7^th July 2024

Happy birthday Jacqueline!

On Monday we woke before the sun came up, which wasn’t that hard because the sun didn’t appear above the horizon of the Nullarbor until 7.50 am, until then it was dark twilight.  There were still stars in the sky at 6.45 which is quite bizarre considering the sun rises at home at this time of year at 6.30am. Accounting for the half hour difference, it still took a long time to show its face. This confuses me somewhat because some people think the earth is flat, if so, how do you account for the sun rising on the east coast at 6.30 am and three hours later it rises above the horizon at Perth by which time it is high in the sky on the Tweed. If the earth was flat wouldn’t the sun’s rays touch the whole earth at the same time when it rose? As you can tell, we aren’t flat earthers.

After our early morning cuppa we took a stroll along the cliffs enjoying the changing views. When we got back Ian turned the generator on so I could print off the scholarly articles for my next essay, its amazing what you can do in the middle of nowhere these days. Whilst I was reading some of the articles Ian was productive building an earth dug rocket stove from which he cooked some soup for our dinner. They are very efficient cookers and ours only took pieces of dried dead salt bush wood. It worked brilliantly.

I went for a walk out into the Nullarbor whilst Ian was playing around with his fire. Its rather interesting, all sorts of low growing shrubs and a tuffty grass. I could see where some small creature was digging in the sand, either a bandicoot or rabbit. There were spider webs cast between bushes that were so intricate, they would catch anything silly enough to walk or fly that way. There were small birds flitting about and they sang a beautiful song, I don’t know what they were, but out here they can sing their little hearts out, what a joy to hear.

When I got back to the soup cooking, Ian informed me that he went foraging amongst the bushes and threw salt bush leaves and leaves from other bushes into the soup. ‘Here taste this’ he said as he plucked leaves from a low growing shrub. It tasted sour to me and a bit salty. It wasn’t delightful plucking them from my bowl of soup that night.

We sat in the sun for a while with our backs to the sea chatting when I heard a whoosh ploosh sound of air being expelled. I said ‘whales’! and with that we both jumped out of our chairs and ran towards the edge, but not right on the edge. Below us were four baby whales frolicking in the water with a larger, probably adolescent one, behind them keeping watch. We watched them play for quite a while; we are being spoilt for special experiences out here. There were numerous whales breaching and blowing water from their spouts further out all day. If you ever get out to the Nullarbor don’t waste your money visiting the Whale Centre, come here, its free and you probably see more.

On Tuesday we packed up for the trip back east, on the homeward track which will take some time. We pulled into the Nullarbor road house for fuel and Ian nearly had a fit when he saw the price, $3 per litre, the guy who pulled up on the other side at the same time let out some expletives when he saw the price too. Ian and the other guy decided to vote with their feet and left without buying any.  We went to the far end of the car park and put in 10 litres from our supply on board to get us to Yalata where the fuel was cheaper. It got us there with a couple of litres to spare. Fuel here was $2 litre at Yalata. Another guy who pulled up behind us also voted with his feet when he saw the price at Nullarbor road house. They are stupid, they are losing business. I didn’t see anyone at the bousers going out and a lot of people kept motoring when they saw the price.

We kept going, stopping for lunch at the camp we were at on the way out then again in Ceduna. It was getting late but we didn’t want to stop in Ceduna so we headed out on the road toward Kimba.  We checked out a couple of free camps on the way but there was nobody at them so late in the day, so we kept going to Wirrula. They had a cheap camp site for $15, power, no water but hot showers in that price and toilets. Its funny what you prioritise as important on the road, dump points are the other things that all travelers look out for lol.  It was a great camp and we’d recommend it to anyone.

Wednesday we were off to Kimba. This is another place with a fantastic free camp, they just ask for donations which we always honour.  Ian had some appointments in Port Augusta next Monday and Tuesday and we didn’t want to stay there for too long so we decided to stay here until Sunday. We didn’t do much, just looked around the town and went up to the lookout. It is a nice little town, with a lovely aspect around it with hills, mountains and grain fields and painted silos. It rained a few days while we were here, so it was a good time to do some drawing and reading in the van. I had my birthday here in Kimba on the 4th, spoilt as usual. Ian cooked me a lovely baked dinner and I popped the cork on a bottle of Tasmanian champagne that Emma gave me last Christmas, it was delicious. We also had our 21^st wedding anniversary on Saturday 6^th and it was Jacquelines birthday on Sunday 7^th. This is usually a big week in our household, but very quiet this year.

Sunday dawned damp after a night of rain and strong winds, but thankfully the wind had died down completely as we headed off towards Port Augusta. The scenery on the way down was inspiring as the rain lifted and we could see the dark clouds behind the hills, photographers would have had a field day with this light. We pulled into the Lakeside caravan park to wait out the next few days and give the batteries a good topping up. Port Augusta is a very busy town with people coming from all sorts of place as it is a hub for all traffic. If you are going east, west, north or south out here you have to go through Port Augusta. 

We had planned to go to the Flinders ranges and then up to Maree and across the Oodnadatta Track, then up the centre and across the Barkly Tablelands and down through Queensland, but, It had rained heavily right where we wanted to go and the couple next door who had come down from Birdsville got out just in time. Apparently, there were hundreds of vans stranded, bogged and permanently packed in mud. It’s a good thing we have been dragging the chain otherwise we would have been caught too.  The Birdsville Bash and the Camel races at Maree was the attraction and both have been cancelled, all roads out that way have been closed. The park was full on Sunday night with people returning with muddy vans, the lucky ones who managed to extract themselves from the mud.

Coober Peedy, and around Alice was also affected and we checked the roads for the Barkly tablelands and it was full of roadworks and holes big enough to swallow the car and van. A big rethink was needed. Where do we go now? We thought we could still go to Maree but the camps are muddy, darn, the same with the Flinders. Needless to say Port Augusta got very busy over the next few days with very dirty vans and rigs.

