Day 5: Touring Port Lincoln

Going here (or possibly there) around Lower Eyre Peninsula.

The weather overnight was somewhat stormy.  It seemed that every hour a squall would pass with very noisy wind, and lashing rain.  At least the temperature is several degrees higher than it has been in Canberra.  The dawn however was great!

We decided that we would go to Coffin Bay the next day so headed off towards Port Lincoln, pausing to check out the Big Swamp.  We were rewarded with a sighting of a male Musk Duck doing a vigorous display by chucking wingfulls of water high into the air.  The object of his attentions was not visible,

Proceeding down the highway I stopped to begin my collection of photos of SA road safety signs.  So much better than the NSW equivalent with some slapper doing a weak pinky pose.

As we swung into Port Lincoln we were intending to do the Pernkalla walking tour.  Then I looked at the map and realised it was going to be many kilometres long.  So we started in the middle, adjacent to the statue of Makbe Diva – a nag who won two Melbourne Cups, 

Proceeding along the sea front a couple of  OFLUSs (an acronym for Old Farts Like US) expressed, vocally, fear at the sight of the big fierce dog we had with us.  A little later another person of similar vintage asked if we'd found her in a packet of cornflakes.  He was a friendly soul so I didn't comment that “yes, I'd cut my South Australian driving license off it and there she was.”

We wandered along the walk going around the silos and fishing jetty

and generally enjoying ourselves when I noticed that putting on our raincoats had been a good idea.  Looking at the sky suggested it was about to get very damp so we returned to the car.  In fact the dark sky appeared to have been a very localised shower, but we still drove to Billy Light's Point .  The aim of going there was to find our way to a Reserve described as a bird-watchers paradise.

This turned out to be a tad hard to find as all access to the Reserve appeared to be labelled as Private Property.  Eventually we got to a track overlooking the sea covered with very large gravel.  It was hard for us to walk on and must have been agony for Tammy.  Then Frances spotted a dirt trail on the far side of some lagoons.  More bad signage by Port Lincoln City Council, who will be getting some advice about this.  From looking at one (badly defaced) sign we did eventually find it seems as though the rocky track was the bed of a former railway line.)

Eventually we got to the Reserve to be greeted by a group of about 4 green parrots.  They had blue faces so were Rock Parrots (not quite a lifer, but my original sighting at the salt fields North of Adelaide had been very stringy).  Shortly after we decided that the wind was too cold to stick to the waterside so headed off back towards an inland track.  Before getting there Frances had to explore the far side of a bush.  To my surprise I was called to attend her.  She had discovered another colony of Cyrtostylis robusta and on this occasion some of the flowers were fullyopen.  Despite the howling gale I managed to take a couple of reasonable images.

We had become convinced of the ID from reading the text in “First start with the leaves” a book by Robert Lawrence about the orchids of the Adelaide hills.  With that as a good hint I had been able to follow up with “Orchids of South Australia” which revealed the species to be common on the coast, both limestone (original sighting) and sandy soil (later sighting).

A few other additional good plants were seen today as well as several  repeats from yesterday:

Melaleuca halmaturorum p

Leucopogonparviflorus  (this was a surprise as the plant was 2m high: I am used to knee-high bearded heaths!)

Eucalyptus sp

Acacia sp

Plus - although not photographed - a good collection of Xanthorrhea semiplana tatei beside the Flinders Highway.  The lack of images is dealt with tomorrow!

About 20 metres down the track a large white bird erupted from a tree letting fly with the most outstanding spray of guano I have ever seen in mid air.  It was very good that it didn't fly over us while so doing!  Frances, the eagle-eyed scout, picked it as a Barn Owl. 

Shortly thereafter we were serenaded by one of the local intelligentsia on a trail bike.  While he did slow down to pass us the noise of his machine was most offensive.  So we turned to go back home to find other intelligent persons were driving towards us while their 3 pig dogs ran beside the car.  I grabbed Tammy and moved off the track while Frances advised these well sun-tanned folk that we had a dog with us.  Their three mongrels were inserted back in their car, already occupied by about 5 anthropoids, and we passed by, accepting apologies.

We got back to our car and called in at a seafood place to get some prawns and oysters.  They made our tea, and very nice they were too!

Bird of the Day:                     Barn Owl [Rock Parrots strolled down the red carpet but were not as exciting as a day-time Owl].

Plant of the Day:                   Cyrtostilis robusta, as it was identified today!

Interesting thing of the day: the way the walk weaved though the post and silo areas.

