Thursday 3rd April, 2014: Exploring the Yorke Peninsula

We decided to stay another night here in Wallaroo and take a daytrip to explore a bit further down the Yorke Peninsula.

It's another overcast day with quite a chilly wind - with temperature around the 20 degrees.

We headed down to Moonta Bay and what a beautiful spot this was. It has a jetty with a swimming enclosure and it is just a sweet little place. We bought a coffee and settled ourselves on the foreshore for a relaxing morning tea.

The villages along this coastline of Spencer Gulf are quite interesting when you realise that many of them are or once were ports for the shipping of grains mainly from the adjacent farmlands. What is amazing is how shallow the waters are close into shore and when the tide goes out you. Have to walk quite some way out to reach the waters edge.

Hopefully the photos help show the beauty of Moonta Bay.

I just had to take a photo of this sign. I would not want to promote vandalism - but it was a funny read all the same.

Whilst we were wandering around the foreshore we started chatting with some people from near Kempsey in NSW. Ruth has taken to just striking up a conversation with anyone around these days!

From here we had a drive into Port Hughes another nice little seaside village and then we headed into Moonta township.

This whole area of the coast is called the "Copper Coast" - as in earlier times it was a big copper mining area. There was an influx of miners from Cornwall who came into the area to work the mines and the area has retained its roots with apparently the largest Cornish festival in the world held here biennially.

Moonta township is a must see also - it has retained many of its original stone buildings from bygone eras - as have many of the towns we have been to in this area of SA. 

Moonta also has a 16km heritage drive which showcases many of its buildings and the mining history of the town.

Here are just a few of the sights along the heritage trail.

After we got back to base camp at "windy" Wallaroo we went for a long walk around the foreshore - where interestingly they allow cars to drive. 

The rest of the late afternoon we spent in the camp kitchen taking advantage of the power points to charge up iPads, phones and cameras - and chatting with other campers utilising this facility.

Wednesday 2nd April, 2014: Melrose to Yorke Peninsula

The forecast cool change hit overnight and we awoke to a misty cold morning here in Melrose. A good 10 degrees or more cooler than yesterday had been.

It was a beautiful pink sunrise and there was a heavy mist hanging over Mt Remarkable. 

It had got really windy during the night when the weather change hit and had showers has started as morning broke.

Our plan was to get up and try to get packed up before it started seriously raining. Our plan went well and we had the tvan all packed up, bar locking up the back hatch, before we started on breakfast. We were going to eat in the car if we had to - but the rain held off and we were able to finish up breakfast and head off without much rain at all.

Today we are heading partway down the Yorke Peninsula. 

Our first stop was the little township of Laura - where we headed into a local coffee shop. Then off to the local butcher to stock up on meat.

Next stop was Crystal Brook where we had a walk around the main drag looking at all the lovely old buildings. 

   

We also happened across this unusual looking bus as we passed by the local caravan park.

From Crystal Brook we head to Port Broughton a small village on the Spencer Gulf.  We decided on some lovely snapper fish cakes at the local pub (pictured below) for lunch. They were scrummy!!

We were not too impressed with the $33 they wanted at one of the local caravan parks for the night - and the other park looked pretty dumpy. So we headed further down the Yorke Peninsula to Wallaroo.

Wallaroo is a port town as well and has huge silos on the seafront in the main town where sizeable ships come in to load up wheat at the main jetty. 

We ended up booking into North Beach Caravan Park - which was a more acceptable price for the night. The park is right on the beach - and we can see around the cove to the main jetty and the grain silos as well as out accross the gulf.

On checking with the office we decided to walk into the main town. We have found people very nice  - and friendly here in SA and today we had 2x perfect strangers offer us a lift into town - one of the cleaners at the office who was just leaving to head in there and the other a guy we asked directions from and he was just heading in to pick up his son from school. They probably had thought we were mad when we declined saying we wanted to walk it - as it turned out to be a good 3km walk each way.