We were originally going to go to Kings Canyon but I had been feeling the past few weeks not to go there, well that one was taken out of our hands. It feels like the universe is herding us to somewhere else. I didn’t have a good feeling going down and around the Eyre peninsula. The camp near Tumby Bay felt good for a couple of days, then I started feeling that something was off. I said to Ian, I’m glad we are leaving in the morning, I don’t feel I should be here (I can only speak for myself). That night my dreams were severely disturbed and then I woke and couldn’t go back to sleep. I felt really agitated for some reason and it was preventing me from settling. I got up and looked out the window of the bathroom at the moonlit night and I felt that something was watching us, something dark, so I said emphatically, I’m not afraid of you, so go your hardest, I’m not scared. Not long after I was able to go to sleep and slept soundly. When we were in Port Lincoln I got that oppressive feeling again and was glad to leave. We were going to stay in Coffin Bay but when we went in there for a look it was no, keep going. I was following my intuition and it was telling me to get out of here as quickly as possible, there was no logical reason for it, but I had to follow my gut feelings. There were some strange things happening in this part of the world. As we drove onto the Nullarbor it was as though I was coming out from under a dark cloud into the bright sunshine and I started feeling better about things. I didn’t like the oppressive energy that was present on the Eyre peninsula, I have an idea what it was but I’m not going to verbalise it, hopefully it will be resolved for the benefit of those living there.

There are no extraordinary men, just extraordinary circumstances

that ordinary men are forced to deal with. – William Halsey

Well blogies, thats your lot for this week. Who knows where we’ll end up for the next post.

30th June, 2024

Hello Bloggies (Beautiful Lovers of Outback and Gypsies)  

After departing Streaky Bay on Monday, we ventured westward in our tram-like vessel to Ceduna, which is a seaside town on the edge of civilization facing the beautiful southern seaside. I had a medical appointment which kept us there for a few days but three days was plenty!

We set out with strong South-Westerlies Friday morning, driving on the Eyre highway through low mallee country surrounded by lovely green grainfields showing their new winter growth. This is a far – cry from our 2020 summer crossing, when there was disheartening dust and drought affected bushland. After several hours of driving, we finally started to run out of trees and approached the saltbush plains, it was time to find a campsite off the road, a good distance away from the continuous flow of noisy 80-ton road-trains. We soon pulled up at a camp among some small trees and saltbush where there was some protection from the incessant wind. It was great to get a campfire going and finally sit outside in the low winter sunlight having a cuppa.

I went for a brief walk and explored the nearby bushland and found a lot of Wombat colonies with fresh tracks and skats along with a trace of rabbits. The animal populations seem to have diminished since the devastating droughts over the last twenty years! Sadly, there were low numbers of birds – including the eagles, which were few and far between; I feel it indicates a deficiency of prey needed for their survival. This climate change cycle we are in seems to be causing a vast shift in animal and bird populations; I can only hope there is a slow migration going on somehow? and not an entire species annihilation! I can remember ‘David Rabbitborough’ discussing this prospect fifty years ago! which seemed to be most unlikely back then.    

We stayed at our comfortable camp for a few days to enjoy the beautiful bushland and in this spare time, away from the ‘office’ I carried out a few repairs and with some materials I purchased from Streaky Bay, I built a portable mirrored reflector for our rooftop solar panel so as to boost the power output, the panels were struggling to charge our deep cycle van batteries in the overcast weather – without the help of our new power generator.

We headed of out towards the Nullarbor through the saltbush plains and on a beautiful cool and calm Sunday morning. We decided we wouldn’t venture into Western Australia this trip but we wanted to have a good look at the Nullarbor that just flashed by on our fast trip home last time. As Ian said, it was a vastly different drive this time, where there was just dirt and rocks on the never-ending flat plains, now salt bush and other low growing natives flourish, it was so heartening to see.

The Nullarbor roadhouse was a busy hub on the way out, we pulled in to look for something that we couldn’t find so we kept motoring towards the border. We were looking for the Bunda cliffs free camps. Coming from the eastern side they were not readily visible, we drove as far as the Flying Doctor’s landing strip on the highway about 70 kms from the border and decided to turn around because all the tracks off to the left were closed with rather brutal language which we have come to expect in South Australia, they don’t understand niceties or subtleties. We headed back towards the east and resigned ourselves to camping at a rest area. We were disappointed that we had come this far and weren’t allowed to see the cliffs, so we thought. As we drove, I spotted a caravan out on the cliffs and said, if they can get out there then so can we. We found the track, well hidden, at the same time as two other vans and we all drove in together.

What a site, the views were to die for, and you literally could if you weren’t careful.  We were there only five minutes when we saw two baby whales playing in the ocean just at the bottom of the cliff, they were so sweet frolicking and showing their tiny tails in the air. A lady told us it was the Southern Right Whale nursery. Wow!

We camped up the eastern end with magnificent views of the ocean and cliffs. I was a bit nervous of the danger of the cliffs that were undercut, not only at the top but further down the cliffs as well. I made Ian promise he wouldn’t go too close to the edge, even when I wasn’t looking. He has a dare devil mentality with an attitude if you die then you die, no big deal. Not for him if he sails off into the vast other-side, but I have to pick up the pieces on this side. I was having mad visions of the caravan slipping and careering off the edge of the cliffs with us in it so I had to give myself a good talking to and rid myself of the fear, then I was able to calmly enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

Some of the greatest minds on earth live in the seas.

In next week’s blog we will continue from this point.

See ya.     

23^rd June, 2024

Hi Ya’ll blogites

We left Tumby Bay and ventured further south down the peninsula to Port Lincoln. It was a lovely drive because after first going inland slightly the road returns to the coast and follows it all the way.  As you get close to Port Lincoln it hugs the edge of the bay all the way into town. Port Lincoln is nothing what either of us expected, we thought it would be a big dazzling town but we were sorely wrong.  There is a lot of industry here, but the town is a dog’s breakfast of design. There is a strip of shops along the esplanade but retail shops are mingled with government offices. As you drive the streets behind there are industry, retail and residential plus service business’ all mixed together.  You couldn’t go shopping and expect to go walking to all the different places you need to go. You must get in the car and drive to different parts of the town to find them, there was little thought put into town planning here.  In fairness it was probably just a small fishing town that grew over time with building and business stuck in where they might fit, not to mention the huge grain industry port right in town.

We found old Matty Flinders down town, with his cat in tow. He was measuring something on the footpath. If you want a good laugh while reading Australia’s history you can’t go past David Hunt who wrote the ‘Girt’ books, they are hilarious and his story about Mathew Flinders and Joseph Banks in a row boat with Matty’s cat is so funny.

Mathew Flinders and his cat, I like the cat.

We stayed at the local boat jetty around the bay in the car park which cost us $13.50 per night to stay there.  They are a bit rude over here and aggressive with their signage, no niceties are expended in telling you that you aren’t welcome there if you haven’t paid your permit. It’s ‘get out or you will be fined hundreds of dollars’.

