Gismo Queen and her King

Day 16 - Lipson Cove to Whyalla

First thing this morning, it was back to being idyllic at Lipson Cove. Sunshine, white sand, blue skies, no wind - until 7am anyway. As the wind got up after that, we were reminded why we were leaving.

Packed up and on the road by 10am (after a bit of shuffling to get out of the spots in order to turn), and we headed to Port Neill - for obvious reasons! Neill was even more chuffed that it was spelt the same as him! We found a lovely car park right on the beach, with the obligatory pelican swimming past. The signs into town described Point Neill as "picture perfect" and it was indeed quite pretty for a small seaside town. With a lovely traditional jetty, old stone hotel, Norfolk pine trees lining the beach, and the bright white sand with turquoise water synonomous to this peninsula, we enjoyed our elevenses at a picnic table.

We had toyed with finding another coastal camping spot but the weather forecasts keep indicating wind and we are well and truly over that, so we decided to head north. Whyalla was our destination, not because of any attraction (it's not) but with the theory that it would be a bit warmer, and because we would have to stay at a caravan park, maybe out of the wind. We rang to book at the park with the best reputation and were super lucky to get the last spot, and the neighbouring "overflow" spot.

Lunch was in the rather desolate town of Cowell. The native vegtation around here is mostly scrubby coastal flat, and for some reason, this looked even more sparse and grey in Cowell. Ironically, on the drive this morning, we passed paddock after paddock of wheat and barley ready to be harvested (which we also had immediately behind us at Lipson Cove). This morning, we heard one of the farmers on the UHF bemoaning the weather, with some forecast rain this week which meant he wouldn't be able to harvest until at least Friday.

The best part of Cowell was a quirky little bakery called The Pastry Man. Reminding us a lot of the sourdough baker in Coffin Bay, we headed here for lunch and had the last four - and absolutely delicious - pasties. We also checked out this silo art.

posted by Tracey @ 9:40 pm