September 2013
Ceduna, SA
The drive from Venus Bay to Ceduna was only 185 kms and we drove through Streaky Bay and past Smokey Bay and the weather was quite warm, with only a slight breeze and not much traffic and we just cruised along with the van in tow enjoying the welcomed change in driving conditions and the noticably drier conditions of the area.
Ceduna is approximately 785 kms from Adelaide and the name Ceduna is derived from the Aboriginal name Chedoona which means a place to rest and sit ... so after a busy August, we thought why not and so we did!
Actually, we think they should rename Ceduna "Little Chicago" as it is so windy here.
We originally came over to Ceduna as Deb had a weeks work at the hospital which turned out to be around 6 weeks work. Deb says that the staff here at Ceduna are simply fantastic and it was easy for us to accept the extension of the initial contract.
Here is the front of the Ceduna hospital ...
We based ourselves at the Shelly Beach Caravan Park which is about 4kms out of town. The park is quite big, we have one of only a few cement slab sites and the amenities are very clean and modern and only a site away from us.
http://www.cedunacaravanpark.com.au/
The park is nestled behind sand dunes on the beach and there are sites on the dunes as well as very nice looking cabins overlooking Bosanquet (Boss-an-key) Bay.
The pic below is from the top of the sand dunes where the path to the beach starts and the cabins are to the right and the sand dune sites to the left. The sea port of Thevenard is on the other side of the bay, you can see the grain silos in the background.
As often as we could, we walked along the beach with Blade running around the dunes and into the sea and the shelly beach (aptly named!) continues for a couple of kilometres. Down the road towards the town, there is a dirt track down to the beach and we drove down it one day to see if we could park on the sand and fish from the shore, but the sand on the beach was very soft in many places and although there were recent tyre tracks in the sand, I wasn't keen to try it so we gave it a miss.
The pic above is of the side of the park where our van is ... it is centre of the pic behind the trees. This pic was from the top of the road to the beach.
The pic below is the road from the park to the beach looking towards the entrance of the park. The Ceduna Racecourse is across the road and they only have 3 race meetings a year there. The township of Ceduna is 4 kms to the left in the pic, the airport is off to the right and so is the weather station and the Flinders Highway (follows the coast back to Venus Bay and onto Port Lincoln)
The pic above shows our home for September, site 16 with the sand dunes at the back of the pic.
Our first few days at Ceduna were really tough weather wise, the temperature was around 35 degrees, it was windy so the sand and dust added to the discomfort and all while Deb tried to sleep during the hot afternoon before her night shifts at the hospital. It was very hot in the van and it was so bad, I ended up buying a portable air conditioner from the electrical store. Whilst it cooled the van down nicely, the heat it produces from its exhaust meant that we had to run the pipe out the door which allowed the gusty winds to blow more dust and heat back inside.
The weather here, like the conditions is quite harsh. We often had severe weather and storm warnings with 80km/h to 100km/h winds but not much rain. The days are often warm to hot but the nights are cool to cold.
The flies here are unreal, they are relentless (or very friendly as one bloke said to me!) and they make simply being outside a real challenge. We were forever waving them off us, especially our faces. The park owner mentioned to me that they seem to be particularly bad this season ... sure! The other annoying pest are the mozzies ... they are huge and thirsty too. When the wind picks up, the flies seem to disappear for a while but it becomes dusty. As night falls, the mozzies are out in full force which means we need to retreat into the van. We even bought and old style plastic fly strip to hang over the van door to keep the bugs out, but some still get in and so the fly spray works overtime inside. Even though we bought a mozzie coil and a citronella lamp, they have minimal effect as there are just so many around.
We started to make our own fly traps, soft drink / juice bottles with the neck cut off and inverted inside to form a funnel with meat / fish etc inside to attract the flies. The flies crawl inside and cannot escape. We had some success with these and even though they seem to capture hundreds of flies, there are still hundreds more to contend with. Unfortunately, the smell of these become foul after a few days in the sun and whilst the flies seem to like them, we don't so they get thrown in the bins and replaced.
The pic below is an example of our attempts to rid the area of flies ...
Soon enough, the flies became unbearable when being outside, so I went into town to buy fly nets which you pull over your head to cover your face, but the entire supply of these in Ceduna had been sold in recent days! So a few days later, I was able to buy a couple and they have been great especially if you wear them over a hat to keep the netting off your face.
