Are We There Yet?

Day 9 – Mt Remarkable to Hahndorf

Up early, pack (two days in one place and our stuff is everywhere), then move out to climb Mt Remarkable. Actually, we decided against that and did a shorter lookout instead.

Still pretty spectacular. Jamie was pleased to have finished the longest walk yet of his life.

After this, we drove south to Adelaide, skirted around it and arrived in Hahndorf at about 17:30. To make up for the fact we were all tired and grouchy, we went to dinner at the Hahndorf Inn. There, I ate a schnitzel the size of a dinner plate. No, I didn’t take a picture of it because I am not a hipster.

Day 8 – Mount Remarkable

A day of (relative) rest. We limited our sight seeing to a portion of the stunning Mount Remarkable NP, specifically Alligator Gorge (so named because of how common alligators are in Australia).

The scenery was suitably lovely.

The kids handled the hike like champs.

Jamie got into a little bit of photography himself:

There’s always time to build a cubby house:

After the walk, we got coffee in the town of Melrose. This is a bit of a favourite spot for mountain bikers, but it also has a suspension bridge. Plus neat old rusty cars.

Later, it was time to chill out at camp for the afternoon. It’s nice not to face 3-4 hours driving every day. That changes tomorrow, again.

Day 7 – Port Augusta and possums

After packing up early, we went for a look around Kimba. First up: White Knob, a small hill with some caves and a sculpture commemorating the explorer Edward John Eyre.

Later, we walked the Roora Reserve trail through some bushland that also hosted more sculpture.

The kids responded to this fine artwork by climbing on it. Youth.

We upped stumps towards Port Augusta. This regional town looked rather nice, though we only spent enough time there to scoff lunch.

We continued towards the Flinders Range. The sudden rise of these steep hills after the endless flat plain was both dramatic and spectacular.

Our campsite that arvo was Beautiful Valley caravan park, just outside the town of Wilmington. We chose a bush site down the back.

I rate this place as “okay”, except for one thing: the local possums have become very comfortable with humans.

That’s worth the price of admission, right there.

Day 6 – Central South Australia

We left Ceduna early, on our way across the top of the Eyre Peninsula towards Port Augusta. It became quickly apparent that central SA looks a lot like the WA wheatbelt region – fields and paddocks for hundreds of kilometres. Though not a stretch containing any of our must-do items, we nonetheless found some nice surprises in the small rural towns along the way.

Outside a town called Minnipa, we drove a loop around a couple of natural land marks.

The first was called Pildappa Rock, a giant granite outcrop that looked not unlike Wave Rock in WA. This was shallow enough in places to walk up, so we all did. The top is a crazy surface of gullies and pits.

The second place we looked around is called Tcharkuldu Hill, as messy a collection of giant granite boulders as you’ve ever seen. Someone with a pair of rock climbing shoes and a bouldering pad could have had a lot of fun there.

Finally we moved on. Picking a place at semi-random based on distance via WikiCamps, we settled on a town called Kimba. This has the distinction of being hallway across Australia. Apparently.

There, we found (I kid you not) our first “big” thing: the Big Galah.

Kimba hosts a nice, free campsite in town near the sporting oval. There, we set up and Fiona made tacos. We met a nice couple who had been on the road travelling since the mid-90s.

I’m enjoying this, but I can’t see us doing it for the next two decades.

Day 5 – Ceduna and Denial

Spent a glorious day not driving anywhere. Everyone needed a break, so we went to the beach out back of Shelly Beach caravan park.

Great weather, and we had a five km stretch of beach to ourselves. The kids collected dead animal parts, as you do:

After lunch and at the advice of some fellow travellers, we borrowed a crab net and went up to Denial Bay. We went out on the jetty there, baited the net with a fish head and dropped it in. After a few minutes, we hauled it up and caught a small Blue Swimmer crab.

This turned out to be a delightful way to spend an hour or two. Many crabs were caught, though none of legal size. Which was fortunate considering I had no desire or capability to cook them.

Back to our camp site just in time to catch a CnW show to benefit the local Flying Doctor service. Back on the road tomorrow, but it’s nice to slow it down as we go.

Day 4 – Across the Nullabor

We broke camp early enough to light another campfire.

One last visit to the Poo Museum:

Then it was off across the Nullabor proper. All 560 km of it. Man, Australia is a big place.

In the tiny rural town of Penong, we stopped briefly at the local windmill museum:

We finally staggered into Ceduna, just in time to set up the camper in daylight. We sensibly decided against trying to cook, and watched the sun go down as we munched pizza by the sea.

Time to slow the pace tomorrow.

Day 3 – Fraser Range to Mundrabilla

Awake early after a chilly first night in the tent. We took a brisk 1.5 hr walk to check out the view from the surrounding hills. We spotted a wedge tailed eagle being hassled by some smaller birds, three bobtails and a bunch of wallabys, kangaroos​ and emus. We probably got a little too distracted as it was after 11 before we hit the road.

We spent the rest of the day driving 500-ish km. Crossing the straightest 145km in Australia then onto Madura Pass. What a beautiful spot at the bottom of the scarp. Despite the time we pushed on to Mundrabilla another 100km east in the hope of making it to Ceduna tomorrow.

So we found a reasonable​ little roadside camp and some great company to eat our dinner with.

Looking forward to the last stretch on the Nullabor tomorrow and a bunch of salad and fruit before we go through quarantine. I’m sure the family will be excited about the supper carrot and celery salad I have created for morning tea.

Day 2 – Fraser Range Station

We left Southern Cross early, headed toward Kalgoorlie. Only turned back twice, for fuel and a forgotten iPod. Stopped briefly at Borabbin National Park to look at the memorial for the Borabbin fire, and to play on the pipeline.

Stopped in Kalgoorlie for lunch at a brief visit to the Super Pit.

We pushed on to our final destination via Norseman, stopping at Fraser Range Station. This is a lovely campsite, and we finally deployed our camper.

 

Day 1 – Southern Cross

We left home at 1pm and headed 377 km east to Southern Cross. Not in holiday mode yet, but I’m sure that lunch in Kalgoorlie tomorrow and a look around will blow the stress bunnies away and settle us into the holiday.

We decided to stay in a motel for the first night. Kids were over the moon to find free shampoo and conditioner. Funny thing is: they hate washing their hair.