Here are some of the beautiful old buildings in this old port town.

The old railway station has now been converted to the local library

When we finally got back to the caravan park we got our wines and headed down to the beach for a sunset drink and look around down on the foreshore.

I dipped my toe in the water - it was pretty damm chilly and we were not interested in any swimming this visit. 

The wind got colder as the night went on and we were in bed early to warm up.

Tuesday 1st April, 2014: Damm hot day in Melrose today!!

The forecast in Melrose for today is 35 degrees.

So we decided not to do the 12km summit walk - and instead opted for a shorter walk around the foothills of Melrose. We enjoyed a great view over the township from our vantage point along the walk.

 After this walk we spent about an hour exploring the Historical walking tour of the town of Melrose. 

Melrose is the oldest township in the Flinders Ranges area and was once the the most northern town in SA.  There are some very interesting and beautiful old buildings here. 

There was also this grand old tree - soooo beautiful!!!  I tried to get some shots that would show you it's beauty - not sure I did it justice.

Melrose is a very small village - it does not even have a general store - but at weekends it gets a huge influx of bikers as there are lots of mountain bike trails in the foothills around the town. 

They also get a lot of injuries apparently - as told to us by a local shopkeeper.

We partook of coffee this morning at a new cafe at the old bank building. The couple running this cafe and B&B are from Victoria. 

They had set off on an extended trip around the country and after 3 mths travelling in SA they drove into Melrose and they have now purchased the old bank building and are still here. 

The cafe and B&B are only just opened - as they had a few months work to do on the building after purchasing it. Their bus (that they had fitted out to compete their travels) is now sitting in their large backyard. They may decide to use this as part of the B&B - as extra self contained accomodation.

Lunch to day we decided had to be in one of the local historic hotels. 

It was great to be in the air conditioned environment in the pub and be out of the 35 degree heat -  and the food was great. 

The forecast was correct and it has been very hot - but tempered by a breeze and this dry heat does not feel too bad really. 

But by about 5pm but we were pretty much over it and very releived when a cooler breeze arrived and the temp started to drop. -But it was another warm evening - nice for sitting outside updating this blog - but not so nice for sleeping.

The forecast for tomorrow - 25 degrees.  A full 10 degrees cooler - how's that!!

Monday 31st, March 2014: Our third day on the road to Melrose, SA

Today we head via Broken Hill to Melrose in South Australia.

We were up before light (it's not light until 7am) - having breakfast and trying to pack up quietly so as not to disturb the other free campers.

Just as light was breaking through - we started the engine and set off for our final of day driving to get to Melrose, at the foothills of Mt Remarkable National Park.

We stopped in Broken Hill and had a nice coffee - had a bit of a wander around and fuelled up again.

We will come back through here and have a better look on our way home. 

It was not to be as long a drive today - but it turned out to be the hardest day of driving - as once you get out of Broken Hill it is just a relentless straight road with little variety in this dry flat landscape.

We crossed the border into SA at Coburn - well that was the way it was spelt coming in to the town from NSW - if you are coming in from the SA side the town name is Cockburn. 

How do we know this??  

Well Ruth wanted to turn around and go back to get the photo of the "Welcome to SA" sign so that is how we saw the name of the town coming in from the SA side as well. 

On we went along this straight flat road until we started to signs about the quarantine restrictions coming into SA. This is something we did not know - and we realised we would be having to give up a lot of our fruit and veg.

So at our lunch stop at Yunta - a bit before the Quarantine Station checkpoint at Oodla Wirra ( they do have some funny named places here) we ate a very very large healthy lunch of salad and fruit. The only thing I had to give up was a lemon and an apple ( we just could not fit that apple in at lunch).

Yunta has the smallest swimming pool I think I have ever see - no wonder it was the "Children's Swimming Pool". Guess for such a small town basically in the middle of nowhere - where it gets pretty damm hot- they are lucky to have a pool at all.