I finally found the birds I’ve been looking forward to seeing on this trip, I love sea birds and there was a colony at the headland where we stayed in the car park.  Yes they are ordinary seagulls, pelicans and cormorants, but they are still lovely birds. We’ve seen oyster catchers and Cape Barren geese, and lots of other sea birds as well.  I took a walk around the headland one morning on my own and I found an oil rig, I think that’s what it was or maybe it was a gas rig, just off the headland behind where we stayed. What a disappointment to see that. 

We ventured up the hill behind Port Lincoln for the views all around.  We didn’t realise that there was an archipelago of islands just off the coast, there were a lot of them stretching out into the Southern Ocean.  The inland side had good views across some good farming fields, it was pleasant looking land in the late afternoon winter sun.

Port Lincoln

We planned on purchasing some fresh fish in this town renowned for its fishing. We got some nice pieces together with scallops for a good price but not much less than at home. We saw at the commercial port the trawlers unloading their catches and probably most of that is exported and we are left with the scraps.  We heard the trawlers going out one morning when storms were forecast, a whole fleet of them left in the dark early hours.  The storms rolled in about 9am and still boats were going out.  Maybe the fish are attracted by the low light or something, but obviously it was a good time to go fishing. Those boats never returned before we left and I guess they go out for days on end before returning to port.

The storms that rolled in that day looked fierce looming above the hills to the west of Port Lincoln. The wind hit first then the rain, it looked like it was going to be wild but turned out to be a storm in a tea cup. That night however the weather came in fierce with wind gusts so strong the whole van was bouncing. The morning dawned with huge storm clouds but blue skies as well, thankfully because we were packing up to leave this day.

We weren’t sure where we’d stay tonight, so we would play it by ear. We pulled into Coffin Bay for a look, it was a pretty little place that had quite a good feel to it but it was only 10.30 in the morning so we decided to continue further on.  Mathew Flinders named Coffin Bay after Resident naval Commissioner Sir Isaac Coffin in early 1802, phew, I thought some coffins might have washed up there from one of the many ships that went down off these rugged coast lines.

We ended up pulling into Elliston where we stayed at a caravan park to charge up the batteries in the van. We’ve noticed on the coast around the peninsulas that the land that fishing villages are built on and camping and caravan parks are on are usually just behind the sand dunes and the water table is so high that the water starts to come up through the ground making the surface damp, but at Elliston the water that came up through the ground made the surface quite wet like it had rained and pooled there, but it hadn’t rained.  There are also marshes that stretch right in land where you wouldn’t expect to find marshes so far from the coast, it seems that the land is honeycombed with areas where the water finds its way to the surface regularly filling the land with water and farmers just plow their fields around these areas. The ground is limestone which is known for absorbing water and having lots of holes in it everywhere.  Some of the fields around Elliston were so full of limestone that they were only good enough for sheep to graze for whatever they can find.

We took the ocean tourist drive both north and south of Elliston where rugged cliffs open to beautiful little bays and beaches. Its quite dangerous walking to the edge because they crumble and fall away and Ian was giving me the horrors because he kept walking out to the edge. I made him promise not to do it because the edges were undercut and showed him some examples. The drive also showcased some sculptures done by local artists. Some were a bit odd but others where good in our opinion. It was a great drive along this beautiful coast line. You could see a large and small island off the coast and we discovered that it was Flinders Island, yes there is one here as well. We got confused too, because Flinders Island is off Tasmania, but just to bamboozle all of us they name this island Flinders Island.

Our last night here we had a black out for hours, so much for charging up the batteries, it went out about 4.30 and came back on around 9pm. Apparently a branch fell across the lines and bought the power pole and all down, right in front of the caravan park. That was the official story the park owners told us, but there was no wind that day and how does a branch knock over a power pole, also the trees here aren’t that big. There has been a little bit of tom foolery going on here methinks.

The next day we headed for Streaky Bay calling in at Venus Bay on the way. Venus Bay had a good feel to it but we kept going and arrived at Streaky Bay where we stay at the RV camp next to the football field. The locals were playing their Aussie rules football all afternoon. It was so funny listening to it, the locals both whites and Aboriginal people were having the time of their life all yelling and cheering.  They had built retaining mounds around the field that I though was to stop people getting a free view of the game, but not here. The locals backed their cars and utes up these mounds from which they watched the games, from the juniors through to the adults. When someone scored a goal they all honked their horns in approval, what a cacophony.  All the noise rose to a great crescendo when the game was one by one side. Ian said it was like when he lived in New Guinea, he’d relax in the pool listening to the Vanuatu and Solomon Islands football, but in those games they expressed their delight and approval by banging on their drums, here is Australia it seems its car horns. It was a relaxing afternoon sitting in the sun watching and listening to all this.

Streaky Bay is not as astounding and beautiful as the tourism department would have us believe. It was ordinary with little to rave over.  We took their tourist drive around the peninsula and down the coast but there were very underwhelming.  We did find a beach that was full of large rocks. We explored the rock pools, Ian searching for the creatures that he used to find on the east coast when he worked for Southern Cross Uni but there were few here apart from the Nerita’s.  As we walked across the huge granite rocks, we were intrigued with the formations found in them.  There was a black rock that flowed through the granite which was peculiar, it looked like coal but wasn’t. There were seams of other stone that cut through the rocks and flows at right angles and places where the black rock stopped in a straight line across the granite as though some one had cut and pasted the rocks together.  As we were wandering about, I thought I had discovered some gold. It glittered gold in the light, it was in a seam of quartz, all the required elements to find gold, but unfortunately it was pyrite, or fools gold. But where there is pyrite there is gold! It was an enjoyable forage around these rocks, which was the best part of the drive.

Streaky Bay was also name by Mathew Flinders who gave it its name after seeing streaks in the bay in the middle of the day in the sunlight.  We looked and sure enough the water did have streaks in it created by the beds of seaweed and strips of white sand between the beds.  Yes, it’s a pretty place but not something to be raved over like what we’ve heard. Maybe we are just hard to please lol.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

Well, that’s your lot for the week, See ya next week.

