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Having received excellent news about Robert’s recovery we headed off from Woomera on Monday 19
thMay around 8:30 am. Needless to say he has recovered extremely well and is coming home today, 6 days, amazing.
Before leaving we needed to get a replacement gas bottle, ours was empty, and decided to invest in another tub of a wonder product we discovered “Tru Blue Garlic Butter Spread”. Made in Maddington WA. Enormously expensive in Woomera but just in case...
We headed to Pimba to top up the fuel tanks and bumped into Wayne’s mates from the Ulysses club again. Once on the road to Port Augusta we discovered we were roughly 150 kms away, we had not taken into consideration the 200 kms we travelled from Brinkworth to Port Augusta in our calculations of how far we had to travel. Seniors moment again.
As we were heading down the road we got very excited coming towards us was a Desert Sky Warrior, we have a Desert Sky Tracker. They are a rare breed of caravan brand. Not much further on GMan got onto the two way to tell the truckie behind us he was pulling into the next layby to
let the truck pass – the road was very hilly and windy. The truckie came back with how to you like you Desert Sky and of course we enthused. He advised us he would tell Rudi (the manufacturer) the next time he saw him. The Truckie then expressed his support for the smaller width of the van which allows access too many places big vans can’t go. Later that day we got an email from Rudi and Delores to say they had heard from their friend and knew it was us.
Our brand new top of the range Hema 7 GPS tried to send us towards the Arid Lands Centre on the Stuart Highway when we wanted to go to Woolworths in Tassie Street in Port Augusta. At least the bloody thing talks with an Aussie accent. We ended up going to IGA on the Lincoln Highway and discovered “Tru Blue Garlic Butter Spread” at half the price we paid in Woomera. No reasonable beef roasts and we would have to sell the van to afford to buy a lamb roast so we settled for pork. By now it was only 11:30 so rather than overnighting in a layby
25 kms west of PA we decided to push on to Fitzgerald Bay stopping for lunch on the way.
We headed over the hill and caught sight of the bay, still as beautiful as ever. When we got to the camping area there were 5 vans in place a two of them looked like they had been in place for ages. One woman had 4 clothes lines full of washing! They must carry masses of water and have a method of topping water tanks up easily.
The only site we could find which put us next to the beach area was sloping so we had to get onto the new ramps. Once done the step up the van was very high but manageable. Out went the awning, up went the boggy tent, table and chairs and the BBQ. All the best luxuries. 3:30 pm and we sat down with a cup of tea and our kindles occasionally looking out across the water and listening to the gentle swish of the water. Glorious. About an hour later a Jayco Sterling came and parked next to us. Number 15.
We spent three nights here reading and just enjoying the
quiet and the view.
Night two we had our roast. Meat was great but the veges definitely did not reach the standard of crispy and tasty. We will have to do lots of work on perfecting this.
It was definitely far more crowded than last year but there were no issues around excessive noise or intruding on anyone else’s space. No dumpster divers either such a pity the grain wave chippies last year were excellent.
We could hear a single seal calling. Chris would pick up the camera and head to the shore (not easy over a shale pebble beach) and as soon as she would get the he would stop calling. We could hear a couple of splashes but at no time did we get a sighting. This went on for three days. Someone has to have set up a sound system to suck us in we think.
Some of the wild flowers are out and I am sending photos to our friend Alan Graham hoping he will be able to identify them for us. Siblings, do you remember the Boobiella trees on the southern slope of the block in Elizabeth Street Geraldton? I am
seeing them all over the place around this part of the Eyre Peninsula.
More years ago than we like to remember we purchased out camping chairs at the opening sale for WA Salvage in Kalgoorlie, has to be 20 years ago or more. For the past three years we have been trying to find new stoppers for the bottom of the legs, ours had worn away and they are larger than normal. GMan turned one chair upside down yesterday and discovered there are 6 extra stoppers on other parts of the chair so they legs got repaired. Bang goes the dreams of lovely new chairs with built in table to hold the kindle and wine glass. These will last another 20 years and we have 4 more stoppers to use if some wear out. Oh well they fit perfectly into the space our friend Benny constructed for them in the back of our car.
