Advertisement
Published: April 16th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Monday 15th
Well, we are half way through autumn and experiencing the fluctuating temperatures, but this year, the area is really in need of rain. Days are often quite warm, but night temps are fluctuating between 10 and 20. Never quite sure how much bedding is required.
The forecast indicated that we would see showers, but we only drove through very light drizzle as we left Adelaide after doing a grocery shop at the supermarket.
The road out of Adelaide is north (ish) as we drive towards the Yorke Peninsular. A lot of the land adjacent to the freeway is poor quality, probably saline soil. We drove past a large salt evaporation complex as well as many glass houses for growing tomatoes and cucumbers.
The plan was to stop at Port Parham for lunch at a popular free camp spot. Well, they had recently experienced heavy rain, and the puddles had more water than the beach. It was low tide, but the puddles were big.
We back tracked a little to the dryer park by the local club, had lunch and then continued on past Port Wakefield before swinging west to cross the Gulf of St
Vincent head waters and come down the eastern coast of Yorke Peninsular.
At first we were disappointed with the land scape with derelict farm houses to poor quality pasture, again clearly saline affected. Then it changed. Large fields which would be cropping land. Then the whitish stubble left from harvest contrasted with the clear blue waters of the gulf making a beautiful vista.
We followed the coast down to Ardrossan, where we will spend the night. This is a town with a varied history. From a distance we saw what looked like a large white building on the skyline, and we wondered if it was a temple. When we were closer and the angle changed it was a large grain silo complex.
Then we noticed some unusual shaped hills. These turned out to be tailing mounds from dolomite mines that operated here for many years.
The saline nature of the low lands has created another industry, solar extraction of salt.
Ardrossan is also home to the famous stump jump plough, a plough that made soil preparation in deforested pastures so much safer and practical. Horses or bullock pulling a plough do not have an effective
reverse gear should the plough hit a stump or other solid object.
And for good measure, the tasty blue swimmer crabs can be caught at low tide ready for dinner if you are a crab eater.
So, this little town, has an interesting history which includes those typical South Australian stone buildings. The local pub is one, plus we saw several cottages so typical of the area.
There are two jetties on the foreshore, the longer being 1.5 ks long and was used for export of the dolomite, grain (barley) and salt.
There are protest signs every where along the peninsular. No wind farms, no mining. I was talking to a local who was saying that there is the potential for a huge mining project for copper and gold - bigger than Roxby Downs apparently. This will change Ardrossan a lot if the approvals for the mining are given. Some say that this is the worlds best barley growing region. Best can be very subjective, but certainly wont be missed when negotiating with the mining companies for access to their land.
We have seen big flocks of pigeons around Ardrossan. We were surprised to see
Old time tin house
La left to rust.nd still being harvested, but this little piece of history them nesting on the cliff face.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0283s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 3;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mum & Dad
non-member comment
Interesting stuff
It certainly is dry country and not well populated no wonder when the land is like you say. It looks like the cliffs are easily worn away by the tides.