One very warm day when returning to the van from a walk along the beach, Deb spotted a tiny lizard basking in the sun on the sand. Against my suggestion that she doesn't pick it up, she did! (I've seen Jurassic Park where the cute baby lizards have monstrous parents that seem to appear from nowhere and eat the humans!) Anyway, we think it was a thorny lizard (we did asked him!!) and here he is on her shoulder.
The Shelly Beach Caravan Park was a great location, very quiet and peaceful until the Rebel Motorcycle Gang rode into town.
As we do not have a television, we have not kept up to date with recent events nor did we know that hundreds of them were headed our way over to Perth. We were first alerted to them as a couple of Britz motorhomes arrived one afternoon and parked directly behind us. I noticed that all their clothes on the line (which is part of the fence line between us) were all black and then I spotted a Rebels t-shirt on the line. I said to Deb, I think they could be bikies! After a few covert stares through our back window of the van over the fence, our fears were confirmed ... yep, they were Rebel bikies and we soon heard the thunder of the bikes coming down the road and into and around the park looking for their comrades. I told Deb I wanted to pinch a Rebels t-shirt from off the line and as she was not going to defend me if they found out, so I decided not to risk life and limb!!
Instead, we went into town where we saw the majority of them riding around and hanging around the pub. It was a sight to see them coming out of the drive thru bottle shop with cartons of beer strapped to the back of their bikes. We did notice a significant increase in the numbers of police as well and it was interesting to see the 'locals' staying away from them as well.
In the pub car park was a black Lexus SUV which belonged to one of them and they say that crime does not pay! There were quite a few of them in the pub whilst we were there and whilst they are loud and intimidating, they were reasonably well behaved.
They did not bother us at all whilst in the park and left early the next day and the local newspaper published this photo of them riding out of town towards the WA border.
Being in the same spot for a while has enabled us to relax and enjoy the time here in Ceduna and it was very interesting to see and evaluate the myriad of vans, campers and motorhomes that passed through the park on a daily basis. There is no doubt that some people have spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their set up right down to a few bucks on a tent and there are many examples of everything inbetween.
Next to our site is a small shady site only really suitable for a tent or camper trailer and on the other side, the other cement slab site accommodates larger vans and motorhomes and most visitors seem to stay a day or two and then move on.
One particular chap pulled up one day next to us all by himself in a Ford Territory with a very small camper in tow which intrigued me. His name was Lloyd and he told me he was on his way home to Frankston Victoria after a 3 month big lap of Australia. He also told me his wife didn't want to go so he bought this 'cub camper' and headed off by himself. Well Lloyd was OK except he always wanted to have a chat and he told me that he met a couple from Adelaide in northern WA who were doing the same as he and they travelled down the WA coast together. He said that they just 'kept bumping' into each other and he did spend a couple of afternoons whilst here walking around the park in search of them as they 'promised' him that this is where they would be ... sure!
I did not manage to take a pic of the camper, but here is a pic of a similar cub camper off eBay ...
His cub camper is compact to say the least and his was a 1988 version. It collapses onto itself to be not much higher than a normal trailer height and has wind up struts on each corner that give it the height, the internal cupboards fold down and the bed slides out over the A-Frame. It has a water tank underneath and he had a portable TV inside with the aerial on the end of an extendable pool net pole and he sat on an old milk crate inside on the floor. He had a 12 volt fridge / freezer in the boot and seemed to be very happy with his 'rig' and had a few funny stories to tell of his adventures too.
Over the weeks, we have had quite a few neighbours and most are friendly like Lloyd and we have a quick chat about where they have been and heading to and some arrive late and leave early the next day.
This park can accommodate the bigger rigs and motorhomes and there are a couple that I'll not forget in a while. Like the '5th Wheeler' that looked more like an aircraft carrier on wheels. 5th Wheelers are typically big, but this was huge. The tow vehicle was a Ford F450 with dual tyres on the rear. I've never seen an F450 before and even though it was big enough, it was dwarfed by the 5th Wheeler it was towing. As it was parked in amongst the trees, it was hard to get a pic so here is a similar size from the same brand off the web ...
The other rig was even more impressive and I wish now I had managed to get a pic of it all set up and I'll try to explain it ...