What we learnt today:          Where Tammy came from!

And now this spell was snapped: once more

I viewed the parrots green,

And having once turned round walked quick

Because I saw a flying owl

Drop down a mighty slick.

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Day 6: Coffin Bay National Park

There, (or possibly here) around Lower Eyre Peninsula.

A large part of the attraction of this trip for me was the chance to visit Coffin Bay National Park which I had seen several times from aircraft between Adelaide and Perth.  It looked to have spectacular scenery, particularly when the 'planes were approaching Adelaide.

Today was the day we would fit this in to our schedule.  As it was a National Park the small dog would not be welcome so we took her for a walk to Ricky Bates Reserve first.  By being a little more adventurous we found that the area at the end of the road I had assumed was private property not only allowed public access, but also permitted dogs on leash.  (The leash bit reflects a 1080 fox baiting project.) We added several birds to the Dutton Bay list and found more orchids.  At present I am unsure if they are a different species or just  late-emerging specimens of Cyrtostylis robusta.  We also saw another dolphin (actually it could have  been the same one, but you know what I mean) out in the Bay.

On our way to Coffin Bay we found the Grass Trees again and stopped for photos.  Then on through the town to the National Park.  Getting our Park permits was amusing as we wanted to pay with change and the envelope wouldn't seal and the slot through which to post was too narrow for our pile of metal,  So someone will have to scrape it all out of the container.  Tough: if they had someone on duty they wouldn't have had the problem.

In fact we didn't see any trace of a Ranger or other official presence.  Presumably they all lurk in Port Lincoln where cafe lattes are easier to acquire.

We first stopped at the Templetonia Lookout to assess the rather spiffy 360 degree views to Mount Dutton etc in the North

and the sandhills behind Gunyah Beach, and the ocean, to the South,  

We then headed for Avoid Bay 

(and the similarly named Point).  

This was all bitumen and certainly provided some excellent cliff views.  There were many Rock Parrots around and an Osprey was soaring along the clifftops at the Point.

I had thought we would walk a trail from the bitumen road to Gunyah Baech but that turned out to be a 4x4 track so we drove along it until it started to look very sandy and parked.  This had cut about 1.2km off the 8km walk.  (In fact we could have gone for another 2km before it got too sandy, but the walk was very pleasant).

We didn't find many new plants for the day but the flowering of the Templetonia, Pomaderris (white bushes in the background, living up to its reputation as the coming woody weed),

Leucopogon and mallee-form Eucalyptus was excellent. Pigface and other succulents were on the dunes.  A   Wedge-tailed Eagle flew over (surprisingly the first for the trip) and various honeyeaters made a ruckus in the bush.  A group of 3 Emus were booming near the track.

In total we saw 18 species of bird in the Park, adding 3 to the trip list (which now stands at 91sp.)

Getting close to the beach we found some large sandhills on and in which the 4x4 fraternity had been having fun. 

We walked up and along one of the big hills and were intrigued to see how quickly (within 10 minutes) the wind was erasing our footprints in some places.   This is illustrated by the differing heights of the  track markers:

- a third one only had the red bit showing!

On leaving the Park we stopped to have another go at getting our envelope through the slot and while I was losing that battle Frances glanced out of the car and there was another large colony of gnat orchids.  They are giving Pomaderris a run for its money as next WW.

We then cruised the town looking for Oysters.  The first two places we investigated only sold closed ones and I didn't fancy opening them with a knife.  A passing ETSA employee told me a simple way to do it, if we had time:

1.      put them in a freezer overnight; then

2.      shift them to the fridge for about 2 hours; and

3.      they will open themselves.

I mention that for educational purposes only since we found that the butchers shop would open them for us for a quite reasonable fee.  So we did that.  (As an aside, in a conversation in the shop one participant mentioned that they had never used an ATM.  I am astonished!)

Back to the Shack to find a very happy little dog.

Just after typing this I glanced out the window and saw a Pacific Gull rise out of the water and dive back in, completely immersing itself.  It then flew to the beach with prey in beak.  The prey turned out to be a fist-sized octopus which was gobbled before I could photograph the event.  A Pied Oystercatcher ran past quickly, presumably to ensure it didn't beccome dessert.

Bird of the day:                     Emus [Osprey was a contender but Frances barely saw it.]

Flower of the day:                 Templetonia: everywhere in the Park

Interesting sight of the day: The sandhills

What we learnt today:          How to open oysters (without opening an artery). [To believe at least some "4WD drive only" signs was a runner up in this category.]