Chewie had a good time trying to find the seal and he wanted to build a sand castle. Well, it is a bit difficult when the beach is made of pebbles. So instead we had a story about knights, castles, sieges and rescuing maidens
from dragons and he built a castle wall to defend instead. This was all modelled on a role play I watched Daughter In Law Nicole undertake with Granddaughter Sienna. Best bit was when Nicole but her hands on her hips and said loudly “Play fair” I guess she was losing.
When we reluctantly pulled out this morning the wall was standing proudly near our camping site.
Interestingly we had neighbours come over last night to introduce themselves (we think to look at the van because they expressed great interest in it) and I noticed them very carefully stepping around the castle wall.
Our decision to return south was a good one. The area around central Australia is awash. Let’s hope we can get more permits and be able to return that way.
Stopped in Whyalla for some supplies and bumped into a croquet friend in the shopping centre then headed out towards Cleve. We are camped in a beautiful little site Yeldulknie Weir. We look like being the only ones here tonight. It costs a donation to stay. Has clean flushing toilets, BBQ which costs $1, walking trails, picnic tables, lots of shade and plantings. The
whole place is spotless. Their weir is very different. It is made of concrete blocks and the wall is stepped. The whole area is taken care of by and developed by the Cleve Lions Club. A fellow was here this afternoon and he tells us that the weir leaks and the water is no longer used, but it is clean, peaceful and the most I can hear is the birds singing.
He also told us there were 12 vans in here over Easter. It must have been crowded indeed.
There are photos of what it looked like when they built the toilet block in 1998. Not a tree in sight. Over 3,000 trees and shrubs have been planted since and this area is beautiful and a mecca for birds. If only they would appear instead of simply calling and enticing me.
The webber came out last night for a BBQ and when GMan was half way through cooking his sausages the rain came down in buckets. He rushed in and then had to rush out again to retrieve the said snags. Thank heavens a webber has a lid which you close when cooking. They were still delicious
with a crisp salad.
When we woke this morning Friday 23
rd there was a wonderful mist shrouding the whole area and we could hear the birds waking up and calling each other through it.
My friend Helen asked me what do we do to keep ourselves busy on the road and the reply was read. Well another friend Sheryl introduced me to a magnificent book “Secret Garden” by Johanna Basford. It is a colouring book. Yes Mieke Kindergarten skills again. Armed with the book and my watercolour pencils and paint brush I have started to complete the book. I chose the simplest page and the first flower I coloured and painted is revolting. Since then I have improved and my colour blending skills are coming on. Oh to be like Sally (looked after the Princess last year and painted that lovely picture of her which sits near my computer) she actually creates pictures of her own. I colour within the lines. But it is fun and once started compulsive. I didn’t see Sheryl for weeks at one stage and began to worry about her - thought she was depressed and when I finally pushed my way in and
followed up she was sitting at her kitchen table colouring in. Now I understand.
We opened the last pot of the lime butter I made the day before we left this morning. Yummy Sally. When we get home you and I can have a lime butter making party at your house so that you don’t forget to take your pot home with you.
Internet and mobile phone access is very limited here. I had to change my ebay password because of the hacking incident so I was wandering all over the camp ground with my laptop trying to get access. Eventually I managed nearly at the top of the hill near the pump house with a concrete post as a table top, the dongle hanging off the barb wire fence and using my thigh as a mouse pad. Yes that is true and I will be wandering off there again shortly to try and post this into our blog. Hopefully that picture will stay with you a little while.
We are staying here again tonight and will wander off to Cleve for some sightseeing tomorrow before heading south to who knows where.
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Shirley
non-member comment
Peaceful
Sounds like you are having a restful time. Perhaps you overdo the first 6 months and need the next to recover? Strangely while the Centre is soggy, we are unseasonably dry. Re veggies: have you tried parboiling then oiling up and sticking in the Webber? Works for spuds.