-- From Point Westall to Moonta Bay

 

The road tracklog
from Point Westall to Moonta Bay
from 15/02/2010 to
21/02/2010 

On Monday February 15th, I left the haven of silence of the Evelyne & Jean-Claude's house after a pleasant weekend in their company. I had been treated like a prince. I took again the road in middle of morning to visit Point Labatt with sea lion colonies and the columns of Murphy. I stopped in Venus Bay under a beautiful quasi spring sun.

The following day on the way towards Port Lincoln I visited two sights. Initially Talia Caves between cliffs and white sand beach Woolshed is a cave with a channel dug by the sea million years ago, then Tub is a vast bucket with a tunnel in the rock. The camp-site is possible, there were caravans.

Great Ocean Drive leads to Ellison by a gravel road skirting the coast where sculptures are built to create an animation. The day was radiant favourable to stroll along the turquoise ocean. I stopped on a rest area little before Port Lincoln.

On Wednesday February 17th, it was a small driving day to go shopping in Port Lincoln at Woolworths and to fill the tanks with diesel. Then I went to the library to consult my mailbox where I have the surprise to note that it was free!

Impedimenta being regulated I moved towards Lincoln NP on a rugged peninsula with spectacular ocean views, sandy beaches and sheltered camp-sites. The sun was beautiful with a temperature of 25°C and a strong wind. I bivouacked in September Beach Campground.

Reminiscence of a history of more than 55 years old, my feet in the Rhine.

By leaving Lincoln NP I stopped at the library of Port Lincoln to consult my mailbox. Then I sought a computer shop to buy a new 240V charger for my old laptop computer which had blown. I visited the four to five shops in the city without success. Now I would see in Adelaide. I am in the expectancy because a charger is specific to each computer! I need a charger whose output is 20V-3.0A. Fortunately I use a charger of 12V, but which does not function in cybercafé. The life of nomad around the world is made with many risks, very often betrayed by technology. Left the city at the beginning of afternoon I establish my bivouac at Cape Hardy vis-a-vis an always turquoise sea in the Spencer Gulf.

I left the bivouac of Cape Hardy with regret so much the site was splendid and remote, but I should head to Whyalla to try to buy a charger for my laptop. I got information in Visitor Centre close to the Maritime Museum at the bottom of the HMAS Whyalla. There still I visited several shops of which "Dick Smith" who told me that I will not find this type of charger with an output of 20V-3.0A in Australia. I was determined to call upon the back base, my brother, to buy one by the vendor of my laptop. A back base is essential in a long journey round the world. I carried on my road extremely disappointed and I found a unspecified bivouac at the Point Lowly.

On Saturdays 20th, I stopped in Port Augusta to consult my mailbox. But the library opens only at 10 a.m. on Saturdays. I had patience, while waiting for I went to the Coles supermarket to buy a kit to make yogurt  "EasiYo" that Evelyne had advised me as well as related products with of course one kilo of honey! At the library I obtained a username and a password to use free Wifi Internet in all libraries in South Australia. Finally I left the city about midday. Consequently I decided to bivouac in Port Germein on a rest area without interest. The temperature had increased considerably, +38°C. I moved southwards the York peninsula with the firm intention to have rest there.

Yorke Peninsula

The Yorke Peninsula resembles the boot of Italy, it extends between the Gulf Spencer and the Gulf St Vincent. The central part is dedicated to agriculture as well as wheat as barley which is worth it the name of Barley Capital of the World. The west coast is not less famous with the town triangle of Kadina, Wallaroo and Moonta called -Copper Coast- Since 1860 at the time of copper ore discovered the mines in Cornwall were declining involving the immigration of miners towards South Australia. I didn't forget I worked the last thirty years of my professional life in copper & alloys semi product company.

Kadina, agricultural city, were dedicated to the industry of the services for the mines of Moonta and the smelting of Wallaroo. Farm Shed Museum recalls the local life since the origin in a naive scenography which holds more of the odds and ends of the market in St Ouen -suburbs of Paris- Its interest lies in the many photographs of time.

Wallaroo at the seashore developed the copper smelting industry exported towards Europe. Its museum housed in the former post office gathers a number of maritime objects as well as memories of the WWI such this American flag brought from France.

Moonta was the mining city from 1860 to 1923. It was primarily populated by emigrated families from Cornwall with their particular dialect which was put in scene by the Oswald Pryor's cartoonist. His drawings are gathered in two books, Australia's Little Cornwall & Cornish Pasty.

Cartoon legends are readable with the zoom of a browser.

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