Days 139-144 – Adelaide (25-30 Jan) Week 20

Left Aldinga for Adelaide to stay with friends Trevor and Margy who live in the Adelaide hills.  About an hours drive north east.  There are some major hills in this area and Trevor had given us directions for the least hilly way (5km climb) to get to there place but even so we overheated and had to pull over.  Definitely need to take the car in to get the radiator fixed later in the week.  Trevor and Margy live on 10 acres and have wonderful views over the ranges and sea glimpses.  It is a lovely spot to stay.   They have a male chocolate labrador (Kora) and a female yellow labrador (Halle), five chickens, an aviary of budgies and three horses.  So a real menagerie. Its great and Coco loves it.  They have five grown up children with only two still living at home (occasionally).  We had a lovely Australia Day breakfast with some of Margy’s friends and a couple of their children and their partners.  The weather was perfect, John cooked brekkie on the bbq (he doesn’t have to be at Rotary to cook brekkie) and we had croissants, champers, fruit platters, lamingtons and anzac biscuits to name a few.  Sarah (youngest daughter) and her boyfriend Brett gave us a demonstration on frisbee.  They are both very good players and play competition frisbee.  We didn’t know there was such a thing.  In the afternoon we went for a drive to town called Springton in the Barossa Valley to look at a church that was for sale that Rachel (Trevor and Margy’s oldest daughter) and her husband were interested in buying to live in.  Unfortunately it had been sold.  The next day (Wed) John and I went to the Mt Lofty Summit which overlooks the city.  It is 710 metres above sea level, it was destroyed in Ash Wednesday 1983 fires along with 28 human lives and 257,000+ livestock and animals (only I would remember that number right).  We watched a short DVD on the fire and the devastation was horrendous.  At the summit there is fire watch tower which really has a good vantage point for many miles.  From there we went to Waterfall Gully and was surprised to find there was water running.  Very very steep hills to get there and it is amazing to see houses perched right on the edge of a hill.  I would be nervous living in some of them.   Thursday John and I spent and the day at the Noarlunga Colonnade which is a really large shopping centre.  From 8.30am to 5.15pm we killed time while our radiator was being fixed.  Don’t want to see another shopping centre for a while.  Friday saw Trevor take the day off work and the four of us went to Hahndorf a lovely town in the Barossa valley.  One of the Adelaide Hills' most famous towns, Hahndorf is Australia's oldest surviving German settlement.  There is still a strong German flavour in Hahndorf, most evident in the smallgood outlets and German bakeries that line the bustling main street.  Sir Hans Heysen a famous painter was one of the original settlers here.  The Beerenberg jam factory is not far from town.  It is a great town to visit particularly if you are looking for different gifts and it is very popular with tourists.  We had lunch at Udder Delights following some cheese tasting which was delicious followed by dessert at No. 5 a wonderful chocolate shop.  They make chocolate with pure belgian chocolate and we had the best hot chocolate, a choice of milk or dark chocolate.  John and I tried the dark hot chocolate.  It was the delicious as were the Belgian waffles and the chocolate tiramusu.  Very decadent.  Later in the afternoon Trevor and Margy bought the deal of the year, a brand new Toyota Yaris that someone had won as a prize and didn’t want it.  They got a real bargain.  The highlight of Saturday was a KOALA.  Yes we saw our first wild koala.  It was about 8.20pm and we were out walking Coco when I spotted it.  Fantastic!!  It was a darker colour than we were expected and he/she was a very healthy looking specimen.  Not as high in the tree as I would have thought and not in particularly tall gum tree either.  We were chuffed to see it but as you would expect the one time we didn’t have the camera so couldn’t take a picture - but we did see it. 
Addendum – next morning went for a walk to see if I could find the koala again and I did (well might not be the exact one but it will do).  

