65th Birthday

Well what happened to the last couple of months? I didn't realise until I started this post that I hadn't actually said we were back home in Albany, sorry.... Anyway we arrived home safe and sound from our 6 months on the road, our house was fine, looked after by a house sitter and we settled back into being home. The house seemed so big after being in the van, so much space around us, we both missed being in the van and travelling but good to be back.

We haven't been away in the van since coming back, things get in the way, appt, commitments etc, but we did have two weeks away recently. We house/dog sat for Debbie and family while they went to Rottnest Island for a week and then we all went to Gracetown where we shared a house for 5 nights, this co-incided with my 65th Birthday so of course lunch out to celebrate, and we went to Eagle Bay Brewery, excellent place would recommend. Deb also decided on bushwalking, first walk was 5ks and then the next day she said it was only 3ks but she lied...... It was 6ks, mostly because we got a bit lost...but great fun and saw some lovely wildflowers. Fishing on the beach was on the agenda but only two herring caught as the sea was a bit rough, we had excellent coffee at Yahava and lunch at Margaret River Bakery, an awesome time with family and lots of laughs

Kangaroo Paw

Butterfly Orchid

Lizard looking for ants in the tree, gave him a wide berth

A well earned rest on the Cape to Cape walk 

The lovely house we stayed in

Each bedroom had patchwork quilts on the bed

Breakfast on the back deck with Bentley getting his share

Beautiful sunset and clouds

And Birthday lunch

Down and around the Peninsula

After Tumby Bay we set off to the bottom of the Peninsula and Port Lincoln, we stopped about 25 mins down the road for our morning tea at Louth bay and....... We stayed for two days!! Lovely spot and the sun was shining, the jetty was beckoning Brian so we set up camp in a little spot they have there. It was a great couple of days, sun shine, Brian caught squid of the jetty, walks along the beach. We had stayed here before but the weather and the fishing wasn't as kind then. We woke up Wednesday morning to rain so headed into Port Lincoln which is a good size town, stayed at the caravan park and it rained for most of the two days we were there,, so it was coffee and shopping, we found a great fish and chip shop, had a great feed on Thursday night, best I have tasted.

We have moved up the peninsula now to Elliston a small little town on the coast and the weather was kind today and gave us a lovely sunny day, we took Bentley for a good run on the beach while the weather was fine but I think rain is on the way. 

We will be moving on tomorrow to Haslem Beach a spot we stayed at when we started our trip 6 months ago, from there we will be heading back west travelling over the Nullabor and into WA and home to Albany. It will be good to be home but after 6 months the caravan feels like home too.

Squid, over the two days we had 5 squid

Best to sit and wait for Brian to come back from fishing

Squid, breadcrumbed  and also tossed in garlic and chilli

A few shots of Louth Bay

And then on to Elliston

I think he is smiling ....

And of course the lost Grandad

Back in South Australia

Well we are back in SA on the Eyre Peninsula,  after Andamooka we travelled south to Port Augusta and stayed a couple of days at the caravan park while the Triton had its 30,000 service. I took advantage of a day with power and got Thelma out from under the bed and had a cook up, Thelma cooked, lentil bolognaise, kidney bean chilli sauce for nachos, pumpkin soup and finally an apple cake. Ate the apple cake quickly but the rest went in the freezer.  We have slowly moved down the peninsula, staying at caravan parks or Showgrounds  as it is winter and cold and we need the heater !!! 

At the moment we are at Tumby Bay, we stayed here on our trip in 2012, we took advantage of the local RSL club meal on Friday night $10 roast with desert. Lamb this time, not in cattle country now....

Followed by Apple crumble and cream, what a bargain, great social evening and I took my lamb back to Bentley. Today Sunday the local hotel had roast on $13 so off we went, Buffett style and such a lot, chicken this time for me so Bentley missed out, fresh fruit salad and cream to finish, so so full when we finished we took a walk along the foreshore, and of course neither if us feels like any tea but planning on making a soda bread after watching River Cottage on TV which is a UK based series and the last episode was on bread and we thought why not an easy Soda bread and cheese and glass of wine for tea......

.

While Thelma and I were busy Brian and Bentley got together

Nice and clean now

Apple cake, didn't last long......

Finally some green grass says Bentley

And sand and water...

Tumby Bay

Andamooka

Travelling south again we went to another Opal mining town, Andamooka. It's a lot smaller town than Coober Pedy and opal mining here seems to be more open cut than digging mine shafts. Interesting was the old miners cottages which although not underground they were built into the hills.

We had a drink and meal at the pub, very friendly crowd.

On our way to Andamooka we hit strong winds so pulled in early and camped at a rest stop, didn't get any rain just the rainbow

A few of the old cottages

Meal at the pub

Brian's pork spare ribs, I had chicken pasta, very tasty but filling

Coober Pedy

Travelling south from Alice we stopped at Coober Pedy, an opal mining town which we had visited last time we were in this area nearly 20 years ago. A lot of the homes here are built underground as they mine into the rock to find opal and create a home too, very hot here in the summer and cold cold mornings in the winter, very little rain.  We had little choice of campgrounds only about 3 caravan parks and all very busy and crowded. Coober Pedy was very dry and dusty while we there, in fact walking up the Main Street became impossible because of the dust blowing around. We did have a drive to the Breakaways which are rock formations which have broken away from the Flinders Ranges, 500 ks South million of years ago and have erosion from the winds forming unique formations.

Travelling into Coober Pedy you see all these mounds of rubble from mine shafts 

The Breakaways, the white and yellow formation are named the Castle or Salt and Pepper

We are looking down on the Breakaways and later drive down there. Lots of movies and commercials are filmed in this area, Mad Max being one.

A closer look at the Castle or Salt and Pepper

A bet this has some great colours in as the sun hits it. It was getting very windy at this time and I took this photo from the car

The dog Fence over 5000ks of fence to keep the dingos north and not south into farming land, another photo taken from the car!!!

Looking over Coober Pedy, you can see the dust storm, we tried to walk around town but gave up!!

Chocolate Eclair we brought from the Bakery, it was the highlight of my stay there!! 

Alice springs

We spent a few days at Alice after our fossicking. It's been nearly twenty years since we last visited Alice and it's has grown, it's busier, more shops, police and security constantly cruise the main shopping area, paid parking in the shopping centre we went to, and I'm  not sure if it was because of the Alice show being on but we found the shopping centres and mall very quiet, except for Woolworths, which was busy busy.....

We had very cold mornings while in Alice, minus 2 degrees each morning with ice on the water tap outside the van and ice on the windscreen of the car........... Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, fortunately the days were a warm 20 degrees.

We had to pay for our power in the caravan park and even though we had the fan heater on from about 6.30 till at least 8 am we only averaged an extra $3 a day electricity making it $24 a night to camp, very reasonably we thought.

We spent some time at the Alice Show, which we did when we came here in 1995 too.

Alice Springs Show

Our campsite 

Lovely backdrop

We took Bentley a walk along the dry creek bed

And of course the lost Grandad, I think Bentley is there too

Looking back to the campsite from the creek bed