I looked upon the towering dunes,

And quietly blessed my luck;

I looked upon the carved up track,

And there I was not stuck.

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Day 8: to the Barossa

Another transit day.  This is 670kms so should give us enough time to call in at the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens in Port Augusta.

In fact we decided that we had done enough plant watching, so lets get to the Barossa while the light is good.

We ended up leaving a few minutes late due to investing  little time in watching two dolphins patrolling the beach,  If only the tossers of the financial industry offered a rate of return on investment like that!

After cleaning the dew off the car we headed out, avoiding the wallabies on Dutton Bay West road. In to Port Lincoln with little excitement and find our way to Aus Star Fish megastore.  Some prawns and oysters were acquired (and by 8pm on the day had been consumed and enjoyed greatly).

We then rolled up the Highway towards Whyalla.  After this stage of the trip the total bird list was up to 92 species, with 73 seen in various parts of Eyre Peninsula and 52 seen within 2km of Vandy's Shack. 

As we went along we occasionally reflected on the appalling driving standards of folk with SA plates.  One social misfit who pulled out in front of us and then propelled themselves at 80kph in a 110kph zone - with a sol id centre line so could not be overtaken - deserves a special award of some nature.  I suspect this was the guy they had in mind when designing the sign.

There is possibly a truckie somewhere tonight who would give us a similar award.   We passed him (making an assumption, I didn't check their sex or gender) a few km North of Port Lincoln and he came past us as we were photographing a plant with pink flowers - I suspect a Boronia - I had noticed on the way down. 

We passed them (the truckie, not the flowers) again about 30 km later.  As we stopped to brew some coffee and take lunch in the Whyalla Wetlands  they must have come past since we overtook them again around Port Germein!  I suspect they came past while we were refuelling at Port Pirie, but we didn't catch up by the time we turned off in Crystal Brook.

Getting out of that narrative there was a lot of smoke (but no obvious mirrors) evident at the Onesteel plant in Whyalla. We didn't stop for a steelworks tour.  Apparently the Mad Monk and his colleagues had been prophesying that the Carbon price would cause Whyalla to fall into the sea: not so - the lads were obviously hard at it.

Around this area we started to see wide loads.  They were indeed seriously wide loads and sensible drivers gave them a wide berth.

At Crystal Brook we decided to take the inland route to the Barossa through Clare.  This was going to be longer than continuing down Route 1 but would be more interesting.  Both these expectations were correct.

We managed to avoid the blandishments of most of the Clare Valley's excellent wineries but I did feel obliged to swing into Sevenhill Cellars for auld lang syne.

When we used to visit in the 1970s one was served by a monk (it is a Jesuit retreat as well as a winery) and the wine was good and cheap.  Now the service is by two apparently nice ladies (perhaps The Monk has been devalued by a certain politician) and wine is $35 a bottle!!!!!  Pass.  The architecture was nice however.

There was an old house/ruin behind the shrine.  It was quite typical of the old abandoned cottages one saw along the roads: presumably these were the houses of farmers in the days when a living could be made off a small block (or when a small block supported paid staff as well as the farmer).

Of a more up-to-date appearance was a sculpture entitled Madonna of the Vines.  It has some reference  to a South American "Madonna of the Snows", but Uncle Google doesn't help with that reference.  Most of their offerings for such a Madonna seem to come from Italy!

The vineyards of the Clare region all looked to be in excellent condition (well pruned vines, no weeds etc) despite a very tough year in 2011.  The same comment applies to the Barossa.  The tidiness of these areas contrasts dramatically with the scruffy nature of the vines in Sunraysia.

We found our way to our accommodation near Seppleltsfield and very nice it is too.   Of course being inland it is very different to Vandy's Shack: the dolphins have been replaced by some Suffolk rams that were of considerable interest to the small dog.

We sat out on the deck for a cleansing Pinot Noir or two and watched the sun go down.  Someone has to do this stuff.

Bird of the Day:                    AdelaideRosella (OK a hybrid of Crimson and Yellow Rosella but still interesting),

Plant of the Day                    Unknown pink thing.

Interesting sight of the day:  Black faced rams (Tammy got to vote on this).  [Dolphins got a mention again but Tammy made demands!]

What we leaned today          Petrol prices change dramatically North of Port Pirie.  [A contender was the very high quality of ABC Radio National programming, which kept us entertained from about 9am to 3:30 pm!  However that is very close to the winner last Saturday!]