On our way through Petersborough we decided to stop and have a wander around town to stretch our legs. 

They have a very large steam train museum here on the edge of town but we decided to give it a miss as we needed to keep moving.

Along the last stretch of road from Orrooroo to Melrose the fields were very very dry and dusty and we saw little 'Willy Willy" whirlwind effects happening all around the countryside as we travelled through - we just could not find a spot to stop and try for a photo.

Just on the outskirts of Melrose is a plaque for Goyder's Line. I believe that his estimation of the limits for farming in SA - which became known as Goyder's Line - are still relevant today. 

On arriving in Melrose at about 3.30pm we drove into town completely missing the sign to the Showground - this we found out when we asked at a local shop in the township. 

So back out we went - it was only a couple of km - and after checking with the caretaker set up our camp at the Melrose Showground - right at the base of Mt Remarkable.

There is heaps of room here and not many campers - after the last couple of nights it is luxury as we have flushing toilets and hot showers.

We did enjoy watching these little birds getting a drink from a small leak in the tap near us.

With plenty of water here and a clothes line we took advantage of these facilities and caught up on the small amount of washing we had. 

We enjoyed a lovely quiet evening under a mass of stars and after dinner and a couple of wines we were in bed again early.

It had been quite a hot day in Melrose today and tonight was going to be a warm night for sleeping.

Sunday 30th March, 2014 - Heading for overnight stop between Wilcannia and Broken Hill.

Another fairly uneventful day of driving.

We headed out from Hickey Falls - making for our next overnight free camp - Spring Hill - somewhere between Wilcannia and Broken Hill.

Today we travel through Gilgandra - stopping to grab a coffees and some supplies at IGA -  then on through Warren on the Macquarie River.  Quite amazing as this is the river that flows through Bathurst where I lived for 16 years - I never realised that it came from this far away in North west NSW. Just never thought about where it came from I suppose. 

Then we hit Nyngan on the Bogan River and of course they have to call it the Bogan shire. Is that where Bogans come from??  Only joking!!

By the time we hit Cobar we were ready for our lunch stop.

It was quite and interesting lunch stop as luck would have it that another couple were also lunching at the same spot. Kim and Di have been on the road for 8 years working and travelling their way around the country - living out of their caravan and are currently heading for Ceduna.

Hopefully we might catch them again somewhere on long the road.

Since leaving Brisbane we have passed through many areas that have clearly had a lot of recent rains - a lot of water laying around as far as we could see in some spots - even as far west as Cobar. Beyond there it does not appear to have had any of the rains of late.

After lunch it was on to Wilcannia. We did not think much of it. 

It was pretty quiet and not much there as far as we could see.  

We crossed the Darling River which did have a bit of water but looked to be quite down on what you might expect to see in a river of this size.

Along our travels today we saw the 'bottle tree' (a bush with glass bottles hung all over as decoration), closely followed up by the 'soft toy tree' and the bra tree ( just one so far) and the Xmas tree (covered in tinsel). Interesting sights but we were hurtling along at 100km and did not stop - so sorry no photos.

It's interesting that we have not seen much roadkill at all so far on this trip. We have hardly even seen any Kangaroos or Emus along the roads - but there have been heaps of goats and also some sheep in parts. The Goats we have been told are too smart to run out across in front of the cars - but we are wary of them at any rate.

We found our free camp spot (Spring Hill Rest Area). It was filling up - but because we are small we were able to sneak into a spot under a couple of small trees where the other big vans could not get.

We set up camp and then started chatting with the couple in the van right near us. Well that was a good hour and half of happy hour with them and their dog Junior. These guys have also been on the road for years - 10 years in total. They work here and there and just travel around all over.

This spot was actually right at the roadside. - but was a nice area with toilets and a playground for kids, picnic shelters and electric BBQ. 

We did not seem to notice the trucks hurtling past during the night - must have been too tired.