16^th June, 2024

Greetings Bloggie’s

Rewind to the drama in Mannum, it all started with Ian getting a late letter from NSW RTA about a medical for his heavy vehicle licence. After all of that they sent him a letter saying that all was good and he could retain his heavy vehicle license, but in true bureaucratic incompetence, they sent a second letter which Jacqueline immediately photographed and sent to us on the weekend. This time they said they would be cancelling Ian’s heavy vehicle license on 22^nd June 2024 and he will need to visit a NSW Services office to receive a normal license, just 12 days away, but oh, you can appeal the letter and it has to be received by them within 28 days, just six days after they cancel his license. It doesn’t matter that we are near Whyalla South Australia.

Anyway, as we were driving out of the camp at Douglas Point, Ian went into a panic about how we were going to do this and he was already tired at 10am. I could sense another boiler about to burst so I suggested that we park the van somewhere and I drive, I had to calm him down and that suggestion did the trick. We were only 8kms out of Whyalla so I phoned around and found a park that would store our van for a couple of nights without charging a fortune. So, we hauled the tug and van into Whyalla, oh, I forgot to say that the car decided that it would cough and spit and resist starting at Port Bonython and the engine light stayed on which sent Ian’s gasket into overinflation again. So, we limped into Whyalla. The directions took us to the wrong park and it was nearly impossible to turn around in there, more stress, then finally we found the right park. We grabbed clothes, toiletries and documents and start off but not before filling up with fuel and getting some lunch to eat on the go at 12.30pm. Getting back to the car, the engine light had gone off when I took over and has not come back on again.  I think the universe was weighing in with me to convince that leaving the van in Whyalla was the best choice. Anyway, off we went BACK, heading for Broken Hill the closest NSW Service centre, a 1000km round trip. I drove, it was a five and half hour drive and Ian only drove the last hour. It actually was a pleasant drive once we left the highway and headed through the hills to Willmington, Oorooroo, Petersburgh and then Broken Hill. We haven’t stayed at a motel for a while so it was a bit of a shock at the cost. The cheapest, decent place wanted $168 for a queen size bed, I said no can do, do you have twin beds, they did for the cost of $134, bloody hell and we complain about $40 a night at a caravan park. Anyway, the very helpful and immensely kind receptionist said that we were lucky that we got a letter in time. She said most people get their letters after the license has been cancelled. Honestly, we have to do something about the structure of government in this country, State Governments don’t talk to other state governments. We fronted up at the Services office bright and early the next morning with a copy of the letter on our phone. Ian said you should have a copy of the letter on file, which they said no they didn’t. I couldn’t help myself and said they wouldn’t do that its too logical lol. Talk about incompetent bureaucracy. Anyway, paper license in hand, that is only good for 28 days and the plastic license should be posted to our home address within two weeks, pigs might fly too, then Jacqueline has to post it to a post office somewhere near to where we will be. I told Ian if the license doesn’t arrive within the 28 days, then to hell with them and you drive without a valid license, I think we could reasonably argue that one.  We spoke to a number of people on the way back and at camp about it and it seems it is very common. One woman from QLD had to fly from Melbourne to Brisbane because they needed a new photo of her, if she didn’t get there within a couple of days then they would cancel her license.  No mind the bloody cost to the pensioners for all the mucking around. Anyway, onwards, and upwards.

The above three photos are of the changing landscape on the road to Broken Hill.

When we got back to Whyalla the caravan park was full and we couldn’t stay so we headed towards Cowell. We were tired and pulled up at a Roads and traffic old storage site on the side of the road where another van had stopped and spent the night.

We arrived at Cowell on Wednesday and stayed at the caravan park. There was a lot of marsh land between the park and the bay, marsh land is common on the coast line down here. We took a day out and explored the coastline in the area, the land is so flat between the sea and the range inland, it wouldn’t take much for the sea to completely take back the land. We drove to Cleve for a look, it was a small place with not much there but it was an interesting drive and then over to the coast where the car ferry from the York Peninsula arrives. Well, it filled in a day, if not that interesting lol.

The car ferry arrives here at this auspicious place.

On Saturday we headed further down the peninsula to Tumby Bay and after catching up on some food shopping we headed out to a free camp 13kms further south right on the coast. The camp was Tumby Bay Beach camp, it was right on the edge of the sea on a cliff top, it was magic. We had a view from every window on one side of the van to the sea, so it was possible to still see it if it was too cold to sit outside.  It was great to watch the birds flying over the water and listening to the calls of the local seagulls which are large, black to the chest and then white. We were lucky to see a huge flock of Cape Barran Geese fly in and land on the paddock just behind the camp. They are huge birds and wonderful to see them.  We stayed at this camp until Monday which gave me some time to get started with my next essay which I’m wrestling with trying to get it into some form of sense.

Cape Barren Geese

Late morning view of beach below at the Tumby Bay Beach camp.

A glorious sunrise from the van at Tumby Bay Beach camp.

Sorry about the delays in the last two weeks, we’ve been a bit busy.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pigmies.

Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible.

I couldn’t resist the two quotes, they speak volumes.

Have a great week everyone, we will post again soon.

9^th June, 2024

Greetings all,

Not a lot happening this week.  We left the national park and travelled to Port Broughton and stayed in a free camp for three days. Port Broughton is a lovely seaside town on the Spencer Gulf. Its not quite on the shore of the Gulf, but there is an inlet that branches out into a large body of water inland and the town is built on the inlet. There were a few lovely old buildings and a wonderful old pub that has been done up. 

Studying in the sunshine was lovely but the icy wind hitting me side on was a bit much.

We stopped at Kadina on the way to do a major shop because when we left the national park we had run out of food, we had a scrap of bread for toast and a small amount of milk for coffee, the water had run out and the gas was all but gone, so there were are few domestic things that needed to be sorted.

Not a lot happened at Port Broughton and on Thursday we set sail for the Eyre peninsula with no idea as to where we were going to settle for the night. We travelled up through Port Pirie, Port Augusta and headed for Whyalla.  We saw some free camps and turned off about 8 kms north of Whyalla.  We went to Port Bonython past the huge petroleum storage tanks and the gas refinery.  We could have stayed at Port Bonython in a car park for $10 per night, but it wasn’t what we had in mind so we returned back the way we came and turned off onto the Fitzgerald Bay Road. The view of the bay as we came over the hill was amazing. Ian had been grumbling about this wild goose chase for the camp but when he saw it he exclaimed ‘oh my god, this is the most beautiful camp ever’, vindication is sweet.

