April 15 - 17

Day 14 – April 15 – Wilpena Pound -> Port Augusta

The kids did more BMX biking in the campground before breakfast – couple of stacks, the kids are bruised and battered but at least they’re having fun. We’re using the bikes a lot more than we planned! We left the Winnebago in the Wilpena Pound Resort campground, while we caught the shuttle bus up a path towards one of the walks into the Pound. Then we walked past an old house called Hills Homestead (where the family that used the Pound to house their stock – the homestead is located at the only entrance to the Pound), and up a hill to a lookout where we had a fine view of the Pound. Wilpena Pound is a small mountain range which is almost circular. It looks like a crater but has been formed by erosion over millions of years. Why is it called a Pound? Because the Aboriginals likened it to a police compound where nothing could get out..

Then a big drive down to Port Augusta (through a plague of locusts – made a real mess of the truck.., and Erin spotted an emu in the wild!) where we spent over two hours in an excellent visitor’s centre called Wadlata Outback Centre – where we learnt about the geology of the Flinders Ranges, how the Aboriginals thought all the formations were made, how the Aborigines make spears and boomerangs, and life for the explorers and early settlers in outback South Australia. Excellent!

We were intending to drive on that day but we spent so much time at the Outback Centre that we stayed at a local caravan park instead. Bruce had fun cleaning locust guts off the truck…

Day 15 – April 16 – Port Augusta -> Coffin Bay

Big driving day today (over 400 km, a long way in a Winnebago) – we left before breakfast and drove down the east coast of Eyre Peninsula. Stopped at Whyalla for breakfast (and didn’t linger, not much to see), stopped at Cowell for fuel (same), and drove on down to Port Lincoln. Bruce was keen to see the tuna boats, and millionaire’s row (where all the people made wealthy fishing tuna live). Again – not a lot to see, one of the major tourist attractions is a statue of the famous racehorse Makybe Diva, which is owned by a local. Even the millionaire’s houses weren’t too interesting…

Drove on to Coffin Bay, just up the western side of Eyre Peninsula from Port Lincoln. World famous for oysters (we bought a dozen and they were v. nice..), we stayed in the national park in a very quite campground.

Day 16 – April 17 – Coffin Bay -> Streaky Bay

Another big driving day today, although we didn’t get away quite so early. We stopped at some interesting caves and rock formations (Locks Well, Talia caves – the Tub and the Woolshed Cave) interesting but not as good as Great Ocean Road), but the two biggest highlights were:

1) Buying some bread at an honesty based stall by the side of the road - $3.50 for each loaf – very efficient for the owners!
2) Stopping at Murphy’s Haystacks – some granite boulders in the middle of a field on private land just south of Streaky Bay. Excellent, but made more interesting when we met the owner of the land – guy by the name of Cash, who married the last of the Murphy’s two generations ago. We chatted for half an hour – he has ten children and hasn’t had a holiday for 43 years! They put all their kids through boarding school in Adelaide – I guess that’s why they haven’t had a holiday in a long time. He and his wife are just about to visit one of their sons who is the best tunnelling consultant (mining engineer) in the US. He has another son tuna fishing in Port Lincoln – making good money but works from 4am to 8pm every day! He’s also a distant relative of Pat Cash, who won Wimbledon in the 80’s.

We travelled on to Streaky Bay, where we stayed at the caravan park – lovely location overlooking the bay, where we had takeaway fish and chips from the kiosk – fantastic!