Chapter IX - the last half of 2008
It took some doing but I finally got Annie all packed up, we said our goodbye’s to big brother and Bob and drove away just a little bit after lunchtime. Not too bad really since Annie had planned to be away by 8.30 am at the latest! As we had such a late start we stopped at Pine Creek for our first night away. Of course we had stopped there before but I hardly recognised the place, it was full of mining types, rather loud and not to nice, as well the price had gone up no end and we did not like it one little bit, we struck it off our list of good over night camps.
Although it was still quite warm it was a pleasant enough day on the road, we had a nice lunch and morning tea stop at Mataranka and Daly Waters – I got a nice walk around and a bit of a free run too at Daly Waters so I was quite happy with life sitting up front in the navigators seat! Our second night was spent at Renner Springs, this was a nice stop as there were a couple of dogs to chat with a nice dam to sniff around and cool the paws in. An early start saw us into Tennant Creek in time to do some obedience work at the oval. Must say, I was very impressed at how clean and tidy Tennant Creek had become since last I went through. We got down to a place we have never stayed at for our overnight stop; it is called Aileron and is 130 km from Alice Springs. By the time we got there it was rather windy and the night was getting a bit chilly too, in fact it was so chilly that Annie had to unpack the sleeping bag for us. After I had eaten Annie went into the roadhouse / bar and the owners were having tea with a Territory Icon, none other than our recently retired Chief Administrator Ted Egan and his lady and his son too. This was all very interesting as at Aileron there is a very big statue built up on a hill, of a indigenous hunter in mid stride – it is called The Walking Man, it was Ted’s son who designed the statue. In the morning we got up early and walked around the base of the hill, as it is on the Station I got to have a bit of a wizz and a lot of sniffs (kangaroos, mmmm). Later we drove into Alice Springs battling a nasty wind all 130 km! Annie had to go and vote and we had a rather nice lunch just off the Todd Mall before heading down as far as Erldunda for a night in the red sand hills. It was so cold that we needed both quilts over us and I snuggled up close to Annie right under them both I can tell you! In the morning I really did not want to get up at all but when I did I went all silly dog in the red loose sand, legs going in all directions! That was a bit of fun!
Not far to SA now said Annie, waking me up from my snooze. Sure enough, we soon pulled into the rest area at the border and Annie took some photographs and I went for a gentle wizz ( I was still half asleep) The road is really a bit on the boring side around this bit but eventually we pulled into Lake Hart rest area. What a sight!
My first thought was wow! all that water!! what a pity big brother wasn’t here to enjoy a swim. Then we went for a walk down to the Lake and...it wasn’t water at all, it was a salt lake that stretched as far as I could see. We went for quite a long walk around the edge and there were the most wonderful smells but no actual critters. Still to a dog smells are almost as good as the real thing. It started to get very cold so we went back to our home and enjoyed our dinners, and I enjoyed a little bit of Annie’s dinner too. Then there was a knock on our door and some of the other travellers had got a lovely fire going and invited us to share – Annie made pancakes for all to share and as I was the only dog there I got a lot of cuddles and pats from everyone, altogether a very nice night indeed.
Early in the morning we went for another long walk on the funny salt lake, had to in order to defrost really as it was such a cold night. After a good breakfast and goodbye’s to our camp fire friends we drove south and before too long we were in Port Augusta where we had lunch, shopped, did the odd wiz or two and got more petrol. Then we made our way to Kimba where we stayed the night in the little free camp right in the middle of town (we stayed there in 2006 as well). It was the opening night of the Olympics and an elderly lady came across the from a house nearby and invited Annie and me and the people in the caravan who were also parked up for the night, to come and watch some of the television broadcast with her. She had a cat...but it wasn’t frightened of me and would not run at all and, would you believe it, when I had curled up quietly it actually came and lay down beside me...I was frightened to even breath.
The next morning we went off and did the lovely bush walk just outside of town because it is so good then drove down to Cleve and across to the West Coast of this bit of Australia called Eyre Peninsular.
It was very windy and there was a good old storm brewing up so most of our sightseeing was done from inside the little house on wheels! We stopped for the night at a place called Arno Bay, in a pretty little caravan park. As it was still quite early we went for a walk down to the beach. The sea was very wild and it reminded me of some of the places I had been in WA. As we were walking on the beach the wind turned right around almost and these great big seas were coming to get us, we ran, as best as we could in the wind and the sand to get off the beach, as now the waves were really as high as houses and very, very close. It was a bit scary for Annie and me.
The next day we wandered down to the Oyster capitol of the world – Coffin Bay. A really lovely little fishing town with a lot of old interesting cottages and none of them seemed to have gardens, so all the dogs in town were a very friendly crowd. The caravan park here was also pretty and seemed to have a lot of free loaders in the shape of Kangaroos that come down at night out of the National Park. Very cheeky Kangaroos too I might add, they let Annie get right up close, they were almost tame, and needless to say it meant I was on my lead the whole time we were there. Here Annie had dinner at the local Sailing Club; it was all home made by the Sailing Club members and rather yummy she said, must have been ‘cos she didn’t even bring me home any scraps.
Port Lincoln was next, we got there nice and early and spent most of the day wandering but it wasn’t that exciting we felt. We camped out of town a bit at a free camp called Louth Bay which was lovely and so quiet and peaceful. In fact it was so peaceful that we took rather a long time to get out on the road and took a very slow drive up the East Coast, we were going to stay at Cowell for a night but the only caravan park in town only had powered sites, at $28.00. For just 8.00 more Annie could have stayed at the lovely old pub next door but of course she wouldn’t leave me all on my own in the camper for the night. We headed off inland and found a lovely free camp just outside of Cleve, complete with toilets and a bbq. This was such a nice spot that we stayed for 2 nights! Cowell missed out big time! Whilst camped here near Cleve we visited the Cleve Field Days, which is like a sort of an Agricultural Show, nice and laid back and even we dogs could wander around the show, it was a lot of fun and there were some really good smells of food and various poo’s and other animals, all sort of mixed in together.
When we left the Cleve area we headed up towards Whyalla, now we have visited Pt Augusta a few times over the last 3 years and have noticed how nice it is, so we expected that maybe Whyalla had gone the same way, we were in for a shock, it definitely had not! Most of the shops in the main part of town were closed, there seems to be only one shopping centre and it was dingy, grubby, and the shops were not all that much either, it was a great let down really. Annie did notice that the house prices were quite high despite the gloomy look of the place.
As night was drawing in we camped just out of Whyalla, right down at the waters edge, there was only one other vehicle there, a lovely couple in a Coaster bus who made a big fuss of me. It was a cold windy night though and not the sort of evening to sit out and share a happy hour, so we had an early night all tucked up warm in our HoW.
The next day we wandered down to Pt Augusta fairly early, there is a really interesting place there called Wadlata and it tells the story of how The Centre of Australia cam to be. Dogs were not allowed so Annie made sure I was comfy, gave me a nice big chewie and went through this interpretive centre on her own, she said it was one of the best such centre’s she had ever seen! Really informative, interesting, and educational as well!