COW GALLERY

Port Fairy to Lorne (Thursday 24th June 2010)

Travel Day 197km.

Woke to a sunny day. One the road 10.30am

Turned the TV on in the camp kitchen and heard the news about Rudd and Gillard. This was all we heard for the rest of the day on the radio! We traveled along the Great Ocean Road enjoying the coast line and the beautiful sights. Arrived in Lorne and found ACCOMMODATION in Lorne. Yes, it was true we were going to sleep in a proper bed, have a bathroom we didn't have to share with anybody else and be indoors in the warmth so we didn't have to worry about what the weather was doing outside. This was good, wrong it was great. It rained over night and into the morning but it didn't matter to us, we were indoors overlooking the bay from our second storey apartment with all the creature comforts. Almost home.

Robe S.A to Port Fairy Vic. (Wednesday 23rd June 2010)

Travel day 287km.

Today we are going to cross over the border back into Victoria. Mixed emotions.

This morning was freezing cold. We have NEVER felt our fingers feel like ice in all our travels. When the sun came out it was warm with a beautiful clear blue sky. Thank goodness for that.

On the way out of Robe found the road we needed which had been unclearly signed as being CLOSED. We weaved our way around a few work men who stared at us as we drove past them and continued on our merry way. Further down the road a sign saying 'road closed' appeared again and further down the road again more workmen stared at us as we headed on our mapped route to our next destination. Finally we come to the end of the road we had been traveling on only to find big orange barriers set up blocking the entrance saying 'ROAD CLOSED'. We looked at each other and laughed as we realised what we'd done. We had traveled down a road that had been closed to the public! Never mind, we got where we needed to be with no-one else the wiser bar the workmen. As we got closer to Mt Gambier there were huge pine plantations everywhere along the road. They went on forever.

We stopped at Mt Gambier for lunch and it was freezing. The air was icy cold. Mt Gambier was much bigger than I imagined and again the streets were lined with gorgeous period homes. Before heading on we stopped and had a look at the Blue Lake. We set off for Port Fairy at 1.15pm At 1.35pm we crossed the border into Victoria. WOW, we are getting so close to home. Arrived into Port Fairy at 4.30pm. It's a pretty costal town with beautiful buildings. The houses on the river in the wealthier part of town were huge and very impressive. Out for dinner.

Port Elliot to Robe (Tuesday 22nd June 2010)

Travel day. 328km

Up at 6.30am. Mist was rolling in from the sea and as each minute went by the air was getting moister and mistier. Everything felt damp. After having packed up so quickly we decided we deserved to buy ourselves breakfast. The second one for the trip. In quaint Port Elliot we found the perfect place and had a great brekky and coffee. Before leaving we strolled down the main street and were amazed at the original old buildings still being used. Traveling along the B45 we came across an Aboriginal Canoe Tree. You could actually see where they'd cut out the canoe. Incredible.

We drove past beautifully laid out vineyards with grand homesteads in the background. The drive was really lovely. Happily driving along we were traveling through Wellington until we came to a grinding halt after turning a sweeping bend in the road. Water. The road was under water. Oh, this is bad news. We reversed the car thinking we'd come the wrong way. No, looking at the map this was the right way. Then looking closer at the map it actually says 'ferry crossing'. The road's not flooded. It was the Murray River! To cross the Murray River you need to catch the ferry. What an unexpected surprise. Onto the ferry we drove and across the river we went.

Had lunch in Kingston S.E. Had to take a photo next to gigantic Larry the Lobster.

Drove into Robe around 2.30pm. Set up camp and took a drive around town to see sights.

Strathalbyn and Handorf (Monday 21st June 2010)

Decided to do some sightseeing today and drove to Strathalbyn, well known for it's antique shops. We must have been looking in all the wrong places because we failed to see even one!

The old buildings and the beautiful countryside made up for it though. We travelled on to Handorf and Pete and I reminisced about the time we came here when we were still dating. We devoured some delicious chocolate and the girls had fun watching all the cuckoo clocks. After some lunch and checking out the shops we headed back to camp.

