Flinders Ranges - Wilpena Pound SA

27th November - 1st December 2014

The drive into the Flinders Ranges was amazing, the views were beautiful.  We set up camp with The Bales at Wilpena Pound and did a hike to Hill Homestead and then onto the Wilpena Pound lookouts. We read the stories of the residents of the homestead and the struggles they faced. The lookout provided great views of Wilpena Pound and the surrounding ranges.  We then returned back to camp to cool off before going on a drive which took us around Bunyeroo and Brachina Gorges.  We have been to lots of gorges on our trip, but never before had we been able to drive through them!  Beautiful scenery and an abundance of animals.  We saw emu's with their babies, kangaroos, rabbits and goats!

The following day we did a 4wd track called 'Skytrek'.  It was a huge day out taking us 7 hours to complete the track.  The track takes you around Willow Springs Station which is a 70,000 acre sheep station. You are given a map and a key to complete your trek through the property.  There are huts and other places of interest which you pass.  The information booklet provided great information on the various plants and trees we saw.  There was some stunning lookouts which provided a 360 degree view of the Flinders Ranges.  The track totalled 80 klm most of which was quite easy, but the last 12 klms were quite challenging.  Stuart had lots of fun testing the car out on some scary tracks!

We come across lots of emus with babies, kangaroo's and lots of sheep!  One of the highlights of the day was meeting 'Roothy' and his old land cruiser "Milo"!  He was filming a new DVD on parts of the Skytrek track.  We stopped and had a chat and got some great photo's with him.  He was a lovely bloke and his crew were very friendly too!

After two huge and very hot days we decided to chill out on our third day and hang around camp.  Jon and Stu started off by washing the cars as they were very dusty and dirty after the last few days!  It was a very hot day so we decided to cool off in the resort pool.

Our next stop is Clare, off to taste some more wines!

Flinders Ranges

Baby Emu

This kangaroo was so hot, it spent all day under the van

 Wilpena Pound

Home Hillstead

Entrance to Willow Springs - Skytrek

Josh opening one of the many gates!

Roothy, Milo & the boys

Skytrek

 Skytrek

Skytrek

Skytrek

Whyalla - SA

26th November - 27th November 2014

We did a quick one night stop on our way to Flinders Ranges at Whyalla. It is a very industrial town being the base for OneSteel.  The steel operation is located on the foreshore area, the steel is taken straight from the factory and onto the jetty to be shipped.  We took the tourist drive around the foreshore and up to Hummock Hill.  On top of Hummock Hill was an old military gun post.  During WWII soldiers guarded the precious foreshore trade in threat of bombings from the Japanese.

Looking forward to our next few days in Flinders Ranges.

Whyalla Foreshore

OneSteel Plant Jetty

Hummock Hill Lookout

 View from Hummock Hill lookout

Lipson Cove - SA

24th November - 26th November 2014

Continuing our travels with The Moars and The Bales we camped at Lipson Cove, which is 7 klms off the Lincoln Highway down a dirt track.  It is a small beach with great camping spots overlooking the stunning water, even better it only cost $10 per night!  

It was very relaxing here with not a lot to do but walk on the beach, do some fishing or read a book! The boys all had a go at fishing but didn't have any luck, even with Dave wading neck deep in the water!

I thoroughly enjoyed this stop and spent most of my time reading a book, whilst looking out onto the beautiful water even seeing the occasional dolphin swimming by.

Our next stop is Whyalla.

Lipson Cove beach

The camps from the beach

Remnants of a jetty

The camps looking out to the beach

Coffin Bay - SA

21st November - 24th November 2014

All three families travelled together to Coffin Bay and we also had a visit from The Bere family, Leonie, Dave, Sam and Ethan who we had met in Perth.  The dads sat around and watched the cricket then decided they would go and buy some fresh Coffin Bay oysters.  I'm not a huge fan of oysters but had a try anyway.  It was nice but the look of them just turns me off!  Josh and Ash also had a try but weren't that keen either!

