Adelaide to Port Lincoln - 12th January 2009 - 19th January 2009

Finally we hit the road January 12th 2008 after may goodbyes and catch ups with family and friends at the Marion Caravan Park. I think we were all happy and excited to finally on the road and to get our adventure started.





Riley DArcy and Taine in Clare SA












We were keen to have a bushcamp the first night so headed out of Adelaide via Clare for lunch and Port Germein - we walked the famous jetty, to stay at the Mount Remarkable National Park. Dry but beautiful with emus, kangaroos and flies! We had a few sites to ourselves so we left the van hitched, had chicken on the gas BBQ for dinner then had beautiful hot showers in the solar heated facilities and slept like logs. I think however that the facilities put us into a false sense of what is still to come. They were clean, well kept and had running drinking water. Kids did well on the first day as did the car and van.





Up and on the road by 7.30am (not sure why but i think Kym was keen to get started) and on the road towards Eyre Peninusla. Kym had looked in the Camp 4 camping book. (it tells you about the free and cheap camping spots, including rest areas, national parks and others as well as what facilities are available ie drinking water, shade, toilets etc.) He had chosen the Yeldulknie Weir, near Cleve. We headed there via Port Augusta, Whyalla and Cowell all of which we did just quick drive through. It was hot. Very hot that day and the bush fires were burning in Port Lincoln just South of where we were so we stopped to make camp by 12.30. The kids were excited as they had loved the idea of swimming in the weir etc. BUT of course there was no water and it was so so hot that all we could do was sit and follow the shade and have cooling outside showers.



Outside shower


We set up the bucket outside the mens toilets, connected the hose to the mains water and there you have it. We even had our night showers outside with the kangaroos and spiders for company. It was a free nights accommodation and we had flushing toilets and water so i guess that was a positive but the flies and the heat were awful.





After two nights in camp we went to drove the short distance south to Tumby Bay Caravan Park (via Arno Bay, Pt Neill etc) and waited for the all clear of the fires before heading further south. Tumby was nice and the kids enjoyed the ocean, road their bikes and played. We left early on the second day as Kym had a two conference call for work between Darwin and Brisbane at 9am and we needed to be out of the park by 10. We parked up on the foreshore at the tourist information Motorhome bay, (it had internet and mobile coverage) Kym worked in his shorts and thongs and the kids and i walked and rode around town and up and down the foreshore keeping ourselves entertained.













Kym hard at work at Tumby Bay information stop

The bushfires had settled down around Port Lincoln so we headed into town planning to have a quick look around, grab a few things then head out to Lincoln National Park. We had noticed that one of the 12v outlets wasnt working in the back of the car so we stopped to have that looked at and a 5 minute job took two hours or waiting so we took the chance to have another look around town, got the car fixed then headed to the park. There was alot of burned and damaged scrub and property as we headed south. We drove the 20 odd kms into the National Park on dirt and had ourselves set up pretty quickly. We sat down and enjoyed the serenity while the kids explored the beach and surrounding area. Another family were camped in the camping bay next to us (The Gon-Chees) but our boys (yes including DArcy) were tooooo shy to talk to the kids. Ours then sat to play their DS so the kid next door went and got his as did his sister - and bang that was it. We didnt see any of them for the next five day!! Their son is 11 (Dylan) and their daughter is 13 (Brittany) and they all hit it off beautifully. They are from Logan village near Brisbane and have been on the road in their 5th wheeler and big Chevy Silverado (Kym is very envious, especially about the car) since August. Another family with three kids also pulled up, and they have been on the road for 2 years! The whole group played so well together, swimming, cricket, fishing and any other game they could think of including murder in the dark in the bush! It was great to chat to other younger families doing the same as us and hearing about the good and bad of schooling on the road. During the five days we were there we headed back into Port Lincoln (20kms on dirt and 20km on road) to catch up with Kyms Uncle David who was in town buying a new Triumph Motorcycle so we caught up with him for breakfast, then he rode off into the sun for the long ride home to Adelaide and we went of another tour of Port Lincoln- including the port to watch them unload Pilchards from the trawler and into storage to be used as food for the Tuna pens in the bay, dropped off some rubbish and refilled our 25 litre container with water from the Yatch club then headed back to the National Park.

Uncle David Riley, DArcy and Taine on the foreshore at Port Lincoln SA