Days 137-138 – Aldinga Beach Adelaide (23-24 Jan)

Went to the one and only cow race in Australia today at Mt Compass 20 mins drive inland on the way to Victor Harbour.  It is very much a rural event with a lot of the locals attending.  There are a lot of events during the day to keep crowds entertained and the highlight is the cow auction and then two cow races followed by the Cup.  It is in its 37th year and seems very popular. the day starts at 12noon and ends up late at night with bands from 6.30pm.  All funds raised go to charity.  The highest bid for a cow was $5000.  The cows are loaned by local farmers for the day and the auction is purely fund raising.  Riders are chosen for each cow but it is obvious the cows nor the riders have any experience at this.  We didn’t realise the cows would be ridden thought they would wear colours and the first one to the end wins.  We only stayed for the first race (of sorts) as it was getting late so didn’t see the big race.  One of the prior events was a working dog demo and two were kelpies who looked very similar to Coco – it could almost have been her except they were males.  They rounded up sheep and then cattle which we hadn’t see before.  Other events included a milk skulling competition, rubberboot marathons (wet boots and surfaces) and an assortment of proud ute drivers showing off their utes which some were quite speccy.  Have to say it didn’t come close to the dog in a ute competition we have in WA.  It was quite a fun day and there were lots of stalls selling all kinds of local produce/crafts.  It would good if Cowarmup (cow town for none WA-ians) had something like this.  Mt Compass is a very rural agricultural area and I think I heard the commentator say that 9 months of the year they have rain!  Could have misheard that – seems odd when the rest of the state is in drought.  We have been dodging the tour down under bike race and driving to Mt Compass today we actually had to drive along some of the route, you should have seen the masses of spectators alongside the roadways – we reckon half of Adelaide must have been there – it was amazing to see so many people for quite a distance.

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Today (Sunday) drove the west side of the Fleurieu Peninsula to Victor Harbour stopping along the way at Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island – where the Murray River meets the ocean.  Goolwa is a lovely little town – very touristy and today was market day with a lot of local produce/craft on sale.  Very busy spot probably because of the long weekend (for some).  To get to the Murray Mouth you have to drive over a very impressive bridge to Hindmarsh Island.  The Murray River traverses 610kms through SA to get to the ocean.  Due to the drought dredging of sand has to be done to stop the river mouth closing at a cost of $6M per annum.   Amazing the difference between the temperature 40 odd kms can make – it was really chilly here and windy so we didn’t kayak like we were thinking of doing.   We came across a town called Currency Creek which had a really interesting cemetry (normally wouldn’t stop at these) with some really old headstones the oldest we spotted was 1857.  Onto Victor Harbour with a population of 12,000 in town and 20,000 in district.  Again a very popular tourist destination with many holidaymakers from Adelaide.  Apparently a lot of Adelaidians flee here to escape the heat as it can be 10 degrees cooler and it was chilly in shade today.  The foreshore reminded us a little of Busselton but with much more activity and things to do and see.  Driving home we took an inland route and found a spot called Glacier Rock, quite a significant geological area.  A lot of the scenery in the lower Fleurieu reminded us of the SW of WA, take out the ranges and it we could easily be mistaken for being home.

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Days 134-136 – Aldinga Beach Adelaide (20-22 Jan)

