Yorke Peninsular

We made it back to Port Augusta in time for our car service, but we actually stayed 25 kilometres southeast of Port Augusta at the Spear Creek caravan park. This is situated within a 21,000 acre working sheep farm in Woolundunga and is a lovely spot to stay. Unfortunately, there were severe wind warnings while we were there and that made it hard to explore the area fully. It was so windy that it blew my beany right off my head! Worse than that, poor Chunky bum was a rockin’ and a rollin’, and we woke up one morning to fallen branches and the wheel chocks scattered around the camp. That’s right folks, the wind had literally blown the wheel chocks out from under the wheels. I’m not bush walking in wind like that!

Alas, we still couldn’t leave the area as I was waiting for some mail to come to Port Augusta, so we decided to explore a little to the south, Yorke Peninsular to be exact. We drove to Port Germein for a bit of a look-see. This is a small village on the Spencer Gulf, which used to be a major wheat shipping port and has one of the longest wooden jetties in SA; one of the longest in the southern hemisphere. Of course, we had to walk its length.

But not before a yummy bacon and egg roll and a surprisingly good coffee at the local café, well…everyone needs a good solid breakfast.

After that we drove through to Port Pirie and stopped overnight at Clements Gap. Now the distance and estimated travel time from Spear Creek to Clements Gap is 123 kilometres, 1 hr 28 minutes. We left Spear Creek at 09:30 and made camp at Clements Gap at 15:10 – That’s 5 hours 40 minutes. So, why’d it take so long? Because… Peter likes laneways, small country roads, and going places he probably shouldn’t. We do circuits of little towns until we’ve seen all there is to see, and yes, on occasion, we get lost. But above all, we enjoy every single minute of it.

The next day we explored Fishermans Bay, a tiny town made up of fishing shacks, then drove to Port Broughton. This was an embarrassingly short drive even by our standards, but Port Broughton was such a pretty spot we just had to stay there. One night turned into two, then three, then the mail arrived, and we had no more excuses to stay longer.

We used Port Broughton as a bit of a base camp and travelled a bit further south. Pretty much all of the peninsular is agricultural, which means there must be a way to process and transport the produce. It seems like Wallaroo is one place this is done.

The crops are mainly wheat with some canola. Seas of green on green, it’s a shame the canola wasn’t in bloom, that vibrant yellow amongst the green would have been something to see, all with the Spencer Gulf as a backdrop.

The coastline is rugged in places, most of the beaches are shelly, and not bare-foot walkable, though some are white sandy beaches, perfect for wriggling toes, and they are all oh so pretty. The beaches, not the toes. 😊

Had Lake Eyre not been calling, we would have been quite happy to spend a week or two here and fully explore the Yorke Peninsular. East, west and all the way up the middle. We will be back here to spend more time in the south of SA, until then we are heading north. Lake Eyre here we come!

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!