Port Elliot (Sunday 20th June 2010)

Got up early and went into Goowla markets. All we bought was food, food and more food. Purchased the most delicious pork sausages, beef pie, sour dough bread and mandarins. And when we stopped for a break it was more food! Coffee and cake actually on the wharf looking over at Hindmarsh Island. Later drove into Victor Harbor admiring it's gorgeous old buildings.

Parked the car and walked over to Granite Island. Took in great views from the walking trail on the island. The girls fell in love with the Clydesdale horses which are used for the horse drawn tram. The horse drawn tram runs from the mainland (Victor Harbor) across the causeway to Granite island.

On Granite Island looking back towards Victor Harbor.

This is the causeway that the horse drawn trams use.

On the way home called into historic Horseshoe Bay from which we could see our caravan park at the opposite end! Walked along the beach before calling it a night.

Port Pirie to Port Elliot (Saturday 19th June 2010)

Travel day.

Port Pirie - Adelaide - Victor Harbor - Port Elliot 320km

Woke up to someone singing opera. A man camping near us said, " if you want to see something different go have a look at the bloke swimming out in the bay singing opera. He's there come rain, hail or shine everyday of the year". We walked to the edge of the park and there in the cold grey water was on old guy swimming along head held high singing his lungs out. Opera that is. He must be crazy. It's so bloody cold. Well that's how we started the day. Today we were on our way to Victor Harbor until Pete got chatting to a guy at the park and recommended the caravan park at Port Elliot. So Port Elliot it was. We were on the road at 10am. It was raining. Made some phone calls to Kangaroo Island information centre to gather information and hopefully make an informed decision about going over to the island. After much deliberation decided it was a trip in it's self. So we decided to continue along the coastline and see more costal towns. Got a call from our neighbour to tells us our gum tree had fallen on our shed. OOPPPs. 12.55pm hit outskirts of Adelaide and were stuck in traffic. We don't miss this! Finally got through that and we were driving through the beautiful rolling hills past McLaren Vale and Rosemount vineyards. Arrived at Port Elliot 2pm and instantly liked what we saw.

Streaky Bay to Port Pirie (Friday 18th June 2010)

Travel day.

Streaky Bay to Port Pirie 482km.

Filthy, disgusting mice!. Kept us awake all night gnawing away at stuff outside. Folded up tent and found dead mice under corner of tent floor. How disgusting. Get me out of here.

So glad to pack up and leave. The antibacterial solution is being used alot.

At 1.40pm we stopped at Kimba to take a photo of the Big Galah and the Halfway Across Australia sign.

Kimba is located halfway across Australia between

the east and west coast as the crow flies.

Continued on until we arrived at Port Augusta. All the memories came flooding back of when we were last here...... we had gathered supplies before heading up to Alice Springs. It made me want to go back again. Arriving at Port Pirie the most obvious things were the wheat silos and at night the lit up smelter. We set up in the dark and the rain.

Streaky Bay (Thursday 17th June 2010)

MICE INVASION!

Mice gnawed away outside the tent all night. I just want them gone.

Sunny day so some house keeping was the order of the morning. Girls toiled over some homework. Mice scuttling around. Yuck. After visiting the information centre in town we took a drive to Point Labatt where a colony of sea lions live. The view from the platform high above the ocean was a spectacular sight in it's self. The sea lions were big, fat and lazing in the sun.

We drove to a few other coastal sights before realizing we had a flat tyre and headed back to town to purchase two new tyres. Late afternoon headed down to the jetty with our handheld squid jigs and fished for squid. A tip from the locals was, "look for the squid ink on the jetty". Emilia was the one and only to catch a squid. She was in such shock initially she felt so sorry for it she wanted to put it back! Back at camp we attempted to clean it so we could have calamari for dinner. But after ripping it's head off and not being able to get it's guts out AND ink squirting out everywhere, realized we had no idea what we were doing (even after referring to various google sites). Now I felt sorry for the squid. The poor squid went in the bin. There goes dinner.

