Eyre Peninsula to Yorke Peninsula

Today we are heading to the Yorke Peninsula. We have two travel options, one is to drive to Lucky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula and catch a ferry across the Spencer Gulf to Wallaroo, where we are staying for the next 3 nights. Alternatively we can drive around Spencer Gulf , via Port Augusta, and then down the west coast of the Yorke Peninsula to Wallaroo. We decided to do the drive, as there was not a lot of time saving in using the ferry, because the first departure from Lucky Bay was 12 noon, and sailing time is 2 hrs 40 mins, and it cost over $200 for the trip.

We left Port Lincoln at 8.30 am, and stopped for coffee at Cowell, a small coastal town just south of Lucky Bay, where the ferry leaves from. It was about 10.30 am, well before the ferry departure time.


A nice little town, a bit quiet, but a trip to the boat ramp reveals an active fishing industry


As usual we went to the bakery for a good cup of coffee and maybe something to supplement breakfast. The bakery here didn't disappoint. A drive down to the end of the main street ended at the boat ramp, and by the line up a tractors towing trailers and a few incoming fishing boats, it seems there is an active fishing industry here.




 



It seems there is also a walkway along the mangroves

Cowell is also known for it's silo art, which we pull in to inspect on the way out of town.


We still have a long way to go, but the roads are good and in most cases the speed limit is 110 km/hr so we are eating up the distance in reasonable time. We pass through Whyalla with nothing much to see.


The weather is starting to look a bit inhospitable

Next we pass through Port Augusta, and turn the corner back down onto the Yorke Peninsula. Now the  Spencer Gulf is on our right hand side (west), and we see a lot of wind farms.



Lunch time is encroaching and we think we may stop at Port Germein, a small town on Spencer Gulf about 19 north of Port Pirie. In choosing this lunch spot we had little idea of its historical significance. It is a pretty quiet place, but like everywhere else has a town jetty. The difference is that this jetty is 1676  metres long, the longest wooden jetty in SA.

Thrre are a lot of caravans that have pulled in here for lunch, and our first priority is to find a restvroom and get some food from the Pier Cafe, which seems to be very popular.


The Pier Cafe in the Old Pier Hotel Building


The decor in the cafe


The food was good and the walls of the cafe were filled with the history of the town. Having finished our lunch we couldn't leave the place without finding out more about such an enormous pier. Formally declared as a Port in 1841, the story boards tell us that this Port was the largest grain shipping port in Australia.





The pier and the lighthouse


We decide to walk out to the end of the jetty


We couldn't get right to the end but here is a view back to the shore at about 50m from the end of the jetty

Back on shore, tis fascinating piece of history has also been preserved. It is a depth meter that was operated by the tide and gave incoming captains an illuminated (by oil lamps), clockface dial that showed the depth at the end of the jetty.



All of this was at its peak in the era of the Windjammer sailing vessels from Europe sailing to Australia to collect grain for shipment back to Europe.

The final leg of our drive on to Wallaroo is now only a bit over 100km, but the weather turns on us and we drive through some quite heavy rain showers, which I am sure will please the wheat farmers here.

Our home for the next 3nights is the Wallaroo Beachfront Tourist Park, where we have booked a beach side cabin, which is very comfortable. It also turns out that we are very near the terminal where the ferry from Lucky bay arrives, however if we hadn't taken the road trip, we would have missed Port Germein.

The shopping centre is in easy walking distance from our cabin, so we went for a look around, bought a few things from the supermarket and dined in tonight.


There was a great sunset over Spencer Gulf and the forecast is for the rain to clear tomorrow, so we look forward to exploring the area.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Streaky Bay to Port Lincoln via Point Labatt and Coffin Bay

Image
 With another reasonable days driving ahead of us, and a desire to not miss much along the way, we leave Streaky Bay at 8.30 am, heading for Point Labatt ( not the shortest way to Port Lincoln but we want to see the sea lion colony). Initially we are on good bitumen roads, but to get to the best places, you have to take on the unpaved roads. There are lots of carwashes down here. The road to Point Labatt is not too bad, and as we approach the conservation area where the sea lion community hide, it is very windy. From the car park, there is a walkway to the lookout where we hope to see the sea lions It is a pretty wild part of the coast and the wind today is blowing hard, however, the sea lions are pretty smart, and there is a beach just below the lookout where they seem to be resting in relative shelter, A far view showing the ring of sea lions on the sand, and the harshness of the surrounding seas From here we backtracked a little on the unpaved road until we found the turnoff tha...
Read more

William Creek to Coober Pedy

Image
Our final unpaved stretch for a while is a  bit more of the Oodnadatta track, before turning left to Coober Pedy on William Creek Road. It is about 165 km of more corrugations, some wheel ruts and bull dust holes, which haven't had much of up till now. Overall, the road quality is quite good if you drive to the conditions. The worst pat of the road was the last km into Coober Pedy where there was a bull dust hole that could swallow a small car. Willam Creek Road We had our usual standoff with two black angus bulls who stood in the middle of the road until we came to a complete stop, only then did they choose to move on.    The scenery started to change as we approached Coober Pedy We made remarkably good time and traversed the distance in 2.25  hrs. It was far to early to check in to our hotel, so we had a bit of a look around the main street first, checking out the Home Hardware store and The IGA Supermarket, picking up a few things at each. They were both very good...
Read more

Blinman, Glass Gorge, Parachilna Gorge and loop back Willow Springs

Image
  A more relaxed day is the plan for today. We decided not to do the Skytrek as it takes all day, so the plan is to drive to Blinman, across to Parachilna through the Glass and Parachilna Gorges and then turn south till the turnoff for Moralana Scenic Route, then back to Willow Springs.     There are a few things to see along the way, so we turned off to see the Great Wall of China  and we may look at a few ruins tomorrow as we will be on the same road to Blinman then.   We were in Blinman by 10.20am, had a quick look around town and clearly the points of interest are the North Blinman Hotel (known as the pub in the scrub) and the Miners Café, which is a bakery/coffee shop and despite the BP sign, does not sell fuel (nor does anyone else in Blinman).  North Blinman Hotel   Miners Cafe The must do tourist attraction in Blinman is to do the guided tour of the old copper mine  which runs hourly. We were lucky enough to get two of the last 3 tick...
Read more