Last minute decision to drive to Adelaide from Burra.  We were going to stay a little longer in the Clare Valley but decided we had seen enough wineries and old buildings.  Dropped into Kapunda (old copper mining town) and it was too hot so kept going.  Joys of travelling on a whim.  Aldinga is about 43kms south of Adelaide on the top tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula.  This peninsula is very popular with holidaymakers from Adelaide due to its proximity to the city and the further south you go the cooler the weather.  Kangaroo Island is off the bottom tip of the peninsula via a ferry from Cape Jervis.  Cape Jervis is 110kms south from Adelaide and is as far as you can go before you have to swim.  We were going to go to Kangaroo Island until we found out it would cost over $300 to get there and back (us and the car) for a 45 minute trip.  So opted not to go.  Apparently not many locals go due to the cost.  The park we are at is about a 5 minute walk to the beach which is very pretty.  The beaches here have rolling hills as a backdrop into the ocean and it is very scenic and quite different landscape to what we are used too.  We didn’t realise however that the closest beach to us (walking distance at least) is a nudist beach – and yes they do get around in the nuddie.  As on Cable Beach in Broome majority are old codgers – honestly some things are best left to the imagination!  To get to the non nuddie beach you have to walk the gauntlet for about 500m.  Just hope no-one stops you for a chat as where would you look?  It was a hot night last night and Coco and I went down for a swim and it was beautiful.  Real ocean with waves and a drop-off!  Compared to what we have seen so far on the Eyre Peninsula it was heaven.  Each day we have been here there has been a spotter plane surveying the beaches for sharks and the first night its shark siren went off a few times.  People still chance a quick dip!  Apparently there is a reef nearby - Aldinga Reef - which is known for its shark sightings. 

We drove the east side of the Peninsula 110kms to the bottom at Cape Jervis.  Some very pretty scenery, the hills are just lovely, whilst brown and dry still lovely.  We stopped at the Myponga Reservoir which had a fair bit of water in it which surprised us and yes lovely scenery.  Some great beach spots along the way again with the hills as a backdrop.  Certainly is a very picturesque part of the country.  We were considering snorkelling at a place called Rapid Bay and Second Valley where leafy sea dragons can sometimes be seen, but John put the scares on us about the sharks!  Second Valley was full of kids but could be worth a snorkel as it is more protected once the kids go back to school.  At Rapid Bay we would snorkel at the jetty which is 470m out to sea and open water – would be looking over our shoulders out there a fair bit.   Also the water is so cold about 16 degrees!  Really need a wetsuit of sorts to stay in the water for a good period of time. 

There is a huge shopping centre at a suburb called Noarlunga, 20kms north of Aldinga which we went to check out. We were looking for a radiator workshop as we were having radiator issues and discovered it nearby.  Don’t believe there is a shopping centre in WA that comes close to it in size.  Lots of franchise stores that we don’t get in WA such as a nut store, cakes, greek yoghurt, cheap stores like Red Dot.  Could get lost in there quite easily.  Have to be honest shopping loses its appeal when you can only buy on need not want due to lack of space!

One thing we only found out when we got here was the Bike Tour Down Under is being held in this part of the world over this weekend.  There are 8000 competitors and everywhere is busy particularly roads and accommodation.  So we have had to time our trips out when the bikes aren’t on our route.   We leave here on Monday heading back to Adelaide and staying with friends of ours Trevor and Margy who live on some acreage in the hills area.  We are looking forward to catching up with them again as we haven’t seen them for at least 5 years. 

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Days 132-133 – Burra (18-19 Jan)

120kms today from Crystal Brook to Burra in the Clare Valley. A very pretty drive through some lovely rolling hills. The Clare Valley is a wine growing region, one of three in SA.  The main hub of wineries is in the town of Clare 40kms away. Copper was discovered in Burra in 1845 and the mine was one of the richest mines the world had known. Quite a bit of history here but expensive to see and being a tourist town they charge for everything.  There is a charge for entry into each museum of $5.00/person/museum or $20.00/person to enter 8 of them.  They also want anything from $5 to $15 for guidebooks.  We did discover the best coffee we have tasted for a long long time at a antique/bookshop coffee shop. Many antique/curio shops here more pricey than the one in Crystal Brook.  Were going to travel 40kms to Clare today (Tues) but were too lazy to pack up so stayed another day in Burra.   We dusted off the bikes and rode 3kms to an apple cidery for some tasting, uphill most of the way on dirt roads – we needed a cider by the time we got there but coming home was much easier and yes we bought a bottle.  Another town with lots of historic buildings, many of them have been converted into B&Bs or accommodation quarters.  Quite a pretty town and it is very popular in spring and autumn. 