We sailed on past the camp we wanted to stay at so turned around awkwardly on the dirt road.  As we were driving back, we noticed an unbroken bank of stones close to the shore that looked like a levy bank and were curious about it. There was a sign board at the entrance to the camp explaining the levy.  It is a natural stone ridge that was put down in ancient times as this land was being developed geologically.  It is the only place in Australia where this exists and it stretches along several beaches on this side of the gulf.  I’ve added the photo with the information for a better explanation.

We camped on the gulf side of the ridge. There are mangroves growing here, but they don’t grow quite as big and dense as they do up north. The colours of the gulf were magnificent, glorious phthalo blues, turquoise and deep indanthrone blue when the sun shines, but it goes into deep shades of these colours with an overcast sky.  Its silver pale manganese blue in the morning with gorgeous golds and pinks in the sky.  The evening sky is just as magnificent with the colours and the shadows on the hills, heaven!

We spent a few very peaceful days here meeting fellow campers and just chilling. The generator we bought in Adelaide has come in very handy here with some overcast days and a very low sun that put the solar panels and batteries at risk. Everyone was running their generators, and fortunately they are very quiet these days.

Nature is the purest portal to inner peace.

Well, that’s it for this week.

Talk next week bloggies.

2^nd June, 2024

Greetings Bloggies

This has been a week immersed in nature.

Warooka became a little irradiated for our liking so we moved on across the peninsula to dusty Point Turton (at $20 per night ‘free camp’) on Hardwick Bay. The scenery was absolutely stunning with several dolphins dancing in the beautiful, quiet, silver cobalt sea of Spencer Gulf. The township/village seemed to be populated with a lot of good quality holiday houses which were possibly owned by wealthy Adelaide people hoping to get away from their drudgery of everyday work life. I imagine some of these nicer buildings could have become Air B&Bs in summer as most of them remained securely shut and there were very few people to be seen.

We spent Monday and Tuesday sitting under our awning in the sun just chilling, watching the tide recede and then come back in. The dolphins were constantly swimming back and forth and the only sound you could hear was the lapping of the waves, that were about an inch high, and the snorting of water as the dolphins breached the surface. Not much time was spent inside at this camp.

On Wednesday we ventured forth for the wilds of the very tip of the Yorke Peninsula. We drove via Corny point then down the coast road.  The drive wasn’t that exciting until we reached Marion Bay and the entrance to the Innes National Park. We booked into the Pondalowie campground right on the toe of the boot.  We were allocated a great private spot tucked up into the sand dunes with masses of native vegetation growing around us. There were very short gums, and numerous shrubs of all colours.  As soon as we sat down outside to consume a sandwich for lunch, the little birds arrived. There were little wren type birds with beautiful olive/sap green feathers on their heads, back and wings. The green was like Chartreuse only slightly darker. The colour chartreuse is appropriate for these dear little birds because it represents enthusiasm, happiness, nature, growth, and youth and the blossoming of spring. They happily flitted around the bushes looking for morsels to eat and weren’t afraid to come right up to us.  One even flew up to steal a morsel from Ian’s sandwich that he was absently holding out as he was talking to me.

It was very cold down here, particularly at night, so when we weren’t out exploring, we stayed inside the van pursuing our individual interests, which for me was study, errk. Anyway, one of the days when I had spent quite a bit of time inside, I decided late in the afternoon that I needed to get outside. So I wrapped myself up well, grabbed my chair and took it around the back of the van out of the wind, to just sit and watch nature. I was sitting there hoping some kangaroos would appear and about two minutes later a mother and her adolescent offspring came around the corner.  They weren’t perturbed by my presence so I sat there watching them for ages, the young one even came right up to me so he could pick off the juicy morsels of the pig face plant. What a lovely way to end the day.

There is a fishing village about 50 metres from camp so we ventured over there to have a look. It opens to a huge bay which is part of Investigator Strait named after Mathew Flinders visited in 1802 to the area. Driving to the day area not far away we encountered the jagged outline of the peninsula with numerous bays with limestone faces being worn away and tumbling onto the beaches.  Ian discovered a family of kangaroos resting amidst the shrubs which I had walked straight past without noticing them, they are quiet and not concerned about humans. As we drove further into the park, we encountered some beautiful trees that Ian was very taken with and Emu’s wandering along the road, there was a big daddy one over in the bush that was huge, I would not want to get chased by it.

The last two images are the trees that Ian loves and the bottom one is a hut that is available to people who walk the Yorke to stay in overnight.

Thursday night was really windy and the awning was doing a dance so Ian tied it down to some bushes and it didn’t move after that but the sound of the wind was incredible.  If we thought Thursday nights wind was bad, Friday night presented gale force winds which we thought was going to lift the van with us inside, it was horrendous with unbelievable gusts. I guess you must expect that right on the Southern Ocean and between two gulfs.

On Saturday we drove to several other capes, bays and lighthouses within the park and you would never have believed we had massive gale force winds the night before because the sea was as calm as mill pond, the sun was shining with just a gentle breeze. We could see Kangaroo Island further south with sand dunes clearly visible.  The area along this relatively small coastline, because it is the tip of the peninsula, is strikingly beautiful. There were a lot of day trippers in the park today because of the weekend and we kept encountering the same groups at the different sites.

Spencer lighthouse gave amazing views along two sides of the gulf with the Eyre Peninsula visible on the horizon to the west. We explored part of the old historic town of Inneston where they once produced chalk. The Bellco chalk commonly used in schools for blackboards was produced here in a couple of small buildings. It was a pretty setting the village was positioned in with a blue lake between it and the road.

I have a developed a habit of sitting up in bed being completely spoilt by Ian who brings me coffee and toast each morning, the darling. On Sunday Ian joined me and we talked for a couple of hours then decided to get out of bed and take up the conversation outside in the sunshine. We pulled our chairs amongst the shrubs in the warmth of the sun, had cups of tea and then lunch, solving the problems of the world, with the little birds playing around and under us. What a wonderful way to spend the day, the cold chased us back indoors at about 2.30pm. As I said we watched the little green wrens, there were other little birds that I don’t know what they are called but they are shades of grey with white spots under the neck and one of the cheeky little things flew into the van, because we left the door open. I had to check because I didn’t want it up on the kitchen bench, I went to check and it came zooming out the door, flat out from the lounge area, funny little thing. We watched as two quails darted between bushes and two large black currawongs flew in to see what they could scavenge from us but they were without luck. Isn’t nature beautiful!

