Blogs from Ceduna, South Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 5

Today we drove about 435k’s to Streaky Bay and we started off going into a strong head wind but about ½ hr into the drive it changed to a tail wind so it was all good sailing for the day. Made several stops along the way for scenic views of the coast line. Stopped at Ceduna for fruit and veggies check, the inspector was a bit sad and had no people skills. We stopped at the Foreshores Caravan Park (fpa) for 3 nights at 21.50/night good value as it is school holidays now. There is no Optus signal but Telstra is good. ... read more

Another quite day we didn’t feel like going anything so after a cooked breakfast took the dogs for a walk to town about 15 mins away and back a whole hour in total. This entire place is a small holiday fishing village with about a dozen shops and 1 pub 2 garages so not much here but it is very pleasant place. After lunch Warwick wet and filled the car and topped up the water tanks for our next stage of the journey. ... read more

When we started off today we were travelling into a heavy North eastern wind didn’t get out of 4th gear all day. Had 2 fuel stops 1 at Caiguna at 193.3 c/l and the other at Madura pas hotel motel which was 200c/l. Total distance today was about 460k’s. We stopped at Jillah Rockhole free stop which we parked in the back amongst trees. There was someone else there when we arrived so by late afternoon there was about 10 other van or backpackers. It rained in the afternoon and then when it stopped a wind came up and so everything got dusty. We had to cook up the remaining veggies as we were informed that at the border there was an inspection for fruit and veggies. So Warwick put the generator on and then went ... read more

Well after four weeks staying at Claire's sister's house, we're finally off on our long trip. We spent our first night just half an hour away in Kooweerup. Meaning "black fish swimming" in the local aboriginal language, this area was originally swampland but has been drained to provide farmland and is now famous for its asparagus, apparently asparagus icecream is available locally! Claire's cousin Tony and his wife Val live here, and on the way round to theirs we popped into Caldermead Dairy Farm for a milkshake. Arriving just in time to watch the cows being milked our first sight, and in fact our first photo of our trip, was of a cows arse slowly moving sideways past an open window. Lots of cows arses in fact. There's a big turntable that takes 50 cows at ... read more

Well, after months of organising, waiting and planning we eventually took off from Busselton, a day later than planned as the Step-Mum of one of our travelling companions died and he attended her funeral. The first two days travelling across W.A. heading for the start of the Eyre Highway was refreshing as the west has had lots of rain recently and everything was lush and green. Not so as we progressed on into South Australia, passing through km after km of wasteland, dry and dusty. When we reached the farming land it was so sad to see field after field of stunted crops, sparse and dry, even seeing whole harvesting rigs up for sale on the side of the road beside farms. The animals look underfed and spindly and farmers seem to let them roam wherever ... read more