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.
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!
Finally, all our repairs and maintenance are complete. 😊 The car has had its bit of body work done, we have a fridge that works properly now and, we have a brand-new awning. On top of that I have a new storage system for my boxes of tinfoil, glad-wrap and baking paper, courtesy of Peter and his offsider.
Our first stop was only a few kilometres out of Adelaide, St Kilda. There’s not much there, except an amazing playground and picnic area, a huge carpark, boat ramps and a ton of birds. We had visited previously and decided we would stay a few nights on our way out of Adelaide because it was such a nice area and…I had been told there was a rare, vagrant bird in the area, and I wanted to try and get a glimpse of it. A Yellow Wagtail.
I have never seen so many birds in one place, I’m talking of numbers in the thousands not hundreds. Swans, gulls, cormorants, a variety of waders large and small, spoonbills, pelicans plus many more. I tried to capture an image to highlight the large numbers of birds, but it was beyond me.
As you can imagine I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the area, and I got some decent shots of the local birds.
There were so many people out looking for the rare vagrant Yellow Wagtail, it caused quite a stir! Now for the big question: Did I see it? Yes indeed, and what a pretty little fellow he was.
As is often the case, when you’re near water, and the weather is favourable, you might just catch a beautiful sunset, St Kilda was no different.
After leaving St Kilda we headed south east, toward Murray bridge. We spent a night at Wall Flat, which was a wet and muddy camp on the banks of the Murray, then an overnight at Waikerie. We had planned to spend more time around the lower Murray river area, and Lake Alexandrina, then call in on some friends, but the weather had other ideas. Wet and windy was the BOM outlook for a s far as we could see, so we kept on driving hoping for a more pleasant climate.
We got as far as Barmera and decided to stop running, there was no getting away from the wet and windy weather front. But the silver lining was, that Barmera is a lovely little town in the Riverlands area and we have settled in here quite nicely. We booked and paid for four nights, then another four and another…I said to Peter, “They’re going to start charging us council rates soon.” We camped on the edge of Lake Bonny and for the most part, have been on our own. The kayaks have been sitting on the beach just waiting for a dip, but the weather is still not playing fair. Super windy and cold.
Yes, I know, all the photos are showing lovely quiet, still water. There were a few times when the wind wasn’t blowing a gale and that’s when I ventured out with the camera, the rest of the time we were huddled up inside.
Still, it is a lovely place to be, and with ample firewood in the area we’re keeping warm. And what else can you do with a fire? Cook on it. This was our first campfire cook in what feels like forever and we had a local coming over for dinner, so it had to be good! (It was 😊)
There are quite a few birds around Lake Bonny, mainly cormorants, gulls, and herons, and I saw my first Great-Crested Grebe. I also got a shot of a pair of birds, I think they might be Hardheads. If they are, that’s another first for me.
I was having my coffee on the beach one morning, when I noticed a lot of activity near the bank further up the lake. It turned out there was a large school of fish, and the birds were having a feast. I’d seen this many times on the lake, but always in the distance. What made this special is that the fish were moving towards me.
I’m not sure how much longer we’ll stay here, but it will be for a few more days…at least.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
May 1, 2023
FROM THE OUTSET I must tell you that this is not a ‘Jo type’ blog. It’s far less interesting – unless you want to know something about how much this lifestyle costs.
Jo said to me: “Why don’t you do a kind of anniversary post for the blog? But don’t go repeating anything, that’d be boring, and don’t write too much, you know how you babble on.”
So where do I start? That’s actually a real question. My first day of retirement was 1 August 2020 and we started out with the caravan that first day. Last day of work was Friday, first day travelling was Saturday. So, to me that’s the logical starting point.
The quandary lies in that we didn’t actually get the house rented out and start full-time living in the van until 1 May 2021, so is that the more appropriate start date?
I struggled over this for a while but then I thought about the Queen’s Birthday (ahhh… King’s Birthday) and Labour Day holidays and they seem to be pretty arbitrary. Even the date set to celebrate Jesus’ birthday is pretty meaningless – no-one had a clue when he was born so they just settled on a date. Heck, even the coronation of King Charles the III is just a convenient date, ask him how long he’s been king and I reckon he’ll tell you he’s been king from 8 September 2022.
Good enough for them – good enough for us. So, here’s the decision: We’ve been travelling since 1 August 2020 and we have chosen 1 May as our anniversary date. 1 May – Mayday, the return of spring… Well, maybe not in the antipodes, but you get my point.
We’ve covered some ground over the past two years and nine months, 59,704 kilometres in fact. That’s the equivalent of over three traditional ‘laps’ and we’ve only really had a respectable look around three states. We’ve still got a lot of Australia ahead of us.
