Whyalla, South Australia, AustraliaDuring the bowling week of the Streaky Bay Whiting Carnival, we decided to pull out of the Kimba tournament we were to play with Kerry and Neil McIlwaine. We would have liked to have had a couple of days staying at the recreation ground with all the lovely murals, but we were so over dodging the Covid bullet! They decided to pull out too and went off travelling with the other Geraldton Bowling Club couples. Only three of the ten Geraldton bowlers escaped Covid during the two weeks of bowling, and Peter and I were two of the three! We kept wondering when we were going to get the red line! Hence the reason we decided not to push our luck with another bowling carnival. We did actually consider heading back home, but the thought of one or both of us coming down with Covid whilst travelling the Nullarbor, helped make the decision to continue with our SA holiday as planned.
On Sunday morning we said goodbye to the others and set off for Whyalla via Iron Knob. We had booked to do Cuttys Glass Bottom Boat Tour on Monday morning. We had seen the glass bottom boat when we had visited Point Lowly on our way to Port Lincoln. It is a new tourist operation to view in comfort the giant cuttlefish who come to the rocky shores of Stony Point and Point Lowly, to mate each year between April and August. I have recorded more details about this annual historic event in my Whyalla blog of 19th April.
We drove into Minnipa because this was where we are considering a drive to see the Gawler Ranges. There in the main street was a bus the same as Les and Fiona's. There was no little Jimny Suzuki car behind, but it seemed strange to see a bus exactly the same parked in the street of this little town on Sunday morning! We parked at the end of the street as Kim had just rung me for Mothers Day. Perfect timing on his part because mobile coverage on Eyre Highway in SA is not very good! We both chatted to him for 20 minutes of so, then I took a few snaps to go with my Minnipa record. Before we left I suggested to Peter that we go back and have another look at the bus. Surely Les and Fiona hadn't gone looking at the ranges! There on the street was Fiona talking to a man who was working in his front yard. They had come into Minnipa to get fuel which was not an option on Sunday morning. The bus wouldn't fit under the roof at the Streaky Bay service station and Les had forgot to fill up the jerry cans. He had unhooked the car to drive the 37 kms to Wudinna. We could have helped, but we were just that bit too far behind them in leaving. Peter always has 20 litres of petrol and diesel. "He will learn" said Fiona. We talked with her until Les got back. She shared that this was the town that her Mum had grown up in and her Dad had had the butcher shop in the town many years ago.
Our lunch stop was Kimba where we fuelled up. We turned off Eyre Highway at Iron Knob, to travel the 53 kilometres to Whyalla. It was a pretty uninteresting drive. We only saw one vehicle heading to Iron Knob and one iron ore train going out to there! The land on either side of the road is an army military training area named Cultana Field Training Area. The military have a 75 years lease on the land and up to 2,500 personnel can come together on the site for training. In actual fact we saw all sorts of Army vehicles on the A1 heading that way on Monday.
We chose to stay at the other Discovery park on the southern edge of Whyalla. The sites are bigger and we could stay hooked up. I had contact from the rest of the kids later in the day and Peter cooked Streaky Bay King George Whiting for dinner. A different Mothers Day without seeing any of your four children, but still a nice day.
We left the park just before nine on Monday morning, so we were at Stony Point in plenty of time for our 10.00am tour. The tour operator has had 15 years in the business and I'm thinking maybe in Queensland, because that is where the glass bottom boat was made and it has been used on the Great Barrier Reef. He had a little van with a generator alongside providing power. He was making coffees, had eftpos facilities and the board did say toasties, but they were N/A today. A young fella whose name was River, had just swum out to bring the boat in. He looked very cold when he walked back up to change! There was a young family there with a retro van and they were having breakfast in the shelter. The father had been flapping around out there with his snorkel, goggles and flippers and he had seen a couple of cuttlefish, so he was happy. He was cold too and badly needed a coffee!
