Two Retired Boomers Go Trekking: Thursday, March 10 – Day 2

It was pouring rain when we got up around 6:45 a.m. and things inside the tent were pretty wet, nonetheless we ate breakfast and wrapped up the soaking swags and tents and 9 soaked through souls set off in the bus to continue our journey.

We travelled through animal kingdom, ‘roos and euros hopping across the fields and it was fun to see them “leap” over the road-side fences as if they were on springs; emus stretched out their long necks to see us and then took off after the kangaroos to escape from approaching vehicles. The landscape in the Eyre Peninsula is very special; miles of small round silver green bushes covering flat plains.

We stopped in Port Augusta at the tip of the Spencer Gulf to refuel and stock up. The town was first settled in 1852 and became a thriving commercial centre and port. For a while wool was the mainstay of the economy, then wheat took over and today it is an iron-ore mining town which provides 1/3 of the state’s energy. It is also one of 14 Royal Flying Doctor Service bases. The RFDS serves the healthcare needs of people living in the Australian Outback.

We continued on roads that were long and straight and that travelled over flat lands surrounded by hills in the distance. There is something contemplative about this scenery. It invites you to gaze into the reaches of your own mind, stretching the boundaries to the limits of the vast expanse of open, deserted, land around us.

We passed through towns with names like Iron Knob, Kimba at the northern edge of a huge wheat growing area, and half way across Australia, and then Kyancutta, Wudinna and Venus Bay. Kimba is home to the Big Galah. The bird stands 8 metres tall. It is built from fibreglass over a steel frame and was opened in 1993. I likened it to the Wawa Goose in northern Ontario, just one of these big kitsch objets d’art, and like the Wawa Goose was first installed as a tourist attraction. Galahs are a type of cockatoo and are easily identified by their rose pink heads, neck and underparts, with paler pink crown and grey black wings.

Australia has the largest and heaviest road-legal vehicles in the world and we encountered these “road trains” throughout our journey in Western Australia and Southern Australia. They are used to transport all kinds of goods including livestock, cars, fuel, mineral ores, and general goods. The ones we encountered were triple trailers with 62 tyres on the road and up to 175 feet (53.5 metres) in length. Massive!!

We stopped for lunch in a beautiful little town called Venus Bay, population in the 20s plus summer tourists. This is a fishing and tourist town. We walked to the end of the dock and saw some little penguins and masses of pelicans. A lot of these little ports were sighted but passed over by the early explorers such as Matthew Flinders and it was not until the 1850s that the town was established after a whaling station was built. After lunch we went for a 1 ½ hour walk around the towering cliff head. Sea fog started to roll in while we were on the walk, and we started to get a bit concerned that it would totally envelop us, but it didn’t and we finished our walk without incident.

Next, we drove along deserted sandy roads on the top of the cliff to see the Talia Caves. First the Woolshed better described as a grotto or eroded cliff, and next the Tub. Both really interesting formations of sandstone and limestone that continue to change regularly with the pounding of the waves. The landscape is simply beautiful, and isolated!

The last leg of our journey was to Coodlie Park Farm, the property owned by the owner of the Nullarbor Traveller that operates the tour we are on. Coodlie Farm is a huge property on the coast, 2 or 3 kilometers square at least, at which you can camp, or stay in a cottage, or dorm accommodation. Here you can fish, walk the coastlines or participate in adventure sports. Hassie and his crew put on a wonderful barbequeue for us, then lit a camp fire, and he stayed around and chatted to us about his life’s experiences before taking his dog and heading off to bed up at his house.

We set up our swags in “swag huts” which were scattered in the bushes, and slept under the stars with no tent; we enjoyed a unique “bucket shower” which was simply a bucket of hot water fitted with a tap and set in a pully system. When you are ready, you hoist the bucket up, tie it off, turn on the tap and soap up. One bucket of water goes a long way and is more than adequate. Hassie told us he used to go through 52,000 gallons of water but after he installed the bucket system he reduced this to 20,000 gallons.

The swag hut is a wooden platform with a roof and you place your swag on the platform. We appreciated the swags that night – it was misty, and quite cool, so we tucked our sleeping bags inside the shag, pulled up the zippers on either side and lay cosy and dry for the rest of the night. I have found the answer to not getting lost!! I leave Ray’s torch on and then just follow the light to find my way back to the swag.

Our stay at Coodlie Park coincided with the group making the journey from Perth to Adelaide so we made some new friends around the camp fire.