Port Augusta to Ceduna July 9 2011

Saturday 9^th of July 2011

We started our day early, I think we were both awake around 5:30am, Deb turned on the A/C to heat up the van before we inched our way out of bed around 6am, it was around 5 C.

We eventually got away around 7:10 on our way to Ceduna. We made a few stops along the way for photos. First was Iron Knob at sunrise, then the Big Galah at Kimba and the “Halfway across Australia sign, also at Kimba. The trip was uneventful, except for a stone chip in the windscreen that is now a crack halfway across the driver’s side.

On the way I began to notice Deb was starting to relax. She has started using all her words again, but not necessarily in the right order. She made a comment about how the internet must be really helping the Air of the School, took me a minute but I worked it out, that’s “School of the Air” Deb, LOL. I think we are both coming back from a very busy first 6 months of the year.

As we drove along we put on the first instalment a podcast titled “Crossing the Nullabor”. It was all about Ceduna and its surrounds. We picked up some really interesting info on Ceduna and an unusual thing to do. But, more on that in a moment.

We arrived in Ceduna at about 1pm, and settled into the Shelley Beach Caravan Park. It is by far the best park in town from what we have seen of the others. It’s quiet, and away from the pubs and traffic. We got onto the RAA insurance and with their help have organised for a new windscreen to be fitted in Kalgoorlie next Wed or Thurs.

By this time it was 1:50pm and we raced out to do our unusual tour. We found out on the podcast that at 2pm every day they release a weather balloon from the meteorological station, but the podcast got it wrong, it was at 2:30pm. J So we went and refuelled and then headed back to the station.

We met the most interesting guy that works there, (and we both missed his name!!). Anyway, he was just a classic bush character, he knew his stuff backwards but was just so interesting and had the best sense of humour. He was on his last week or 2 in the job, after working there for 40 years and being made redundant by a new Computerised station.  He showed us all through the things he did on a daily basis and how it was all collated into weather maps in Melbourne one of 3 worldwide weather supercomputers in Melbourne (the other 2 are in America and Russia). At 5am GMT weather balloons are released worldwide and readings taken as they ascended for around 70 minutes. Their diameter starts at 1m and at their peak altitude, when they finally burst they are up to 10m in diameter.  It was really cool and I got to send it into the sky. A flick of a switch and up she went!!  We then went inside again and watched as all the data was relayed back from the balloon and onto Melbourne. A very interesting visit.

From there we went to the visitors centre and I signed up for a round at the Nullabor Golf Links. 18 holes, that stretch over 1300+kms, the longest golf course in the world.

It is tee up on all the fairways on the holes between Ceduna and Kalgoorlie, to help preserve your clubs. They suggest you use a cut down coke bottle for a tee on these holes as you can’t get a regular tee into the ground.

We then went straight to the Ceduna Golf course, and after a practice hole (it takes a bit longer to warm up these old bones these days) I played the first two holes of the course, a par 5 and par 4. I got a respectable 6 on each.  They didn’t have greens, but rather “Blacks” (Fine/course black gravel greens). It took me a while but I eventually figured out the lurk with the greens, use the back side of the green rake to give yourself a smooth path to the hole!

We then headed out of town to the Oyster Bar, a roadside stall that sells big freshly chucked Ceduna Oysters. We got 1 ½ doz (1 natural and ½ Kilpatrick), ate a couple on the roof of the stall and then headed off to Thevenard, where Deb’s brother Justin and his family lived for a while. It was a very scenic drive along the foreshore and finished at a point with a view back to Ceduna and over the port.

We then went back to the Caravan Park (CP), and I filled our water tanks ready for some free camping along the Nullabor crossing. That took a bit of doing, the tank vent pipes were full of water, but with a little effort the problems were solved and we were soon on our way to the Esplanade Hotel for dinner.

The pub looked very new and we had been warned to stick to the seafood, the steak is a bit tough. We both had flathead and it was OK.

Back at the CP, we started to plan our Nullabor crossing, what to do, where and when, where to stay and where the Golf holes were. It will be a work in progress all the way across I think, but hey, we are on holiday.