AN OLD FLAME AT WILMINGTON

And heading off from Pt Augusta with Wilmington as our destination we head into part of the Flinders Ranges.  I said to Karen looks like we will have to climb those hills with 2 tonnes of caravan on the back!  Nah we'll be right!

Hmmm Getting a little concerned! :(

As we head down into 2nd gear and with nowhere to turn around we're headed for the top.  But we weren't the slowest vehicle, a truck up ahead put us down into 1st gear for the duration of the climb.

Once we made it over the Flinders we decided to wet the old whistle at the Wilmington Hotel when you wouldn't believe I met up with an old flame of mine that I hadn't seen for a long time, Karen wasn't altogether very happy but we did reminisce about old times.

......and the time when Dean got caught with his pants down!!

....and you were caught outside the men's room ahahahah

Just when it seemed it couldn't get any better between Sheryl and me reminiscing about the good old days..... Little did I know Sheryl had a bit of history in this local town of Wilmington....

... in walks Pikey angry that I was cutting his grass with his girlfriend Sheryl!!

....and after a very bruising encounter, I had forgotten how these country folk can handle themselves, we decided that if I put on a few rounds of XXXX all would be forgotten.

Even Pikey's wife Penny decided to join us for one of the town's frosty beverages and we all reminisced about good times had.

Karen's only comment was that she thought Sheryl seemed fake and looked a little plastic and she couldn't see what I saw in her! But what you do in your youth is another matter!

Then it was 

TIME TO HIT THE ROAD

PORT AUGUSTA

The road into Pt Augusta was very picturesque

Yep

Ummm a bit of a funny story for you....

When we left Whyalla I thought it was pointless carrying the 40 litres of petrol on our roof as we had traversed the Nullabor without the need of it so instead of using LPG I switched over to petrol and just out of Pt Augusta I took one of the jerry's from the roof and filled the petrol tank back up.  

Coming into the main town of Pt Augusta I let out a big WhooooWhooo! 'Look at the price of LPG here and I quickly proceeded to swerve violently into the petrol station because I was definitely filling up there.  Any way I left the filling up with Karen cause over the road was a very convenient Sip and Save store that contained some vital XXXX supplies for us to continue our trip. 

On getting back to the petrol station I thought we should be all fueled up however Karen said we have only managed to put $2.65 into the tank.  The station manager told us that must be the slow pump so we used the other one but still the same problem!! I thought great, now we have another problem!

We tried swapping the pumps over again but that didn't work so the manager said he was going to re-start his pumps a little later but in the mean time there was another station with LPG down the road.  So with van in tail, we headed to the other station that had the same great price and proceeded to fill up, only to have the same problem! Yep definitely a problem with our gas system as this manager said he didn't have anyone with problems today and after the second time Karen went into the station store to pay the 89 cents that we owed I noticed a funny thing on the dash board.... And so with an already very full gas tank because we were running on petrol....

IT WAS TIME TO HIT THE ROAD! AND NOT TELL ANYONE WE WERE FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA

WHYALLA

Whyalla beach is a walk about 500 metres off the foreshore when the tide is out.  Instead of swimming out when someone is in trouble they need to be really good at running!

The forshore

Hello! 

Just a short walk and you're wet

Please walk between the flags!

I figure this tree has been around for a while

And after meeting one of our mates Robbo, I said it would be OK if he had a picture of the fish I caught on the sandbar

And after giving Robbo a good size filet from my catch it was
TIME TO HIT THE ROAD

EYRE PENINSULA

More amazing sunsets on the peninsula outside Port Kenny

Part of the Tahlia Caves on Eyre Peninsula

Again at the Tahlia caves

 

 So where's Wally

 Aww there he is....

Karen has started a new craze, it's called 'Aerobics on the Rocks'!

And after a bit of Rock Aerobics it's time to teach the kiddies how to dive correctly from the rocks to the water below!

More diving areas

Ooooooooooo spooky washing water!

And because Karen was a little scared by this it was
TIME TO HIT THE ROAD

CEDUNA

As we cross into South Australia

Beautiful one day

Better the next

THE NEXT DAY

After a good nights sleep and a cuppa tea I decided to get the old legs moving and take a walk down the beach and do some old star jump exercises

And there's always time to relax and take in a few rays

 And nobody can argue the pure majesty of this great country

And it just gets more and more beautiful.....

And another tradition on the Plain is for travelers to leave their mark so we thought it only fitting....

And with some serious kilometres to get behind us still,

IT'S TIME TO HIT THE ROAD

MAKING KILOMETRES

 And the kilometres keep on coming....

The harsh terrain of the Nullabor is very unforgiving

We take a short break at Caiguna for a cuppa with some old friends Jacko and Ruby owners of the roadhouse and a truckie we made friends with that was halling cars across the Plain.

We eventually came to that amazing part of Australia called the Great Aussie Bite.

And after a long and eventful day it was time to settle down for a sparkling soda water and a bit of the bush tucker that was left over from the night before and get some much needed shut eye.

SET FOR TROUBLE

First night on the Nullabor and little did we know we were set from some trouble

After a weary day on the road we settled for a nice little camp spot between Balladonia and Caiguna.  Just us and some friendly back packers

Only to set off after some refreshments and terrific bush tucker, to find ourselves not going too far fast!

It's important that when you get into this type of situation that you don't panic and run around saying Karen what do I do now oh no why does this happen to me, aahhhh, where is the spanner, what does this do, where does this go?

With any seasoned bushman traveller you have all of the right equipment to do the job and they are easily accessible

Karen what's this thing do?

Ahhh it's a balloon, now that's fun.

And time to take the little blighter off!

Come on ya mongrel!

And with a bit of bushman's know how,

IT'S TIME TO HIT THE ROAD!