Nic & Tim & Elsie travel Australia...: December 2006

The rest of SA!

Left Northern Flinders Ranges for the Southern Flinders Ranges (Mt Remarkable) in the hope of escaping the heat, only to discover that it was in fact a heat wave and it was hot everywhere in South Australia. In our belief that we were escaping the heat we went on quite a long walk in the middle of the day in the Alligator Gorge, and nearly died of heat exhaustion on the way back.

So we fled to the coast, to the fishing town of Port Broughton, which was the closest coastal town and somewhere to meet up with Simone & Daniel, who have been travelling around Australia in the opposite direction and were on their way home. It was fantastic to catch up with friends, and we had a couple of days of not doing much at all – mainly trying to catch some fish. The best results came from Tim and Daniel being out in the tinnie and having some professional fisherman take pity on them and give them a big stack of crabs. Which we devoured that afternoon.

Then onto Adelaide for a few days, where we stayed with my uncle Gary and aunty Jan, and caught up with cousins Sarah, Ben and his family, and Matt, Ali and Asher. And also caught up with Tim’s uncle Ted and aunty Judy. Got some good tips on places to go from Jezza and ate at Ying Chow, one of his and Lisa’s favourite restaurants when they were living in Adelaide.

We didn’t have long in the wine regions of South Australia, but what we had was delightful! Clare Valley, Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Coonawarra – we did OK. After the seriously dry paddocks, the lush green vines were like an oasis. We tasted some fantastic wines, and saw some fabulous old wineries like Sevenhill, Seppelt, Penfolds, Yalumba – all these stately old buildings. And some funky new buildings!

And the food! Everytime we ate in any of these places it was such a pleasure, we were really PLEASANTLY surprised by the food we ate.

Welcome to the world Ishan George!

For anyone who doesn't know - Mandy and Sumit had a new baby boy at home on 25 November, almost 9lb and called Ishan George.

From the photos we've seen he is absolutely gorgeous and we are v.v. sad not to meet him in person just yet...

In the Ranges

From the Eyre Peninsula we went north, through miles and miles of dry dusty golden stubble, to the Flinders Ranges. It was exciting to see hills again, and then mountains as we drove further north.

But it is just so dry here in SA, it apparently didn't rain at all in winter, the water restrictions are fierce, and all anyone talks about on local radio is water, water, water.

So we didn't see the Flinders Ranges at their best. Any vegetation on the ground was so dry it crackled underfoot, and the hills were generally a monochromatic brown. It didn't help that when we were there there was a high cloud covering the sky that bleached the colour out of everything. The moments when the sun came out changed everything, making the rocky outcrops golden brown, and the vegetation more green!

But it was really hot, really REALLY hot. SA has had a bit of a heatwave for the past few days. Too hot to do very much at all. We did go for a short walk (part of a 5/6 km roundtrip to the Blinman Pools which was very appealing but too far in the heat) and even managed to find a small spring-fed pool to cool off in, which was about the only water we saw the whole time we were in the Flinders.

We just had to drive through the other gorges with the airconditioning blasting. These gorges were fabulous, with massive river red gums and a variety of rocks tumbling down to the dry river bed. We camped at Parachilna Gorge, up high & away from the road. And awoke to the most amazing colours on the surrounding gorge walls before the high cloud set in for the day.

Cold beer was almost essential, and luckily for us there was this very surprisingly funky Prairie Hotel nearby in the otherwise nondescript village of Parachilna.

Memories....

We did it! We got out of the 5km forcefield that was holding us in Ceduna for so long. It was quite an achievement. Drove right down the Eyre Peninsula, passing all these places we'd thought we might go to before we spent all that time in Ceduna.

Got to the bottom of the Peninsula to Coffin Bay and really wished we'd been able to spend a couple of nights there. A small town full of holiday shacks of every vintage and style, a National Park a bit further along and a big big sheltered bay which looked just perfect for the tinnie. That is one book that hasn't been written as far as we can make out - the Guide to Australia for Travellers with Tinnies. Needless to say our various plans for coffee table books are not really progressing very far. We are having too much fun. It was also a slightly tongue-in-cheek post but you never know!

Anyway we couldn't stop in Coffin Bay because we'd made a booking for Memory Cove in the Lincoln National Park – it is apparently a Wilderness Area and they restrict the number of cars going in, hence the booking. It is a rugged coastline down here, and as far as we could see Memory Cove is the only sandy beach on that part of the peninsula. And it is beautiful. A wee little cove of white sand and turquoise water.

We got the tinnie in the water on an exceptionally calm day, with the waters also protected by islands further out. It was fantastic, exploring along the wild rocky coastline, with dolphins in our bow waves, and seals frolicking around us, all in this calm clear deep blue ocean. I'm swooning just thinking about it again!

I (Nic) have sometimes questioned the extravagance of taking the tinnie, and definitely every time we have to pack everything up and put it back on the roofrack, with the surfboards underneath, I question having the tinnie - BUT it was so worth it just for this.

We also did some effective squid hunting from the tinnie in the protection of the cove, when the wind was blowing the following day. Fresh squid for dinner that night was a winner.