In 2001 fossils of a Diprotodon were discovered nearby Burra and before becoming extinct 50,000 years ago was Australia’s largest marsupial resembling a giant wombat.  The fossils are on display in the shire office.  Interesting to see.

 

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Day 131 – Crystal Brook (17 Jan)

Left blustery Whyalla heading inland to Crystal Brook (188kms), foothills to the Southern Flinders Ranges. A very pretty drive with views to the ranges.  Crystal Brook is a small town of about 1800 people but a nice town with lots of history.  A wonderful antique/curio store houses the information bureau. Everything they sell is on consignment and there were some real gems like Royal Albert tea sets, the old slider viewers we all had as kids, hand held meat mincers, those old fashioned really thick porcelain mixing bowls, Enid Blyton books, easy to spend a lot of time in there.  Not a lot to do in Crystal Book it is more of an overnight stop.  The caravan park was a bargain at $18/night, amenities very clean and not many people.  The only downside was that it was very dusty with the wind following us from Whyalla that night so the inside of the van now needs a good dust.  We cooked our snapper on the weber tonight and it was just beautiful, thanks Graham.

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(John's turn) Now for those interested in stats or curious as to actual costs because one day you want to do something like this, here goes:-

Over 18 weeks we have travelled 12,091Km's. spent $3,939.38 on fuel using 2,767.73L. Now according to my maths that means we are spending $218.85 per week (not bad as we only budgeted for $150 a week, although the North West of WA was heavy in distance now that we are on the East coast we expect these averages to decrease) fuel is costing on average $1.423/L, we average 670km's per week, and stay 3.5 days per stop. All this in a 1992 Mits Pajero with serious wind resistance on the roof and a 2.5 tonne van. This all gave us on average 12.78mpg or 22.84L per 100Km's.

Days 129-130 – Whyalla (14-16 Jan)

Today we drove to Whyalla 154kms north east of Arno Bay.  Whyalla’s slogan is ‘where the outback meets the sea”.  Outback being the Flinders Ranges and the sea being the Spencer Gulf.  We are catching up with Wally and Anne friends of ours from Busselton who are here for a few days visiting Wally’s sister and her husband (Marlene and Graham).  We have booked into the Foreshore Caravan Park and have a site right on the beachfront.  So far this is the most expensive park we have stayed in at $33/night.  We are paying $5/night more for a beachfront site which is very nice except they didn’t tell us we would get gale force winds late afternoon/evening, gee is it windy can hardly open the door without it being blown away but the days are lovely.  As with most of the beaches in SA so far the tide is a long way out but it doesn’t stop hopeful fisher people walking out to catch crabs.  Because of the shallow inclines in the beach causing the tide to be way out people use crab rakes to literally rake crabs out of the sand.  Seems to be fairly successful.  40 crabs per person per day can be caught here in SA – ridiculous who needs that many crabs??  We spent a couple of hours with Wally and Anne before they headed off to Marlene and Graham’s holiday shack in Point Douglas (45km north east of Whyalla) for a few days.  They have asked us to visit them tomorrow (Fri). Wally and Anne also had our mail and a tripod for the satellite dish from home.  John and I headed out to the local shopping mall to get our fix and decided that we really don’t miss shopping that much.  Supermarkets open at 7.00am and close at 10.00pm here.

Had a lovely day at Point Douglas with Wally, Anne, Marlene and Graham at their holiday shack in Point Douglas.  What a beautiful spot.  There would be no more than 12 homes in this bay and the Southern Flinders Ranges overlook the bay.  (I have visited the Flinders Ranges previously and they are just beautiful, unfortunately we won’t be exploring the ranges as it is not recommended this time of year because of the heat).  The tide was in so we took the opportunity to go kayaking before it went out.  The weather today was just perfect, not too hot but warm enough to enjoy a swim so I had my first swim in the Spencer Gulf! it was wonderful.  Graham kindly gave us a whole snapper that his son had caught here which we have defrosting and will will cook on the weber tomorrow night for dinner, yum.  On the way back to Whyalla we stopped at Point Lowly.  This is one of areas where the giant cuttlefish come to spawn between May and September each year.  There are diving/snorkelling tours during this time which would be great to do.  On the way to Point Douglas we saw sea cages (see pics) that house yellow tail kingfish.  These cages are owned by Southern Star Aquaculture and Cleanseas.  In this area they specialise in growing the kingfish for 18-24 months when they harvest them and sell them in markets in Adelaide, Whyalla, Melbourne and Sydney, USA, Japan and Europe.  When we were in Port Lincoln and Arno Bay Cleanseas also had offshore sea cages containing tuna.

