WESTWARD HO

27^th February, 2012

After 15 months of ‘sort of’ staying put in one place we are finally on the road again.  This time we will be exploring our own backyard – which in our case is rather large as our home is mobile and our backyard is all of Australia.  We have been on the road for a week now after leaving our home away from home (our daughter Tina and her partner Paul’s backyard) on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.  

Leaving Tina & Paul's home on the Sunshine Coast

Our rig consists of a

2011 Mitsubishi Challenger 4 Wheel Drive

(which will now be referred to as Mitzi) and an 18 foot Jayco Sterling Off Road caravan.  We haven’t quite worked out what to call the caravan yet other than ‘The Van’ which is quite unimaginative but does the job.  ‘The Van’ has its own shower/toilet combo, a battery and two solar panels and already we have free camped (boondocked) five of the seven nights that we have been on the road.  We bought this ‘you beaut’ handy dandy camp book that lists all the rest areas and free camp spots around Australia and it really is handy and dandy.  We have stayed overnight in a few rest areas and at a lookout.  The rest area at Hickey Falls near Gilgandra (New South Wales) was really nice and with all the rain this area has had recently the water was gushing over the falls. 

Hickey Falls

The last time we traversed this area of Australia was approx 27 years ago and the land was dry and parched with very little grass or shrubs in the paddocks.  Obviously there has been some substantial rainfall over the past couple of years as we were pleasantly surprised to see much more grass and growth along the way.

Heading towards Broken Hill  NSW

This is probably the reason we have not seen any live kangaroos so far, as with ample food in the distant paddocks the kangaroos have no need to come to the roadsides looking for better food sources.  We do however see large flocks of emus which originally came from the more remote areas looking for food when the last long drought was underway.  When the drought was over some of the emu flocks stayed right where they were and can now be seen in less remote areas of Australia.  

Two emus wandering along the fence line

We turn off the bitumen onto a dirt road and drive 8 kilometres to Hancock’s Lookout where our ‘handy dandy’ camps guide says we can free camp.   

Heading towards the lookout

The lookout is 40 kilometres south of Port Augusta (South Australia) and we watch the sun set over Spencers Gulf and see the lights come on in the towns of Port Pirie, Port Augusta and Whyalla across the water.  

Camped at Hancock's Lookout

Last night we camped in a rest area at Minnipa SA and it is obvious that the townsfolk of Minnipa have no illusions about what to call their public conveniences.  

The name says it all

Up until last night it has been ‘stinking’ hot with temperatures topping the 39 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) for the past two days.  Thankfully a cool change passed through and today we have a more civilised temperature of 25 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit).  We have motored through part of Queensland, some of New South Wales and South Australia pretty fast as we have travelled in these States before (albeit many many years ago).  Now that we have reached Smoky Bay in South Australia we intend to start slowing down and do the touristy thing as we have never been this far west before.  We are treating ourselves to a bit of luxury tonight by staying in the caravan park here and this afternoon went for a walk out along the nearly 300 metre long jetty.  

Smoky Bay Jetty

Attached to the jetty is a shark proof swimming enclosure.  It may be shark proof but apparently it is not sea lion proof.  

Mr Sea Lion in the swimming pool enclosure

This very energetic sea lion was having a great time swimming up and down and around the enclosure.  

Aww come on ...... Come on in and play ....

Wok tried to get ‘up close and personal’ with a pelican on the jetty but the pelican had other ideas.  

So you think you're sneaking up on me?  Not likely ...

Smoky Bay is famous for its oysters and we would like to say that we tried some, but Warwick likes his oysters ‘Oysters Kilpatrick’ and Robyn doesn’t like the squirmy squishy things at all, so the multitude of fresh oysters were safe from us.  In the morning we set out early heading west past Ceduna and onto one of the remotest stretches of highway in Australia (not to mention the world) – the Nullabor.

Time for us to sit back and relax.  It’s a long long way with not much to see.