There was only seven who did the tour. There was another at one in the afternoon. The weather today was the best that it had been and according to their Facebook page they had done four tours on Mother's Day and had seen cuttlefish. It is still early in the season though. So we had to prepare ourselves that we might not see any. Not that they were going to tell us that! We did see some cuttlefish, but they are hard to see as they change colour to camouflage for protection. It is when they are mating that they become colourful. The boat also drifts over them quite quickly, so it is hard to get a photo! I think I did do very well to get one of the two that were obviously mating! The tide was low and I think that has to help as we weren't looking into very much water.
Tour over we headed back to Port Augusta and wherever our travels took us on Monday 9th May. We took a different road into PA and it was a bit of a billy goat track, but now we know where all those cars were going as seen from Eyre Highway, and we did avoid the roadworks. We stopped for a late lunch at Port Germein and decided we would head to Wallaroo for the night and made a booking at the Gday Discovery Park. The other park was too small to take our van.
As we headed down the A1 towards Adelaide, I noticed Lochiel on the map. My friend Pam H had taken me on a Flat Adventure to Lochiel on the Flying John Deere in March 2021, so I decided we should check it out in person. It meant we needed to go a little further down the AI after Snowtown. There are very dry pink lakes at Lochiel and there some distance out was the Lochiel monster Lockie. Peter wasn't going to walk out because he said it would be too mucky! There were people out there, so I decided to give it a go. The surface was surprisingly hard and Peter did follow, so we managed the photo shoot.
We then took a road from Lochiel to Kadina, turning back north to travel to Bute to check out the silo art that was finished in April. It is so beautiful. I just loved the rooster and had to send a photo to Pam H. She loves chooks too! There isn't an information display panel there yet, but I have found the following info on the web.
Mural artist Scott Nagy was chosen in August 2021, to revitalise the Bute silos as part of a $100,000 community art project. It was made possible by a Federal Government Grant which was matched by the Barunga West Council. The Top of the Yorke Peninsula community were asked to submit ideas as to what should be on the silo. The Bute 2000 Onwards Progress Committee worked tirelessly for 10 years to make it happen. The survey revealed that the highest priorities in the community were lots of colour and elements of local agriculture, flora, and fauna. Janne Birkner also assisted with the painting of the mural and it commemorates women in rural areas. It also shows the historic railway station, a Rainbow Bee-eater and a Blue Wren.
We had completed all that we wanted to see today. Next stop was the caravan park at Walleroo. And we managed to get there just before the office closed at 5.00pm. It's been a big day but a great day!
Jenny
2022-05-11
I love those frames for the photo shoot. They're the next big thing to do along with the silo and water tank art. Love that one in Bute. Will have to try to remember it next time we're over that way. Glad you've kept away from covid. WA's numbers are right up there now with 25% of the population down with it in 3 months whereas the US took a year or more to get to that rate. Daughter shared those stats. Keep enjoying. See you sometime.
Viv M
2022-05-11
I sure hope I get to see some of these on my trip :-)
pamandpete
2022-05-11
I sure hope you get to see some of them too Viv and I'm sure you will! Pamela Joan is working on your itinerary as we know. I agree with you re those frames Jenny. They do make for a great photo shoot. Thank you both for your comments.
jocelyn
2022-05-11
Love the pics and the Kimba silo artwork - I wonder whether that would be appropriate to add to Nancy Faulkner's story??? Arno Bay, Iron Knob, Pinkawillinie, Kimba her home turf before WA.
pamandpete
2022-05-11
Maybe not for the book Joc, but anything can be added to the story for Archives
Pam J
2022-05-17
Wow, you covered some kilometres!! Pleased to get some feedback re the cuttlefish viewing but I think Viv will still want to snorkel!! You found lots of artwork and even in Bute which had only been completed for a matter of weeks!! And what about Lochie? Your second visit there - at least you took Peter this time!! LOL!!
pamandpete
2022-05-18
Love your comment Pam J. Certainly brought a smile to my face. xxx