So we were homeward bound, and usually when we turn tail, we turn tail and run but not this time, that would come later once we left the peninsula. For we had decided; and righfully so, that the top of the Eyre Peninsula still would hold some secrets to be discovered.

But first leaving Port Augusta involved retracing our steps back the way we had come, heading past the graffitti covered water tanks which are an art form in their own right,

and through the military training ground, complete with some Australian Army LAV’s parked up and the crews milling around. Anything military always makes me want to stop and have a gander, but being on highway 1 this wasn’t really practical to do, so we had a quick slow down and continued on towards our goal….Kimba, or somewhere nice to camp if something else came up.

When you find a town name like “Iron Knob” you really just have to stop and have a look at it, just for the name if nothing else… the OMG factor at the state of the town might make most want to turn and leave, The tales Mark had told us about his stay there in the community campground certainly didn’t help but two set ups where there, so the place wasn’t completely dead, but it certainly made us want to keep on going to Kimba. We didn’t even get the camera out.

Otherwise we just sat back and enjoyed the drive before arriving in Kimba. We are staying in the free RV park and by free I mean free for 5 days, it has a great camp kitchen, PAYG showers but you still need own power and water. There must be 60 or so vans here… great to get them to stay in the community but I have to feel sorry for the local caravan park who must be losing money. That night we wandered down to the silos as we had heard that they were well worth seeing at night when they were lit up, I mean they were pretty good during the day but at night…well see for yourself, plus the town’s main street looked good in street light as well, it does have a slight western saloon town feel about it.

Anyway time to hit the road, we took a short detour just out of town to White Knobs lookout… they certainly have a lot of knobs around here… the view was pretty good, two sculptures of John Eyre and his companion overlook the town below. Down into town past the main street where another interesting mosaic resides at the RSL hall, and of course the infamous ‘pink galah’, leaving town it turned out that the caravan park still had a few vans in it, so good on them.

Instead of bolting for home, as we said earlier we were still hunting Eyre Peninsula secrets so we decided on a 170 km diversion to partake of the upper interior of the peninsula, En route we stopped at a ‘typical Aussie Pub’ at Darke Peak. Its claim to fame is it is the first pub in SA to serve XXXX beer… not sure that’s a good thing really.

Then down to Rudall which is really just a hangout for Bogans with number plates like Burnout, hell bent and fuckwit and huge blowers and lumps of metal sticking out of holes cut in bonnets….. Phil my brother would have loved the place! Across to Lock which was a nice little town…… Passed through one town which had a claim to fame as having a 24HR fuel pump…. A sad little place to stop at in a sad little park…. The café there had closed down sometime recently by the look of it, we had lunch with a few dozen flies then carried on to our stop for the night near Wudinna (pronounced Wud- in-Ahh).

Known as the gateway to the Gawler Ranges we stopped at the information centre checked the road conditions for the Gawler Ranges and laughed (as they haven’t updated them for a week) the girl behind the counter thought the road was dry, but there would be corrugations……. To pay for a camp, park entry and then do 120km of corrugations at a minimum meant it effectively put a “do not enter” stamp across that part of our plans, instead we opted to do a much shorter more pleasant tourist drive taking in some rock formations and Mount Wudinna…. Definitely the highlight of our day….

Mt Wudinna was a special little spot, not the least the scenery but also the close up flying of wedge tail eagles soaring around the rock in search of rabbits or anything else small enough to take on… A particularly low swoop made us feel like we were being checked out to see if we fit the bill as being small enough…. Thankfully not…

It’s the little things like that that make us feel we are in a special place. In fact we have enjoyed it so much we have stopped for the night in a lovely spot on the edge of a granite rock outcrop on a farm to enjoy the sunset and sunrise…..

Wudinna wattle grove campground is a fantastic little spot, a large outcrop with the campsites dotted around its edge, looking out towards the Gawler Ranges from a slightly elevated position. Cost is a donation of whatever you think it’s worth rated on your stay, which is a bit of a double edged sword, cutting both ways, some people will take advantage of it and not donate anything, others will put in a fair amount and still others will put in what they can afford too, but may not reflect what they thought. We prefer to donate in the morning.

