Well the night just got better and better, as the sun dropped down the woodland came alive with shadows, light and movement, we sat back and enjoyed it all, and then as darkness finally fell, retreated inside and put on a movie “Super Mario Brothers” the original and one of our favourites from eons ago. We laughed all the way through. then thinking about dinner we said “nah” so made the bed and crashed, slept solidly until the early hours of pre dawn when we sat up inside the van and let dawn reverse the dusk of the night before. The dawn chorus was musical to say the least, we were kind of surprised, when looking out, that no other campers had joined us overnight.

Pack up and move on… never in the same place twice, that’s us and today was “History Day!” aka museums.

So back into Port Lincoln did the shopping we didn’t do yesterday, then a gentle toddle and drive around, out to Point Boston where we saw a nice young sea eagle perched on a nesting platform, then up to a reservoir/picnic ground/heritage museum… not what we were expecting, I was expecting a nice picnic ground, green lawn with picnic tables…. Electric modern BBQs, and like… well…..

What we got was a one way circuit around to the reservoir, with a look at the wall then back to the entry where there was a picnic area undercover but also a small heritage museum there telling all about the reservoir and the pumping system used on the peninsula, including interactive displays and other stuff … Like how a water meter actually works! Although the picnic grounds weren’t exactly lush manicured green lawns the museum actually more than made up for it. A nice spot when all said and done.

KOPPIO

After lunch it was onto another museum for today was, as we mentioned, history day… Koppio is perhaps the smallest place you have never heard off, but it is the site of a brilliant museum, based back in the pioneering days it is as if a family had walked out in the early half of the 1900’s and left all their stuff behind. Not only was there personal stuff, but all types of farm machinery that looked as if it had been solely designed to rip you apart limb from limb, then slice and dice you before compacting you into little tiny packets of…. well…. You! There was definitely no OH&S back then.

And to say it was huge was an understatement, it has the largest ‘Barbed Wire’ collection in the southern hemisphere… ‘ Who’d a thunked it’, imagine that a whole room dedicated to barbed wire… huh! anyway click on the image below to see a short slide show of the whole museum, Pictures always say more than words.

Seriously it is a fantastic stopover at $10 per head, easy to get to from anywhere in the southern half of the peninsula and well worth the trip. The staff were chatty and helpful and it is a very popular museum. So if you are ever tired of stunning coastal scenery then head into the interior of the Peninsula, it’s like a different world.

Camp last night was at Yallunda Flats showground, not far from the museum, and while not everyone’s cup of tea, suited us fine. This place is a little unique, you have to be self contained, no power available but there are plenty of toilets around.  Its $5 per head by donation into an honesty box. No fires between November and May so it could have been even better if we had had a fire. We drove around the main oval looking for somewhere to set up, and decided down the back under some big gums seemed good, so finding a level piece of ground we parked and sat back. Wrote a bit and then went for a walk, exploring the grounds and various outbuildings. Found a great awesome shearing shed/ bar/ fire pit / stage place and thought about moving up to that but we were comfy where we were. Went back and had tea, watched a movie and drifted off to sleep.

This morning, was a simple drive in the country, back into Cummins to visit the mosaic playground, but first as we left the showgrounds, we did stop to take some pics of an old abandoned homestead that I would have just loved to have got my hands on.

So arriving in Cummins we pulled up at the park just in time for it to be invaded by an army of school children, like a plaque of locusts they descended on the playground and toilets, so after a few pics and we got out of there.

heading down the Todd Highway and back into Port Lincoln we stopped into “Rhapsody in Wood”, a place that does wood maps, engraved by laser, think parquetry but using a laser and creating a world map or indeed a map of anything with all the towns labelled and to incredible accuracy. It sounds easy but the detail was just incredible. The guys there were very friendly and happy to chat about their work, We wondered how we would continue travelling with the large world map in Little Bus, but decided to leave it there!

After that to the fish place renowned for its fish and fish products, we wandered around but left, the prices scaring us away, but we had decided that we should have fish and chips somewhere as we were in “Australia’s seafood frontier” afterall.

After negotiating Little Bus through the back streets of Port Lincoln, past an old mill converted to a lookout, we headed north up the east coast of the Peninsula, We called in at a few small bays which were typical coastal holiday home/ fishing shack spots before landing in Tumby Bay.

Now we had heard rave reviews of Tumby Bay off youtube, but as winter is coming the town seemed to be shutting down, the famous jetty had been closed for some unknown reason but otherwise Tumby Bay although larger than other setllments in the area, was really just the same. It did however have some Silo Art which you had to veiw from a specific spot to stop the kids from being cut in two, Standing there looking at it the wind was so brisk it actually wasn’t pleasant outside of our little bus. so back in and into town, We did manage to get fish and chips for a fair price, Good but not as good as our home chippy shop. The toilets just behind the senior citizens centre, where we had parked, made me smile as the gents had a condom disposal machine , $1 gets you a rugged and ready. Hadn’t seen one of those machines in almost 20 years! Go the Senior citizens yay!

That night was spent in an RV park just on the outside of Tumby Bay. This was a good place for a decent price, it had a dump point and level spots for those concerned about the slope of their vans, so we wandered in and parked little bus next to a gigantasaurous bus (basically a converted freight truck), and so ending the afternoon tapping, drawing, sketching, and partaking of the occasional beverage. We are a day ahead of ourselves now so just need to slow down a wee tiny smidge.

Catch you all next time

Al & Jo