Port Augusta, Port Pirie, Wallaroo

10th - Started off in Whyalla, stopped in at Port Augusta, where the power station was shut down but there's no replacement.

The Labor govt planned a concentrated solar salt power plant, that could be run even at night. The heated salt can be stored and used to run the plant overnight - amazing. It would have cost about $600 million. Instead the Libs built an interconnector to NSW for cheap electricity that cost $1500 million. Seems really dumb to me to spend twice as much and to have no local power boost. Libs hate renewables that much.

Marie and imaginary friend in Port Augusta.

Stopped at Port Pirie, which has an amazing number of historical buildings.

Main street is a 4 lane highway, with a one lane garden in the middle, and 45 degree parking, still no room for a bike lane, despite the need. We had a picnic lunch in the local park, v good.

Finally got to Wallaroo. It's a bit disappointing with the lack of beach, the big car park and modern shopping centre in the middle. Got 3 mains for dinner for 4 of us, and I have to say I am absolutely stuffed.

Left: the Town Hall is way too big for a tiny town.

Staying in a v cool little pub, with a large comfortable well done room. It feels like it's been a big big day today. I am really sick of driving all the time.

Whyalla

Finally got to Whyalla. Staying in a pub with a LOT of character. Pub band is just amazing, some old dudes who absolutely know every note of their songs, and nailed it. Karen, in her short tight denim skirt and massive leg tattoos, pole danced. Her younger friend, who looks like a Penthouse pet Karen said, with even shorter shorts, and bigger leg tattoos, joined her on the dance floor. The old dudes drinking in singlets on the outer tables did not dance. Pub food was good! The room is quite ok, with en suite, and cheaper than so many caravan parks where we had to supply and pitch our own tent, then share a can/shower. I really love staying in pubs. I think the kids are used to the noise and weird characters. We only had 2 beers each, so this place is a bit wasted on us.

Went on the Steelworks tour. Lou was not listening much. He got steeled out. Everyone got steeled out. We had to stay on the bus for the whole trip. We drove around town for an hour. He spent a full ten minutes talking about the new fishing jetty that is yet to be built. Then we spent an hour driving around and around the steelworks. Interesting that it's been bought by Sanjeev Gupta, who plans to redo the rolling mill to allow for more products. He plans to built a solar plant to avoid black outs. He sponsors Port Power and a few other things in town. They will have a preseason match in Whyalla, and they will upgrade the AFL oval in town for it.

Went to the Elvis museum, which is really someone's house.

Every single room is chock a block lined with Elvis memorabilia. Such as the 4 Elvis clocks that chime different songs on the hour. One is a cuckoo clock of Elvis. He let a few people through. The mayor told him that he had a great little tourist attraction, so he opened up. All three bedrooms, the sitting room, even the kitchen has Elvis items.

In the back yard, he has a gold painted Cadillac. He let us jump in to take a shot. (somewhere on Marie's phone)

We donated a Elvis Purrsley card from "The Cat Game" to the museum. We have the photo of the card now. Also the guy (Pete) who lives in this place has a lolly jar and a CAT! It was Purrfect =^.^= :)

Whyalla is a cool town, the hill overlooks the steelworks and the sea in the other direction.

Many houses are heritage in great condition.

Coffin Bay, Port Lincoln

The rest of the drive yesterday was pretty borin. Got to Coffin Bay. Went to the National Park today.

Went for a good walk on Almonta Beach.

Did some time on the sand dunes. Got back late afternoon. A nice day. Currently trying to work out our next stops, as we've discovered we have run right out of time, and really only have 16 days until Christmas.

Rolled out of Coffin Bay, headed to Port Lincoln to the book shop. This is a second hand op shop for charity. Google said it was shut, but lucky we checked, as the A frame outside said "Open" pointing down the alleyway. The boys saw this, the book shop marked in chalk on the path, and they ran the whole way there, desperate for something to read. Louis got 2 Dr Karl science books, Marie got a biography of a Sydney foreign correspondent based in Beirut, Ollie got 2 Alistair Maclean novels which fingers crossed might get his interest.

