Wednesday 22/2/2012: Left Mannum and drove up to Gawler through farming areas and vineyards, then headed up to Port Wakefield at the top of the Gulf of St Vincent, arrived at low tide and wondered how they got their boats to the water through the mangroves. Continued across to Wallaroo on the western side of the Yorke Peninsular, we passed through many wheat and barley paddocks and some mine areas where they were raising a lot of dust. Copper is still mined in this area. We stayed at the North Beach Van Park which was lovely with Norfolk Pines along the waters edge and a fairly new breakwater wall where boats can moor and other boats can come in and go to their own mooring in the new canal development. Also last Thursday was the first day for the running of the new ferry from Wallaroo to Lucky Bay on the Eyre Peninsular, we saw and heard the ferry come in, it looks and sounds a bit like the Spirit of Australia which runs from Melbourne to Devenport in Tasmania.
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| Port ? Wakefield |
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| Wallaroo CP - long flat beaches |
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| Wallaroo Port - originally copper exports now grain exports |
Thursday 23/2/2012: 21 degrees - high 30’s - sunny, hot and windy. Had a look around Wallaroo, went through the museum and saw lots of history about the area settled by mostly Cornish and Welsh families from the United Kingdom, their homes are quaint built out of white limestone rocks from the area. The Police, fire brigades and SES workers were all out in full force blocking the roads leading to the grain silos as there was a fire in one of the silos, they were worried about it exploding, so we went on our way down the western side of the York Peninsular, through, Moonta, Port Victoria, Minlaton and Warooka until we finally came to Marion Bay where we stayed in a nice Van Park just a short stroll to the beach, we enjoyed the smell of the salt water after driving through so many wheat fields on the way down.
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| Moonta Jetty |
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| Port Victoria |
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| Maritime Museum - smallest I have seen |
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| Marrion Bay |
Friday 24/2/2012: 21 degrees to high 30’s - sunny, hot and windy. Drove down to the Innes National Park and were too early for the Visitors Information Centre, so we took a brochure of the area and went exploring Stenhouse Bay and took the Inneston Historic Walk which takes you back to the 1900s and the gypsum mining era which was started by William Innes, there was quite a self sufficient town for about 15 years, the gypsum was shipped out on ships from the wharf, until there was no demand for gypsum.
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| Stenhouse Bay Jetty and old Gypsum loader |
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| Stenhouse Bay Jetty |
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| Gypsum loader info |
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| WW2 coast watchers hut |
We drove into lots of little bays, Cape Spencer Lighthouse, Ethel Beach where there are the remains of a couple of shipwrecks and watched from the cliffs above and saw the biggest dumpers we have ever seen, the area is quite picturesque. Pondalowie Bay was the last bay with bitumen and it is quite a haven for fishing squatters. The cliffs are quite rugged and crumbly, the pathways are white limestone and gypsum very hot and reflective, we had lots of walks and drank lots of water to cope with the hot dry winds.
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| Cable Bay |
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| Cape Spencer lighthouse |
Drove up the York Peninsular to Warooka then across through Yorketown, saw big willy willys on the way to Edithburgh and found a lovely Van Park on the edge of the water, we set the bus up and sat at the front in its shadow, watching the boats coming and going from the launching ramp down below us, it was a very pleasant way to cope with the extreme heat.
Saturday 25/2/2012: mid 20’s - high 30’s very hot wind and burning sun. We drove up the east coast of the Yorke Peninsular checking out all the little villages, it was lovely with the air conditioning cooling us down. When we arrived at Ardrossan we decided it was far too hot for traveling, so we checked into the Ardrossan Van Park and closed ourselves in the van with the air conditioning on, I walked outside with the washing, it was like going into an oven, the first lot of washing I pegged on the line was dry before I had pegged the last item.
Nearly all the peninsula is devoted to wheat and barley production as is evident in the farming of the land and the number and size of the grain silos and the number of shipping ports.
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| Grain silos at Port Giles |
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| Grain Loader at Port Giles |
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| the harvest is over - only stubble left |
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| grain fields down to waters edge |
Sunday 26/2/2012: high 20’s - 40 degrees hot wind and burning sun. Drove up the coast stopping at Port Wakefield again, this time the tide was in and you could understand why it is a port. We continued east through Balaklava to the Barossa Valley and booked three nights in the Nuriootpa Van Park, which is a lovely big park with the town oval and tennis courts in it and a lovely long walkway on the other side with a bush garden and lots of beautiful gums around the walkway, the van park has other large trees creating lots of shade with no worries of gum tree branches tumbling down on top of us, hence the name widow makers.
It seems like you are speeding up as you get closer to home.
ReplyDeleteDo you take the risk and park in the shade of the big gums?