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Driving away from Adelaide on Sunday morning, I came upon a landmark that was familiar. I remember this imposing giant statue of a Scotsman stuck on top of a Motel on Main North road. It doesn't seem quite so big anymore but it still managed to give the same happy moment I used to get from seeing I don't really know why I always liked seeing it though?
The Sunday traffic was light and got pleasantly lighter not that far from the city centre along Main north road. I like the system of road names here. Some of the major arterial roads are named after the direction they take or where they go to. Hence Main north road is the main north going road. There is a south road, north east road, north, south, east and west terrace. Sensible, logical but maybe a bit boring. Where does Handcock road come from though? (Sorry, that's Hancock).
The landscape in the gulf is less interesting than on the SE coast. There are still the cliffs but I guess the lack of swell means the interesting water erosion of cliffs doesn't occur. I briefly pulled into Port Clinton for a look. There seemed to be a lack of the stone buildings in the town which made it seemed less aesthetically pleasing.
Ardrossan is a place I have visited many times on a ship but have never had the opportunity to actually step off the ship (except onto the wharf). The cargo loaded here is Dolomite though I believe the same facility is used to load other ships with grain. The Dolomite is transported along the wharf via a conveyor belt system and is loaded via a shute directed into the ship's hold. Unfortunately this loader doesn't move up and down the wharf hence the whole ship has to be moved along the wharf to load the various holds in the ship. This involves a fair amount of mucking around over the 36 hours or so to load a ship. Hence this makes it hard to get any spare time to have a look around. It's also a long walk up the wharf.
It was therefore good to finally look at the town. There's not a huge amount there but I counted 3 pubs and it's a nice looking town. The fishing is also good in this neck of the woods. Blue swimmer crabs are found around the wharfs. I have sampled fresh crabs caught from the ship and cooked up by the ship's cook. They were good.
I pulled into the visitors centre at Innes National Park in the late afternoon. There was an entry fee plus camp site fee ($7.50 and $10/night). The campsites inside the park at the Pondalowie camp ground are large-ish and fairly sheltered. School holidays in SA have just started but there were still plenty of empty spaces so far. Good.
I was initially a little disappointed with Pondalowie bay until I wandered over to the "fishing village". This is a collection of half a dozen or so private shacks in the sand dunes. The bay here is quite picturesque with a curving sandy beach and islands in the mouth of the bay providing shelter from the seas in this part of the bay. Further along the beach (a kilometre or so) a break between the islands allows the surf to come through onto the beach. Not a bad spot.
Walking along the beach I discovered some quite large fish schooling close to the shore. After fetching my rod from the camper I proceeded to have a go at hooking one up. I tried several lures (even a trout lure but you never catch sea fish on trout lures) but no joy. I conceded defeat and sat on the beach with a beer and book instead.
After two nights it was time to move on. I decided to have a go at surfing before I left. Conditions weren't brilliant but neither am I. I did have a moment when two dorsal fins appeared not far away from me in the water. This being the home of large sharks, I immediately thought they were sharks and was about to head for the shore. Fortunately they turned out to be Dolphins. They hung around for a bit until they discovered how crap I was and they then took off.
I decided to spend a night at Wallaroo on the western side of Yorke Peninsula. According to my road atlas, Wallaroo is a corruption of the Aboriginal words for Wallaby urine! I reckon the black fellas would have had a great laugh at this.
Wallaroo has a large jetty for loading grain close to the town. I went for a walk along the foreshore and found large signs saying the wharf was a "maritime restriction zone" and no pedestrian entry allowed. It was pleasing to see these signs completely ignored and a throng of people present fishing along the length of the wharf. Lots of people were using crab rings to catch the Blue Swimmer crab. I didn't bother myself as I had a box of frozen supermarket fish in the camper to eat.
Before leaving town the next day, I dropped into the Wallaroo Heritage & Nautical Museum ($5 entry). The man there was most friendly and enthusiastic and the collection they have is interesting. George the giant squid is a highlight (a preserved Giant squid specimen). Copper mining was a major industry in Wallaroo at one stage. This has shut down now with the only visible sign remaining being a distinctive chimney in the town. Some other visible signs may be some birth defects but I don't believe this has been confirmed.
Leaving Roo Piss it was off up the highway to Port Pirie. Port Pirie, like a lot of places in SA, has some great old stone buildings. I particularly liked the butchers here with the cement cows heads attached to the side of the building.
Further up the highway at the head of the Spencer Gulf is Port Augusta. I believe that Port Augusta (and Port Pirie) has been given a bad wrap. I haven't heard too much positive said about Port Augusta but I actually quite like it. There are some great old buildings, some parks and a not bad looking river. I'm not saying I'd like to live here (I wouldn't want to live in a lot of places I've visited) but it's a lot better than what I was led to believe. I'm beginning to think its best not to listen what other people say about places but rather find out for yourself what it's actually like. Listening to what other people say can also make you feel disappointed if a place isn't as good as what you've been told.
Port Augusta has signs about proclaiming it is the "crossroads of Australia". Large signs grandly direct you to WA, NT or NSW. It also marked the end of my trip on the Yorke Peninsula and the start of the journey down the Eyre Peninsula. And that will be the subject of the next episode.
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