Pildappa Rock and Powerhouse Museum

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Based on a hot tip from a friend of Cathy Gatt, this morning we drove inland looking for a big rock! We drove out Calca Road to the Flinders Highway. On the way we were being shadowed by a flock of galahs. So cool to be driving along at 70km/hr with the flock keeping pace. Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera sorted, the galahs had crossed to the other side of the car and then they swooped back over the car and away into the paddocks.

We headed south east on the highway to Port Kenny where we stopped for a quick leg stretch. The blue water of Venus Bay looked tantalising from the highway so we drove down to the water front. When will we learn? The tide is ALWAYS out so all we saw was a couple of tractors launching boats!! Not so picturesque after all.

From Port Kenny we took the secondary road towards Wudinna. North of the Kulliparu Conservation Park we turned onto the unsealed secondary road to Minnipa on the Eyre Highway. These small towns have the best facilities! Way out west in regional South Australia they seem to take great pride in providing clean conveniences for travellers. Even better, the general store was open and Steve was able to order a latte!!

About 15 kilometres north of Minnipa we found Pildappa Rock, which is also known as South Australia’s Wave Rock. With clear views to the the Gawler Ranges an added bonus, it was worth the 276km round trip to see this spectacular granite outcrop. We spent about an hour completing a full circuit around the base of the rock. If/when we travel this way again we must keep in mind that there are several other wave rocks in this part of the Eyre Peninsula, including Mount Wudinna which is Australia’s second largest rock. We will be passing through Wudinna tomorrow, but we have a date with a train in Quorn (near Port Augusta) so will not have time to seek out any more rocky outcrops on this trip!

I had some concern about whether it was culturally appropriate to climb to the top of Pildappa Rock but, in the absence of any signs stating that the traditional owners would prefer that visitors respect the rock as a sacred site, I climbed the rock with the boys. The views were fabulous and it was rather startling to find a rock pool at the top filled with the biggest tadpoles any of us has ever seen. Hopefully they will soon be frogs.

We drove back to Streaky Bay via Poochera. After our almost five hour expedition to Pildappa Rock we were HUNGRY. Our host at the beach house had highly recommended the ‘Fish Fix’ caravan out the front of Factory Direct Seafood so we purchased fish and chips for lunch. Really good fish and chips! There was not a single chip left for the hopeful seagulls who gathered to watch us eat.

The Powerhouse Museum, featuring all things engine related, is open on Friday afternoons so we took a quick look around. Gotta love the smell of engine oil and diesel after your fish and chip lunch?!

After the museum we refuelled the vehicles ready for the drive to Port Augusta tomorrow. Supporting another local business, we returned to the butcher to by some more meat to BBQ for dinner tonight. We had thought about eating at the Community Hotel in Streaky Bay one night, but the idea of driving back to Sceale Bay around dusk was a concern. We really did not want an unfortunate encounter with a kangaroo. With our food and fuel sorted we headed back to the beach house at Sceale Bay for our last night on the South Australian coast.

I was a bit short of my ‘move’ and ‘exercise’ goals so I walked around Sceale Bay. It’s not very big so I had to complete about one and a half circuits to reach my goals! While I was out I tried to take a couple more panoramic shots with my camera. The panorama camera was left at home this trip so Bernie has been stitching the shots in Lightroom. I have been having a go at taking series of photos for stitching into panoramas, but I am hopeless. I do not seem to be able to keep the horizon straight at all and when Bernie attempts to process them they are all higgledy-piggledy. They could be cropped to take out the worst of the crookedness, but this would result in a panorama that is wafer thin!?? Keep on practicing I guess and in the meantime Bernie can take the panoramas.



Steps for the day: 12,447 (8.5km)

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