Day 38 - Saturday 4 February - The Copper Coast

DAY 38

SATURDAY

4 February 2017 – 

Moonta Bay – Wallaroo – Kadina – Moonta Mines – The Copper Coast

With a late night, the morning arrived early. It had rained softly in the night, not for long but it was a sign of what was to come.  Paul got out and went off fishing, as there was no wind. I stayed put reading, before thinking I should get out too, checking on whether Danny Green had got the job done against Mundine. He had.

I wandered down onto the jetty and joined Paul. It was far busier out here today. The water was calm and the air still it was extremely peaceful. Paul had some success but it wasn’t as fruitful as yesterday and the noise coming from a loud child was starting to pee him off. I made my way back and left him to it.

Once back, I set up the van and organised the breakfast, before getting onto the net and continuing to add bits n bobs. Paul returned shortly after and I went off for a shower. When I returned I could see the rain coming. The sky had darkened off and before long I was watching the water fall around me.

With Paul organised, we grabbed what we required for the day and drove along the shoddy roads to Wallaroo, the third town in the copper mining triangle. By the time we arrived, the rain had set in, so it was on with the jackets as we wandered up the main street. The thunder roared and the lightning cracked keeping the locals scurrying for cover, only tourists would be out wandering and taking photos!

We found the local bakery and picked up a Cornish pasty. Our intention was to try one in each of the three towns and do a comparison. This one was nice and full and chunky, but the pastry was a bit thick and doughy. Nice try.

We checked out the outer of the maritime museum and then went to the jetty, but the rain began in earnest again, so we got back in the car drove past the chimney stack of the old copper mine and made our way to Kadina. 

10min later we were pulled up and ready to do a little shopping for ingredients for dinner and coming away with a new limited release salted caramel Kahlua to try out later. 

We put the shopping in the car and then did a tour around the centre checking out the old buildings, before once again finding the bakery and buying Cornish pasty number 2. We weren’t ready to eat them though, so they came with us.

We stopped in at the info centre at the Farm Shed Museum finding out that Moonta bakery is the place to go for a pastie. Hmm that one will have to wait until tomorrow.

  With some extra info we made our way on to Moonta Mines railway and tourist centre. Once we had the low down and a map, we jumped back in the car and drove out to the old Miners Cottage.

 

As it wasn’t open yet, we stayed in the car and enjoyed our pasties. These ones had better pastry and pumpkin to add sweetness, though they weren’t as full with their filling, however they beat the first one. We were showed around the cottage, but one of the descendants, whom proudly talked about her family heritage. It was all quite quaint and as you would expect, full of memorabilia. We couldn’t take photos inside but I did take some in the gorgeous garden.

Once we had finished we moved on to the Hancock tailings heap, to walk up the side and admire the view before driving on to the old school site, now a museum, the tourist train station and the old post office, now a sweet shop.

We wandered around the outside of the various buildings sticking our nose in to different spots and reading the info boards outlining the use of the infrastructure. We then continued on to check out the Methodist Church and admire the sunflowers growing along the way. 

Our final stop within the mine complex was the Hughes Pump House. As we arrived the rain started again and the ground became slippery as the mud became wet. We checked out the pump house and admired the tall stack. The pump house reached down 360m in its day.  A rusted furnace was also laid out in view to show what they were like. 

We had to find a log to dance around on and attempt to remove the mud from our shoes before we returned to the car and then back into Moonta. 

We drove down the main street, stopping occasionally to take photos of the buildings, sunflowers and the remnants of Cornish heritage, UK mailboxes.  After dodging the rain we made our way back to the van.

Paul packed up things ready for tomorrow and I continued working on the photos and blog. It was nice to have some quiet time to rest and enjoy the afternoon.

By 5pm we were ready to go back out for a walk up into the suburb, checking out the holiday homes and the views they had. We then walked along the beach before making one last run along the jetty and seeing what was being caught; squid and lots of them.

The rain was set in again. It wasn’t cold nor was it windy, in fact the water looked calmer than yesterday, but it was still wet, so we returned to the van and started organising dinner; the squid and garfish Paul had caught yesterday.  I put together an easy salad after making the salt and pepper coating and then it was time to sit back and enjoy.

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.

Day 36 - Thursday 2 February - National Parks to the coast

DAY 36

THURSDAY

2 February 2017 – 

Melrose – Mt Remarkable NP – Booleroo – Port Germein

We had all intentions of being up early ish this morning but it was 8am before we woke. We got ourselves sorted, the car packed and we made our way to the Mount Remarkable National Park. It was a windy, roller coaster road drive in to the Alligator Gorge, with steep inclines and damn dips, which were a big pain in the butt. The euro, a type of rock wallaby, were also out and about. I scared Paul at one stage when I let out a squeal seeing one heading for the road and bounding across in front of us. Due to the road conditions though, we were never doing more than 40km.