On our second day, Jude and l stayed at camp and caught up on our blog while the others did a day trip to Coffin Bay National Park.  They did a beautiful drive around the national park and amazing beaches.  The sand dunes were huge and the kids had lots of fun playing in the beautiful sand and rolling down the dunes.  The photos reminded me of Lake Wabby on Fraser Island.

The following day we all took a day trip into Port Lincoln which was a really nice town.  We looked around the town and went to see the Maybe Diva statute on the foreshore.  The owners of the Melbourne Cup champion live in Port Lincoln.  We all then went for a lovely lunch to the Port Lincoln Hotel, which was located at the marina.  We all enjoyed our seafood lunch and even caught a glimpse of a seal frolicking in the water as we ate.

Tomorrow we are all off to Lipson Cove.

Coffin Bay

Coffin Bay Oyster farm

Coffin Bay National Park

Coffin Bay National Park

Fun in the sand Coffin Bay National Park

Beautiful sand dunes

Port Lincoln

Streaky Bay - SA

19th November - 21st November 2014

We arrived in Streaky Bay and after setting up we all decided to head down to the town pier.  It was a hot day and the pier had a swimming enclosure and everyone was keen to do a bit of crabbing.  The swimming enclosure had a pontoon in the middle which was great fun for all the kids to jump off! When they got a bit more courage they all started jumping from the pier, even 4 year old Jasmine Moar!  This seemed to be a popular pastime for the local kids as after school finished, about 30 teenagers appeared and did the same thing!  We did also catch 6 blue swimmer crabs!

The scenic drive around Streaky Bay passes a place called "Murphy's Haystacks".  There are huge paddocks with massive rock formations all through them.  Our next stop was the Sea lion viewing platform.  This was a favourite of mine, watching these amazing animals playing and frolicking in their natural habitat.

It was schnitzel night at the local pub, so all families caught the courtesy bus and had a great night out!  

Our next stop is Coffin Bay.

Meagan, Jon & Dave taking the plunge!

Ashton taking the plunge!

Murphys Haystacks, rock formations

Murphys Haystacks

 Murphys Haystacks

Sea lions playing!

Ceduna - SA

16th November - 19th November 2014

It was lovely to arrive in Ceduna to some sort of civilisation after over 1,400 klms on the Nullarbor. We had to forgo all fruit and veggies at the SA quarantine checkpoint, so getting some food, having a shower and doing some washing was a high priority!  

We stayed at the Ceduna foreshore caravan park, so it was a short walk out to the town jetty. We caught up with the Moars again who had done some crabbing, so Stu and Jon thought they'd better have a go too!  The kids were so excited as on the first day they caught 14 blue swimmer crabs.  The second day only 5 crab but also 1 big squid! 

Hopefully we can catch some more crab at our next stop, which is Streaky Bay.

The gang back together!

Catch of the day!

Whitewell Tank - Nullarbor Night 3 - SA

15th November - 16th November 2014

Our third night on the Nullarbor was more pleasant than the previous nights!  The rain had stopped and we found an awesome spot to camp up for the night.  We had crossed the SA border and therefore had lost 2.5 hours, this took a lot of time to adjust too!  Whitewall Tank is near the entrance to the Head of Bight Whale Centre.  The camp area was completed fenced and had an old concrete building on it.  The building actually looked quite creepy, but great if we needed a bit of cover. The building had been named "Welcome In", obviously by some passing traveller!  We had a little bit of wood so made a small campfire.  The kids all had a great time running around this huge expansive area after being stuck in the car for so long.  They also made a horror movie called "House of Terror" in the derelict building, it was very creative and scary!

The next day we went to the Head of Bight Whale Centre and unfortunately it was out of season for the whales, but the views of the Great Australian Bight were amazing.  Today we travel on to finish our journey on the Nullarbor and head for Ceduna in SA.

      Woo hoo we made it to SA!                                Roadhouse on the Nullarbor, huge puddles                                                                                         even though the rain stopped the day before

 Our camp - night three, just us and The Bales

Jon and Stu, enjoying a drop at the Welcome Inn

Head Of Bight

Head of Bight

Stunning sunset on the Nullarbor