SOUTHERN SA/PERTH

In our last blog we were heading to Robe on the South East coast of SA to stay a week or so. On the way we called into a lovely seaside village called Beachport for lunch. We liked it there so much that we ended up staying for 4 nights! The caravan park was very sheltered from the relentless south-westerly winds that we have “enjoyed” for so long. While we didn’t get to use our kayaks or catch any fish; it was just a great place to chill for a while and catch our breath after the busy Great Ocean Road journey.
Robe is only 51km towards Adelaide from Beachport but we stayed there for the rest of the week. Robe is a bigger town than Beachport but they both rely heavily on the local fishing industries and us tourists to survive. Robe is another cosy little seaside town that we really enjoyed. Once again, however, it was too windy to get the kayaks out.
From Robe we headed to Adelaide via the Husband Peninsula and Coorong with a night stop at Meningie by Lake Albert. In Adelaide we stayed with our friends Dee & Keith Ludlow and their daughter at Dover Gardens – near Brighton Beach. We parked the van on their front lawn and were treated to some great hospitality. We even went out one night with a group of their friends to a Rock n Roll evening (not that we managed to participate!!). We also caught up with our Kingsley neighbours – Jack & Caro – who were over in SA celebrating a family birthday.
While in Adelaide we took the opportunity to fly to Perth and celebrate Kyla’s birthday, catch up with Erin and Brandon and were one of a few surprise guests at Caro’s 50th birthday party. Yes the same Caro we saw the week before in Adelaide – it had been difficult not letting on that we were going! Both celebrations were fantastic. We caught up with a few other friends and our dog Casey as well during our brief stay before flying back to Adelaide.
We said farewell to Dee & Keith earlier this week. First stop was Port Pirie for 2 nights and now we are in Port Augusta at the tip of the Spencer Gulf.
Since leaving Queensland at the end of last year the weather has been cool and changeable. Even though it’s the summer months we have more often than not dressed up to beat the cold and had our little fan heater going to keep us warm. With the exception of some warm to hot weather in Melbourne and the odd warm day here and there, we’ve not really had a summer….until now that is. It started to heat up in Adelaide and has slowly got warmer to hot. The 2 days in Port Pirie were in the mid-thirties and here in Port Augusta have been in the high thirties. Suffice to say we’ve not been too far from the aircon (yes it’s still going well – touch wood!) and the pool.
The forecast is for cooler (below 30 – just) temperatures from Monday (we’re on the road again then). This should help on our north-westerly trek up through SA (Pimba/Woomera, Coober Pedy & Marla) to NT. We are going to spend 4 nights at Uluru before moving on to Alice Springs. Ingrid starts a 14 week contract at the Hospital from 12 March. Our next report will be soon after that.
PS – we have just clicked over 25,000km since leaving Perth end April 2011…..and still a “few” km’s to go!