Apart from the cute little land birds we saw numerous sea birds which was just lovely. So, that’s how we spent our week.

I forgot to mention that we didn’t have phone or TV reception down here except for the occasional Optus one bar that came and went with no obvious reason, but at least we had a lifeline to the girls. It was a different way of life without all the electronic paraphernalia.

We will be venturing back up the Yorke Peninsula and across to the Eyre Peninsula next week, but we will cover that then.

If you truly love nature, you will find beauty anywhere.

See ya.

26^th May 2024

Greetings Blogites

We left Greenock on Monday for Auburn which was a leisurely drive of about an hour.  We set up camp, did the washing and just chilled for the rest of the day.

Tuesday was Ian’s birthday so it was special. We had to go into Clare to pick up his new glasses and I made the mistake of saying you can you can have what ever you want today, well, bakeries was the first thing to come to his mind and dipping the snout into the trough. I cooked him up a scrumptious backed meal in the caravan to celebrate which we both enjoyed.

Emma arrived on Wednesday and we moved to the caravan park in Clare. Don’t get Ian started on that park, you will hear quite a few expletives, not his favourite place. We had lunch at the pub in town and then took a drive out to Minato and Martin Hall. Emma was in love with the old architecture of the region, all the old buildings in Minato still in tact and being renovated. Martin Hall was a step back in time. We only had a look at the outside, Ian and I have been through it before but we didn’t have enough time to do the inside visit. It kind of looks out of place in the Australian environment. It included a coach house and stables that were nearly as big as the big house itself.

Thursday morning was slow to start as most wineries don’t open until 10 am.  We booked in for lunch at Paulette’s winery so we took a drive to Jim Barry winery to sample some of the quality Rieslings and scrumptious reds. Ian got lucky again because I bought him a couple of bottles of really good malbec reds and Emma gave him a bottle as well.  Emma and I were the only ones to taste the wines, apart from a sip for Ian because he was the driver.

Paulette’s winery is perched on top of a hill in the country and we enjoyed great views of the rolling hills from our table. When we were shown to our table I said to Ian, they knew we were coming, check the teapot, I though it was a pig but it was actually a flamingo lol. It was a bit of a splurge because it was Ian’s birthday, we had what is called ‘Relax and let us feed you’ where we choose 2 small plates and 1 large plate to share between us.

We had;

Kangaroo carpaccio, aged balsamic, bacon fat radish, macadamia, and anchovy

Baked Jerusalem artichokes, Bungaree venison merguez, Paulette’s honey, rivermint and pepperleaf dukkah

Oak smoked duck breast, roasted carrot, pickled quandong and muntrie jus

Complimentary hot chips with aioli.

What a feast. There wasn’t a huge amount on the plates but it was just enough so that we all felt comfortably satiated.  It was decadent and delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed every mouthful, although I did have trouble with the Kangaroo carpaccio when Emma told me it was raw meat that was smoked. After you get over the initial feeling of grossness it was scrumptious. We washed it all down with a good bottle of Clare Valley Shiraz.

Next stop was Taylors winery for more wine tasting which Emma and I partook. All this wine was definitely going to my head, it was a good thing I wasn’t driving.  Needless to say, there was no dinner that night.  We all had a fantastic day and enjoyed every minute of it.

Friday, we had to pack up and head out.  We parked the van next to an oval at Watervale because it was too early for Emma to head back to Adelaide for her flight home.  We chatted in the van for some time then went to what we thought was the Watervale pub, well that’s what they called it, but it was a fine dining residence. The restoration of the old house was magnificently done with exquisite taste. We had another gourmet lunch, no where near like yesterday though, and then we said farewell to Emma.  It was so good seeing her, she enjoyed herself and so did we.

Friday afternoon we drove to Ardrossan on the York Peninsula heading for a free camp in town where only three vans were able to stay.  We didn’t think we’d get one being so late arriving, but luck was on our side and we were only the second van there.

Saturday, we had a look around Ardrossan and saw the huge white silo’s that we could see from Port Parham on the other side of the gulf. Ardrossan is known for its red cliffs. It was interesting to see flocks of pigeons that have made their home in the cliffs and they feed down on the waterline, I’ve never seen that before.

In the afternoon we went for a drive down to Port Vincent visiting fishing villages along the way.  We were both feeling extremely tired for some reason so we parked the car in Port Vincent on St Vincents gulf and had a sleep. Port Vincent is a lovely sea side town, very pretty. Next, we drove to the other side of the peninsula, only a half hour drive, through grain farmland to Port Victoria on the Spencer gulf. The grain fields on the peninsula are massive, they must be kilometres long and wide. You don’t see kangaroos down this way because there is nowhere to live, only on the roadside verges. Every last inch is dedicated to grain growing. There are a lot of old stone homesteads from a bygone era and loads of old stone ruins.  South Australia has an enormous number of ruins, testament to the many droughts and low rainfall. We only stayed a short time in Port Victoria and then drove back to Ardrossan.

Sunday we were off early to Warooka where we thought we’d stay for a few days and use it as a base. One night was enough, there were two microwave towers right next to the campground which emitted a constant high-pitched hum, not good, Ian said the paint on the side of the Colorado had melted overnight and he says he has had enough radiation to sink a battle ship. So, after one night we decided to move on, but that is a story for next week.

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood but of respect and

joy in each other’s life.

– Richard Bach.

19^th May 2024

Hi Boggites

Theres not much to say this week.  We returned to Greenock on Monday to cool our heals whilst we wait for the return to Clare next week.  Ian spent the week worrying about the solar power and how to preserve it and everyone else in the camp had the same problem. You can’t generate solar power with heavy cloud and fog. It was like a village with lots of vans and really friendly people. We were lucky enough to find a spot that had sun all day, when it shone, which was an advantage on other campers. The sun is quite low in the northern sky and we haven’t got to winter solstice yet. Its starting to get quite cold at night and even through the days as well. The diesel heater has been a god send, and has had quite the work out.

We’ve met some really beautiful animals, including cats that are walked on leads.  They are just gorgeous; we are both cat lovers and so to see them proudly prancing around on a lead was just great.  We are also dog lovers and we’ve said hello to a few of them too.  The birds are noisy in the mornings and evenings, kicking up quite a rabble in the plowed, and possibly seeded, paddock next door.

