Adelaide, Down to Mount Gambier.

We finished having a look around the peninsula and headed for Adelaide, or the outskirts anyway. We camped at Hahndorf and used that as a base for having a bit of a look around. Hahndorf is a German village just east of Adelaide and is a beautiful spot. We enjoyed the area, including Mt Barker a lot. The authentic German cuisine and beers were great.

We had a good look around Adelaide city and headed down to Mt Gambier to have a look at the blue Lake and well.................we've never been there before! 

Mt Gambier is a lovely town with the main attraction being the Blue Lake and a sink hole in the middle of town. Both spectacular. We settled down for a few days at the showgrounds as it was cheap and had massive lush green lawns to park on.

During December to March, the lake turns to a vibrant cobalt blue colour, returning to a colder steel grey colour for April to November. The exact cause of this the warming of the surface layers of the lake during the summer months to around 20 degrees C, causing calcium carbonate to precipitate out of solution and enabling micro-crystallites of calcium carbonate to form. This results in scatter of the blue wavelengths of sunlight. All very spectacular.

The sinkhole in town is like a fairy tale setting and quite spectacular. You can walk all the way into the hole where there is a lawn at the bottom and small water course running.

Whilst we were in Adelaide we were able to secure our next working adventure. Tracey was able to secure us jobs at Innamincka, a place we love and are excited to spend some time at. I will be carrying out maintenance tasks and bar work and Trace will be reception, cleaning and bar work. It's for 6 odd months and will start at the end of March. Not much out there, just the hotel at the end of the Strzelecki Track and on the Cooper Creek, we are really looking forward to it.

Ayre Peninsula South Australia.

Once we arrived at Ceduna, stocked up on fresh fruit and vegies and did a bit of washing it was time to head down the Eyre Peninsula to have a look. Soon after leaving Ceduna there was a turnoff called Murphys Haystacks. A collection of rocks in the middle of wheat fields. We found it pretty cool.

Bit of an artistic moment out at the Haystacks.

Smokey and Streaky Bays were our next stop, all these seaside town are beautiful places. We pretty much visited all the towns down the west coast of the peninsula. All were cool.

Coffin Bay

Into Port Lincoln next to get the cruiser serviced and to see a doctor about a strained/injured shoulder I have acquired somehow. Then up the east side of the Peninsula.

Well...........That Was A Long Drive!

After Albany we headed for a little town north called Hyden, this is where Wave Rock is and I have been wanting to see this place since I saw it as a kid on Ask The Leyland Brothers. We weren't disappointed, it was pretty cool. Hyden itself was a nice little town as they took a lot of pride in the way it looked.

Not quite Mike and Mal Leyland!

After wave rock we headed for Kalgoorlie, home of the Super-Pit. It's a massive gold/Nickel mine that has to be seen to be believed, HUGE. Kalgoorlie had some fantastic pubs in the main street as well, like the place stood still in time.

THE BIG HOLE !!

Lovely Pubs.

From Kalgoorlie we moved on to Norseman, the start of the 1200 Klm drive to Ceduna. Commonly known as the "crossing the Nullarbor" it's just a long drive with the actual Nullarbor Plain only a hundred or so Klm of treeless plains. A good drive none the less and another thing on our bucket list to tick off.

Yep.....No Corners for 146.6 Km.

Saw some massive rigs out here.

The drive was pretty good all up, the wind was a bit of a hindrance to the fuel consumption of the rig but you have to get there somehow when you have your home behind you! We thoroughly enjoyed the scenery during the drive and would not hesitate to do it again.

Some of the views along the bight were fantastic.

ENOUGH OF THE SELFIES ALREADY !!!!

There were plenty of camp spots along the way, some looking out over the Great Australian Bight, million dollar views.

So we made it to South Australia and onto the Eyre Peninsula.

Update For Craig. :-)

This update is in response to a friend of ours saying "Wheres the updates!!" :-) So here it is, bout time really. Been a bit lazy lately.

With the Grain season finishing in early December Trace and I packed up and left our little camp at Arrino grain receival site. We had a good time working there and have learnt that young lady backpackers from Scotland are lazy and the 17 year old boys from the rural communities are just as lazy. Putting aside the laziness we had a good time working there and picked up a bit of knowledge of the grain growing business.

That header is 60 feet wide, the widest you can get at the moment. It's a Case Header.

Unloading into chaser bins.

This is where it all ends up. In the bulk heads at site.

