Advertisement
Published: April 19th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Friday 19th
What a rough night - little sleep for anyone at Edithburgh last night as a very strong wind rose in the evening and enthusiastically rocked the motorhome, not only all night, but as we drove to Wallaroo on the west coast of Yorke Peninsular.
The sun rise this morning was much brighter than the photographer felt, and seemed ominous. However, the sky brightened by afternoon.
Marg drove the first leg through to Minlaton via Yorketown. Despite previously reporting the need to do further testing on the quality of Yorketown Bakery custard slice, we proceeded through to Minlaton.
The Yorke Peninsular has rolling low hills, so what blows from the east is shared with those living on the west of the peninsular. There are no mountains or substantial hills to soak up the cold blast, and few trees as well.
We were amazed at the vast areas of grain growing here, and the closer we got to Minlaton, the better the soil, some being chocolate brown.
Mentioning chocolate and Minlaton in one sentence is quite appropriate. This little town has a very dedicated chocolatier. All hand made, hand painted, rather luxurious chocs. Naturally, my
interest was solely photographic so I bought some samples solely for that purpose. (And pigs might fly) Actually, we didn't choose the most highly painted samples, some with a bronze metallic appearance. We chose Cappuccino, cherries (soaked in cherry brandy for 12 months), one mint and one raspberry, the painted one. The lady at the shop told us that they sell thousands of chocolates a week. Their reputation is legendary according to another local.
The Information Centre at Minlaton was good too. Some excellent paintings by talented locals for sale, plus, as luck would have it, they had a fund raising stall and we purchased quiche which was for tasting purposes, suitable tested and approved this evening.
The best I have kept until last, for a very special piece of WW1 aviation history is here - The Red Devil Bristol mono plane. The aircraft is fully restored and on display in a glass fronted hanger. Cptn Harry Butler flew and became very attached to this plane, and had it returned to Minlaton. Cold and small was the first reaction to the open cockpit aircraft. Harry Butler flew the first air mail service across the sea in Australia from
Adelaide to Minlaton.
Once again this is an old rural town on the Peninsular, but in this case, holding its own and prospering. This is quite different to the shrinking population at Edithburgh, and to some extent at Ardrossan.
A change of driver and we headed off north to Maitland. More good farm land, some sheep and cattle as well, and long straight roads.
We stopped for a cuppa, walk around Maitland, and noted this is another dying community. What is quaint is that the golf club borders 3 sides of the small square township.
Marg took the next stage through to Moonta. This seemed a busy yet historic town with some interesting buildings to explore, plus an old mine site/museum to visit. We decided to revisit Moonta tomorrow (weather permitting) when we will be minus the trailer and have the time to look around.
The 16Ks journey from there to our camp on to the beach at Wallaroo passed quickly and we were setup in no time.
Still windy, but the bone crunching wind of Edithburgh was replaced with warm but blustery wind, and a pretty sea vista, even though it was low
tide.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0755s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mum & Dad
non-member comment
Chocolate samplers
Well between the chocs and vanilla slice and who knows what else BP and weight on the way up!! We hate being here and looking but not tasting real naughty of you to be tempting us! It looks like you are having a good time apart from rocky windy nights at times. Have fun