2 – 21 April 2024

When I last left you, we were at Port Julia on the Eastern Yorke Peninsula. We were trying to deal with a nasty leg situation and Pete and Tony were about to go on a fishing charter. Well time moves quickly and so do our days.

Pete drove me the 100km round trip to the hospital several times over the next week for regular checkups. The wound, although very nasty looking, began to heal. I am resigned to the fact that the 3cm diameter hole will take quite a while to heal and a scar is pretty much inevitable. On a positive note though, I have become quite good at wound management including daily dressing changes. Even as I write this, almost 4 weeks after it all began I can’t believe how the body can repair itself. Although 2 staph infections and 3 lots of antibiotics certainly were unexpected and not in the plan.

So Pete and Tony went on their fishing charter with the voucher they won in the fishing comp. After a long day, they returned with a great haul of Herring, King George Whiting and Skippy. When they got back, it took another 2 hours to clean it all so was a really long day. They did enjoy themselves though and were glad to be able to go.

We used Port Julia as a base to further explore the Eastern Yorke Peninsula. There are so many little towns dotted all along the coast so we spent a few days driving north and south exploring and fishing as we went. Ardrossan, Port Vincent, Edithburgh, Wool Bay, Black Point and Stansbury all provided something different to look at and explore. The Yorke Art Trail with its painted water tanks, the water front houses and crystal clear waters of Point Black and the old lime kilns of Wool Bay were just some of the sites to explore. Fishing from each of the jetties was not overly productive but we did manage to catch a few squid and fish here and there.

So after a wonderful 6 weeks traveling alongside Tony and Sheryn it was time to part ways and for us to begin the trek westward. We had such a fabulous time together and no doubt will catch up again to explore another part of the country together.

We left Port Julia and headed to Kimba which is the halfway point across the country. You cannot come to Kimba and not get a photo of the halfway sign and the big galah, so naturally we obliged. We stayed at a free camp along with dozens and dozens of other campers. The camp has ablution blocks and the biggest, most well equipped camp kitchen imaginable. We parked up and relaxed for the night. The next day we managed to get around 680km under our belts and camped on the magnificent Bunda Cliffs of the Nullabor Plain. The cliffs are rugged, remote and spectacular. Most of the time the wind is blowing a gale which makes camping on the cliff edge impossible. This day however, the wind was mild and sunset with its orange, pink and red hues begged us to stay. We took the opportunity to cook what vegetables we had left as the next day whatever was not cooked would be confiscated at the border by quarantine officers.

After an early start, we headed for the WA/SA border. With the time difference, we actually started out at 7am so could put a big day in. We got to the border and had to pass quarantine before moving on. The quarantine worker was great and after a thorough look through the car and van, we were given the all clear to move through and welcomed home. Seeing as we had the early start we drove all day and made it all the way to Norseman, 900km from where we started the day.

We decided to slow down after Norseman and drove 600km to Cape Riche, between Esperance and Albany. This camp ground sits 18km down a good (but dusty) gravel road on the waters of Cheyne Bay and is extremely popular in holiday season. We found a camp site, set up and took a walk along the beach. Oh how we missed the crisp, clean white beach sands and turquoise waters of WA. Right then and there, we were glad to be back. Over the next few days we fished from the rocks and caught some great sized herring. We sat on the beach and read our books and we soaked in the warm sun.

Next we moved on to Windy Harbour along the south coast. The road was narrow, bumpy, windy and all shades of grey, like a well worn monotone patchwork quilt.We had been coming to Windy for many years as we had a holiday hut back when the kids were younger. We stayed in the campgrounds and managed to catch up with Barb & Jeff who we met last year at Cape Keruderan. They bought a shack around the same time as us back in 2002. Pete and Jeff went out in the boat fishing and caught a heap of herring and a nice size flathead. Barb treated us to battered fish and salad for the next few nights as we caught up and watched Freo lose miserably to the Eagles (if only we tipped them!).

Finally it was time to make the last 200km push back home. What a time we have had over the last 2 ½ months exploring another corner of Australia’s vast lands. We laughed, we cried (okay that was just me), we fished, we swam, we ate incredible seafood, we enjoyed the company of old friends and of course each other. Now it’s time for a quick 5 day turnaround and to ready ourselves for the next installment of Where2Next?