Two times twenty living men,

played footy in each town

Each mighty punt, the forwards leapt

Fullbacks dropped them quickly down.

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Day 10 Honeyeater Heaven (parrots also good).

Possibly visit Brookfield National Park.

Yep.  This morning I was up earlyish and planning to head for Brookfield Conservation Park out on the far side of the Hills.  This is about the closest place to Adelaide where one can see the many of the birds of the drier country.

I have been there before when we have stayed in Adelaide from where it is a 2 hour trip because one has to completely traverse the Metropolitan area.  From our current accommodation it only took 40 minutes, including a couple of stops to take photos of the fog!

Once getting into the Park I became a little concerned about time as I only had about 4 hours according to my schedule, and after 30 minutes had only covered about half the distance (3km) from the gate to the start of the (13km) Nature Drive!  This was due to a surfeit of interesting parrots, notably Mulga Parrots and Bluebonnets, plus having to pursue a flock of Chestnut-crowned Babblers to ID them.

After watching some 'roos

eventually I got to the start of the Nature Drive, where the Rangers (if such people exist here, as I have been about 6 times and have never seen an official vehicle of any description) seem to have reversed the direction of the drive.  Whatever, one still covers the same territory.

It was a most enjoyable outing: in total I wrote down 31 species of which 13 were additions to my trip list.  I didn't add anything to my life list although there were a couple of possibles.  The many Brown Treecreepers were all peered at closely for white brows, but alas  that cupboard was bare. In terms of honeyeaters the cupboard was almost overflowing.  I recorded Yellow-plumed, Brown-headed, White-eared, Singing, and Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters plus Red Wattlebirds.  Some Miners were in the area but I couldn't tell which species they were. 

Towards the end of the drive (after about 3:45) I found an absolutely gorgeous Red-capped Robin and the very last bird I wrote down was a female Hooded Robin.

This was going on against a backdrop of very little flowering.  I saw blossom on one mallee and a couple of yellow-flowered herbs.  For the first half of the drive the main vegetation was bluebush ( I think Marieana sedifolia)

and saltbush.  The fruits of one of these were being consumed by a range of birds.  

Then the vegetation morphed into Mallee for the rest of the drive.

It was notable that although the mallee vegetation form is rather sparse, and there was little in the way of a shrub layer, once I was about 50 metres from the car it was usually impossible to see it through the bush.  Thus one had to keep a bit of an idea of the direction in which one had wandered vis a vis the sun.  It wasn't as bad as the Mulga at Bowra (where the car vanished in about 15 metres) but still a note of caution was needed.

After getting home I picked up Frances and the small dog and we headed back into Tanunda where the idea was to get some coffee cake (traditional German tucker) and metwurst (ibid, but sausage not cake)!  In finding our way to the bakery we noticed another cemetery (the Tabor Cemetery) so wandered in for a squizz.  Again many old gravestones and some modern ones.

Coffee cake was acquired so we headed off to Bethany on the edge of the Valley.  This was the first place settled by the Silesians and several of the houses in the small settlement (population 80) were being kept in origin condition or updated in a sympathetic style.  They had a very interesting cemetery in which several of the original settlers (from 1842) were buried. 

I suspect this eucalypt - possibly a River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) was there before the graves!

After this we ascended Mengler Hill (one of the two main climbs in the Tour Down Under) and checked out the Sculpture Park

near the Summit.

Bird of the Day                      Red-capped Robin.  Just spiffy!

Plant of the day                     River Red Gum at Bethany, representing all the magnificent old gums of the Adelaide Hills.

Interesting sight of the day:  Roadside Olive trees full of ripe fruit

What we learnt today           Much easier to buy olives than processing them for home preservation!

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone in a park of mallee stuff

And never a Ranger came to moan

His bureaucratic guff.

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Day 13 The 'burbs of Adelaide

A second day in the artistic Eden of Australia

The wind overnight was quite astonishingly loud.  Possibly we were in an exposed situation - I suspect the next thing higher than us to the WSW is Los Torres de Paine - but I was beginning to wonder about roof tiles sailing by, or indeed through, the window!

We got reasonable sleep despite the tempest and went for a wander South from the house.  This is a path which goes along the clifftop and eventually up and down a few of the gullies.  I have run along along here and it seems to be well used by the citizens.

The gardens facing the sea were, not surprisingly, fairly heavy on succulents to survive the very exposed location.  

These triffid-equivalents were particularly impressive.