Saturday very very windy, southerly wind gusts up to 54kmh and we are copping if right off the ocean.  Because of the wind we decided to stay put today and travel tomorrow when we won’t have to deal with strong headwinds.  We are heading east into the Clare Valley which is predominantly a wine region.  Research we have done it looks to be very pretty with lots of trees, creeks etc.  It is only 1.5 hours from Adelaide.

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Days 126-128 Arno Bay (11-13 Jan)

Left the farmstay at Port Lincoln early this morning as we were worried about the high risk of fire.  It is so sweltering hot!  We are heading to Arno Bay which is about 120kms north east of Port Lincoln.  The winds already are quite strong and they are predicting them to get even stronger as the day progresses with thunderstorms.  So we want to get settled asap.  At first glance Arno Bay is a sleepy little town with a population of 250 on the coast.  The caravan park is right on the beach with grassed sites (again unusual for the Eyre Peninsula).  It is a busy park and obviously very popular.  The jetty is about 50m away and good for catching squid apparently.  It is still really stinking hot so we quickly get setup and hibernate under the air conditioning until the temperature drops.  Later in the evening it is cool enough to go for a walk so Coco and I walk along the beach which actually has waves and is not too shallow and has white sand (amazing for this part of the world it seems).  There is a cafe next to the park, a kind of old world pub that serves cheap meals and 500m away is a mangrove boardwalk which we will explore when it is cooler.  There are a lot of holiday homes here some new and old shacks.  Town is probably 1km away.

Today is much cooler, down to 23, windy and raining.  This weather is so erratic, but at least we can get out and do things.  Walked into town, not much there except a supermarket and post office.  Did the mangrove walk.  Very impressive when you consider it was built entirely by volunteers, even more amazing given the population is so small.  There are two parts to it, one is a loop through the mangroves and the other heads off to the estuary both walks about 700m.  It is very well done and was only finished recently.   If the weather was nicer it would be nice to kayak in the creek.  Maybe tomorrow.

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Days 124-125 Port Lincoln (9-10 Jan)

Drove into Port Lincoln as John wanted an underwater camera for his cage shark diving the next day.  We also wanted to find the shortest and most straightforward way into town as we had gotten lost getting back to the farm.  There are some lovely views as we drive down the hill overlooking the ocean that we have included.   During our trek home the GPS took us a different way where we stumbled across the remains of the recent fire of 23 December, quite a large area was burnt and 12 properties were lost.  Surprisingly the fire was close to town.  A bit ghoulish but John took some photos and video.  Also discovered another dam on the property near one of the farm owners homes, this one is bigger than the other two and sheep graze the edge.

