This morning Olivia and I found a claw machine in the rec room of the caravan
park. With money we had saved up from selling bracelets we put in a two dollar
coin into the claw machine and got two tries. I went first and Olivia helped me
to get in the right position and then we lower the hook over a toy, picked it
up, carried it over to the opening, then dropped it...into the container. It was
a baby Enderman, which we named Telleportano.
Afterwards we went to the Woodhouse Adventure Park for the day. The first place
we went was to the Tube Slides. Where we had to drag some tubes up the hill.
Then we would ride down them on a slide, while being sprayed by sprinklers.
There were two course. One was straight (vuuuahboingboing) the other was curvy
(wahoewee).
Next we went to the Challenge Hill. One of the challenges was where you had to
grab one rope then swing and grab the next rope, then swing and grab the next
rope to go across the water. I got to the second rope then fell into the water.
I went under the water like Crocodylus
placing food under a log.
Then we went to the Labyrinth, where you had to solve some riddles at dead ends.
I didn't think they were very good but I didn't understand some of them. This
labyrinth had lots dead ends but a labyrinth is not meant to have dead ends
because that's how a labyrinth works in Greek mythology. It was also missing a
Minotaur.
After that we went and did Frisbee Golf. It was really fun. There were 9 holes.
You had to land the disc in this container thingy-ma-bob because that was the
hole you had to get it in. But it wasn't really a hole it was a container. The
frisbees were heavier then normal frisbees and they always veered off to the
left. In the end Dad came first, Mum came second, Olivia came third and I came
last with Crocodylus (because he didn't play).
Today we packed up and made our way towards the Adelaide Hills. We took the back
roads from Melrose passing through Wirrabara to check out its silo art (my
favourite so far), Clare to watch the fields and fields of grape vines go by,
and Gawler to grab a bite to eat. We made it to our campsite at the Hahndorf
Resort in the late afternoon. The kids had a play in the playground and pump
track while John and I parked the caravan. We then spent our evening checking
out all the other cool things in the park. The boys played their nightly game of
chess on the giant set by the lake, the kids went for a swim in the pool and
played table tennis in the games room.
Today we hung around the town of Melrose, which is the oldest town in the
Flinders Ranges. It has lots of beautiful old buildings and public art scattered
around the main strip. We had a look at the mountain bike trail maps in the area
but decided it that 30°C was too hot to go for a ride, so wandered over to Jacka
Brothers Brewery for a drink and a few rounds of Uno before we retreated back to
the caravan park for the afternoon.
Today we packed up and headed off again (after a quick game of pool). We
continued our journey east along the Erye Highway. We stopped in Kimba to have
lunch and a look at the silo art, the big galah, and the sign marking the
halfway point across Australia on the A1 Highway.
We then continued through Port Augusta and passed the turn off that took us
north to the Flinders Ranges back in June - and therefore completing our loop of
the middle and west coast of Australia. Rather than continuing to Adelaide on
the A1 we veered south east towards Melrose in the southern Flinders Rangers. It
was a pretty long day in the car, so we arrived at the Melrose Caravan Park late
in the afternoon.
After dinner we had another movie night. This time we picked The Iron Giant.
Today we went on a sea lion and dolphin snorkeling tour! I liked the sea lions
more because they were so playful, like dogs! And when Olivia (our in water
guide - not me) swam around in circles the sea lions copied her! When I was back
on the boat (which was actually quite small) We had Milo and Mum and Dad who
were still in the water found a dead Blue Ring Octopus!! Then we went to find
some dolphins to swim with.
It took a while to find some dolphins and we were just about to give up and head
back when we found some! We all quickly got in the water and were watching one
when it swam away! Luckily, there were some others nearby, but it took a while
to be close enough to see them (you aren't allowed to get closer to the animal
than one metre, but the water wasn't the clearest) There was three of them but
they all lost interest after a while so we headed back to have lunch. On the way
back some dolphins followed us for a bit, swimming under and around the boat!
One of them was called Firefox and he has a hole in its tail! Though they don't
know how it got it. They are actually going to name there new (bigger) boat
after him.
For lunch Theo and I, along with another kid, had home made chicken nuggets
while the adults had a local fish called a Blue Morwong. It was so big that the
one fish fed everyone! For dessert the adults had rhubarb, strawberry and blood
orange pavlova and us kids had an ice cream. Theo and I had a Milo Ice Cream (we
actually also tried the pavlova because mum told the chef I like rhubarb! -
which I was unaware of). The lady next to me was from Canada! And some of the
others were staying at the same caravan park (Islands Caravan Park) as us!
We did a sea lion tour where we got to swim with sea lions and dolphins. It was
really fun. First we went to the sea lions, they were really funny and cute. If
you swam in the opposite direction of them they might follow you. One of them
played with a shell. But if you stood up above of the water (because it was
pretty shallow) they would go away. There was a male sea lion that could attack
you if you stood up. At the end Dad found an blue ringed octopus - we think it
was dead, which is good because it has enough venom to kill a human. There is no
antivenom for blue ring octopus.
Afterwards we went to the dolphin part. They didn't pop up until we were about
to go back. They eventually popped up so we got in the water. But once we got in
the water he went away again. But he came back with some friends. So we got to
swim with the dolphins. I could hear the dolphins talking to each other using
their echo location when it swam under me. The dolphins can get pretty big, 2-3
meters.