Everything in town was open, including a large set of market stalls, as there was a huge cruise ship parked in town. We got some hand made palm oil free soap (I'd been looking for palm oil free soap like everywhere). We also popped into the bulk foods ethical trade shop to get a No Big Oil in the Bight sticker, and some dried organic mango, plus some Wasabe peas for Ollie. The Norwegian state oil company Equinor has taken on the extraction rights for Shell (or BP?) as they couldn't comply with requirements. Currently they've been asked for "more information". Needless to say extracting in deep water is very risky. A major oil spill would take ages to cap, and be a major disaster for the pristine coastline of the area, not to mention the breeding whales, the 80% unique species and entire eco system.

Along the way, we stopped at Cowell, just to use the can. It was pretty hot just now. This town is in great heritage condition.

Streaky Bay, Point Labbatt, Murphy's Haystacks

Get to Streaky Bay, in a spot next to Richard and Penny. Lou and Ollie get them to play Ultimate Werewolf. Penny is sly and wins as the werewolf. Everyone else fails the BS test.

During the day, we wander into town, which is in good condition.

Looks like a semi important old port town.

The local peninsula drive goes past some nice cliff coast with a noisy blow hole.

On the way to Coffin Bay, we stop at the Australian Sea Lion colony at Point Labatt.

They're not very playful today. Just a pair wallowing in the shallows.

A pup makes a noise that we initially thought was Ollie. What a weird call! He's almost in the middle of the shot on the left, a tiny bit up from the middle, talking to his mum maybe, who's standing up almost in the water.

Spoke to the farmer, Dennis Cash, at Murphy's Haystacks. He says he likes opening his farm up to visitors as he loves to chat tot he visitors. If he has a fight in the kitchen, he can always come up then chat for a bit. He had one family come in from Switzerland, wanted to use the phone. He let them, then offered them some roast for dinner, then the couple stayed. They promised to send some chocolate, and some months later, in came 12 boxes of chocolate, so the 10 kids and 23 parents had one box each. What a  nice tale. Apparently the Swiss couple visited once more with their kids.

We'd said we had the kids sitting in the car as they're a bored of seeing all this beautiful stuff. They're more interested in tablets and other devices. He said to get them out as they can run around the rocks.

And he was right! On cue, they started running around the rocks, a bit further on from the main haystack rocks above.

Murphy's Haystacks may not be the traditional name for them.

Coorabie - Fowlers Bay

3rd December -
During the day, we drove to Fowler's Bay. The town dog followed the boys onto the dunes. The 3 of them run up and down, and cover some distance away from us.

Debbie on Coorabie Farm did tell us the name of this doggie. She responded to "Lilly" according to the boys.

Looking over the town and out to the Southern Ocean.

The view over town, mostly holiday homes, and the jetty.

Fowler's Bay is a surprising little heritage town, with some charming homes, town hall, old post office etc, and some big sand dunes.

Left: the community hall.

 The old post office, now a private home.

Also drove to a nearby lookout. On the way back, Coolabie is an interesting kinda dead micro town. A great day.

We stayed two nights on Coorabie Farm. The idea is to finish off all the veggies before the border check at Ceduna. And guess who's here on the second night? Richard and Penny again.

Right: Penny poses for the paparazzi.

This place is awesome, nice facilities, good tree coverage, a kitchen with character (see photo to the left), fridge.

The farm hosts Poggy and Debbie are awesome, stay for a couple of beers, introduce people around, and get them chatting. We start the communal camp fire and everyone's chatting nicely. A school teacher, two retired IT people.

Right: me, Penny, Richard, Marie and Lou.

In the morning we take Fergus the border collie for a run along the airstrip. That would tire him out for at least 15 minutes.

Left: the Penong Windmill museum. Pretty interesting actually, and a good spot for a random stop.

From the Border Village to Coorabie Farm

2nd - as per last night, it's been decently drizzling, bordering on rain, enough to wet everything down.

At the first lookout, we had to walk around a bit to find where the track down was.

It was pretty cold. Marie was only wearing a long sleeve shirt, so we didn't stay very long. The view was amazing but slightly misted out further along.

From the same lookout.

Can't believe it's wet and cold here of all places, and in December. 19C max predicted later today. 39 in a few days time. Weird.

Rain is always welcome anywhere, just unexpected right here.

One of the official lookouts with the well defined road and built path. Don't get too close to the edge! The cliff is constantly slowly crumbling back into the sea.

The Nullarbor Roadhouse would like to announce that it uses the same amount of diesel every week as some big cruise on a huge ship. Further, they have to truck all of it 1,400kms. Could be time for solar, and dare we say it, wind in this windy location?? If they drill for oil in the Bight, and there's a spill, you might get a few less visitors.