After a pleasant overnight stay at the Head of the Bight Centre free camp area entry area, we were packed promptly and ready to hit the road further east along the Eyre Highway. We soon came to the eastern end of the 'treeless plain' section of the Nullarbor where small shrubs and trees began to appear in the surrounding landscape. Had we known this we might have pushed a bit further the previous night for a camp spot, as the treeless plain did make it a challenge to find a private toilet spot as we discovered! Nevertheless we managed! After continuing on past various 'Teddy Bear', 'Sock' and even a 'Tea Cup Tree' (the things people do to make a long journey amusing for travellers! Perhaps not so great for the environment though!) we arrived and were cleared to pass through the South Australian Quarrantine Check point just before the popular town of Ceduna which is considered to be the eastern gateway to the Nullarbor, as well as the oyster capital of Australia. Over lunch at the Ceduna Bakery we discussed whether to stay on here at Ceduna for a night or continue on. The consensus was to try for Port Lincoln, another 400km further on, and phoned ahead and found that there was a vacancy in what appeared to be the only caravan park in Port Lincoln, so we decided to head for there! |
As we finished using the facilities and after finally working out how to get out, there was a chap waiting with his children outside the door. We got talking and one of the children decided to hop in and use the facilities, and just as the self closing door began to close, the other child decided to quickly try to slip into the door and unfortunately with his bare feet the door ran over his toe slicing it open! Gosh it was terrible! The child was in a lot of pain and as our van was just opposite, we grabbed some first aid supplies to clean it up and douse it in antiseptic and bandaged it up. They went on their way with their (understandably) wailing child - hopefully she will be ok!
Just out of Ceduna we turned onto the Flinders Highway and headed south east near the coast of the Western Eyre Peninsula through pretty small towns such as Laura Bay, Smoky Bay and the very popular Streaky Bay. Each town has its own individuality, with very laid back atmospheres and are predominantly fishing and holiday towns.
Port Kenny and Elliston were also two other towns of note - both popular fishing spots with great beaches. We had time against as and passed by Coffin Bay with a plan to return whilst we were in Port Lincoln for the sun was setting and we still had about half an hour before we reached Port Lincoln.
I punched in the directions to the Port Lincoln Caravan Park in to 'google maps' on the phone as our trusty little 'wikicamps' app indicated that there was only one Caravan Park in Port Lincoln itself and we were a little puzzled when it took us a different route to what we had anticipated and seemingly by passing Port Lincoln all together!
Roo and Mr Roo had been to Port Lincoln just on 20 years before and had stayed at the Caravan Park and when we pulled up, in the dark, something just did not sit right. Whilst Mr Roo went searching for the 'key / information' box that we had been told to look for (as we had been communicating with the park that we would not arrive until after dark), Roo decided to double check the park details. After a quick search, she found that there were indeed not one, but two caravan parks with Port Lincoln as it's name! Port Lincoln Caravan Park in North Shields, which we had found ourselves at, and the one that we were booked into, Port Lincoln Tourist Park in Port Lincoln itself! So Ryan jumped out of the car once we realised, and ran for Mr Roo, who by that time was coming back with an envelope intended for another late park guest but had no name on it. He quickly returned it and we drove through the huge park and out again and then headed back into Port Lincoln 10km away!
We FINALLY got to our destination, well after dark and found our keys in a labelled envelope in the after hours box and managed to park our van onto a tricky site in the dark. We were all so tired after such a huge day of covering just over 700 km, and were very relieved to chill out for the evening.