Day 37 - Friday 3 February - Melrose to Moonta

DAY 37

FRIDAY

3 February 2017 –  Wildcats 94 v Brisbane 63 - great win.

Melrose – Wirrabira – Laura – Crystal Brook – Kadina – Moonta Bay

I am getting use to the lazy starts, so much so that 8am no longer feels like a sleep in! Paul made the first move, while I was content to continue reading my book until he returned and I felt guilty.  With the routine of the day started, we ran like clockwork through all the checks. We have enjoyed our stay here at the Melrose Showgrounds, for $22 per night, it is not a bad little place to have as a base. 

Today would see us heading to the “Copper Coast”, further into the Yorke Peninsula. We set the GPS to our first spot , Laura and travelled on down the highway through Wirrabara. Like many of the little towns it is in a sad state of disrepair and in need of an injection of life with many of the highway shops closed.

Laura was about 30min away from Melrose. It is famously known for being the childhood home of CJ Dennis an Australian storyteller.  There is a bronze statue of him on the main street that I took a photo of 13 years ago, when we passed through in 2003. The town centre lines the highway and it was a little more lively than Wirrabara.

We walked up and down the main shopping strip before returning to the van and heading to our next destination, Crystal Brook. This town site is at the start of the Southern Flinders Ranges and is larger than the town site of Laura. There are many beautiful old buildings lining the streets here. We parked up at the 24 hour rest stop in town, did some shopping, stopped for a bakery treat, pie and quiche then walked around the buildings and the Lace Monitor art work overlooking the main drag. Both the Indian Pacific and The Ghan trains pass through this town.

Once satisfied we had seen everything we made our way on to Kadina.

Kadina is one of three towns, set in a triangle pattern that make up the Copper Coast. With the discovery of copper, Cornish miners immigrated to Kadina, Moonta and Wallaroo and much of this history can be seen in the buildings within each of the towns and in the bakeries, with Cornish pasties being a specialty.

Today Kadina is the largest town on the Yorke Peninsula and an hour after leaving Crystal Brook we had arrived at the showgrounds where they have a campground facility. We did a drive by and after reading up in the tourist brochure and seeing the town I thought the better place to be would be Moonta, so we changed the GPS directions and headed onto the coast a further 20min away.

The roads in this part of SA are pretty rubbish, more like sealed goat tracks, with lumps, bumps and areas where you feel like you are sitting on a trampoline that someone is vigorously jumping on. We made it in one shaken piece to the Moonta Bay Caravan Park and after a little toing and froing we finally decided on a site and set up camp for the next 2 nights.  

Once it was all sorted we made our way down to the jetty for a walk and to check out what was biting. Garfish, seems to be the one in abundance, with fishermen on the jetty having reasonable levels of success. While Paul had a chat, I took photos before throwing my sunglasses to the ocean gods. Grrr. Something else to buy in Adelaide.

Paul was excited to get out and fish, so we came back to the car and drove into Moonta to pick up bait. While he did that, I did a quick wander and took a few photos of the town buildings then it was back to the van for Paul to rig up and get out there, while I sorted the photos and the blog in the quiet.

An hour later I was off for a walk down on the beach. The tide was starting to return the water to the bay, though you still had a walk to go for a decent swim. I joined Paul on the jetty, watching him pull in a fish as I began the approach, a good sign I guessed and it was. He had four gardies in the bucket already and had thrown back half a dozen undersize.

I sat on the jetty watching Paul fish while enjoying the sun on my back. It was a gorgeous afternoon. We had others come by and enquire about the fishing success as he pulled in a squid, which sprayed his hands with plenty of black ink in protest of being hauled out of the water. Guess he will be dinner at some stage. Yum!

Some young kids were snorkelling around the pylons below, so Paul told them there was $10 if they could find my sunnies and to my delight, they did. I had to hike it back to the van for the money and return to give it to them gratefully and still a little stunned that they actually found it. 

Paul packed up his gear and we walked back along the jetty to the van. He spent time speaking to Bollsy and Jaden, before going off to the fish shed to do all the cleaning.

I got the dinner organised while watching the sun begin to dip away, before I was off to take more photos of the spectacular sunsets they seem to have here in SA.

We then spent the next couple of hours getting updates from a friend at the basketball, letting us know how the cats were getting on. So glad they put in a top performance and picked up a good percentage win. That should have them in 3rd with 3 games to go. Fingers crossed they can hang on to it.