The Road Home

Monday the 15^th as I tried to start the Landcruiser it would not start. Two days earlier I thought the battery problem had been solved by cleaning the terminals, but not so. Our neighbor jump stared us. The battery just seems to be a little down on power so best guess is the batteries are dying. We left Marion Bay and drove through Yorketown dropped into to Stansbury for a look. Then onto Port Vincent. These are all nice towns and the coast is beautiful. It is what we have been seeing for the best part of two months. By the time we reached Port Vincent we had reached the view that with our battery situation we needed to head home and get it sorted out. Port Vincent was going to be the last stop on our Yorke Peninsular experience but as we had enjoyed many of these spots we did not feel we were missing out by not staying there. We were only cutting it short by about four days anyway.

So that was it, time to go home. So after a bite of lunch we worked out our route and drove on to Nuriootpa and stayed in the van park there. Next night we got to Robinvale and stayed in the van park there. We were nervous that the vehicle may not start so we kept to staying in towns and those so far did not have free camps. We also took advantage of having tele reception rather than staying out at a free camp and not having it.

Robinvale is lovely as it is right on the Murray River, as is the van park. We had stayed at the twin town of Euston on the way to the Barossa at the start of this latter part of the trip.

I was enjoying again doing lots of kilometres towing the caravan. The driving takes on numerous issues when towing and I find it enjoyable being considerate to other road users. So using the CB and calling truckies around and keeping everything safe, plus a bit of chat with the truckies is a buzz.

One very enjoyable thing on this latter part of the trip has been listening to the novel, ‘Kings In Grass Castles’ on CD. Our friends from Broome, Gregand Jude, who dropped us off at the airport and picked us up mailed the CDs and others to us once they got home from Broome. We loved the book and I had mentioned in an earlier post when we visited Lake Argyle how I was intrigued by the Durack history and wanted to read the book. Well now we have and we loved it. Thanks Greg! Can’t wait now to get hold of the book about Sidney Kidman.

Wednesday the 17^th we headed off to Wagga Wagga and had our last night on the road. We decided to stay at Wilks Park free camp which is in Wagga itself. Jan & Ross had stayed there on their trip down and back and liked it. If the vehicle did not start we would have plenty of help nearby. Another plus was that we were just able to walk to a nearby pub for dinner. So it seemed appropriate to go out for dinner on our last night on the road.

This is a bit of a note to myself. When we went through Hay we loved the town and felt it would be a great place to stay for a couple of days. Of course that is not the first town that I have had those feelings about but I want to keep it in mind for a tour around NSW for the future.

That brings us to the end of our second big trip. What an amazing trip it has been! Saw so much in NT, WA and SA. There is so much to see in this amazing country of ours. We have a lot more to go. We will now be home for a few months and likely to head off in late May for QLD for the winter.

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog and for your encouragement and interest. I hope you might be inspired to travel Australia as well, as we know your life will be enhanced as a result. Bye for now until we blog again in the winter.

Marion Bay & Surrounds and Innes National Park, Yorke Peninsular

Friday the 12^th we left Parsons Beach and went to the Marion Bay Caravan Park. I originally wanted to camp in the Innes National Park but with our suspect battery problem and not knowing if anyone was camped out there I did not know if we would get stranded with the battery issue and no phone reception. Marion Bay is beautiful so it was a priviledge to be staying there anyway.

After lunch we took the scenic drive north to Meehan Hill Lookout.

Then to the Point Yorke Kangaroo Island Lookout. The view of Kangaroo Island does not come out in photos.

Back home for a great steak dinner. Next morning we were all set to head out to the Innes NP but the Landcruiser would not start. A neighbor, Gary, had used his multimeter on the batteries and they were fine (12.32 volts). A guy Linda had been talking to at Point Turton while I was swimming with the seal mentioned about cleaning the battery terminals. I know that trick and wondered why I had not thought of it before. So I cleaned the terminals and it started. Problem solved.

So first stop in the NP is Stenhouse Bay. The NP is so beautiful but the weather was overcast and we did not see it at its best by a big margin. Gypsum was mined here and it has been used to build all the roads and tracks. A solid jetty had been built there for the gypsum mining and it was interesting how they got it to the jetty.

We moved further into the NP and these are some photos of the coastline.

Views around Cape Spencer Lighthouse.

Then onto the Inneston Historic Township which is in the NP and was the township that grew up around the gypsum mining.

Went to Pondalowie Bay where we would have camped had there been no battery problem. The colour of the water would have been amazing if the sun was shining.

Then had a look at the Pondalowie surf break beach.

West Cape Lighthouse with views to Pondalowie Bay and the beach north. There are photos at the lookout there of the same thing but in sunshine. You will get what I mean about what a difference the sunshine makes.

Then our last stop in the NP was at the site of the Ethel wreck.

Sunday is a lay day. We have been on the go a fair bit on this latter part of the second big trip so it is good to have a break and also get the blog up to date. It is especially good to do that today as the data is free because Telstra had an outage the other day and to make amends Telstra has given free data for the day so I am not sparing the number of photos and videos I am putting in today.