Port Pirie – Whyalla – Port Gibbon

We had a great night out in Port Pirie last night – parked outside one of the girls house that I used to work with (thanks Lee-anne) which was very handy right across from the Oval where the dump point for our loo was (LOL).  We took Chip for a run around at the Oval when we arrived and were surprised to see a few dog trailers turning up and owners exercising their dogs – found out there is a big dog show on in Port Pirie this weekend (which is Labour Weekend so a long weekend).  We went out for dinner with a couple of the girls I used to work with and their partners last night and then took to the pokies….it wasn’t my lucky night but one of the girls (who shall remain nameless) won nearly $200!!!! 

After a yummy breakfast (thanks again Lee-anne) we headed off in the rain to Whyalla to catch up with the son of a friend of Mals who’s wedding we went to in Brisbane a few years back.  He has since joined the SA police department and has spent the last two years stationed in Whyalla but is moving to Renmark next week.  As soon as we got out of Port Pirie the rain stopped and it was dry from there on.  From Port Augusta it was all new territory for both Mal and I…though not much to say of the scenery apart from that it is a vast expanse of brushland….

Whyalla certainly didn’t have much appeal apart from down the foreshore which would be lovely on a nice hot day.   The drive in to Whyalla is dominated by the Steelworks and the mine as the pictures below show (if you want to see the piccies bigger just click on them)

I think Whyalla people must have all taken off for the long weekend as the whole place seemed really deserted as we drove around.  Here are some piccies of the foreshore

We parked up on the foreshore and Ambrose (Mals friends son) came and had a coffee with us.
We then drove through to Port Gibbon on the coast and have parked up in a freecamp area across from the beach.  Its pretty deserted, we have one other couple in a caravan in the area but no one else.  Surprisingly we have awesome internet coverage so can catch up on some online TV shows that I have missed and maybe a movie or two via Bigpond!  We will probably stay here for a couple of days and just chill out – Mal might try a spot of fishing (supposedly great snapper around these parts) and there are some huge sand hills that we will go and explore tomorrow. Here are some piccies of Port Gibbon and our set up

Southern Flinders Ranges

After staying the night in Clare we headed out to a couple of free camps sites around Koolunga – the first one was okay but a bit open at the edge of town so we pumped in the next coordinates for the one by a creek that was supposed to be about 10 minutes away.  It initially led us to a dead end as it couldn’t find the road so we pumped other details in to the GPS and ended up practically driving round in a huge circle which took about 45 minutes!  When we finally got there, it wasn’t that exciting …. certainly not the description that the Camps 6 book or the info I had found online led us to believe. 
We ended up driving across the creek to an area behind the reserve which is obviously used for trail bikes or motorcross.  We parked up and got the washing all dry and Mal mucked round doing a few things.  The weather was absolutely awesome – sunny and 30 degrees.  Chip had fun exploring though managed to find some sort of ‘poo’ somewhere and got that all through his paws (and dare I say by the smell of his breath ate it too)!!!  Here is a piccie of our spot – Mal reckons it looks like we are camping in a rubbish dump!

We woke up last night just before midnight to rumbling thunder…and then light rain.  Given we had driven across a very low bridge over the creek we were worried that it would flood if there was any significant rain, so we packed up by moonlight and drove back across the other side.  There were some campers already set up over there so we sneaked around hoping not to wake them up.  As the slideout was then on the road side (and we were on the edge of the road) we slept with the bed pulled in and almost slept standing up due to the angle of the caravan! 
We left after a quick breakfast and stopped off in a rest area to have a shower (so the caravan was level) and sparked up the generator so that I could blow wave my hair – funny how the simplest of pleasures can mean so much!!!  We are heading in to Port Pirie shortly to do a bit of shopping and then head out for dinner with some friends.  We will stop for the night there and then head through to Whyalla to catch up with some other friends before finally hitting the beach down the other side of the Spencer Gulf.

The road trip to Kalgoorlie begins

Monday was supposed to be our last day in Mildura – about 4 weeks ago we booked the caravan in to Jayco in Mildura to have two solar panels fitted so that we could be totally self sufficient on our travels to Kalgoorlie.  Mal even went back in the week before to make sure they were all sorted. 
We got up early Monday morning and dropped the caravan off – then went in to town to have breakfast with our friends Rod and Darlene….but on the way there we got a phone call from Jayco to say that they had forgotten to order the solar panels!!!! We were not happy to say the least – we did get them to fix our mixer on our hot water tank that we were having problems with and managed to get that replaced under warranty, and of course they were very apologetic and promised the panels would be there Tuesday to fit on Wednesday for us.  So change of plans – we headed out to Lock 9 Kulnine – out by Lake Cullulleraine about 1 hour from Mildura to park up meantime.  Below is a map showing where we were

We found a lovely spot by the overflow creek from the Murray River and shared it with the local cows that came down every now and then to have a drink of water and eat some of the trees around us.  We had Rod and Darlene out for dinner too which was lovely – and the weather was awesome.  Here are some photos