After that Frances went shopping with her sister and Tammie and I went for a walk along the Torrens outflow (which now seems to be called Breakout Creek and has had a lot of work done on it).  This was quite good for birds of various sorts including:

Great Egret;

White-faced Heron; and 

Little Black Cormorants.

One garden had a eucalypt (possibly E. citriodora) covered in blossom.  The blossom was in turn covered with Musk and Rainbow Lorikeets.  I don't think people in that area slept long after sun up.

In the afternoon Frances and I went for lunch at Glenelg.  This took the form of a serve of garfish and chips from the Bay Fish Shop and was up to their usual high standard.  A visit to the Hahndorf Sausage shop (in Jetty Road Glenelg followed to get some good stuff for later.

While Tammie and I were outside the shop  a lady bustled up, and I was expecting grief for having a dog too close to the shop.  Not so: she was another Tenterfield Terrier fan!  Such persons of refined tastes are everywhere!

We then took ourselves for a walk from the Northern side of the Patawalonga Creek to West Beach Marina.  At one point another dog exerciser appeared to be fidgetting with something in the wash.  It turned out he was trying to return a puffer fish to the sea so that dogs wouldn't eat it (his concern was the poisonous nature of the fish, not piscine welfare).  

On top of the dunes 4 small propellers were working away: all different designs.  According to a sign which Frances read this was a formal experiment to assess the generational capacity of the different models.  

We then returned to the house where I packed the car including the usual array of space munching gifts provided by the sisters.  To my astonishment I still had some visibility through the back of the car!

We then passed an evening of family celebration of a birthday!  I imbibed in a restrained manner, and was pleased it finished early in view of the drive ahead.  It was also good that I found the road I planned to use as a short cut in the morning was closed due to roadworks!

Bird of the Day:                 Great Egret

Plant of the Day                 Eucalypt with blossom

Interesting sight of the day  Turbine trial

What we learnt today          Seacombe road is closed for roadworks!

The three's dogs mouths are opened wide,
their tongues are hanging out;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
all this food will make us stout!'

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To (and at) Newcastle

Packing the car was completed with relatively few problems.  We have always employed a division of labour under which Frances packs all the items into containers and I fit the containers into the car.  Of course having  car available (even with the back seat occupied by a small dog means we get to take a fair bit of stuff with us).  This image shows the unpack at Mullaway.

 The sink and washing machine aren't ours!

The day started a little strangely as we had to go to Queanbeyan to pick up the modem for Virgin Broadband, in the expectation that it would work somewhere along the way.  The background to this is discussed on my other blog. 

Another strange part of the day was that I had only scored about 3 hours sleep the night before and as a result was not feeling too flash.  In fact I felt rather rats faeces (isn’t it interesting that faeces is OK, but a word meaning the same, but beginning with ‘s’is rude?).  A brewing sinus didn’t help!  However I pressed on and the drive to Sydney was pretty reasonable.

Surprisingly there were no cop cars visible on the drive up to Sydney.  The only noteworthy thing seen was a people mover coloured pink and apparently belonging to Susie (as per the number plate) of the St George Dragon Girls (as per the lurid text over the rest of the vehicle).  The 8km of roadworks around Campbelltown was a pain in the gluteal region (isn’t it interesting that gluteal region is OK but a word meaning the same, but beginning with ‘a’is rude?).

We filled up with petrol in Pennant Hills and appeared to be getting >33mpg!  Is this a side effect of the new Cooper tyres?  We moved right along towards Newcastle which Frances navigated us through – displaying great lateral thinking in realising the importance of the location of Mater Hospital in getting to Stockton Bridge.

The business at Stockton was birding. I was initially pleased to see a hide and despatched Frances and Tammy off to other parts while I birded.  Then I found the hide to be locked.  Drat!  On noticing the number of beer bottles and bongs around the place I could understand this. Despite most of the shorebirds being on breeding duties in the Arctic I added a few species to my year-list and got the trip-list kicked off. 

On to the B&B which we found easily in Hamilton.  After a minimalist install there we went for a wander off to Beaumont St to get some tea.  We concluded this area was the equivalent of Paddington. With a horde of restaurants and at least 6 pharmacies in 500m all our needs were soon satisfied (including a snorter for the sinus).

Due to my tiredness I was not awake for long after getting back to the B&B: some of the take-away Green Chicken Curry was to accompany us when we departed.  I got into bed about 1845 and sacked out immediately.  Despite a few disturbances as Tammy was agitated by another guest pooch I slept until about 5:30 the next morning.  I felt a lot better!