The tow vehicle was a 6 wheeled F250 ... yep, it had 6 wheels and it pulled a Bushranger caravan and these are one of the biggest vans around. The impressive part of this set up was that he also had with him a boat ... quite a big boat and not upside down on the roof racks which is common for tinnies. Like the tinnies, he too had his boat on top of his F250 but it was still on it's trailer! Yep, the boat (twin engined monster of a boat) was on it's trailer and was was mounted on top of his F250. The F250 was an engineering marvel and obviously a one of a kind. The A-Frame of the trailer was secured to his bull bar and the wheels of the trailer secured on the rear sloped back. From the cabin of the vehicle to the rear tailgate was a steel cladded ramp shaped series of storage units sloping down towards the rear. In the centre of these were ramps which he slid out and connected to the tailgate down to the ground and then using a motorised winch, he winched the boat on it's trailer on and off the F250 ... absolutely unbelievable. To see this in action was jaw dropping and it was the centre of everyones attention around us when he unpacked and packed up, unfortunately I missed the opportunity to grab my camera!
There are 3 caravan parks here in Ceduna, the Big 4 Caravan Park which seems to have many cabins and is more kid and family orientated, the Shelly Beach Caravan Park where we are and the Foreshore Caravan Park which is in the heart of the town and adjacent to the pub. We were advised not to stay at the Foreshore Caravan Park and we are so glad we didn't even though it is quite close to the hospital compared to Shelly Beach. It would have to be the only caravan park in Australia that has metal prison like bars around it and has the front gates closed at night ... all to protect their visitors and keep the 'locals' out. All the vans are literally parked right next to each other with minimal privacy as the grounds are quite small in comparison to most other parks we have seen.
As this park is next to the pub (in fact I think it is owned and operated by the pub), it attracts many 'locals' to it during the night when they roam the streets and we have been told that most live a few hundred kilometres out of town on a reservation called "Yalata" (sounds like "Yatala" to me!) and they are bussed in to get fueled up, hang around for a few days and then bussed out again. The 'locals' are very loud and do not seem to be as confrontational as I was lead to believe and generally keep to themselves.
Next to the Ceduna hospital, in hospital grounds is a "Sobering Up Unit" for the 'locals' and when I wait for Deb in the car park to finish her shift, I am often entertained by their behaviours and more often than not at night, I see the Police here as well either moving them on or into the 'divvy' van.
The township of Ceduna itself is quite small for such an isolated place. In the main street, which is only a hundred metres or so in length and all the basic services are here.
The town is set on Murat Bay and is well maintained with the foreshore areas well grassed (see pic below) and many trees providing shade to "sit and relax".
We did have a go at fishing from the Ceduna jetty and once again, the fish were safe with us there as we didn't catch anything. We tried for anything that would bite (or commit suicide!) such as whiting and even tried our new squid jigs (Deb has one that lights up red when under water!) without any success. Another angler closer to the shore did manage to catch a few small fish (no idea what they were!) but he too found the reeds and snags annoying, but at least it was fun trying.
Thevenard is a port town 3 kms from Ceduna and is a sea port which ships grain, gypsum and salt which is freighted in by train and road trains. The lookout at Thevenard has a sign (see pics below) that claim that the story of Lilliput was based on the island across the bay as the author sailed these waters.
To me, the community of Thevenard is typical country port setting where apart from the Viterra silos and yards, many of the shops except the pub and store are closed including one which is "4 Sarle" ... not sure how enquiries are going for them! We made a special effort bright and early (10am) one Sunday morning to get over there to the football club for their "Market Day". When we arrived in the club car park at the 10am opening time we noticed some people already walking out the clubrooms with their purchases so we rushed in only to find about 6 tables of traders, a couple of local ladies selling their cakes and scones, another selling her jewellery and another selling home made oils and jams etc and that was about it ... so we made a token purchase and left.
Denial Bay is about a 10km drive west of Ceduna and it is where many of the famous oyster farms are so we went around there to have a look. Unfortunately, the farms are a long way off shore but at low tide we could see the rows and rows of oyster racks. We fished from the jetty at Denial Bay a few times and on one occasion, I did manage to catch a Garfish ... I think I was more surprised than it was in being caught. Once again, the thick reeds and snags made it difficult to drag a squid lure and even Deb lost a squid jig this time! We did see many large fish close in to the shore along the jetty embankment and Deb even climbed down to drop her baited hook in to see if she could catch one. We were not sure what they were, a local said they were "King" fish, another said they were Mullet but we reckon they could have been Whiting ... never the less, they were all safe from us!
