This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Monthly Archives: February 2019


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2004 Travels April 3

SATURDAY 3 APRIL     STREAKY BAY

It was quite hot today.

John slept in a bit, so we were a little late getting going. Then John had to get fuel – $1.02cpl.

Eventually set off to tackle the Cape Bauer Loop drive. This mostly unsealed road took one out along the southern edge of the bay to areas of cliffs and dramatic coastal rock scenery facing the Southern Ocean.

We only managed to get part of the way around. though, and had to cut short some of the stops at assorted lookout points.

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Streaky Bay coastal scenery

Then had to double back in order to be on time for the bowls in the afternoon, that John was determined we should attend.

Bowls was a Charity Day (well, afternoon) event. We had a pleasant time.

We had noticed a number of housing estate developments around Streaky Bay. It seemed the area was developing quite quickly. There were some blocks available with great views over the bay. I imagined the prices would be as stunning as the views!


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2004 Travels April 2

FRIDAY 2 APRIL     STREAKY BAY

John still had not managed, whilst in Mildura, to get the phone/computer/ data download set up to work, so spent much of this day communicating with Telstra, to try to achieve what he wanted.

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We could see the sea – sort of!

I went for a walk up to the town shops, which were not too far away. I did not need to buy anything, just went for the exercise, and also to get an idea of what shops there were.

Eventually, John got sick of the phone thing, so we went and practiced bowls for a while.

Bought fish and chips for tea – much nicer than the Mildura ones had been.


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2004 Travels April 1

THURSDAY 1 APRIL   PORT AUGUSTA TO STREAKY BAY   390kms

It was a pleasant drive west, to reach Streaky Bay, through grain farming country and several small towns. The early part of the journey, on the Eyre Highway, was broken up by the Iron Knob hill area in the distance, gradually becoming larger, until we were past it.

We stopped for a break and leg stretch at Kimba, where I took the photo that most travellers  must take – of John with the Big Galah, and one of the sign that says “Half way across Australia”. I was rather tempted to label one photo “Big and small galahs”! The galah photo should amuse the grand children, at least.

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At Poochera, we turned off the Eyre Highway, onto a local road that would take us across to the coast and our destination.

Booked into the Foreshore Caravan Park, for a week. We wanted to explore the area, where we’d only previously passed through. Also, we were able to slow down now, because of being booked at Ceduna for Easter. The park was a FPA one, so we joined that association on the spot. After the resultant discount, our site was $18 a night, with the 7th night free. We thought this very reasonable for an excellent location, and a very pleasant and clean park.

Their site layout, though, did not allow much room for maneuvering when parking the van – and ours was only a small van! We were one row back from the beach front, so had glimpses of the sea from our outside area, through the gaps between the opposite vans.

There were fish cleaning tables set up by the beach – a really good idea that saves a lot of mess. There were lots of pelicans hanging about these tables – easy meals for them!

Seems that Streaky Bay was so named by explorer  Matthew Flinders because he saw great streaks in the water – perhaps an effect of the light, perhaps masses of seaweed? Did not look streaky to us, now.

After setting up camp, John went off to suss out bowls. He came back saying we could hurry up and get to play this afternoon. Bad luck about lunch! The people we met there were very pleasant. There was one almost blind lady, who was a deadly bowler. We met a Qld couple there, who were also going on to Ceduna for Easter. They told him there was a bowls tournament happening there, and John arranged to pair up with them for some events.

The park had good TV reception, so John was happy. The mobile phone signal was also good, so I was able to text our location to the offspring.

It had not even occurred to me, this morning, that it was April Fools Day!

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2004 Travels March 31

WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH   MILDURA TO PORT AUGUSTA   580kms

The day provided pleasant travelling weather. It was about 22 degrees, and cloudy. There were a few spits of rain.

It was a fair distance, but we reached Port Augusta comfortably. This was a route we’d travelled before, so there was no motivation to dawdle and sight see.

At the quarantine point east of Renmark, we had no fruit to surrender – I’d made sure we had no surplus vegetable matter. But I’d forgotten about a few onions, and they were surrendered.

As planned, we stopped in Renmark, and I did a big re-stock of fruit and vegetables at the supermarket.

Refuelled at Terowie – 96cpl. And again at Port Augusta, on the way into town, at the place where the trucks stop – also 96cpl.

Near Orroroo, we’d had a chat on the CB radio with a Trakmaster van that was behind us. It was a similar size to ours. They now hailed from Quorn in SA, but on the VKS Radio Network had a Romeo call sign, as they used to live in NSW. They had noticed our large aerial on Truck, and asked us if we belonged to the network. That was a pleasant interlude, while we drove.

We went into the usual Big 4 Holiday Park in Port Augusta – on the western side of town. After discount, this was $19.80 for the night. We were able to keep Truck and van hitched up, as the park was not too busy. It was a gravelled site now – we were in arid country.

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Travelling west, we’d “gained” half an hour of time as we crossed into SA.

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