augusta, and he needed to check we weren’t on the naughty list.
Well of course we couldn’t show him any ID because Peter only had his watch, and I didn’t have my handbag. Long story short, after forty-five minutes I gently guided my slightly annoyed husband back to the car – at least the walk was good for us. Our opinion of Port Augusta stands.
The day got better when we stopped for the night at Douglas Point, on the Eyre Peninsular. What a lovely place and such a pretty outlook. Looking over Spencer Gulf, you could clearly see the Flinders Ranges in the sunshine, then the weather came in and they were totally obscured by clouds and mist, it looked like an endless ocean.
Peter dragged me away from Douglas Point after two nights and we continued down to Whyalla, which is a really big industrial town, steelworks being the industry. It reminded us a little of Broken Hill, only nicer. We made one stop in Whyalla, and we made sure we had our ID. I’m sure you can guess what we bought.
So, crisis averted we made our way to our next overnight camp. Murninnie Beach. This is a lovely little fishing village, but if you’re planning on staying there be careful not to follow the Wiki Camps directions or the signage. If you do you’ll end up in a bit of a shanty village, quite a long way from the beach, and not a particularly welcoming place. I half expected to see a skinny dude in dungarees wander out of the bush playing a banjo, it had that kind of vibe. Anyway, we drove back into the village itself and found a spot right on the waterfront. To be honest, I’m not sure if we were allowed to camp there, but it seemed the safer, and more pleasant option.
Don’t be fooled by the photo above of Peter with his fishing rod. He totally failed! He lasted all of ten minutes! In that time he lost his bait twice (cockles really don’t stay on the hook very well), got snagged twice, lost his tackle, tangled his line and busted his reel. He decided to go for a walk instead.
The next day we continued to Cape Hardy where we spent a couple of nights at Cowleys Beach and explored the area around Lipson. Of course Peter had to find a dirt road, and some rain.
The following day we drove through Tumby Bay then on to Port Lincoln where we were able to wash Big Ears and Chunky Bum (not to mention about two weeks’ worth of washing) 😊 as well as explore the area.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Ok, so my last blog post was about five weeks ago, (sorry about that). And that begs the questions, where have we been, and what have we been doing? There’s a lot to fit in but I’ll try to keep it brief.
We wanted to make the most of our last days in Barmera area, so I figured we should get out and explore the area a bit more. First on my list was Renmark, not much to see, but a nice little town. From there we continued east. The roads must be short in South Australia because before we knew it, we had crossed the border into Victoria.
Thanks to date and time stamps on my photos I can confirm that we crossed into to Vic 11:26am and back into SA 11:32am, it was a good trip.
Back in SA, I decided I wanted to check out the Murray River NP. I’d seen it online and I thought it would be nice to make that our first stop after leaving Barmera. We were fairly close so decided to do a bit of a recon before booking. Good job we did. The roads were rough and wet in places, the camp sites mediocre at best and only two out of the thirty or so campsites were actually open.
After that we’d had enough exploring for the day and headed back to Renmark hoping for some lunch, but it was after three when we got there and everything was closed. In desperation we went to KFC. Now, it’s been years since we’ve eaten that stuff and we never expect much of it, but this was soooo bad, I actually took it back and got a refund. From there we headed home (still hungry) via Berri then Lyrup where we sat and watched the little ferry come and go. We arrived back at Barmera just after five and called into a local restaurant where we dined on a delightful, traditional, Indian meal.
Two days later I had another bright idea – to find MacCabe Corner. This is where the borders of NSW, SA and Vic meet. Hold in mind that it has been a very wet season, with lots of flooding over the past months, and the fact that McCabe Corner is actually in the middle of the Murray River, you can imagine that this might not have been the best of ideas. But away we went. The roads were rough in places, wet in others and closed before we came to our destination, meaning we had to complete the trip by foot, eight kilometers of bush whacking.
We didn’t get to see McCabe Corner, our way was blocked by a channel, but we could imagine it, about two hundred meters, according to GPS, in front of Peter, just over the ridgeline in the middle of the unseen river.
We still had to kill a bit of time in SA, and decided to explore south-east from Barmera, trying to keep ahead of the rains which were still drenching most of SA. Fifty minutes or so out of Barmera, we came upon the tiny town of Paruna. There is nothing there except a little, basic caravan park where we stayed for $10 a night, with power and water! After twelve nights at Barmera, which offered neither of these, we stayed at Paruna for two nights.
After my last two navigational flops, Peter wouldn’t let me offer anymore destination suggestions. He followed his nose and we stopped at the Cypress Pines Wayside stop, once more in Vic. The plan was to stay there overnight and move on the next day. True to form we ended up staying there for five nights.
We had a lovely time, right up until the point we remembered we had recently bought five kilos of pumpkins in SA, and then realised that we wouldn’t be able to bring them, nor any of the other fresh produce we had, back into SA. The South Australians are very particular about protecting their agriculture? (and so they should be) but that meant before we crossed back over the border, I was going to have to do some cooking. We ate most of our produce while at Cypress Pines, as for the pumpkins, well, I do make a mean pumpkin and sweet spud soup.
