Streaky Bay and the Western Eyre Peninsula

We're having a great time in Streaky Bay, South Australia.  It's on the western side of the Eyre Peninsula and on the eastern side of the Great Australian Bight.  There's not much except water between the shoreline here and South-west Western Australia, about 1,500km away.

It's a very restful town with plenty of amenities and as much to do as we want to.  An added bonus is the tasty seafood which is a highlight of the area.  We've had a few meals of delicious local oysters, King George whiting and tommy ruffs (Australian herrings).

There are 3 loop drives with plenty of lookouts which take in the magnificent coastal scenery; a combination of sandy beaches and rugged cliffs.

The Cape Bauer Loop is a 1-2 hour drive which took us along rugged cliffs to the Whistling Rocks and Blowhole.  The Whistling Rocks are tubes in the rock which whistle loudly as the waves crash into the cliff face.  The blowhole wasn't blowing while we were there although we waited for a while and fought with the many flies!  On our way back to town we drove past the mangrove swamps which are so important to the environment.

A couple of days later we drove the Westall Way Loop.  We stopped at many of the lookouts and took plenty of photos.  We drove down several 4WD tracks to the rocky points at the waters edge where we walked among the rock pools.  This was a great drive for scenery.

The third loop drive was to Point Labatt where we saw the seal and sea lion colony.  There were plenty of sea lions, many with young pups.  We watched from the lookout which is about 50m above the colony.

The drive back took us past Murphys Haystacks.  These are pink granite rock formations which, according to legend, were named by a Scottish agricultural expert who mistook them for haystacks on Murphy's property.

Our final stop was at Eyre's Waterhole, the campsite of explorer Edward Eyre.




We drove north 110km to Ceduna, home of The Big Oyster - another feed of delicious oysters.  Cherryl's father lived there for a short while in the 1930s.  It has a lovely foreshore and an excellent Aboriginal Art and Language Centre.  Definitely on our list of places to revisit, probably in 2014.  Another place to visit for delicious fish and chips for lunch.  The port at Ceduna is very big with grains, salt and seafood being the main activity.

We made a quick trip 300km south to Port Lincoln to get new tyres for our Landcruiser and called in at a local roadside bakery for some wood-fired bread - yummy!  We'll be on our way south towards Port Lincoln again tomorrow.  It looks like there's plenty to do there too.

South Through the Gawler Ranges

Our travel from Coober Pedy to the Great Australian Bight would take us through the Gawler Ranges.  The first few hours to Glendambo was on the Stuart Highway.  We had lunch at the Glendambo Roadhouse, then turned onto the unsealed road to Kingooya, about 45km west.  We called into the pub for a drink and to inquire about the road conditions on our southwards journey.  An added bonus was a fuel top up at $1.60/litre - the cheapest fuel since we left Canberra in August.

The road south alongside the Lake Gairdener National Park was not too bad.  It was corrugated and a bit rough in patches so we kept our speed down.  Our reverie was broken by the tyre pressure monitoring system alarm - a flat tyre!  We had started looking for a campsite after we left Kingooya and found a great site not long after we had changed to our spare wheel.  There weren't many campsites and none were marked in Camps7.

The next day we continued south through the rolling hills of the Gawler Ranges and past many salt lakes.  In places we were driving on the lake bed.

Before long we crossed the Eyre Highway, the road from Adelaide to Perth, and soon arrived in Streaky Bay, a small town on the eastern side of the Great Australian Bight.  We'll be here for a week and will be exploring the northern Eyre Peninsula while we're here.

Coober Pedy - Opal Capital of the World!

Who needs artwork when this is the view through the window?

We said our goodbyes to Alice Springs and our new friends and hit the Stuart Highway southwards into South Australia and daylight saving time.  We camped overnight at the Marryat Campsite about 100km north of Marla, the town at the northern end of the Oodnadatta Track.  The views around the campsite were stunning and we spent time just looking at the scenery.

The following morning we drove the 330km to the opal mining town of Coober Pedy.  We checked in to the Big4 Oasis Caravan Park and booked their half day tour of Coober Pedy for the next morning.

Coober Pedy is a very interesting town.  It's here because opal was discovered in the 19th century.  The climate is unforgiving.  It's in the desert and it very rarely rains.  Summer temperatures can climb over 50C.  Water is a very scarce commodity in the desert and the town's water supply is desalinated water from an underground stream.  There's plenty of water now, but it's expensive.  There's no water to site at any of the caravan parks.  There are several drinking water pumps throughout the town - put in 20 cents for 30 litres of water.  About half of the residents live in dugouts which are "houses" carved into the rock.  Dugouts are very comfortable at 24C summer and winter so do not need heating or air-conditioning.  They do need several ventilation shafts though and a TV antenna.

Our tour was well worth it.  We visited Saint Elijah's Serbian Orthodox Church which is underground.  The main chambers were carved from the rock in about 6 weeks.

Our guide, Rudi, was very entertaining and informative as he drove us around the town and out to the minefields.  There's no mining within the town limits these days - but we could see plenty of old mines.  Once outside the town limits we saw hundreds of mullock heaps where soil from the mines has been dumped.  Each mine has a shaft about 1m in diameter and 30m deep - there are over 200,000 of them in the area.  Shafts are open and are not marked so it's dangerous walking around the mine areas.  Opal is found at about 27metres down.  There's an area of mullock heaps in the town where anyone can fossick without a licence and we found a small opal chip in the few minutes we were there.  We were assured that there's plenty of opal in them for those who want to take the time looking.

On our tour we saw inside a dugout home and also a shop.  We watched a short film about opal mining that explained the history of Coober Pedy and the machinery used in mining.

After lunch we drove to The Breakaways, a series of coloured hills similar to the Painted Desert about 30km north-east of the town.  The area is sacred to local aboriginal tribes.  The scenery was  beautiful and we took many photos as we drove around for an hour before returning to Coober Pedy.

The Mbantua Festival

The Mbantua Festival has been on for the past few days and we have had tickets for the weekend sessions.  This is a festival of the Arrente people and it's about 10 years since the last festival was held.  We've learned a lot about the Arrente people while we've been here and we've been able to participate in some workshops.

On Saturday morning Robert attended a workshop given by the Hermansberg Watercolour Artists, he sat next to Albert Namatjira's grand-daughter, and Cherryl learned how to make Bush Medicines (yes they really work).  For lunch we had a mixed plate of bush foods - smoked kangaroo, bush tomato relish and other delicacies.

In the afternoon Robert listened to the Forum while Cherryl learned how to make jewellery from the small red beans of the Bean Tree.  Holes are burned through the beans using heated wire.






Sunday saw us back at the festival.  Cherryl learned weaving in the morning and pottery in the afternoon.

The festival was held at the Old Telegraph Station, near the Original Alice Springs waterhole.  There was plenty of art on display in the Art Market and the Desert Art Show.

We were entertained by the Ninja Kids Circus as we ate our lunch.

There were plenty of activities to keep adults and children occupied and the backdrop was beautiful.

We're leaving Alice Springs tomorrow after 4 enjoyable weeks.  We're heading back into South Australia.