Jo’s blog keeps everyone up to date regularly and I’d be lost without it. Jo says, “Remember when we went from Penneshaw to Chapman River?” And I say “Hang on a sec, I’m concentrating on something really really intelligent.” She always waits patiently because she knows how I get so involved intellectually in really really intelligent stuff, and while she waits I sneakily hotkey to the blog, quickly read about where we were and what we did, and then say. “Yes Dear, I remember that so well, what do you want to know?” (She’s quite impressed with how good my memory is)
The thing is, it’s no point me writing what we’ve done or where we’ve been because you already know all that.
BUT…
Jo didn’t tell you all the really, truly interesting stuff like how far we’ve travelled, how much fuel we used and how much it cost did she?
Exciting, isn’t it? You really want to know about this stuff don’t you?
Here’s the good oil…
Total distance travelled: 59,704 km
Total cost of fuel: $15,022.99 … To the cent, impressive hey!
Total fuel used: 8,843 litres of diesel
Average fuel economy: 14.81 Lt/ 100 km
Average cost of fuel: $1.70/ Lt
Cheapest fuel: $1.02 at Redland Bay on 9 April 2021
Most expensive fuel: $2.93 at Marree on 16 August 2022
Jo has kept a record of our accommodation costs over the past two years too and I suppose that if you’ve read this far then you probably are considering these costs. So to standardize I’ll annualize the costs and include the stats on accommodation too. Averaged over the past two years, the annual stats are:
In summary, Fuel and accommodation costs per year for us travelling have totalled $11,549
Cost of fuel per annum: $5,585.28
Annual travel distance: 18,494 km
Total fuel used per annum: 2,899.73 litres of diesel.
Average fuel economy: 15.68 Lt/ 100 km
Average cost of fuel: $1.93/ Lt
Cheapest fuel: $1.25
Most expensive fuel: $2.93
Annual cost of caravan park accommodation: $ 5,964.00
Total nights travelling: 365
Total nights in caravan parks 154
Average fee/night $38.73
Average fee/week $115
So, 42% of our time has been spent in caravan parks over the past two years. Over periods when all is going well and we haven’t had commitments to keep us in cities to access services, we estimate that only about 25% of our time would be in caravan parks.
When we set out, we thought we would go wherever man and van could go. You can’t see Australia by sticking to the black. So, we headed off defiantly against the corrugations, potholes and mud and proudly went where man and semi-off-road van probably shouldn’t go.
We haven’t actually been bogged so that’s a bonus. Probably got close to it though. We were camped by the river on Bogeywong station in NSW (where the family lived in the early fifties) and the skies darkened. I got us away from the river up near the main road, just as the rain started and at 11 PM made the wise decision to get off the dirt. It took hours of slipping and sliding our six tonne (plus a bit, but that would exceed our GCM wouldn’t it?) before we made it back to the black.
I actually thought the Oodnadatta track was ok and the Finke River road was maybe even a bit better than that. They certainly weren’t the worst roads we travelled. That title belongs to the road from Hamilton Station to Dalhousie Springs with the road to Lambert Centre of Australia just as bad – except it’s a whole lot shorter.
I reckon we handled all that pretty well, but those roads really are not kind to caravans or even four-wheel drives and when we got back to Adelaide we had to get a new set of tyres and a new set of caravan suspension – yes, fully replaced. Ah well, no free lunches so you should plan on a few extra costs, and you should expect these, don’t bemoan them, it’s a small cost of the lifestyle. Costs will probably include items like:
Replace a water tank that fell off near Lamberts Centre of Australia
(Insurance covered it but our excess was) $600
Replace suspension in the caravan that the roads just destroyed $4,000
Upgrade to lithium because AGM really just isn’t up to for us $11,000
Miscellaneous fixes/ improvements around the van $2,000
Miscellaneous driver error costs (covered by insurance but excess still costs $1,200
Routine car maintenance at regional garages (two services but likely to cost up to twice as much) $1,000
A set of tyres (even if they’re looking ok, the roads can shorten their lives or just plain destroy them, so best to budget for them. $1,200
The old tyres were BF Goodrich KO2’s, they lasted 68,408 Km and I reckon that’s ok for them. We put on Maxxis RAZR AT’s and I think they should be ok, I’ll let you know when they get to 70,000km (can’t wait can you)? I can already tell you that they’re a whole lot better in the wet and they’re also a whole lot quieter.
So, if you have ploughed through this far and are considering the costs, then as long as you don’t do a lithium battery upgrade after you leave home you might see costs like:
Fuel and accommodation costs per year $12,000
General maintenance/repairs etc – not less than $ 5,000
There’s certainly a cost to really seeing Australia this way, it’s not as low-cost as might be expected. Is it worth it? Absa-bloody-lootly!