"Does it bite?"

Squidding into the night!

Head of Bight to Streaky Bay (Wednesday 16th June 2010)

Sunrise at Head of Bight.

Travel day.

Nullarbor (Head of Bight) to Ceduna 203km. Ceduna to Streaky Bay 110km.

The wind picked up last night and we woke to a breezy morning but the sunshine was just gorgeous. Packed up and on the road by 8.15am. After studying the map for a long time we decided to head down to Streaky Bay. Between Penong and Ceduna we drove through a sandstorm. We stopped at the quarantine checkpoint 1km out of Ceduna. Being much wiser now days, we had no fruit or vegetables to declare. We ate them!!! At Ceduna we had lunch at the local bakery. About a month ago Ceduna had a mouse plague. Yuck. I was thinking of this while I was having lunch. I hoped they were all gone.

Arrived at Streaky Bay at 2pm. Setting up camp the girls came across a mouse behind our tent. A staff member who heard the girls yells of, "there's a mouse behind our tent!" said, "About a month ago you would have had 30 of them around your feet. We've baited them so the one's you see running around are a bit slow because their dying". I had a sick feeling in my stomach. My worst fears were coming true. It sounded like Streaky Bay had been, and still was, affected by the mouse plague. I hope this is the last we see of any mice. We went into town and had a good look around. Gorgeous town with beautiful old buildings. Had dinner at the pub. While eating dinner I was looking up and saw a mouse scatter across the light panel in the ceiling above us. I felt sick.

Madura Pass WA to Head of Bight SA (Tuesday 15th June 2010)

Travel day.

On the road by 9.30am. Back tracked a little after leaving Madura Pass to take in the view of the Roe Plains. It looked like we were in the middle of Africa.

Not sure where we would stop tonight so we studied maps. At 11 o'clock we stopped at Mundrabilla Roadhouse where a commercial was being filmed for police and nurses of SA. All the petrol pumps bar one had armoured trucks with lights flashing on them and a police car parked not far away. At first we thought we'd come across a police escort of some sort. Then we saw the camera crew. It was all pretty exciting really, listening to them yell out "action" over and over again until they got the scene right. Never thought we'd see that across the Nullarbor. Much to my disappointment, not an animal to be seen....yet. I'm still hopeful.

12.15pm crossed WA/SA Border and stopped at Border Village roadhouse and purchased a

loaf of frozen bread for $5.00 The basics are scarce around here. Fresh bread is a rare treat.

Sadly, closer to home. Just down the road we stopped at a road stop with gorgeous views of the Head of Bight and here we ate lunch looking out to sea. The coast line was so beautiful.

At 3.45pm stopped at Nullarbor Roadhouse/Motel for fuel. Decided to press on into 'the never, never'. To our surprise we were really close to 'Head of Bight Whale Centre'. In we went so excited that we might see Southern Right Whales in the bay. The sign at the front gate said there were 14 whales and 3 calves. We were lost for words as we watched 4 whales and one calf in the Southern Ocean. The sounds they made were like nothing we'd heard before. We watched in amazement, feeling so lucky to see the whales.

Emilia & Elizabeth on the viewing platform with the Southern Right whale in the background.

Southern Right whale and her calf.

Bunda Cliffs in the background at Head of Bight.

After our amazing whale watching experience (we were the last to leave), we realized that at 5pm we were too far away to travel to the next town and traveling at night is not the done thing out here. So we asked the lady at the whale centre if she knew of any places we might be able to camp that were close by. "Yeah you can camp here, just down by the hut you drove past as you came in". Somebody was watching over us. This was the end to a perfect afternoon.

Free camping with the whales just down the road in the outback. This was true camping, no power, water or toilets!! We watched another gorgeous sunset to top off the night.