We traveled down the wheat belt of WA and took a right to Bunbury avoiding Perth. There were some lovely country towns down that run, one of which was New Norcia. New Norcia an old Benedictine Monks township where they educated nuns and priests. The buildings on this site were beautiful.

 The Priests chapel.

Boarding house for the boys.

From Bunbury we followed the coast down through Margaret River then on to Albany. We did the obligatory wine tour in Margaret river and had a great time, the wines there are delicious. The whole of the south west is quite nice, much nicer than the rest of the west coast in our opinion. 

We continued on to Albany visiting the Valley of The Giants and the tree top walks there. Great experience here as the trees are quite large and the walkway sets you 40m above the ground for a fantastic view.

Onto the Nullarbor!!!

Harvest Season in WA.

Time for a bit of an update. We have mentioned we organised jobs with CBH ( Co-Operative Bulk Handling) here in WA. Well, the season is on the way and we are here in Arrino working at a grain receival site for a couple of months or how long the harvest season lasts.

We were a bit relieved to leave Grealton as both of us didn't like it much. I'm not a fan of the beach and the jobs we had there turned out to be caustic to our well being. My job at Bolts 'R' Us in Grealdton ended up in a shouting match between the owner, an 80 year old recalcitrant, and I ending in a walkout by me. He was a shit of a man to work for and belittled the staff in front of customers. Three of us were there, none now. Anyway........enough of the pricks in the world.

Trace and I are loving being in the bush again and CBH are a good mob to work for. Trace is doing grain sampling and I am a RPO (Receival Point Operator), receiving the wheat grain into the plant and storing it.

There is no phone reception ( sitting at the pub in Three Springs composing this ) and about 3 houses in Arrino along with the receival site. Doing without the internet is a good thing as we tend to have a bit of a reliance on the internet and SMS.

 This is what we are harvesting.

 Trace at her weigh bridge.

 We only have to drive up the road 8 Klm to get internet and make a phone call on the mobile.

Were having a good time working some good hours and are expected to ramp up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week next week, good money. It's interesting to learn how the wheat farmers are doing their business and how the weather dictates the harvest season. As I sit writing this there are a couple of farmers talking at the pub about their crops and when and when not to harvest. Funny thing is, Trace and I know what they are talking about.

That's it for now. We have a couple of months of hard work up till Christmas and then we will be back on the road again, doing the south of WA.

Failed attempt to go camping.

We decided to get out of town during the week and go camping about 90K out east during the week. We planned to go to Coalseam National Park to get back out into the bush for a couple of days. We loaded up the car and the swag and headed out to the park. Wet all the way out and rain when we got out there, very muddy.

Too wet for the swag on the ground and it turned out you could not have a fire, so cold and wet without a fire did not appeal to us. So we had some lunch and headed back to Geraldton, on the way visiting a wind farm.

The wind farm sits just out the back of Geraldton and consists of 4 different companies and their turbines, 54 in all. Great sight out there in the wind as the blades are massive and make a fair bit of noise as they move through the air.

Trace giving some perspective at the large end of the blade.

Now to wash the car from the buddy adventures in Coalseam National Park.

That's all for now! We should hear confirmation of our employment at CBH this week or next. Getting a bit excited about that and moving away from the coast and getting out bush again.

Geraldton............For Now.

We got to Geraldton and started looking for a bit of work. We have the ambition to work the wheat harvest here in the west and we are in the wheat belt, so good a place as any.

 

Geraldton Port and a bit of town.

We registered for the harvest and got interviews and practically have the job, just waiting for the confirmation email. They love couples working at the remote grain receival sites as many people don't want to go out bush. We want to!!

Geraldton is not to our liking, Trace and I both don't like it much but we have jobs and the harvest starts in a month or two so......... We had a look at the HMAS Sydney monument that is here in town and it's fantastic. The HMAS Sydney sunk off the coast of WA and took 645 men in WWII. There is a seagull in the dome for every man.

Life here revolves around a bit of fishing and a large port for ore and Wheat. I am again working in a hardware shop selling tools, bolts and Nuts. I don't like the job, but it puts money in the bank. Trace is working for the caravan park we are staying in which gives us cheap site fees, water, gas and power.

We are both looking forward to starting to work for CBH Group (Co-Operative Bulk Handling) and heading out bush. The windy wet weather on the coast does not impress either of us. :-)

We are still having a ball though!