We’re really living the life, no doubt. And our health and fitness just keeps getting better, (except for when we’re sick). I know we’ve had a few health issues but with kayaking, bush walking, fishing, photography, campfires, camp-oven cooking, getting firewood climbing sand-dunes (and rolling down them) we’ve never been better.
Now I’d really like to share a whole lot more with you like my really cool Oricom tyre pressure monitoring system, and how I’ve set out my canopy… so much to talk about.
But I’d better stop now. Jo was right, I do kind of babble on.
So… until next time.
We had a week in Adelaide, or home as we now call it, but it was mostly run-a-round stuff. Including the usual doc visits, plus hearing aid repairs and new glasses for Peter. We also had to get the van assessed for a new awning, get the car in for a bit of body work, and look for a fridge repairer. One thing is sure in the world of us road dwellers; things will go wrong, and they will take a long time to fix.
Anyway, with those things underway, we decided to explore more of the Yorke Peninsula.
We’d previously been down the west side, as far as Balgowan, and were so impressed we were keen to see the rest of the Peninsula.
We headed down the eastern side of the leg, and maybe Kangaroo Island has spoilt us, but we found this to be kind of ordinary. Don’t get me wrong, it was a pretty coastline, but not spectacular.
But then we made it to Innes National Park. We stayed at the Pondalowie Bay Bush camp, and this is a great place to use as a basecamp. From there we explored many beautiful areas, including Pondalowie Bay, just a short walk from our camp. This is a very protected bay, courtesy of the islands at the mouth of the bay, and it’s home to dolphins and stingrays.
Daly Head is another stunning stretch of coastline, and we had a rare sunny day to appreciate it. From there we drove to the lighthouse at Cape Spencer, on the southernmost tip of the Peninsula.
By the time we visited the West Cape Lighthouse, the weather was not quite so welcoming.
We spent a particularly lovely day at Dolphin Bay and tried our hand at fishing. We felt like real pros, with a flask of coffee and some biscuits to keep us going. Good job we brought the biscuits, as we didn’t catch any fish. We did, however, have a lovely day out.
Stenhouse Bay/Jetty is an interesting place to visit. It used to be a gypsum quarry, and there are remnants of the old works clearly visible, including an impressive jetty. Oh, and while in that area, pop over to Marion Bay, there is a pub there that does great pizza’s.
We saw a variety of birds, a few kangaroos, and a lot of emus. We fished quite a lot, but with limited success. Though we did catch one good meal.
When we left Innes NP, we moved to Burners Beach at Point Souttar, one of the many council camp grounds. Again, we used this as a basecamp to explore the northern and interior areas of the Yorke. This was a great spot and here, we were able to leave the kayaks on the beach, so they were ready for action. Including some amazing sunset kayak adventures.
It’s true that most days are enjoyable, the odd one not so, but every now and then you get a day that is just pure magic. Today, 15 May (coincidentally mum’s birthday) was one of those days. We had planned to leave Point Souttar and Burners Beach today, but we woke up to a calm, balmy, almost summers day, and thought, Yeah, nah. We’ll stay one more night.
We got into the kayaks just after 10am and skated over the ocean. At least that’s what it felt like.
The water was incredibly calm, and oh so clear. Even at a depth of three to four meters, we could clearly see the sandy bottom, it was so enticing. The only thing that stopped me rolling off the kayak and going for a dip, was the sure knowledge that I wouldn’t have a snowflake’s hope in hell of getting back in. That, and the chilly water. It really was quite surreal.
By late morning, the wind had started to pick up. We had kayaked a long way down the coastline, so we started to make our way back. We arrived back at camp just past midday and decided that yes, we would leave the following morning. So, as Peter cleaned the kayaks, I decided to brave the waters and go for a dip.
Was it cold? Yes!
Was it enjoyable? Surprisingly, yes.
Did I stay in long? Not surprisingly, no.
Tippara Rocks was a great overnight stay, and how’s this for a view? (Excuse the drying). I was looking for shells along the beach and came across this Semicassis labiatum. It was beautiful, but inhabited, so it went back exactly where I found it. I was thrilled to see it though, and the birds were cute too.
While we travelled, we saw quite a lot of dolphins, some big Stingrays, and some seals. Including one cheeky fellow who popped over to see us while we were in the kayaks. That was something that doesn’t happen every day, and one of the reasons we love travelling so much, seeing our native wildlife the way it should be seen.
Now, I know I’m a bit behind schedule, but May 1, 2023, was our official two-year anniversary since we packed away our belongings and hit the road on our big adventure. Peter’s working on a bit of a recap, distances, costs, highlights etc, and I’m sure he’ll get around to it…soon. 😊
Until then, we’ll keep to our holding pattern until our bits and pieces are fixed.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
