Trip 9 – Pt Lincoln & somewhere remarkable

Twice, that’s how many times we’ve driven through Ceduna and both times we’ve ended up with a cracked windscreen requiring on the fly repairs..  This time it was on the road from Ceduna to Pt Lincoln and there were a couple of trucks that threw some gravel onto the windscreen however it wasn’t until that night that one of the chips grew into a 6” crack. Luckily Pt Lincoln is a pretty big place with not one, but two, windscreen repairers so we dropped it in and went for a good walk around town.

Apparently it’d been raining almost non-stop for the last couple of weeks however today (Thur) it was relatively fine with long sunny periods and a light breeze (made a change) which made the town and in particular the town beach and jetty really picturesque.  A late breakfast/early brunch was had at Del Giorno’s, which Jules had read about on WikiCamps as the place to eat in town.  They also do great coffee.  Wandering around town we managed to take in the main jetty which has its own shark proof swimming area attached, cool idea given Pt Lincoln is where you depart for your Great White Shark Cage Diving trips, and the statue of Makybe Diva, the highest prize winning race horse in Australia earning over $14 million.

Picking up the car after lunch we spent the rest of the day lazing in the van at the caravan park, admiring the view of the Spencer Gulf.  The Pt Lincoln Tourist Park is pretty well situated, a couple of km’s from the heart of town, right on the waters edge with most sites receiving great views.  That evening we had a quick pint at the Tasman and then dinner back at Del Giorno’s, which for a small cafe in an average size town on a Thur night was packed (good to see).  The meal was pretty good but not great and missed the little touches a restaurant would finish its food with, but all in all good food at a reasonable price.

Friday morning saw the van packed again and us back on the road towards Mount Remarkable National Park, about 410km distant.  A quick wee stop at Cowell turned into a lucky find as the public loos have local art in them for sale!  This intrigued us enough to take a wander through town which was lovely and clean with some great old buildings.  Morno’s was a pasty for me and a cheese & bacon sausage roll for Jules which she claimed was the ducks nuts.  Leaving Cowell the land turns from farming to bush then to mining and both Whyalla and Pt Augusta felt a bit like Newman mixed with Port Hedland, not unpleasant, but I definitely wouldn’t want to live there.

We pulled into our campsite at Mt Remarkable around 2pm giving us enough time for some cheese and smoked snapper paste, bought at the Fish Kiosk in Cowell, before a short 3km hike in the park.  Luckily for us we saw an echidna, roo’s and a pair of the rarer Yellow Footed Wallabies who were pretty content with us watching them.  We were camped in the Mambray Creek campground which has a heap of bays which you pre-book online before entering.  Nice little spot but obviously very popular as although it was a standard Friday (not a long weekend or school holidays) about 75% of the sites were filled.  It’s great to see the park being used and enjoyed, however, we did get a bit snarky about the small whingey kid next door..  My girls never made noise when they were young I’m sure..  Another 5km walk following the Mambray Creek upstream for about 3kms in the morning (Sat), before it was back to the car for the last 300kms into and through Adelaide and out to Hahndorf up in the hills.  Tomorrow we’re meeting up with some old Conitki friends of Jules at the local pub and heading out to the Barossa Valley via Langhorne Creek on Monday – the wine capital of SA…  Bring it on!