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Today (Sunday) is the big shark cage diving day.  We left the farm at 6.00am as John had to be at the marina in Port Lincoln at 6.30am and it is a good 25 minutes drive away.  Even so early it is hot, predicting 43 degrees today!  After dropping John off I decided to go into town and do some sightseeing and go for a swim.  Unfortunately I don’t have the camera (John has it) so couldn’t take photos.  I was one of the first ones to park at the town jetty and foreshore.  Being Sunday everywhere is closed of course.  Coco and I went for a long walk along the foreshore and popped into Coles.  Coles is open from 6.00am to 9.00pm and Woollies 7.00am to 10.00pm – how good it that!  By this time it is really starting to get too warm to walk much further so its time for a swim.  The jetty (in fact most in SA so far) have a swimming area about 1/2 way along the length.  We thought it was to keep the sharks out and this is partly true, but it mainly is  because the water is so shallow and you have to wade out so far to get water above your knees that by having these platforms it makes it easier to enter deeper water.  Being so warm there were heaps of people on the jetty and swimming.  But it was so nice and cool once in.  Didn’t want to get out.  By this time Wendy’s was open and I had decided I really wanted a milkshake – haven’t had one for ages and I had to wait ages for them to open.  So I ordered a vanilla with malt.  Decided to sit on the lawn by the waters edge and read by book, well as usual I was trying to carry too much stuff and dropped my hardly touched milkshake onto the footpath.  Urggh, so disappointing as I was really really going to enjoy it, but all not lost as an off leash dog thought it was lovely and lapped it all up – lucky dog.   Hung around a bit longer then drove back to the farm.  And it was hot – about 5 degrees warmer than by the water.  It did get to 43 in town and I reckon it was 48 at least at the farm.  I have never experienced heat quite like it, it is suffocating and like walking into an oven – horrible.  Hibernated in the van in the a/c until it was time to pick up John. 

OK, John here, so I have to do an entry on my dive with the GREAT WHITE! well that might take a while to compile so mean time here is a video. A bit long 8 min so be patient :-)

 

Day 123 – Port Lincoln (8 Jan)

Congratulations Mom and Dad celebrating their 50th Golden Wedding Anniversary today. 

Reluctantly we left Elliston today to drive to Port Lincoln.  There is only one caravan park in Port Lincoln that allows dogs and feedback from other travellers is that it isn’t very nice at all so we googled and found a farmstay about 20kms north of town that allows dogs.  The farm is privately owned has 2700 acres and they run cattle and sheep.  The owners live at one end of the farm and at the other end (4km away) is a homestead, cabin and sites for two caravans, a bathroom and camp kitchen.  We are the only van here and there is a young European trainee staying in the cabin.  There is a dam about a five minute walk away that has yabbies in it and there are nets that we can use should the urge take us.  Coco is enjoyed going in there to cool off.  It is so hot here and no coastal breezes to cool us off.  It reached 40 today with the next three days being about the same.  Thank goodness we have air conditioning in the van.  The nearest beach is 12kms away.  It is very peaceful here and sitting by the dam is lovely.  The farm relies on rainwater only.  The Black Tuesday fires of 2005 went through the farm and you can still see remnants of the fire today.  Sadly the father of the family died during the fires.  With the hot spell the risk of fire did cross our minds when deciding to stay here as it isolated and the only way out is via bush roads but it seems safe enough (fingers crossed).  Everywhere on the Eyre Peninsula is dry and brown they are in desperate need of rain, easy to see why fires start.    Went into town to do a shop at Woollies and will venture back in over the next couple of days to do some sightseeing.

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Days 121-122 – Elliston (6/7 Jan)

Took a drive to Walkers Rock, 13kms west of Elliston.  It is known for fishing (surprise), swimming and beach driving which we had to do.  After letting the tyre pressure down we found a quiet spot and just relaxed.  John tried balloon fishing without any joy (he is convinced there are no fish in the Indian or Southern oceans!)  The water looked great for swimming but the water was too cold for us to venture into.  Coco and I went for a long long walk and it was just beautiful, the sand was perfect for walking on, firm underfoot even in the shallow water.  As usual the southerly breeze came in about lunchtime and we left to have lunch at home.  News update – John is diving with sharks on Sunday at Port Lincoln (its OK he will be in a cage) and I’m keen to swim with the sea lions if weather permits. 

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Some photos of Elliston township.  There are some interesting murals on a couple of the buildings in town with so much detail – have a look on slideshow at full screen size to appreciate the artwork.