I found some time to sit in the sun and do some drawing for my final project again, it was heaven in the warmth with ‘Chillin on a dirt road’ playing in the head phones.  Quite a few campers commented on the lovely spot in the sun. I love it when I get the time to do this without any stress.

On Sunday we went to Adelaide to pick up the new generator for future power problems, went to the local shopping centre for lunch and it was like the league of nations there.  We were the odd ones out. It was nice to see so many people from so many different backgrounds happily getting on with their business there. Then we took a drive through Adelaide CBD and couldn’t believe the crowds of people making their way to the stadium for the local AFL game between Port and I can’t remember who the other team was, but I think Port won by 1 point. Then we were off to Carolyn’s new house up in the Adelaide hills for a family gathering to celebrate the many Woods birthdays in May. We had a scrumptious dinner together and caught up with Ian’s brother Peter and his partner Hazel, his nephews Jeff and Renee and their three lovely kids, and Mark, and Carolyn and her daughter Maya of course.  I can’t forget the gorgeous mystical Luna, Carolyn’s black cat with green eyes. I have never met a cat with such a personality, honestly, she’s almost human and you can almost speak with her, she understands us and we understand her, I just love her.

The above photos are Ian and Peter in the first one, and just some of the Woods clan in the second one.

So that capped off a lazy week. Family is important and it was great to see them all.

We are off to the Clare Valley in the mid north where Emma will be catching up with us to celebrate Ian’s birthday on Tuesday, but the celebrating will take place on Wednesday and Thursday.

Time together as a family is a gift.

So that’s your lot for this week folks.

12th May, 2024

Yello Bloggs,

This has been a week of southern seaside towns of Goolwa on the Coorong, Victor harbour and Port Elliot and the wonderful Southern Fleurieu Peninsular with it’s massive rolling hills – these lovely slopes are predominantly straw-coloured grasslands with occasional shrubs and trees, forming an attractive backdrop to our home at the Pt. Elliot Showgrounds. It’s been a much needed week of R&R after our recent health issues, and we’re now ‘back on the road’!

Port Elliot has some beautiful old stone houses and hotels, which gives a feel of the olde world. I ventured down a side road away from the main coast road and found the original shops, park and township almost hidden down an insignificant looking road to the sea! I went there the other evening to find a newsagent, and found an old low-set stone shopfront which housed the local PO. I spoke to an old lady behind the shabby timber counter, who proudly told me this building was used as a film set in the Storm-boy movie of 1976!

We ventured to Victor Harbour just along the coast a few kilometres, where we could do some food shopping and raid their numerous Op-Shops!😊- Victor is a lovely old town in the South which I had visited many times during my younger years; the main street is so quiet without the endless crusade of frenetic traffic, there are plenty of parks and huge ancient Norfolk pine trees everywhere. These rich emerald green pines show that they are truly suited to this environment; I imagine these pines were planted way back in the 1840s when it was a whaling and fishing port. I’m sure young Mat Flinders and Joe Banks didn’t care much about planting arboretums at that time….

We took a drive up and over the grassy range to Rapid Bay (which I partially recall from my limited schooling!) this bay is on the western side of the peninsular, on a remote beach which was founded during the Second world war! – at that time, our country needed a lot of steel for war-ships and weapons which was then being mined as iron ore on the Eyre Peninsular. It seems that these rich limestone cliffs at Rapid Bay provided an ideal and convenient source of calcium oxide flux for the steel smelting works, located just around the York Peninsular and up to dusty Whyalla on Spencer Gulf.

Continuing on from Ian’s telling of the story, as we drove around the tip of the Adelaide peninsula, we encountered massive hills that plunged in extreme descents to the lowest points where the hills folded around each other, where lush vegetation gathered in the moist folds of land. Some hills were pretty much vertical, not like a cliff, just the side of the hill.  It was fascinating landscape that plunged right into the St Vincent Gulf.

I drove home across the highest part of the tip of the peninsula, it got to 500 feet above sea level up there. There was farming and lots of springs right on top of the high parts. I could live up here, it was spectacular. You look to the left and you can see the sun glinting off the gulf and you look to the right and you can see the Southern Ocean, its that narrow down this way.  We didn’t go to Cape Jervis because we’ve been there before when we went to Kangaroo Island. It was a lovely day exploring this part of the state. It certainly is a more livable pocket than most of south Australia.

On Friday we departed for Port Parham on the north western side of Adelaide. It started out foggy but quickly cleared to a beautiful autumn day.  I have to say, I’m really enjoying this autumn weather, its glorious. The drive from Port Elliot to Port Parham was easy, we took the A13 which turned into the M2 through Adelaide and the A5 and then the A1, easy peasy.  I’m at a loss as to why they call this place Port Parham because there is no port. Once leaving the A1 to Port Augusta, we traverse across vast sea wetlands that are continually filling and draining with the tides. The Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary is here and you drive through it to get to Port Parham.

It’s a great camp with power and water and hot showers and toilets. We are only metres away from the gulf and you can hear the water when the tide is fully in. The tide goes out for kilometres leaving bare the sands and sea grasses. People hunt for blue swimmer crabs here on the incoming tide, no good to me though because I’m allergic (severe anaphylaxis) to crustacea. We walked the beach for a distance but that’s about all you can do on the coast if not crabbing.  They have these strange vehicles called Parham Jigger’s that are home made vehicles that are raised up high, that tow boats out to the water and back in when the tide is waaayy out. There are quite a few of them around the little fishing village, all homemade. It looks like they may have some kind of contest at some point. They look like something out of Mad Max.  One drove past the camp this afternoon so it seems they are an illegal source of transport. 

The bird life is abundant and the wetlands are interesting to visit, although you’d have to go at just the right time to see some.  We found some big ocean-going birds on the shoreline with seagulls, they were huge birds.  We drove to the northern end of the sanctuary to photograph the sunset at a spot right next to the military range. We approached a little too close and lights and sirens started going off, as if we were going to climb the damn fence. There are a lot of military ranges in south Australia and this one is used for testing ammunition, detonating ammunition and firing rockets and missiles into the gulf.  The military come around on hover crafts just before firing to get people crabbing off the beaches. On Monday they were exploding bombs all day, some were so strong the whole van shook and you could feel the percussion wave go through you.