As it was we didn’t have enough cash to give back what this place gave us.

A gentle cool breeze blows around the rock which sets a backdrop to what’s going to be one of the most perfect sunsets.

And it was, we climbed the rock just as it started, the golden light fading to orange then gradually darkening through purple to night, tucked up in Little bus we listened as the birds settled down and drifted off to sleep. Morning came, shrouded in the densest pea soup fog that we had seen on the trip, drifting over the fields and coming right up enveloping Little bus. The crescent moon a mere glowing soft focus light in the sky. Gradually a band of pink layered above the fog so after a hot drink, we dressed and out to take some photos, surreal, and quiet, the countryside unstirring, unusual for a farm let alone one with several campers on it.

But it was nice and after the sun finally crept up the fog started receding, we departed heading back into Wudinna. Where a quick stop in the park found us heading westwards to Minnipa. This also had a tourist drive with rocks on it including one they say rivals Wave rock. So we were looking forwards to it with interest.

Now, we have been on some corrugated roads before but this one out to Pildappa “Wave” rock was like a cobblestone street but where someone had removed the concrete holding the cobbles in place and substituted them with boulders… Not comfortable and not nice on Little Bus. This is the same road that goes out to Gawler Ranges, and if this 9km made us feel that bad about it then  it was a good choice not to have done the whole road!. Besides as Jo said, if we didn’t enjoy that bit then we wouldn’t have been comfortable on the longer road, and hence not enjoying that either, so the smaller drive and great camp we had yesterday more than made up for it.

As for Pildappa rock, we finally got there, it was much like Mt Ridley more than Wave rock, yes it had some shortish sections of Wave formation but so did the rock in the campground yesterday… and the road around it was full of lumps and bumps, we really thought we would have scraped Little Bus’s step but we didn’t. Well done Jo.

Deciding not to get out of the bus, we circumnavigated the one way system in little bus and then headed back, bouncing and rattling all the way. Not that Little bus couldn’t cope with the roads, it’s just that …. Well the Jayco build probably means going round with a screwdriver tonight to tighten everything up!

We decided to give the rest of the scenic drive and Minnipa the boot and headed over to Streaky Bay, we still hadn’t really had a nice fish and chips and thought the fish truck on the harbour might be the place, so we toddled over the 60+ kilometres and did a small shop in the IGA, and got our 2 gummy shark and chips for $20 from the little van, taking it back to Little Bus to eat. It was nice, but ours at home is equally as nice.

After that we went down to Sceale (scale) bay and had a look then back to Streaky bay, empty the toot, fill the water and head into Ceduna, fuelled up little bus, got some more drinking water, checked our last lot of emails for the trip and then we left, straight through Penong, ready to start the long trip home, suns about to get in our eyes so thinking we might give the last wombat place a try again.

It was a quiet night, and as morning broke we arose to fog and low cloud making sunrise null and void, today would see us back in WA, so it was a day dedicated to driving, seeing the cliffs again and eating vegetables before the quarantine station, which is currently 90 km away.

We have eaten everything that they may want to take away from us, our bellies are full and we toddle along doing 104 km/h approaching the border village, I must admit it, I feel sad at leaving what is perceived as the adventure behind but also will be glad to be back in our home state, it’s a little like changing countries going in-between states, long distances, and checkpoints, not literally customs but not much different, Jo has mixed feelings, tainted by the concept of having to go back to work, but yeah there are some aspects about going home that we enjoy.

The trip back was pretty much uneventful, we went south at Norseman to Esperance and stayed the night in a caravan park,. then next day did the trip home via familiar roads, managed to take a chip out of the windscreen in the process but otherwise Little Bus performed brilliantly, couldn’t fault her at all.

So we are home now, Journeys end…., time to start planning the next one… maybe somewhere warmer…. DARWIN??????

Till then , happy travels and stay safe.

Al & Jo

P. S. :- So the final tally for South Australia is wombats 0 whales 0, camels 0, skips a lot, emus possibly more and small flocking birds like starlings and blackbirds by the thousands…. oh and one mouse!

Cheers