I really like this pic below, it is at the Denial Bay jetty and these birds are all facing into the strong wind ... except one (in the middle) who was watching Blade and I as we approached.
Back on the Eyre Highway, just off the Denial Bay Road exit and before the town of Ceduna is perhaps Australia's most 'distant' Quarantine Station. By distant I mean that it is about 300 kms inside SA from the SA/WA border where the WA station is apparently just inside WA. Why here we are not sure but it means everyone entering Ceduna from the west has to stop here. The pic below is looking back from Ceduna to the station.
Adjacent to where I took this pic is Ceduna's "Big Oyster" and it is at the Information point and Oyster Cafe on the highway. I was expecting to see something bigger, but perhaps compared to a real oyster it is big and it has been added to our "Big Australian" icons list anyway.
When we were in Shellharbor in early August we came across a chocolate and lolly factory outlet and so we impulsively stocked up on some of our favourite sweets. For Deb, it was a chance to buy an entire box of Choo-Choo bars ... yep, an entire box! Well, all my lollies seemed to disappear rather quickly over the next few days and it wasn't until late in September that the very last Choo-Choo bar was consumed (by Deb!) ... here is a pic of the last bar.
September ended with a road trip back to Adelaide for a few days to attend court (again) on the 30th and it was a good opportunity to catch up with my parents and to see my boy, Matt as I miss him terribly. We also caught up with Deb's son Zac and his girlfriend Kayla ... it was great to them them too.
We added the following "Big" icon to our list ...
The drive from Venus Bay to Ceduna was only 185 kms and we drove through Streaky Bay and past Smokey Bay and the weather was quite warm, with only a slight breeze and not much traffic and we just cruised along with the van in tow enjoying the welcomed change in driving conditions and the noticably drier conditions of the area.
Ceduna is approximately 785 kms from Adelaide and the name Ceduna is derived from the Aboriginal name Chedoona which means a place to rest and sit ... so after a busy August, we thought why not and so we did!
Actually, we think they should rename Ceduna "Little Chicago" as it is so windy here.
We originally came over to Ceduna as Deb had a weeks work at the hospital which turned out to be around 6 weeks work. Deb says that the staff here at Ceduna are simply fantastic and it was easy for us to accept the extension of the initial contract.
Here is the front of the Ceduna hospital ...
We based ourselves at the Shelly Beach Caravan Park which is about 4kms out of town. The park is quite big, we have one of only a few cement slab sites and the amenities are very clean and modern and only a site away from us.
http://www.cedunacaravanpark.com.au/
The park is nestled behind sand dunes on the beach and there are sites on the dunes as well as very nice looking cabins overlooking Bosanquet (Boss-an-key) Bay.
The pic below is from the top of the sand dunes where the path to the beach starts and the cabins are to the right and the sand dune sites to the left. The sea port of Thevenard is on the other side of the bay, you can see the grain silos in the background.
As often as we could, we walked along the beach with Blade running around the dunes and into the sea and the shelly beach (aptly named!) continues for a couple of kilometres. Down the road towards the town, there is a dirt track down to the beach and we drove down it one day to see if we could park on the sand and fish from the shore, but the sand on the beach was very soft in many places and although there were recent tyre tracks in the sand, I wasn't keen to try it so we gave it a miss.
The pic above is of the side of the park where our van is ... it is centre of the pic behind the trees. This pic was from the top of the road to the beach.
The pic below is the road from the park to the beach looking towards the entrance of the park. The Ceduna Racecourse is across the road and they only have 3 race meetings a year there. The township of Ceduna is 4 kms to the left in the pic, the airport is off to the right and so is the weather station and the Flinders Highway (follows the coast back to Venus Bay and onto Port Lincoln)
The pic above shows our home for September, site 16 with the sand dunes at the back of the pic.
Our first few days at Ceduna were really tough weather wise, the temperature was around 35 degrees, it was windy so the sand and dust added to the discomfort and all while Deb tried to sleep during the hot afternoon before her night shifts at the hospital. It was very hot in the van and it was so bad, I ended up buying a portable air conditioner from the electrical store. Whilst it cooled the van down nicely, the heat it produces from its exhaust meant that we had to run the pipe out the door which allowed the gusty winds to blow more dust and heat back inside.
