Well the first thing we needed to do was make a video to send to Tammy for her 41st birthday.  We have made a few birthday ones since we have been away.  So we got ourselves together in the van and sang 'Happy Birthday'.  Peter did pull a strange face before we got started and maybe that was what made the two kids laugh!  Tammy told us later in the day, that even Issy laughed at the video!  If our singing made them happy, then we are happy!

We left Whyalla about 10.00am after visiting the 'Maritime Museum' at the Visitor Centre. It closes at 3.00pm each day, so we weren't able to fit the Museum in after our tour of the Corvette ship, the 'Whyalla' yesterday. We were undecided about going back this morning, but the lady at the Visitor Centre said she would open the Museum an hour earlier. That enabled us to go through at 9.00am. It was worth doing.  The Museum has been put together in the old recreation building on the site of the BHP Single men's Quarters.  The BHP buildings are all being used for different purposes. The original checked vinyl tiles have been left on the floor, so the building is as it was, when built in 1942.  The blackboard out the front of the Visitor Centre said it is going to be 39 degrees today with a late thunderstorm. One would think it will definitely get to that temperature. It was 34 degrees at 9.15am.  That was real time, not damn daylight saving!  There was lots of info on the ships that were built at the BHP shipyards. I did take a snap of framed photographs of 'Carolyn Heinrich'. Pretty little girl who was the pin up girl for the SS Gawler in 1945. I wonder if she fits somewhere in Val, Coral and Julie's family tree.  The countryside was very flat with only low salt bush growing on it, for the first part of the trip further down Eyre Peninsula.  Quite uninteresting, stretching for kms and kms and we are too far from the coast to see any water. Hopefully it won't be like this for the 102 kms to Cowell.  That is to be the first leg of our travel to Port Lincoln.   The scenery did improve a little after 50kms.  There were a couple of iron ore mines and harvest was in full swing with a couple of 'red fellas' (Case headers) going back and forth. It wasn't that long ago we would say 'round and round'. Now with 'Precision' farming it is the other. Many farmers now use a GPS and auto steer.  The land that has been cleared for cropping is mallee country and very rocky! A comment from Peter is that....."It is heartbreak country"! 

We stopped for lunch at 'Arno Bay'. It was hot and a very dry wind. The small settlement on the bay reminded me of Drummonds. Big seaweed bank at the end of the bay and you would have had to pick your spots for a swim, to get away from weed! We walked a little way out onto the jetty and then came back and checked out the 'Super Shed'.   There was information and photos around the walls telling the history of the town.  The 'Super Shed' was where all the cargo in and out of 'Arno Bay' was loaded into.  Before we had left a number of local workers had come down to eat their lunch in the shed.   The 'Super Shed' is 20 metres by 10 metres and was erected in 1912 at a cost of 407 pounds, 12 shillings and 1 pence.  In 1946 a concrete floor was put in the shed to raise it to truck level.  In 2008 a major upgrade was completed to extend the life of this very useful super shed.  When we got back in the car the temperature gauge was saying it was 40 degrees.  Sure did feel like it too!  The truckies were on the two-way saying everyone will be harvesting by the middle of next week and there will be trucks everywhere. Good timing for us. We will be on the Nullarbor!'

Port Neill' was a few kms off 'Lincoln Highway', so we drove in for a look.  Just so we could say we had been there! The towns on the east side of Eyre Peninsula are all very much the same! An old pub, a jetty, caravan park and a few homes. There are shops that are no longer operating, some more derelict than others. Only difference here to Arno Bay, was that Port Neill had some grass on the foreshore and an old anchor. It didn't take us long to drive through Port Neill.   By the time we got to 'Tumby Bay', an hour after our lunch stop, there was a beautiful cool sea breeze and the temperature had dropped 15 degrees. It was a lovely 25 degrees.  Tumby Bay was a bit bigger town.  Two pubs here and a motel and quite a few shops.  The foreshore was quite inviting and it also had a jetty.   This one was the biggest.  The Viterra receival facilty on the highway was huge.  We guessed the grain was later trucked or railed to Port Lincoln for shipping.  The crops got considerably better the further we went down the coast and there were some that still had patches of green. We only saw a few paddocks of canola and not all had been swathed.  There were a couple of paddocks of lentils, but mostly it was wheat and barley.We were set up in the 'Port Lincoln Caravan Park' overlooking 'Boston Bay' by 3.00pm.  It was overcast and a very pleasant afternoon.  There is a jetty down from the caravan park, so we checked out the catch of the fishermen later in the afternoon.  It was the same as previous walks.  Nothing!  Although one fella I chatted with was quite pleased with himself.  He has been here a week and caught three squid!  He did say he was a novice and he had borrowed the rod from the chap in the next caravan.   So I guess you would be pleased with yourself.  Pete says "His rod will be staying where it is"!The weather forecast was pretty right.  We have had some thunder and lightning around tonight, but no rain here.I think I have been given the green light to share some 'Tammy photos'.  I didn't look well enough last night through my photos and I was a bit scared to share anyway!  Following Fiona's comment, some photos will be shared!  I hope she is happy with these.  Four of our favourites.  Four has become six, now I have edited the blog!    12 photos