blog.sickdovel.net

A journal of our adventures

Day 11 – Esperance

Jul 19

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning, Geocaching | 5 Comments

The day started out just as it had ended with drizzly rain and freezing cold.  Overnight, fog had also been added to the mix.

Since the rain had turned the red dirt into red mud I was a little worried that we might not get out since we had a bit of a climb up a dirt track to contend with on the way out.  It was no trouble at all though and we were soon back at the highway pointed at Norseman about 160km away.

We stopped briefly and took some photos of the tin camels.  We then headed up to the Beacon lookout but were unsuccessful in taking any photo’s as it was too cloudy.  There’s not much else to do in Norseman.  It’s a gold mining town, not a tourist town.
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Day 10 – Balladonia

Jul 19

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning, Geocaching | Comments off

Sunrise saw us up and on the move again.

An uneventful, but chilly night was had.  Road trains come past roughly every 20 minutes.  I’m guessing that it takes about that long to get each one through the border checkpoint.

Today was a pretty long driving day with even less than yesterday to see.  The Nullarbor was in full flight today with absolutely no trees and not much of anything else to see.  The few small roadhouses along the way are gone in an instant and there’s nothing missed if you don’t stop.

We did stop at Caiguna to see the cave blowhole there … but it wasn’t blowing.  Seemed like a nice enough spot for lunch though.
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Day 9 – Eucla…ish

Jul 19

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning | Comments off


Well we got out of Ceduna bright and early and headed off towards the SA/WA border.  There’s not a lot to see along the way, but there’s plenty of expectation.

We saw the famous signs warning of camels, wombats, kangaroos, etc for the next bajillion kms, but we saw nothing.  Not even a dead roo.  The only birds around seem to be crows and some parrots that won’t sit still long enough to be identified.  A bit eerie really.

The clear highlight of the day was reaching Head of Bight which coincided nicely with lunch.  Clear skies and little wind made for good whale watching weather.  There’s boardwalks along the cliffs and down fairly close to the water too.  We saw about 15 Southern Right whales all up.  Mothers, calves and bulls all acting as whales do.

I took about 250 photos and some video and will need to pick some highlights for the gallery here.
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Day 8 – Ceduna

Jul 16

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning | 3 Comments

Well we reluctantly left Port Lincoln.  The weather really turned it on this morning and it was a bit tough to leave.  Leaving was even tougher since Kel fails at setting the alarm clock … and we woke up an hour late.  Then to top it off Blake woke up and had an insta-vomit.  The mood was well and truly set.

The comedy of errors continued as we were hurriedly packing up and nothing was co-operating.  Just one of those days…

Finally the sunrise appeared, just to rub it in that we shouldn’t actually be leaving yet.  Port Lincoln is one place we’ll be coming back to down the track.

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Day 7 – Port Lincoln

Jul 15

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning, Geocaching | Comments off

We were up bright and early this morning.  I went and did the nearest geocache which was only a couple of hundred metres along the beachfront bike path. This path pretty much runs all the way around Port Lincoln and is a fantastic asset.

A brekky of pancakes saw us ready to attack the day.

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Day 6 – Port Lincoln

Jul 14

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning, Geocaching | Comments off

Since we’d already booked Port Lincoln we didn’t feel the need to hurry there and took our time.  We had a bit more of a look around Port Augusta and spent an hour or so in the Wadlata Outback Centre.  This was well worth doing.  The place is full of history, both Aboriginal and European.

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Day 5 – Port Augusta

Jul 13

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning | Comments off

Feeling like a holiday now!

Only a short drive today, 300 km plus change.  We got out of Adelaide at 8am and had a fuel stop at Port Wakefield.

Not much else to stop for along the way.  I had the Prado set at 90kmh and it was pretty happy at that speed.  Fuel economy was around 14.5 l/100.  The road is almost flat and there was no headwind to contend with … ideal.  We might even be able to afford the fuel at that pace.

We got into Port Augusta at 12:30 and did a quick setup and had lunch.  The park is pretty barren, but that’s to be expected.  Blake and Hannah had a bit of a play at the playground and I scoped out the camp kitchen.

 

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Day 4 – Adelaide (Victor Harbor)

Jul 12

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning, Geocaching | Comments off

Today we got some of the domestics done.  A bit of washing, drying and shopping.

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Not far to the beach … just where that fence is.  I went for a bit of a ride there this morning and grabbed the geocache of the day.

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Day 3 – Adelaide (Hahndorf, McLaren Vale, Glenelg)

Jul 11

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning, Geocaching | Comments off


Our first non-travelling day today.  Also my first day of non-work, which was also SMS and call free … bet that won’t last!

The plan was to go and have a look at Hahndorf and then do a few wineries around McLaren Vale before heading back to the van, and we pretty well kept to that idea although we nearly got sidetracked a few times.

A geocache in the morning saw the kids amazed by their first micro geocache, a berocca container embedded in the side of the steps leading down to the beach.  It took a bit of finding, but was found on the morning walk.

Before the day got away from us, we headed up into the Adelaide Hills to Hahndorf, past Grumpy’s brewery while thinking of Al.  If I’d known it was a brewery at the time then we may not have gotten any further … but alas we cruised in to Hahndorf.  Blake had been really looking forward to it but was a little surprised by it in the end. He’s interested in his German heritage, but was bemused to find that that boils down to a love of sausage and beer. I’m sure he’ll come to embrace the beer at some stage. 🙂

P1000301

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Day 2 – Adelaide

Jul 10

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning | 2 Comments

After a blustery night we awoke at 6:30 and packed up in the rain to get outta Mount Gambier at 8:30.  A quick refuel saw us heading towards Naracoorte.  Hmmm … not Robe … we were supposed to head to Robe.

Another day of hugging the coast with the wind and the rain wasn’t really appealing.  Meanwhile the brochure for the Naracoorte Caves was looking mighty good.  An almost inside activity in this weather seemed like a godsend.  So off we went…

Given that our fuel economy while driving manually and trying to stay around 100km/h was a little scary, I wanted to try out cruising at 80km/h as a comparo.  So … here we are plodding along at 80km/h when a fella in a land cruiser ute pulls alongside and makes some odd gestures at me.  I figure we’ve left the antenna up or a bed folded out or something stupid … we did get going in a hurry after all.  I pulled over not knowing quite what to expect … as does the cruiser driver …

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