The weather here, like the conditions is quite harsh. We often had severe weather and storm warnings with 80km/h to 100km/h winds but not much rain. The days are often warm to hot but the nights are cool to cold.
The flies here are unreal, they are relentless (or very friendly as one bloke said to me!) and they make simply being outside a real challenge. We were forever waving them off us, especially our faces. The park owner mentioned to me that they seem to be particularly bad this season ... sure! The other annoying pest are the mozzies ... they are huge and thirsty too. When the wind picks up, the flies seem to disappear for a while but it becomes dusty. As night falls, the mozzies are out in full force which means we need to retreat into the van. We even bought and old style plastic fly strip to hang over the van door to keep the bugs out, but some still get in and so the fly spray works overtime inside. Even though we bought a mozzie coil and a citronella lamp, they have minimal effect as there are just so many around.
We started to make our own fly traps, soft drink / juice bottles with the neck cut off and inverted inside to form a funnel with meat / fish etc inside to attract the flies. The flies crawl inside and cannot escape. We had some success with these and even though they seem to capture hundreds of flies, there are still hundreds more to contend with. Unfortunately, the smell of these become foul after a few days in the sun and whilst the flies seem to like them, we don't so they get thrown in the bins and replaced.
The pic below is an example of our attempts to rid the area of flies ...
Soon enough, the flies became unbearable when being outside, so I went into town to buy fly nets which you pull over your head to cover your face, but the entire supply of these in Ceduna had been sold in recent days! So a few days later, I was able to buy a couple and they have been great especially if you wear them over a hat to keep the netting off your face.
One very warm day when returning to the van from a walk along the beach, Deb spotted a tiny lizard basking in the sun on the sand. Against my suggestion that she doesn't pick it up, she did! (I've seen Jurassic Park where the cute baby lizards have monstrous parents that seem to appear from nowhere and eat the humans!) Anyway, we think it was a thorny lizard (we did asked him!!) and here he is on her shoulder.
The Shelly Beach Caravan Park was a great location, very quiet and peaceful until the Rebel Motorcycle Gang rode into town.
As we do not have a television, we have not kept up to date with recent events nor did we know that hundreds of them were headed our way over to Perth. We were first alerted to them as a couple of Britz motorhomes arrived one afternoon and parked directly behind us. I noticed that all their clothes on the line (which is part of the fence line between us) were all black and then I spotted a Rebels t-shirt on the line. I said to Deb, I think they could be bikies! After a few covert stares through our back window of the van over the fence, our fears were confirmed ... yep, they were Rebel bikies and we soon heard the thunder of the bikes coming down the road and into and around the park looking for their comrades. I told Deb I wanted to pinch a Rebels t-shirt from off the line and as she was not going to defend me if they found out, so I decided not to risk life and limb!!
Instead, we went into town where we saw the majority of them riding around and hanging around the pub. It was a sight to see them coming out of the drive thru bottle shop with cartons of beer strapped to the back of their bikes. We did notice a significant increase in the numbers of police as well and it was interesting to see the 'locals' staying away from them as well.
In the pub car park was a black Lexus SUV which belonged to one of them and they say that crime does not pay! There were quite a few of them in the pub whilst we were there and whilst they are loud and intimidating, they were reasonably well behaved.
They did not bother us at all whilst in the park and left early the next day and the local newspaper published this photo of them riding out of town towards the WA border.
Being in the same spot for a while has enabled us to relax and enjoy the time here in Ceduna and it was very interesting to see and evaluate the myriad of vans, campers and motorhomes that passed through the park on a daily basis. There is no doubt that some people have spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their set up right down to a few bucks on a tent and there are many examples of everything inbetween.
Next to our site is a small shady site only really suitable for a tent or camper trailer and on the other side, the other cement slab site accommodates larger vans and motorhomes and most visitors seem to stay a day or two and then move on.
