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.
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.
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