Part 2 Day 3 Adelaide

After discovering there was a local produce market in one of the nearby towns Wirrabara we decided to call in on the way past and see what was on offer. We were both pleasantly surprised at the size of the town and hive of activity finding on offer many stalls of local fruits and vegetables, bread & bakery goods, meat's and seafood along side locally grown honey, olive oils and a few local crafts. A great little monthly market for the area.

Pressing on we arrived at  the Old Bakery in Stone Hut a place dad knew about already and had recommended so I took the chance to try some local produce, a bottle of F.C. Grubb sarsparilla & a quandong pie. They say it's a native peach, but to me it tasted more like rubarb. That slight tartness, but with the shortcrust pastry topped with sugar and  the side of cream & passionfruit my taste buds were amazed, it was fantastic!!! They specialised in the more traditional home style cakes, slices, tarts & pies even did cider tastings and sold wild boar, roo, crocodile and emu pate!! And of course the SA institution - pie floaters... but dad declined. (I forgot to take my camera & only had my phone to snap it on so the photo here's from the internet.)

Our next aim was to head for Clare, and upon arrival had a spot of lunch. Initially we had set out to spend a night here, but as most of the local attractions were wineries and neither of us were interested in doing any tastings again we decided it was probably best to head  home back to Adelaide now that we were so close.
So on we went via Gawler as dad hadn't been though it before (and it had been a few years for me) We were both surprised how big and how busy it was for a Sunday afternoon. Still we managed to steer Doreen through the commotion and back onto the highway home, arriving safely back in Adelaide by mid afternoon.

Part 2 Day 2- Wilpena & Melrose

We started out with the intention of taking a bus up to St Mary's look out but upon arrival at the info centre discovered we had missed the first bus & the second had no return trip ( we thought that was a bit odd). 
I didn't want to risk any health issues with dad if we had to walk all the way back! He was disappointed but we managed to find plenty more to see. 

 We took a shorter walk along the trail to view the solar plant just out of Wilpena and then to the near by Cazneaux tree. A river red gum tree from a famous photography taken by Harold Cazneaux in 1937,  The title he gave to the photograph was "The Spirit of Endurance", for the qualities he felt epitomised the tree's survival in a harsh environment. After that we made our way down another dirt track to the Sacred Canyon, a dry river area used by local Aboriginals, which housed a few rock engravings. 

After a spot of morning tea we decided that there really wasn't that much more we could see, as dad wouldn't have been able to do the many long bush walks in the area so as short as the visit was we decided to move on. Back to Quorn for a spot of lunch and got a look at the Pichi Richi engine as it travelled past our roadside picnic area. 


Melrose was our final destination for the day, the oldest town in the Flinders Ranges. Dad showed me around the town as he'd been there before. We found some quaint little unit's built on the back of 2 trucks, an amazing museum in the local police station & court house. Both of us were very surprised at how much history it held, not only on the local police & courthouse but also much regarding the early pioneers and agricultural pursuits of the area. Along with Aboriginal history, war service history and larger items of farming machinery. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Just over the road was Bluey's an old blacksmith's which had been turned into a cafe and B&B, it still kept the memorabilia & decor of the blacksmiths and had a few rooms in the cafe section out back, with a lovely little outdoor court yard, and undercover seating out front, with a larger dining table in the horse stables at the side.The B&B was to the side of the main building and sectioned off but after investigating online we discovered that it too was a quaint little residence. 


Then down behind the local hotel and the truck houses was an old mill, which had been turned into a brewery in the late 1800's but now a ruin on private land. We discovered an old woman (who we assumed was the owner) rounding up 2 stray sheep, directing them back into their paddock with her ute, so we stopped to help block the road with the van. After our day full of adventure we decided to find a spot for dinner, there was a great little roadside rest stop just out of town on the Goyder line, overlooking a creek Mt Remarkable and some grazing sheep so decided to spend the night. 

For a tiny little town this place really hit a spot, it was small but vibrant bursting with history & plenty of people around camping in the local caravan park & show grounds. I also noticed a bike shop, open on both days we were in town ( Saturday AND Sunday) there also appeared to be many bike trails in the area and a "fat tyre" mountain bike festival held earlier in the year. Melrose would certainly be a great spot to ride if that's your thing. 

Part 2 Day 1 Flinders Ranges

Wilpena Pound

Early start today with our longest leg, (Adelaide to Wilpena Pound) took us about 7 hours all up. Stopping at Port August for a quick sanga in the back of the van, not much to see but we did have a laugh at the “nothingness”.  I managed to get some good driving time in Doreen,  Quorn to Wilpena was a pretty winding road up the mountains but she handled well.

We were greeted by a few emu’s crossing the road just after registering at the start of the National Park, then again as we got to the information centre & caravan park. Nice and hot up here so we just chilled out for a few hours, had some dinner then headed up to Stokes Lookout to watch the sunset over the ranges. The drive back home was pretty hairy and slow, Kangaroos EVERYWHERE!!!  I was praying we didn’t clean any up! Thankfully it was a safe passage.           

Day 8 - R&R

Another late start, good hot showers but on a 3 minute timer with a 5 min wait in between each if you needed another 3 minutes, thank god it wasn’t a cold day!!!

