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Published: February 22nd 2013
Ruth's cousin Mark arrived in town a few days ago from the UK via Sydney and the Territory and will be joining us when we drive from Adelaide to Perth. This crossing has always loomed large on my bucket list so it seemed a great opportunity to hire a motorhome and take Mark with us across the Nullarbor to Perth.
I picked up the motorhome after work Friday, I cant believe they charge a credit card fee on there security deposit, which they refuse to refund when the vehicle is returned. I spent much of the evening packing the motorhome, taking the animals to my mums and just getting ready to go. We are planning to leave home at about 6am.
At 6am we were on the road stopping for a brief breakfast at Port Wakefield before continuing on to Snowtown to see the notorious bank vault where the bodies in the barrels were stored. We tried to take photographs without being seen by the locals. It was then on to Port Augusta for a quick fuel stop, before we continued on to Cowell via Whyalla where we stopped for lunch. We arrived at the Axel Stenross Museum in
Pt Lincoln around 3pm, the museum was set up quite well and the old boats were interesting. After the museum we took the vehicle to the Caravan Park and set up for the next few days.
A few hours later we decided to take a taxi into town and visit the Makybe Diva statue on the waterfront, before having a few drinks at the Tasman Hotel, after that we went to the Boston Hotel for dinner but it was shutting so we visited a pizza bar instead.
Saturday morning we were up at 6am and getting ourselves ready for our shark cage dive, the taxi arrived at 6.45am and we were boarding the boat by 7am. The boat took about two and a half hours to reach the anchor point of North Neptune Island, we could see the sharks prey the New Zealand Fur Seal frisking in the waters near the rocks and sunning themselves on the beach.
Not long after arrival the cage was lowered into the water and the four Danes that accompanied us were pulling on wet suits and entering the cage, the underwater speakers were soon pumping out seventies rock and the sharks
began to arrive. Unlike the company we chose, the other two boats out there were burlying the water in an attempt to attract sharks, when there was really no need to do so.
The Danes were down for sometime, when they eventually came up it was my turn. Initially I took a while to get used to the regulator and it didn’t help when the airflow stopped a couple times, I admit a few minutes of panic but finally I got my breathing relaxed all was good. I did see a Great White Shark in its natural environment and up close an amzing moment.
The cage was bobbing around all over the place and after a time I started suffering from sea sickness, I had not realised how rough the motion of the cage was until I was in it. I started climbing up the ladder to get above the surface of the water only to see Mark lying on the deck and looking green. After that we saw more sharks circling the boat and a stunning sea eagle perched on rocks overlooking the bay.
The ride back to Port Lincoln was uneventful I slept much of
the way, the three of us enjoyed a cold drink at the Marina Hotel before having dinner at the Pier Hotel, Port Lincoln is a relatively expensive place to eat out.
We awoke at seven the next morning and were in a cab to the marina at 7.45am and on the boat at eight. Today we are going out to Hopkins Islands to swim with the Australian Sea Lions, as I do I slept most of the way out there.
On arrival we pulled on our flippers and masks and were soon over the side of the boat the water was nice and we were soon encircled by seals, it was an amazing day and we all enjoyed the playful antics of the seals. I took some wonderful photographs, on the way back to Port Lincoln we visited Cape Catastrophe where a number of Flinders crew drowned while seeking a source of fresh water.
On return to Port Lincoln we visited some shops then spent the rest of the day relaxing outside the motorhome as a cool front washed over town. We rose reasonably early the following morning and packed to depart making stops at Mcdonalds for
breakfast and a service station to fill the tank.
At the service station a light illuminated on the dash, we didn't know what it meant so I called the rental company's emergency line and was advised to ignore it and see if it went off by itself or to wait for help from the roadside assistance. With thousands of remote kilometres ahead I chose the latter option and moved to a carpark nearby and waited for the mechanic while Ruth went and shopped for provisions. After about an hour the mechanic arrived and I followed him back to his workshop were he cleared the fault and we were soon on our way.
I drove along Eyre Peninsula's west coast stopping to walk on a salt flat and to check out some historic buildings before arriving in Edithburgh. We had lunch in this preety little fishing town before enjoying the coastal scenery before continuing north stopping to catch a lizard on the roadside and to visit the interesting Murphy's Haystacks before arriving in the pretty coastal town of Streaky Bay. We stopped here briefly for fuel at a service station which had a replica of a large white pointer
shark captured in the area in the 1980s, hanging from its ceiling.
We arrived in Ceduna late in the day, the caravan park was located in the town centre right next to the pub. The town appears to be fortified with fences and barbed wire prominent and seemed desrted except for a few drunken aborigines hurling abuse at each other. We decided to go to the pub for dinner but the prices for meals was high so we went to a takeaway shop in the main street instead. In the morning we will do some shopping and visit the indigenous art centre before continuing our journey west.
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