Then we got back in the boat and headed back to land. We got to have a hot
shower then we had lunch. The kids lunch was chicken nuggets and the adults had
fish. Afterwards the adults had pavlova and the kids had ice cream. Olivia and I
also had a bit of pavlova.
After lunch Dad and I went down to the beach because there was lots and lots of
crabs. Some of them had arms longer than their bodies.
Today we did a bit more site seeing along the coastal scenic drives. First we
headed back out to see Whistling Rock and the Blowholes to see if they were a
bit more active (it was closer to high tide). The Whistling Rocks was making a
lot more noise, but sadly the Blowholes were still not spraying any water. As a
consolation we did see a few dolphins swim by, and there were lots of lizards
running around on the sand dunes - it was rather entertaining watching the
lizards chase each other around.
Next we made our way to the Westwall Way Loop. Here we stopped at Smooth Pool to
spend time searching the rock pools for fish, crabs, shrimp, seaweed, limpets
and more. Once we had our fill of the pools we drove further down the coast to
Speeds Point and had a quick look out over the bay. To complete the loop we
stopped at Yanerbie Sandhill. We found a good spot to get out and have a play.
The kids did a lot of jumping down the dunes and climbing back up again until
they tired themselves out and it was time to head home.
Today we packed up camp and headed the 70km down the coast to the Islands
Caravan Park in Streaky Bay. We all agreed that the caravan park had the
fanciest toilet and shower setup of any caravan park we have been too.
While setting up camp Theo discovered that Waffle (the crochet whale) had lost
an eye. Until we could find a replacement eye Olivia offered to make him an eye
patch. He looks pretty good now.
In the afternoon we headed out on the Cape Bauer Loop scenic drive. Most of the
drive was on dirt roads, and with the late afternoon heat we saw lots and lots
of shingle back lizards basking on and beside the road.
The main stop was at Whistling Rocks and the Blowholes. The tide was a little
low for the rocks to be doing a lot of whistling, but we did hear it a few
times. We spent a while watching the waves roll in below the lookout and shoot
up through the small holes in the rock shelf. The next bay over from the
Whistling Rocks had the Blowholes, but the tide was too low for action, so we
had to settle for enjoying the view of the cliffs in the late afternoon sun.
We stopped in at the Streaky Bay township on the way home to walk out along the
old pier and check out the cage swimming area before grabbing dinner.
Crossing the WA/SA border yesterday meant that we had a two and a half hour time
change, so most of use had a big sleep in. So while it was 9:00am local time,
our bodies still thought it was 6:30am! While the other slept in I got up and
watched the sunrise.
Once we had packed up and made our way back onto the highway our first stop for
the day was at "Scenic Lookout 1" along the Bunda Cliffs. Here the cliffs jutted
out from the coast so we could see down to the ocean more clearly than from our
campsite. Our next stop was at the Nullarbor Roadhouse for petrol and to have a
look around. This roadhouse had the most murals, old buildings, and large
fiberglass animals than all the others combined. We even had a dingo walk in
front of the truck while we were waiting in line for petrol.
After refueling we continued onto the Head of Bight, which has several viewing
platforms to watch the southern right whales in the waters below. We were
passing through at the very end of the season and were not really expected to
see any whales. The walk provided some great views of the eastern end of the
Bunda Cliffs and the sand dunes to the east. While walking along the kids
noticed something in the water. Once the sun came out from behind the clouds we
could see that it was a whale. We then spent the next hour or so watching a
cow and calf slowly make their way along the coastline - diving down and coming
back up to the surface. We are having some really good luck with spotting mum
and baby animals this trip! The other highlight from the Head of Bight was all
the lizards that we saw along the paths. As we stayed at the Head of Bight
longer then originally planned we stayed for lunch too before continuing east.
The rest of the day was spent getting as close Streaky Bay as we could. We
passed through Penong for a play in the playground (and to see the largest
windmill in Australia), and Ceduna for petrol, before making it to a rest area
outside Smoky Bay for the night.
Today we got up early and continued our trek across the Nullarbor. First we
finished the second half of the 90 Mile Straight. At the end we found ourselves
in Caiguna, the first of many roadhouses that we stopped at today for petrol.
A number of the roadhouses between Norseman and Ceduna have a single golf hole -
in total there are 18 holes that make up the longest golf course in the world.
During the day we stopped at:
Cocklebiddy Roadhouse - to see the two rescued wedge tail eagles.
Madura Roadhouse - where we had lunch
Mundrabilla Roadhouse - which has some beautiful emu murals.
Eucla Roadhouse - which was the fanciest of the roadhouses with the best
playground, and even a pool!
The Madura Roadhouse was situated just below an escarpment that we followed for
almost 200km until Eucla. There were some stunning views as we descended through
the Madura Pass and back up again through the Eucla Pass.
Eucla Roadhouse was our last stop in Western Australia. A few more kilometers
down the road and we crossed back into South Australia. We stopped at the
Boarder Village to see the big kangaroo before continuing down the road to the
Peg 51 Rest Area for the night. The campsite was perched on top of the Bunda
Cliffs, with the Southern Ocean 90m below us. We arrived in time to see the
sunset along the coast, then laid in bed while being lulled to sleep by the
waves booming up against the cliffs.
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