Chip even got a bit brave and tried to make friends with a cow…he hadn’t actually seen one before and was a bit intimidated…

When we didn’t hear from Jayco by Tuesday avo we rang again to check if the solar panels had arrived ready to fit on Wednesday morning….only to be told that another idiot had forgotten to send them…by this time you can imagine we were getting really pissed off….so Wednesday morning we decided to pack up and start our trek to Kalgoorlie – we figured that we can stay on battery and generator for a couple of days and then we will pull in to a caravan park to fill up with water and replenish the batteries, then free camp again – and in the process save ourselves the $650 the solar panels were going to cost!  We haven’t even notified Jayco that we won’t be turning up tomorrow – I hope they will be as inconvenienced as we were!!!  What goes around comes around I say…
Today we had an interesting day driving from Kulnine to Clare in South Australia – below is a picture of our journey on the map

As usual we forgot about fruit and vegies and the fruit fly quarantine zones and not being allowed to take fruit or veg across state borders.  We came up to the usual signs and pulled over and left our fruit and veg for the wildlife – who I am sure are having a great old feast about now.  Lucky we did, as there was an actual manned station at the South Australian border and we did have our caravan searched, although they weren’t charging people but were pulling out all the fruit and veg they found and binning it.  Here is a photo of us lining up for inspection

We stopped off at Renmark in South Australia for a walk around and some lunch.  Its a pretty little town which sits along the Murray River – photos below

We hadn’t realised that this part of South Australia has as many (if not more) vineyards and fruit orchards as does Mildura – it looked really pretty and it was nice to see the familiar architecture of South Australian homes again too

We drove through Cadell on our way to Clare not realising that the road stops with the Murray River cutting through it – an old ferry barge still takes vehicles across, for free, and runs 24/7 – was quite a neat thing to do

Little Chip is loving the new set up in the car for his travels and every now and then he loves to stick his head out the window and get some wind in his ears….

We have stopped in Clare for the night and parked up in a caravan park so that we can replenish the battery, fill up the water tanks and do our washing.  We are going to head to a free camp site tomorrow and stay the night then head in to Port Pirie on Friday to catch up with some friends for dinner.

Coming to the end of our time in Mildura :(

We can’t believe that our 3 months in Mildura is coming to an end this week!  The time has really flown…and Xmas is just around the corner – yet again!!!  The weather is starting to warm up here – a beautiful 32 degrees today – so great to have the shorts on again and the caravan all opened up.

I have really enjoyed my time working at the hospital - I have had some fantastic births and experiences here and the staff have been awesome to work with.  If Mildura was on the coastline I would happily hang my hat and stay here.

A few things have happened over the last couple of weeks.  There was the big celebration of the paddlesteamers in Mildura a few weekends ago.  Mal watched as they made their way past the caravan park over the week prior to the celebration and after I finished work we went down to the wharf and had a look at all the various boats and paddlesteamers – it was quite a sight.  Here are a few piccies of the ones that went past the camp

Mal got to try out the hospital services on a personal level last weekend in the early hours of the morning.  We have got friendly with another couple we met here at the park and we all had a bit too many drinks last Friday night – Mal must have polished off the best part of a whole bottle of red wine himself!  He took himself off to bed at 10.30 pm – I was woken at 3.30am by what I thought was a car driving in to the side of the caravan – an almighty crash with the whole caravan rocking side to side.  I reached across to wake Mal up and he wasn’t there – when I turned the light on I finally found him out cold on the floor flat on his back – his head under the end of the bed with blood all over it.  I finally worked out that he had got up to get a drink and had passed out hitting the back of his head on something (still a mystery) and  had a gash about 7cm wide on the back of his head.  Had to wake up our friends to come and help me get him in the car and took him up to Emergency to get 5 stitches put in…..silly bugger!!!

I have taken a contract in Kalgoorlie Hospital (Western Australia) starting 15 October.  As part of the contract we have scored a one bedroom fully furnished flat for only $77 a week which is a bargain as accommodation is expensive due to it being a mining town (the caravan park charges $41 a night out of season).  Means Mal can get full time work as we can leave Chip at home without worrying about him.  The contract is initially 3 months but if we both like it there we will probably stay till the end of next year before we head back to NZ for Xmas and a few months with the family.  We have 3 weeks to travel to Kalgoorlie so are going to take the scenic route along the Eyre Peninsula coastline – quite looking forward to a bit of R&R!!  Our caravan gets solar panels installed on Monday just before we head off so we will be self sufficient to do free camping all the way.

Today we headed to the Perry Sandhills for a look out past Wentworth across the border in NSW.  The day today has been glorious – though the sandhills were a bit of a let down as nowhere near as big as we thought they would be (good ole tourism info!!) and although we tried very hard we couldn’t ski down them on our cardboard boxes!!!  Here are some piccies of our efforts….

not sure what these are????  they were everywhere - are they edible???

Tonight we are going out for dinner on one of the paddlesteamers with the couple from the park – we thought we had better fit that in before we head off!!