One particular chap pulled up one day next to us all by himself in a Ford Territory with a very small camper in tow which intrigued me. His name was Lloyd and he told me he was on his way home to Frankston Victoria after a 3 month big lap of Australia. He also told me his wife didn't want to go so he bought this 'cub camper' and headed off by himself. Well Lloyd was OK except he always wanted to have a chat and he told me that he met a couple from Adelaide in northern WA who were doing the same as he and they travelled down the WA coast together. He said that they just 'kept bumping' into each other and he did spend a couple of afternoons whilst here walking around the park in search of them as they 'promised' him that this is where they would be ... sure!
I did not manage to take a pic of the camper, but here is a pic of a similar cub camper off eBay ...
His cub camper is compact to say the least and his was a 1988 version. It collapses onto itself to be not much higher than a normal trailer height and has wind up struts on each corner that give it the height, the internal cupboards fold down and the bed slides out over the A-Frame. It has a water tank underneath and he had a portable TV inside with the aerial on the end of an extendable pool net pole and he sat on an old milk crate inside on the floor. He had a 12 volt fridge / freezer in the boot and seemed to be very happy with his 'rig' and had a few funny stories to tell of his adventures too.
Over the weeks, we have had quite a few neighbours and most are friendly like Lloyd and we have a quick chat about where they have been and heading to and some arrive late and leave early the next day.
This park can accommodate the bigger rigs and motorhomes and there are a couple that I'll not forget in a while. Like the '5th Wheeler' that looked more like an aircraft carrier on wheels. 5th Wheelers are typically big, but this was huge. The tow vehicle was a Ford F450 with dual tyres on the rear. I've never seen an F450 before and even though it was big enough, it was dwarfed by the 5th Wheeler it was towing. As it was parked in amongst the trees, it was hard to get a pic so here is a similar size from the same brand off the web ...
The other rig was even more impressive and I wish now I had managed to get a pic of it all set up and I'll try to explain it ...
The tow vehicle was a 6 wheeled F250 ... yep, it had 6 wheels and it pulled a Bushranger caravan and these are one of the biggest vans around. The impressive part of this set up was that he also had with him a boat ... quite a big boat and not upside down on the roof racks which is common for tinnies. Like the tinnies, he too had his boat on top of his F250 but it was still on it's trailer! Yep, the boat (twin engined monster of a boat) was on it's trailer and was was mounted on top of his F250. The F250 was an engineering marvel and obviously a one of a kind. The A-Frame of the trailer was secured to his bull bar and the wheels of the trailer secured on the rear sloped back. From the cabin of the vehicle to the rear tailgate was a steel cladded ramp shaped series of storage units sloping down towards the rear. In the centre of these were ramps which he slid out and connected to the tailgate down to the ground and then using a motorised winch, he winched the boat on it's trailer on and off the F250 ... absolutely unbelievable. To see this in action was jaw dropping and it was the centre of everyones attention around us when he unpacked and packed up, unfortunately I missed the opportunity to grab my camera!
There are 3 caravan parks here in Ceduna, the Big 4 Caravan Park which seems to have many cabins and is more kid and family orientated, the Shelly Beach Caravan Park where we are and the Foreshore Caravan Park which is in the heart of the town and adjacent to the pub. We were advised not to stay at the Foreshore Caravan Park and we are so glad we didn't even though it is quite close to the hospital compared to Shelly Beach. It would have to be the only caravan park in Australia that has metal prison like bars around it and has the front gates closed at night ... all to protect their visitors and keep the 'locals' out. All the vans are literally parked right next to each other with minimal privacy as the grounds are quite small in comparison to most other parks we have seen.
As this park is next to the pub (in fact I think it is owned and operated by the pub), it attracts many 'locals' to it during the night when they roam the streets and we have been told that most live a few hundred kilometres out of town on a reservation called "Yalata" (sounds like "Yatala" to me!) and they are bussed in to get fueled up, hang around for a few days and then bussed out again. The 'locals' are very loud and do not seem to be as confrontational as I was lead to believe and generally keep to themselves.
Next to the Ceduna hospital, in hospital grounds is a "Sobering Up Unit" for the 'locals' and when I wait for Deb in the car park to finish her shift, I am often entertained by their behaviours and more often than not at night, I see the Police here as well either moving them on or into the 'divvy' van.
The township of Ceduna itself is quite small for such an isolated place. In the main street, which is only a hundred metres or so in length and all the basic services are here.
The town is set on Murat Bay and is well maintained with the foreshore areas well grassed (see pic below) and many trees providing shade to "sit and relax".
