SA 2024/25, 30-31 Dec – 1-2 Jan

Monday 30-Dec

Last day on the Yorke Peninsula and today we will drive all the way to the most southern end. We took the bikes on the back of the car to see if we could do some of the Yorke Peninsula trail on our bikes. We’ve seen signs everywhere and some of the path along the coast. However, we found out that the trails are more for walking and not really suitable for our bikes. Its mostly loose gravel and we decided not to use them today. We stopped for a nice lunch (Arno had a burger that not only looked good but was delicious) at a tavern called the Howling Dog. We visited the Corny Point Lighthouse that has been in operation since 1882.

The coast here is very nice with lots of hidden beaches and many boat ramps, what surprised us was that the boats are driven on the beach and into the water by tractors, some even are left in the water for the boats to return.

We found another water tower art, albeit this was just a small one in the middle of Warooka.

Tuesday 31-Dec

Destination today Port Augusta, and on our way we stopped at Moonta, a lovely town with lots of old (for Australia) buildings and a lovey park. They also had little signs on top of the street signs that were quite nice to spot. Here are a few pictures of Moonta, for sure worthwhile the stop.

While driving onwards to Port Augusta we noticed another large wind turbine farm, but we also saw a very bright light from miles away. We initially thought it was the reflecting of the sun on one of the wind turbines, but when we got closer it was clear this was something we’ve never seen before. What we saw was Port Augusta’s solar power-tower with solar energy focused by arrays of heliostats (devices that use mirrors to track the sun’s movement and reflect sunlight onto a target) onto a central tower where molten salt technology is used to store the energy as heat so the plant can generate electricity day or night. Very impressive and the way to go Australia!

Wednesday 1-Jan

Happy New Year to all! We watched the Sydney fireworks on TV and had a glass of Champagne to celebrate the start of the New Year. Hope you all had a good start of 2025 and that the year will be a prosperous and healthy one.

Destination today is Arno Bay, yes you read that correct. Before we drove to Arno Bay we stopped at Whyalla, which was founded as “Hummocks Hill”, and was known by that name until 1916. It is a seaport located on the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula and is known as the “Steel City” due to its integrated steelworks and shipbuilding heritage. The port of Whyalla has been exporting iron ore since 1903. We visited the hill with a few of their famous circular pier and when we visited the pier a few friendly dolphins came to great us.

From Whyalla we drove on to Arno Bay, this is a place we wanted to see as it has Arno’s name on the town, the caravan park and the hotel and most likely a few more things as well. We decided to park our caravan behind the hotel. You pay $20 for 3 nights and you get $10 to spend there as well, that is a good deal and we have a great spot. We are fully self-contained with enough water in the tanks for few days.

When we arrived at Arno Bay it was very busy with NY celebrations and we were glad that we decided to get here on time and not spent time in Cowell as planned. We will go back there tomorrow after we setup and secured our spot for the next few days. There was a new year event happening with lots of families and the hotel was bustling. We had a few drinks at the hotel to support the local business before having dinner in the caravan.

Thursday 2-Jan

We took the drive back to Cowell, a small town with lots of heritage buildings and a very impressive silo art as well. We had a coffee at a very cute coffee shop (a tiny caravan) before exploring the town and impressive pier. There were lots of families trying to catch a fish or crab on the pier. They had a great time and we enjoyed watching them get very excited when they brought their nets up with something inside.

We had lunch with oysters and King George Whiting at the pub, they are caught locally as this area is famous for it. The oysters where great but different to what we’re used to, (Sydney rock oysters) here they are not as firm and more salty but still delicious.

We drove back to the caravan, via a few stops on the beach and admire the rugged coast with steep cliffs and white sand beaches. We even took the car on the beach and Jen walked in the water to test it all out, we felt sorry that we din’t bring our swimmers as the water was lovely.

When we got back to the caravan we met our neighbours, two families with young kids on the road as long as they can. They had all the gadgets and gears (including a boat on top of their car). But Arno was interested in the way they refilled their water tank. They had a 200 litre bladder in the back of their car that they filled at the tap (some 50 meters away) and then emptied in their caravan! Great idea, so Arno asked if he could use it to top up our tanks so we could have a nice long shower. That worked like a charm, so another item on the “to get” list 😊