Once we found the parking area, we checked out the two viewing platforms, Ali Lookout and Gorge Lookout, both required steady footing, as the paths were steep and rocky, they did however afford awesome views into the gorge below; the orange and black striped chunky rock so striking.

We grabbed our pack and then made our way into the gorge following the circuit route. Getting into the gorge was again steep and we needed to be weary of where we put our feet. Once at the bottom we followed the dry creek bed looking up in awe at the rising rock face and the trees clinging to their sides.

We were pleased that the weather was cool and overcast, as it was warm work wandering through the gorge. We stopped continually to take in the views and for me to take photos. The walk wasn’t particularly strenuous you just needed to be wary of your footing on the rocks.

Paul pointed out a very insipid looking grey snake, all coiled up in a rock crevice, he wasn’t perturbed by us, as we passed by, making it to Blue Gum Flat before ascending the slope again to the car park 2km’s later and about 2hours of walking.

We stopped to fuel up on water and muesli bars, then it was back to the van, stopping a couple of times to take pics of the view. When we were back it was time for lunch, to take stock and think about what next. We decided on checking out Booleroo first. There wasn’t a lot at the town, we couldn’t even find the Harris Hill Lookout.

Our next stop was Port Germein and to get there we had to travel the Germein Gorge. Again this was a winding, twisting road traversing the gorge. Once we passed through we made our way to Port Germein. The place is known for it’s jetty. They say it is the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere, at 1.5km. Paul was questioning this, as Busselton’s jetty would certainly give this a run for its money. Unfortunately when we arrived we found it closed for repairs, so we weren’t going to be getting our steps up.

We made our way around the front of the beach checking out the local art then returned to the car and back through the gorge road stopping to take a photo of one of the warning signs that we found amusing.  Before we knew it we were back in Melrose.

We stopped in town to have a wander around the old buildings finding the Jackas Brewery building. This brewery ran in the 1830’s and was built within an old mill.  The building was still in good condition, but you couldn’t enter it. We bought a delicious and locally made Giant Twin ice cream from Joe’s Corner store before walking down the main road again.

With our perusing complete we wandered back to the car and on to the van. Time to pack up the car again and then enjoy some quiet time sitting outside the van enjoying the view.

Paul went to investigate the laundry room and found a TV so we were able to watch the local news and catch up with what is happening around the place. When done we wrote in the visitors’ book before making our dinner and enjoying the peace and quiet to read.

The pinky-red sunset had me out of the van taking photos. It looked quite spectacular against the backdrop of the Mount Remarkable, a lovely way to finish off the night.

Day 35 - Wednesday 1 February - On to Melrose

DAY 35

WEDNESDAY

1 February 2017 –  Started my next book “Fallen” By Jane Green

Whyalla – Port Augusta – Wilmington – Melrose (Camps 8 SA #302)

Here we go again, back on the trail. I woke still feeling groggy but we both new that 815am was a lay in and we needed to get up and started. Things seem to be going in slow motion this morning. Everything was done and sorted but we didn’t get out of the park until 10.15am.

We navigated the van back through Whyalla and then onto Port Augusta an hour away, stopping only for fuel on the highway then the GPS was set to Melrose. The route took us along the edge of the Flinders Ranges before diving into them via Horrocks pass. It wasn’t particularly steep driving, but it was windy and the rock faces along the sides of the road were looming large.

Once out the other side we passed through Willmington and Melrose was only a further 30min away. We opted to stay at the showgrounds two km’s north of the town. The parking area has power, along with showers and toilets and faced out to Mount Remarkable. The car taker met us at the entrance and then showed us to a spot where we happily set up camp.

Once organised, we had lunch then did a quick scout of the facilities, before getting into the car and driving into town. We wandered the main street, checking out the old buildings. We found the Swing Bridge to walk over and followed a short trail to the beginning of the Mount Remarkable walk.

We followed back the way we came, stopping in at the council building to pick up a day pass for the national park, then did a drive up Mount Remarkable to the war memorial and a view over Melrose. On out way back down a very large lace monitor crossed our paths, we were too slow with the camera though.

We returned to the town centre did a loop in the car and then made our way back to the showgrounds to spend time reading and relaxing.

By 430 we had had enough time sitting around so we grabbed the basketball and took off for the netball courts for a bit of fun and exercise.  The poles were adjustable, so Paul enjoyed dunking the ball in the ring, which was far more accurate than attempting to shoot off the iron rings. The cockatoos were starting to gather, but four gun shots had them scattering for cover.

With aching shoulders, we came back to the van for dinner before reading again and enjoying the quiet time. Knowing we hadn’t done our steps, we took off around the sports oval for a couple of laps before returning for bed.