We did have a go at fishing from the Ceduna jetty and once again, the fish were safe with us there as we didn't catch anything. We tried for anything that would bite (or commit suicide!) such as whiting and even tried our new squid jigs (Deb has one that lights up red when under water!) without any success. Another angler closer to the shore did manage to catch a few small fish (no idea what they were!) but he too found the reeds and snags annoying, but at least it was fun trying.
Thevenard is a port town 3 kms from Ceduna and is a sea port which ships grain, gypsum and salt which is freighted in by train and road trains. The lookout at Thevenard has a sign (see pics below) that claim that the story of Lilliput was based on the island across the bay as the author sailed these waters.
To me, the community of Thevenard is typical country port setting where apart from the Viterra silos and yards, many of the shops except the pub and store are closed including one which is "4 Sarle" ... not sure how enquiries are going for them! We made a special effort bright and early (10am) one Sunday morning to get over there to the football club for their "Market Day". When we arrived in the club car park at the 10am opening time we noticed some people already walking out the clubrooms with their purchases so we rushed in only to find about 6 tables of traders, a couple of local ladies selling their cakes and scones, another selling her jewellery and another selling home made oils and jams etc and that was about it ... so we made a token purchase and left.
Denial Bay is about a 10km drive west of Ceduna and it is where many of the famous oyster farms are so we went around there to have a look. Unfortunately, the farms are a long way off shore but at low tide we could see the rows and rows of oyster racks. We fished from the jetty at Denial Bay a few times and on one occasion, I did manage to catch a Garfish ... I think I was more surprised than it was in being caught. Once again, the thick reeds and snags made it difficult to drag a squid lure and even Deb lost a squid jig this time! We did see many large fish close in to the shore along the jetty embankment and Deb even climbed down to drop her baited hook in to see if she could catch one. We were not sure what they were, a local said they were "King" fish, another said they were Mullet but we reckon they could have been Whiting ... never the less, they were all safe from us!
I really like this pic below, it is at the Denial Bay jetty and these birds are all facing into the strong wind ... except one (in the middle) who was watching Blade and I as we approached.
Back on the Eyre Highway, just off the Denial Bay Road exit and before the town of Ceduna is perhaps Australia's most 'distant' Quarantine Station. By distant I mean that it is about 300 kms inside SA from the SA/WA border where the WA station is apparently just inside WA. Why here we are not sure but it means everyone entering Ceduna from the west has to stop here. The pic below is looking back from Ceduna to the station.
Adjacent to where I took this pic is Ceduna's "Big Oyster" and it is at the Information point and Oyster Cafe on the highway. I was expecting to see something bigger, but perhaps compared to a real oyster it is big and it has been added to our "Big Australian" icons list anyway.
When we were in Shellharbor in early August we came across a chocolate and lolly factory outlet and so we impulsively stocked up on some of our favourite sweets. For Deb, it was a chance to buy an entire box of Choo-Choo bars ... yep, an entire box! Well, all my lollies seemed to disappear rather quickly over the next few days and it wasn't until late in September that the very last Choo-Choo bar was consumed (by Deb!) ... here is a pic of the last bar.
September ended with a road trip back to Adelaide for a few days to attend court (again) on the 30th and it was a good opportunity to catch up with my parents and to see my boy, Matt as I miss him terribly. We also caught up with Deb's son Zac and his girlfriend Kayla ... it was great to them them too.
In September, we travelled ... 1,421 kilometres
Cheapest fuel was in Port Augusta, SA where it was $1.559 / litre
Dearest fuel was in Ceduna, SA where it was $1.589 / litre
We added the following "Big" icon to our list ...
- the Big Oyster at Ceduna SA
So far, our list of sited "Big" Australian icons is at 8 ...
- the Big Blade at Snowtown SA
- the Big Merino at Goulburn NSW
- the Big Ned Kelly at
Glenrowan VIC
- the Big Lobster at Kingston
SA
- the Big Pelican at Loxton SA
- the Big Orange at Renmark SA
- the Big Galah at Kimba SA
- the Big Oyster at Ceduna NSW
So far, we have travelled 8,876 kilometres,
the equivalent of Adelaide to Darwin and back to Adelaide, then back to just past Katherine again.
(Adelaide to Darwin is 3,029
kilometres).