The rain kept away most of the time, and there was firewood aplenty, so we had a fire going from nine-ish in the morning until we went inside for the night. It was wonderful, even Hugo bear-ed the cold.
From there we headed east as far as Ouyen, then south-west to Nhill, and back to SA, crossing at Bordertown, proud in the knowledge that we were bringing no fresh produce into the state, (even though we bought it from SA in the first place). We spent a night with our friends at Clayton Bay before heading back to St Kilda, Adelaide.
One of the many interesting things we’ve seen while travelling are the art Silos, but I don’t often post the images. These ones in Lascelles, were particularly well done and depicted a well respected local couple.
A BRIEF DIGRESSION-It was recently brought to my attention that I should put more detailed maps in my posts, (thanks for that JF). And it makes sense, here I am sprouting the names of places we've been, but with nothing to pin down the actual location within Australia. The map below isn't perfect, (if I make the map too large I can't fit the whole area in but the names are visible, if its too small you see the whole area, but not all names are visible) but it should give an idea of our last few weeks travel.
That brings us to the second of July when I flew to Port Macquarie to spend a couple of weeks with my Mum, I was able to catch up with my brother and his fiancé, which was lovely. As for what Peter did during those two weeks…well, you’ll have to ask him about that, although I can tell you, he ate a lot of pumpkin soup while I was gone.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
We have never been to a sheep dog trial before, so were thrilled when we drove into the town of Barmera, and saw signs posted all over the place about the upcoming sheep dog trial. We were curious to see what the poor dog had done, if he was going to be found guilty or innocent and what his sentence would be. So, you can imagine our disappointment when we discovered it was not that kind of trial.
Anyway, disappointment aside, we decided we’d have to go and have a look see.
Fair warning, there are a lot of photos of dogs, and the odd sheep (what other kind are there) so all you birders out there are just going to miss out this time.
The trials started on the Thursday and went through until the finals on Sunday. It was very quiet through the week, and I was one of a handful of spectators. All that meant was that I had front row seats and I really did enjoy watching the dogs and their trainers work. It really is amazing how the dogs are directed by a simple set of words, whistles and/or hand gestures.
Even the newbies were good to watch. What they lacked in skill, they made up for with sheer determination, including the young dog who gave up on the traditional method of rounding up and tried to drag the ewe to his handler by the wool on its neck; sadly, he was disqualified as were the other two dogs who tried that technique.
Now, I’m no expert, but I did pick up a few things while watching. First and foremost, no matter how well you think your dog is trained, I can guarantee you, he/she isn’t this good. These dogs are amazing. You can see the focus in their eyes from the moment they get on the field, to that first call to work, and the last pat for a job well done.
This was the course: Three sheep would be released at the bottom of the field; the dog was at the opposite end. The dog had to run down the field, bring the sheep back up to his/her handler, work the sheep around the handler keeping she sheep within a corridor of cones. From there, he/she had to herd the sheep back down the field and through a gate. Then across the field and through a series of gates, then back up the field, over a bridge and finally into a holding pen, all within fifteen minutes.
Should be easy, right? Tell that to the sheepdogs. If the dog was faced with an ornery ewe, a stubborn ewe, a stupid ewe, or a combination of all three, he/she was in trouble. I have to say I was surprised at the size difference between the sheep and the dogs. It takes skill, speed and courage to do what these dogs do, I can tell you.
I saw one poor dog run himself ragged around the sheep, for a good ten minutes, and they just didn’t move. Another dog got stomped on by a ewe who then promptly jumped the fence, followed by her companions and the dog. It took a while to get that situation under control. 🙂
Now, back to the trials. Each competitor starts the run with one hundred points, and they lose points for each infringement. If the dog lets the sheep out of the corridor, or can’t get them through the gates, over the bridge or into the holding pen. Then there is a ten-point deduction if they run out of time and do not finish the course. I think the lowest score was seven, the highest, ninety-three. Now that’s impressive.
The oval was packed for the final. We could only stay a couple of hours, but we certainly enjoyed watching these beautiful, lean, well-trained dogs do their jobs, and it was written clearly on their faces that they were having a ball (the sheep not so much,) working the sheep. But boy oh boy, did those dogs work hard. Interesting fact about sheep dogs. Apparently, when the dogs are fully focussed, they don’t breathe normally. That is, they don’t pant. And because of this when they’re working hard, they don’t get enough oxygen in their system. If you work a dog too long in this high concentration mode, they run the risk of collapsing.
The day before the grand finale, the town hosted “The Running of the Sheep”. That was a bit of fun, and I think most of the town turned up for the event. Two hundred sheep were let loose at the top of the main street and ran between the barriers back down to the oval. I think it would have been best named “The meandering of the Sheep”, they stopped halfway down the road on the first bend and tried to go back, but it was a lot fun, and all of us kids loved it.
Finally, for all of you who, like me, are concerned about the welfare of the sheep, let me set your mind at ease. Each set of three sheep is only used once. They are kept in a holding pen until needed, then placed in a different pen after their turn in the arena.
Both pens were clean with fresh water and plenty of feed. They might eventually end up on your dinner table, but until then, they are well cared for.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
