Port Lincoln to Home:

Port Lincoln -  Tumby Bay  -  Jamestown

 

 On our way to Port Lincoln we stopped at Venus Bay, this is a lovely little village with scenic views from the cliff tops. Next stop was Coffin Bay which is another fishing village and holiday area, also a  National Park. 

A View of Coffin Bay from the cliff top.

The plan was to drive to Port Lincoln and stop there for the night, but driving around the town we decided to keep going to somewhere quieter, Tumby Bay. 

Port Lincoln is a major fishing town and exporter of grain.

We stayed overnight at Tumby Bay, which is a small seaside town with some history. We read about the arrival of the first policeman in 1909 who had to sleep in a tent until a police station was built. His prisoners were tied to the local pier overnight and untied again in the morning!! Hopefully before the tide came in!! 

Renmark 

We have retraced our steps from Jamestown to Burra and from there we travelled around 1,500 Klm.

I think it is just as well we only have one more night ‘somewhere’ before we will be home, it is now becoming a case of where were we yesterday! Seriously we have travelled through some beautiful countryside growing a lot of Canola & Wheat etc and it is definitely Sheep country, we arrived at the caravan park which is on the Murray River. 

A National Trust Lift Bridge on the Murray River.

It is about 1½ hours drive from here to Mildura where  Brenda’s brother, sister in law and niece live, they visited us here today to catch up with Brenda & David, it was lovely to meet up with them again. Maurie Brenda’s brother, makes a ‘mean’ muesli slice Yum. To drive from Mildura to Melbourne is 5 hours plus, so they don’t see each other too often.

This is a way of life for a local idendity who lives on and travels the Murray River.

Beauford  

It has been a long drive from Renmark today 570 klms, stopping along the way for our usual cuppa and again for lunch. This is our last stop before we arrive in Melbourne!  The car & caravan stay hooked up for the night and then we will hit the road for the last time!

What a lovely picture to wake up to here at Beaufort Lake Caravan Park.

Where's the Wellies / Gum Boots?

Melbourne

As we set off from Beauford it is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of our Trip/Holiday, It has been a fantastic experience to travel the roads we have and to see the most amazing places, which is too many to list, hopefully our Blog has been able to let you see some of these places we travelled through and have been able to pass on some of our experience to you.

On the road into Melbourne we stopped off for our last morning coffee at the McDonald’s Trucking Stop. It has huge parking bays for the Truckies and McDonalds have supplied them with a lounge, shower facilities, washing machine etc…  Brenda & I thought it looked as good as what we were offered at our last Caravan Park!! On second thoughts we did have a better view at the Caravan Park.

The Last Morning Cuppa.

This is where we say goodbye to each other as we head into the heavy traffic of Melbourne City.

Jim & I would like to take this opportunity to say a big Thank-You to David & Brenda for their company and all the fantastic memories we now share.  Also teaching us how to play the game of Rummikub.

 

What a beutiful Sight to end our Trip.

 Until the next Trip:

Kalgoorlie to Streaky Bay

Kalgoorlie – Streaky Bay:

 

We drove 560 klms to Nullarbor Roadhouse today stopping at Norseman, Balladonia and Scenic views overlooking the great Australian Bite on the way, staying overnight at the Nullarbor Roadhouse.

Trucks fueling up for their long trip across the Nullarbor

A couple of Camel Herders on their way across the desert.

Today is another long drive to Streaky Bay 540 klms. Our next stop-off on the way was at Head of the Bite which is a Whale Watching Site. It is one of the most spectacular whale watching sites in South Australia (or indeed the world) is the Head of the Bite, near the Nullarbor Plain. Whales take up ‘residence ’for an entire 5 month period between June-October and remain within a 15km long section of coast.

Coastline along the Great Australian Bite.

We were sceptical if we would actually see any whales but were pleasantly surprised at how many we did see!!  It was spectacular to watch these whales swimming around just off shore from where we were, (about 15 mtrs) and there was soo many and some with their calves!!  We found out later that the total sighting for the day was approx 150.

Southern Great Right Whales in the Great Australian Bite.

Wales at the Head of the Great Australia Bite.

Ceduna was our next stop a bit of nostalgia for Jim & I as we drove through here 49 years ago, it has grown some since then and is a lovely little town now compared to back then.

 

Ceduna the same spot where we stopped 59 years ago.

Streaky Bay   

This is a lovely coastal town and the caravan park is situated along the shores of the Bay, how nice it is to be beside the Sea again after being in-land. Staying 2 nights here which is good to unwind from the driving.  

Sreaky Bay! The photo does not pay it justice.

     

Kalgoorlie Gold Mines

Southern Cross 

We stayed overnight here on our way to Kalgoorlie.  It was a Gold Mining Township in the 1800’s with big wide roads, about 25 metres wide, so that the Camel Trains could turn around!! This was the way of transporting goods to the goldfields etc.

Kalgoorlie:

We have met up again with David & Brenda after travelling in different directions for two weeks, we are staying here in Kalgoorlie for the next 3 days. 

Today the men folk decided to visit the Mining Museum and Super Pit display, so instead  Brenda & I  decided to ‘Hit’ the shops for some retail therapy after 10 weeks on the ‘road’. We did manage to find a few shops and some bargains as well.

The Open Cut Gold Mine conducts tours and we have managed to get booked on one, there was only 4 seats left, so it was our lucky day.  The bus picked everyone up in town and took us out to the Super Pit which is an open cut gold mine.

Arial view of the Open Cut Mine at Kaloorlie

This was the biggest open cut mine in the world, until recently and has now been relegated to the third biggest mine.

View point from the Public Viewing Area

The first impression is awesome you really have to see it to believe it, it is 1.55 Klm. Wide and 3.7 Klm. Long. It runs 40 Dump Trucks that carry 240 Tonnes of ore each and worth 4.4 Million Dollars each.

Some facts and figures on this Huge Dump Truck

It takes 7 loads of ore to get about a golf ball size of Gold. It also takes about 240 tonnes of ore to get enough gold to make a wedding ring.

Just to give a comparison of how big these trucks are.

A Face Shovel with an 80 Tonne Bucket

We also had our photo’s taken standing next to some of the Big Machines. 

This is David standing under this Monster Truck.