Day 66 – Ceduna to Wilmington

Up bright and early and off by 8.00am this morning. It’s always quicker to get up and going if you get a drive through site, so don’t need to unhitch, and then re-hitch the following morning. We can be up, dressed, breakfasted, lunch and snacks packed up, water bottles filled, and ready to go in half an hour now. (Lots of practice).

It was a long drive again today, mostly through tiny little towns that consisted of a railway siding and a silo (this is the wheatbelt), and green pastures (mostly wheat).

At the town of Kimba we passed the Big Galah. Nope, I’m not sure why either. I guess every town has to hang its hat on something these days.

Further up the road we stopped at the mining town of Iron Knob for lunch. The big open cut iron ore mine is obvious as you drive into this rough old town. Apparently even emus cruise through the town (according to the sign in the main street). Surprisingly they have one of the best free camps we have seen on the whole trip all set up ready for people to use for a donation. Camp kitchen, bbqs, hot showers, good toilets, a playground and nice flat sites all provided for free. Nice one!

 

Eventually we made it to Port Augusta, back where we started the trip north, so felt like we had completed that part of the circle. We decided to call into the Botanical Gardens again to see if there were any different flowers out since our visit almost 3 months ago at the beginning of our trip.

Last time the area was covered in the beautiful red Sturts Desert Pea, but today, I could only find a tiny specimen in a different part of the garden. It was nearly all finished flowering. But in its place were the lovely egg flowers (yes, they really look like a poached egg), and many other beautiful varieties of spring flowers.

 

After grabbing a few groceries at Coles in town (because we had to get rid of/eat all our fruit and veges at the Ceduna quarantine station), we headed out through the range, and the scenic Horricks Pass.

 

We arrived back at one of our favourite campsites which we discovered the first night we left Mildura at the start of our trip at the tiny town of Wilmington. A few kilometres out of town is a lovely bush camp at Stony Creek. Sam, Lily and I gathered ourselves some firewood, and put my girl guide skills to use, and showed them how to carefully build a fire.

 

Sam was a bit disappointed that we used a match to light the fire, as he thought I should have rubbed some sticks together!  Anyway, after our steak and veges, we enjoyed toasting some marshmallows, and Lily was heard to comment “Mum, this is the best thing we have done on our holidays”.  Oh, the simple things….