NEW TERRITORY ... for us.

Ceduna reminded us of Chinchilla! The layout of the town was comparable, with similar specimen trees down the middle of the Main Street, and side-streets with small businesses. Even the bakery sited on the corner of an arcade was like Chinchilla. But the style of WW’s hadn’t caught up with Chinchilla’s beautiful new one. 

Fish and chips at Mozzie’s Truck Stop is legendary – that was lunch.

Shelley Beach Caravan Park at Ceduna was great ... nice wide bays, with trees on either side. A stumpy tail lizard visited us. The amenities looked like no others: It was like walking into a bird aviary. The outside netting/cloth was designed to keep the pesky flies and other insects out. It worked. Which was good, because these were the best amenities we’d encountered.

Now it was Friday and time to move on. We drove into NEW TERRITORY, something we love doing – meandering on a road we haven’t traveled before. Five years ago when we were in this area, we’d followed the Eyre Peninsula Road to Streaky Bay and the Port Lincoln areas, so Ceduna to Port Augusta was new.

At one time I could identify all the crops as we drove along – wheat, oats or barley. Not now; the new strains of wheat are a different colour and new crops, such as quinoa and chia, confuse me. But I know what is in the amazing pipelines which criss-cross South Australia: water! If South Australia can do it, why not Queensland?

At Poochera, our morning tea stop, we discovered they had their own unique colony of ants ... the only ones in the world of this species. For years, entomologists had searched the Esperance area for this ant, and it was only discovered when one of them went into the bush to pee at Poochera! But poor Poochera is going the way of so many other small towns. It really only exists now for working the silos for the millions of acres of crop which are grown all around. All the businesses are closed; even the pub.

At Wudinna, a magnificently carved 8-metre high granite sculpture dedicated to the Australian Farmer had pride of place in the town. What a talent to get merino sheep looking so life-like in granite.

In the mid-sixties when W.A. was opening up more of its’ wheat-belt country in the Lakes Grace,  Varley, King and Hyden areas, a few farming sons from Kimba took up some of this land ... and drove their tractors, headers and other equipment over the Nullarbor to their new holdings. I don’t think that’s the reason, though, the “big” symbol of Kimba is a galah!

After that lovely wind-free drive on Friday, Saturday at Kimba dawned windy! We pushed on, through the mulga which broke the wind in places, until we reached Port Augusta and the caravan park at the head of Spencer Gulf where we’d stayed five years ago. What a beautiful view, across the Gulf to the freight trains being assembled before heading across the Nullarbor to Perth, or up to Darwin. The backdrop is the Flinders Ranges.

But, today the wind is nearly gale-force, so we’re bunkered down. It’s expected to drop in a couple of days’ time, so then we’ll head north to Coober Pedy.