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Day 120 – Elliston (5 Jan)

Note:  We have found a new way of displaying the photos.  With this new format it means we can upload more photos and not have to severely cull them for the blog.  We can also add captions.

What to do!

1.  Click on view full album – photos will upload.  You have options to view, ie. slideshow or thumbnails.

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Drove to a beach called Locks Well about 18 kms east.  What a lovely spot.  Very popular fishing spot particularly for salmon.  We were surprised at the number of fishermen (and girls) were there today beach fishing. They have a salmon fishing competition beach during winter.  The drop to the beach is 60m and thank goodness they have built steps down to the beach (283 of them).  The sand was pristine, not as white as Esperance but just as unspoilt.  We ducked around headlands that jutted into the water and found more secluded bays.  It is just wonderful.  There are very strong rips here so swimming is not recommended.  There was a lot of sea spray which was kinda neat and meant there was a lot of scrub growing on the rocks.  It was a really nice spot to wander around and while away a few hours.

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Day 119 – Elliston (4 Jan)

Spent part of today exploring.  Drove the Great Ocean Tourist Drive which offered lovely views of bays and a rugged coastline.  The drive is along the clifftops.  Looking at the scenery you can see that it is still very much part of the Great Australian Bight.  Local artists have built sculptures that they think fit the ocean scene and these are scattered along the cliff edge. John spotted two large crabs amongst a rock pool and crept close enough to get a photo before they disappeared into their cave.

We had a look around town, didn't take long.  A pub of course, a bakery which John says bakes the best pie and sausage roll he has ever tasted!, a general store (very general), post office that also has a few expensive pharmacy items and that’s about it.  The tourist office houses the op shop, art exhibitions and the library.  The population is only about 400 but it is really a lovely little town.  The park we are at is very nice, clean and lovely grassed sites and it is quiet.  So far this is the best stop we have had in SA.  The mornings are beautiful here but by lunchtime the southerly winds come through and they can be strong and chilly.

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Day 118 - Streaky Bay to Elliston (3 Jan)

After 2 weeks in Streaky Bay we left for Elliston (120km east).  We had an interesting drive with a few stops along the way.   Our first stop was Murphy's Haystacks, a natural landform in the middle of nowhere. Here is something I pinched from the website about them.  "The haystacks are formed from ancient granite inselbergs dating back 1,500 million years. [The name inselberg comes from German insel, meaning island and berg, mountain.] The pillars and boulders in their present day form only go back as far as 100,000 years and have been formed by the uneven weathering of crystalline rock as densely fractured compartments break down through weathering more quickly than massive unfractured compartments. The distinction between the two forms is that pillars merge unknown with the underlying bedrock, but boulders are clearly detached. The haystacks are of a pink granite named Hiltaba granite after the homestead of the same name in the Gawler Ranges. It is extensive over the north-western Eyre Peninsula. The mottled colours on the surface of the haystacks are caused by growth of lichen, a tough plant organism which thrives on exposed granite.  The granite hills of the district, including the haystacks, were buried by calcareous dune sand about 30,000 years ago. Subsequent erosion of the surrounding land surface has gradually revealed the forms we see today."  The website on the haystacks is really interesting.

Our next stop was at Talia Caves.  The first one was called the Woolshed. The Woolshed is a large cave, or cavity, in the cliff face which has been formed by the erosion of the cliff face by wind and water.  The next one was called the tub which is is a collapsed limestone crater. You can climb into the Tub. The ocean accesses the Tub through a tunnel in the rocks.  Pretty spectacular to see  in the middle of nowhere. 

Closer to Elliston we came across the Colton Bakery, literally a roadside stall that sells home made wood fired bread on an honour system, naturally we had to buy some and it was delicious, sorry no photos as we ate it for lunch.  The caravan park at Elliston has grassed sites, so nice after the dust at Streaky and the amenites are spotless, albeit 70s style with red loos' and the small square mustard tiles.  There seems to be a fair bit to do here so will post more when we have time to explore.