Dad had a chat to a german cyclist who was staying here also and found out that one of the ferries had some problems and wasn’t running so we decided to head in to Pennishaw to check things out. Took a quick detour into Baudin Beach on the way, but not much to see there- a small car park with loo’s and a little jetty,  but  no swimming allowed!!

Luckily our ferry booking was still ok, so we had a bit of a look around the town, another trip to the marina to dump our loo waste (only place we could find to do it on the WHOLE island!!!!)and a quick trip to the supermarket for some more supplies.

 Then along the beach to Frenchman’s Rock for morning tea, where we spotted a few dolphins swimming offshore. Got a new globe for a blown break light and looked for some fresh water to top up our supplies, also a bit of a problem here as many of the camping grounds only had untreated rainwater in tanks with sign’s up saying not to drink it. Lunch was spent beach side near the penguin centre, and after a short nap decided to make our way back to Brown’s Beach for our final night on the island. 

Day 7 - On The Road Again

Our biggest day’s driving so far, all the way from Flinders Chase National Park, back to Brown’s Beach via Cape Borda , Parndana and Prospect Hill. Cape Borda was our biggest challenge, 30 kms of corrugated dirt track, and just about as many kilometres of dad cursing & swearing!!!  But we reckon it was worth the trip, some amazing history on the early lighthouse keepers and fantastic little museum, a working cannon & VERY animated local guide!

Just down the track we pulled into scott cove, not much to see here but just down the road was Harvey’s Return, an old site once used for hauling up supplies for the light house, but today nothing more than a rocky bush walking track and campsite. Then onto the lighthouse cemetery, a dozen or so graves from the very first lighthouse keepers & their families.

We stopped for a bite of lunch at the Western Districts Community & Sports Centre, nothing but bush and farms around this area so was great to see such a well established & maintained complex consisting of footy & cricket oval, practice nets, netball & tennis courts, clubrooms and playground.

Next stop was Parndana, a smallish town for the farming community originally a soldier settlement area  established in 1951. Had a small 7 day supermarket, service station and rather large hotel, with a museum that wasn’t open, so we just stuck our heads around the shed that housed some old farming machinery.

Prospect Hill was next on the list, A hill that explorer Matthew Flinders climbed in 1802. A fine day today, unlike the first day we drove past (too much rain) so we decided to stop and have a gander… Dad even decided it was worth the climb! 360 deg views of the island, in particular Pennington Bay to the SE and Pelican Lagoon to the NE the narrowest part of the Island.     

The day had got up to about 29 degrees so we finally ended up at Brown’s Beach again for a relaxing evening’s stroll along the beach to cool down and some dinner  under the van’s annex.  Later once it was dark made our way down to the beach again to see if we could spot some penguin’s coming in to nest but no luck this time.
                                                   

 

Day 6 Super Loo!

A late start today, with a cooked breakfast in the great weather. Took a walk up to the info centre & checked out the kids "fossil pit" (a sand pit full of fossils) then a spot of lunch back at camp and some driving lessons for me!  O…M…G  I finally got to drive Doreen!

Just around the caravan park at first, then even got to have a squirt out on the highway, luckily this one was a sealed road! Dad must have thought I was doing ok cuz then he made me reverse her into our camp site!
(I was quietly shitting bricks but I did O.K… Phew!!!)


Bit of a lazy arvo catching up on some newspaper reading while dad had a snooze & then played some uke tunes. Luckily for us the gas burners had dried out a bit in the warmer weather and we were up to TWO gas burners.... YIPEEE !!!

You've probably never seen some one so excited over a toilet block but dad & I were VERY impressed with the the ones here.. they were the Hilton of all camping toilets. So here's some photos to prove it they had lovely clean & modern fittings, water flushing loo's (yes it's a big thing after using long drops everywhere else!) a REAL cloth hand towel at the sinks, shower curtains and wall mounted soap dispensers in the showers! You'd be surprised how many places don't bother with shower curtains, allowing all your stuff to get wet :(
They even provided a mop & bucket so you can clean up the excess water, now that was my kinda thinking!

Day 5 Cooooeeeee

Started with a cooked breaky @ Vivonne Bay, then off to explore the caravan park & other “Town” side of the Harriet River. (not much of a town per say but about 3 streets of beach shacks and stone huts).  Back on the road we crossed paths with an echidna on our way to Flinders Chase National Park.

  Checked in at the visitors centre and had a look around the information displays. Found our camp site and had a BBQ lunch amongst the very friendly magpies before setting off for Cape du Couedic.

Plenty to see down this end of K.I. lots of changing scenery, mallee scrubland, wildflowers and even some taller gum forests. Had a wander around the lighthouse and down to Admirals Arch. We were treated with an abundance of fur seals, many not far from the walkway and lookouts.  

On to Remarkable Rocks & were greeted by many blue wrens darting around the car park. An easy board walk stroll out to the rocks …Remarkable indeed, and many photo opportunities. Lucky we had good weather  as there was no shelter on the trails & board walks, it would have been very slippery!

Back to the camp site for some arvo tea and R&R and a load of hand washing. Finally we had some great weather to get it dry. Still only one gas burner  tonight so we are becoming experts at one pot dinners!

No internet coverage or phone reception down here so these following posts are a few days late.