We’ve been keeping an eye on all the solar flares this week and there was a Geostorm on Saturday so we were hoping we’d get lucky and see an aurora. Well that night we’d been down to the beach and noticed that there was a white glow in the southern sky whilst everywhere else was black with the milky way clearly visible above us.  It was freezing cold so we went back to the van, half an hour later Ian decided he go and have another look. He wasn’t gone long when he came running back saying quick, quick, its happening. I quickly left the van and when I stepped out from under the awning there was this magnificent curtain of pink dancing across the sky, and this was from within the campgrounds where there were lots of lights. We went down to the beach where we continued to watch it with green light appearing close to the horizon and the pink turning red. The shapes then changed and there where massive beams of pink and red light stretching from the southern horizon to the milky way, from our perspective.  We were both in awe of what we were seeing, I didn’t think I’d ever be lucky enough to see the Southern Aurora or Aurora Australis. What a wonderful gift the creator has given so many of us with the magnificent light and colour show amid all the darkness in the world. Well that’s another one to tick of the bucket list. How lucky were we!

Above is our photo of the aurora, the blue dot is a star. We didn’t have the right setting to capture the aurora properly unfortunately, and this image does not do justice to what we saw, it was so much more majestic and clear.

On Mother’s Day, my beautiful daughters deposited funds to our account and told us to treat ourselves to breakfast or brunch. There isn’t much here, no cafes or shops, so we went to Mallala and had scrumptious roast salt bush lamb and veggies. It was so good. Thank you, girls. I finished the day off, sitting outside drawing up some ideas for my final arts project, it was very relaxing.  It is said we may see more auroras tonight so we will be out again, chasing those beautiful rainbow skies.

Aurora had but newly chased the night, and purpled o’er the sky with blushing light.

– John Dryden

Till next week my friends!

5^th May 2024

Hi Bloggies

Not a huge amount to say this week.  We both ended up with a nasty cold virus after the hospital visit last week.  Hospitals are the worst place for spreading virus around. We parked up at the oval in Tailem Bend for four days and hunkered down.  We didn’t leave it for three days and just sleep and moaned and groaned. I’m the last person you want to sleep with when I’m sick, I tossed and turned, got up and down, sat on the bed for a half hour a couple of times all to relieve the pain in my back, aagggghh.  Poor Ian, he didn’t get much sleep either. I ended up removing the blanket from the bed so that we only had our Canberra doona and a sheet.  The doona is like sleeping under a cloud, its 100% wool and it keeps you so lovely and warm without getting hot, the waffle blanket was too much and made us hot, it made a huge difference to our comfort.  Enough of the winging lol. Oh wait, one other thing, there were millions of Corellas in Tailem Bend that made such a racket. They landed on the oval in their thousands, and apparently, they have become a nuisance and are causing trouble with the farmers.  A bit of trivia, did you know that the first song bird in the world was the Australian Cockatoo, who knew! Its hard to believe with their loud squawking, but its true, all other song birds in the world came after the Cockatoo. We heard it on an ABC conversations podcast, such an interesting episode, that was back in 2019 if you intend to look for it.

We drove to Langhorne Creek on Friday, crossing the river on a cute little ferry with picturesque views of the river and the reeds along the banks at Wellington which is the last town before the river drains into Lake Alexandrina. Wellington is a pretty place on the banks of the river and so much softer looking than the towns further up river.  The low cost camp at Langhorne creek was very popular and it was a good thing we got there before lunch.  There were loads of trees so getting sun to charge the batteries was a challenge. Langhorne Creek is a pretty place, it’s as though an English Village was picked up and deposited here, it looks kind of similar, but the feel, the energy was like an English village. There were a number of Adelaide groups who travelled here together for the weekend. It is situated very conveniently in the Langhorne Creek wine region with loads of wineries, quality restaurants and pubs in close proximity, not that we sampled any.

On Saturday we needed to get out so we drove to Goolwa for a look.  On the way, just south of Collectors Creek we encountered an old Steam Train coming across the fields and it just so happened that there was a road that transected the line so we quickly drove close to the line and got out, we weren’t the only ones.  We love a good steam train.

At Goolwa we drove over the very high bridge to Hindmarsh Island to see where the might Murray River meets the Southern Ocean. It was a bit of an underwhelming moment I have to say, given the majestic sights further up the river, but the mouth is narrow and shallow and there is a dredge working seven days a week to keep it from sanding up again. The waters are calm here and there is no resemblance to the river water we saw before.

On our way home we did a side visit to Milang to view Lake Alexandrina because you can’t see it from Goolwa. Wow, what a huge lake. We stood on the shore and looked out across the lake and couldn’t see the other side. It was like looking across a sea with the horizon line on the water, but we knew full well that there was further water and land beyond the horizon line where curve of the earth dips concealing what lies beyond.  I have never seen a lake so large. It is fresh water too. We walked to the end of the old pier, there were some dodgy planks along the way, reeds grow out into the lake a bit and at one time boats would unload their goods here and boats would get repaired. We drove home via the lake on roads that were reminiscent of something out of Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

On Sunday we went to Hahndorf for a visit. From Langhorne Creek we climbed from the flats of the Murray into the undulating foothills of the Lofty ranges, past old ruins, beautiful fields of grape vines, and sheep paddocks.  We’ve been to Hahndorf many times but we had a purpose in mind. Ian’s favourite artist, Richard Musgrave-Evans has his gallery there. I’m a fan of his work as well, but Ian really wanted to meet Richard and ask him some questions.  Well luck was on our side and he was in residence this day. He is such a humble and generous soul. We had a great conversation with him about all things art and he didn’t hold back or make out he was so much better than anyone. We had such a good time and Ian was over the moon meeting his hero. Richard paints impressionistic abstract paintings of the south Australian bush and coast, and he does it all with a palette knife. He is very skilful. To get out of Hahndorf we had to go back along Mt Barker road, but all of Adelaide had decided to visit this day and we didn’t want to get caught in snail paced traffic, so we took a deviation across the hills, around farms, thinking we were lost, then back on track and totally avoided Mt Barker road. The journey back was in reverse but this time we had great views out over the Murray flats to the sea right on the horizon. What a great day we had.

We knew today we were both feeling vastly better because we regained our self-deprecating selves and laughed a lot, which we had lost while we were sick. There was some competition during the week for best hog like impersonation with Ian reckoning that my coughing sounding like the squeal of a dying pig lol, he should talk, his snout has been in the bakery trough a bit the past few days, with whipped cream still lingering around his ears and his trotters gleefully clacking away on the tiles.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to keep.

– Scott Adams.

See you next week with more from the lovely Fleurieu Peninsula.