Warwicks Wander Our Great South Land: OH, THE GRAND OLD DUKE...

He marched them up to the top of the hill and he marched them down again!

As you can guess, if you know your old nursery rhymes, this blog is primarily about the Yorke Peninsula, including our encounters with the 500km long 'Walk the Yorke' trail; and then followed by our Adelaide exploits.

On the way to the Yorke Peninsula from Port Augusta we saw a roadside advertisement for homemade quandong jam, and for once we responded to the advertising and called in to Harry's Homemade. There was a hive of activity with a number of people working in the back kitchen, and shelves of different jams, chutneys and sauces throughout the building. Many different lengths of salamis and continental sausages (all made in the Barossa) hung from the rafters; and there was coffee! We bought one bottle of quandong jam [yummy and not too sweet] and one small salami, as well as spending quite some time over our coffee, for which we were thankful as it meant that we missed a car accident a little further south where we would turn off the highway to go through Port Pirie. The lady who told us to take care as we were leaving was really shaken. Maybe she had seen the accident, but things were being cleared when we passed. Having driven straight through Port Pirie, we set our faces toward Port Broughton and watched the crops pass by until we spied an interesting ruin and chose to stop. How I managed any photos with the millions of bush flies crawling and flying everywhere, I really do not know!

Ruin south of Port Pirie

Cape Broughton is a small town frequented by holidaying fishermen, but it is also the home of one of the two parkruns on the Yorke. It is a small parkrun and the following was my parkrun Facebook report on our experience at Port Broughton.

They say that "Time and tide wait for no man" - well, this morning at Port Broughton parkrun the tide was in and everyone had to wait for me as I was the only walker, but I did have a lovely 5km walk with the tailwalker, yakking all the way! Mind you, I will need to be silent for the rest of the day as I rather irritated my asthma by talking all that time. That said, it was a very small group who did this unique parkrun today - this slow old walker picked up token #10!

So how was the course? In a word - UNIQUE!

How were the locals? In a word (or two) - FRIENDLY & WELCOMING

The course begins and ends on thick, springy grass, descends to the beach on a concrete ramp, passes over mounded seaweed, through shell gritty soft sand and onto compacted, rippled muddy sand with rocks ... but no-one went tripping on those rocks this morning. Two and a half kms along is the turn to return back and when one is the lone walker the only thing seen in front of you is the broad expanse of flat shoreline and the jetty in the distance. The tailwalker's task is to remove the flag to take it back - I tried to remove the end from the ground while she packed the rest away but I couldn't budge it ... I did say that it was compacted sand, didn't I? When it was out and everything in the flag bag we set off together to complete this unique course. And what was SO good was that in no way was I made to feel bad about being the only walker. Meanwhile, Steve was on track to get another #1 token until the grass on the return leg where he was passed by the young lass who then became the barcode scanner. One of the wonderful things about small country parkruns is the flexibility and willingness of people to jump in to make things work.

Did I enjoy this unique parkrun - you bet I did!

Would I recommend it - a great big resounding YES, YES, YES!

Maybe the smaller numbers today were because of the fires, or that there's a home game on here, but whatever the reason, I am glad that the two of us, together with a first time to parkrun runner could join this little band of cheerful vollies and runners at Port Broughton today.

PS all you fellow Swans supporters - you should come! This is where one of our young players comes from!!!

Port Broughton parkrun is unique

We were offered a third night (Sunday) for just $20 at the caravan park and so we had the opportunity to do some exploring on Saturday afternoon and then again on the Sunday afternoon. North of Port Broughton there is a fishing village called Fisherman Bay. The higgledy piggledy way that the shacks have grown up cheek by jowl in this village reminded both of us of streets in Asia and Africa that we have seen. We watched a fisherman unload from his dinghy, but I am sure that the resident pelicans were taking far closer attention. The residents have had the public toilet block painted and the murals around the entrances to the male and female sections showed a sense of humour from the artist.

Fisherman Bay streetscape

Quaint artwork on the toilet block

The parkrun tailwalker had told me about the free camping at Clement's Gap 16 kms from Port Broughton, near the old church and so we set out to have a look. The Soldiers Memorial Methodist Church is the only building left in the district, other than the farms, and is used about six times a year. The camping area is where the old school was situated.

Soldiers Memorial Methodist Church in Clements Gap

Sunday morning we drove to Kadina to attend the Kadina Church of Christ. Our intention was to surprise old friends but they had gone away for a few weeks, but we did spend a wonderful day in Adelaide with them later. We were made very welcome and enjoyed a cuppa with the congregation after the service. We took some photos of Kadina's painted water tower and drove across to Wallaroo to find some fish and chips. After lunch we wandered the town loving the old architecture, walked the wharf and foreshore and had one of the best coffees of our trip at the cafe overlooking the wharf and swimming area. Although quite crowded with tourists, we really enjoyed Wallaroo. Travelling back a different route through Bute, we came across Cream Puff Corner with its interesting story.

Kadina water tower

Wallaroo architecture

Seabed at Wallaroo - water so clear

Wallaroo jetty

The sign tells it all

We had wonderful sunsets at Port Broughton, and also enjoyed walking the jetty a number of times.

Port Broughton jetty

One night

The next night

From Port Broughton we drove south, passing an amazing hay bale Christmas decoration and then calling into Moonta for a few hours exploring the old mining sites and the town. We just HAD to get Steve a Cornish pastie while we were there. I couldn't let him miss out on that very famous part of the Cornish mining history. Unfortunately we couldn't go into the old Methodist Church that was built out at the mine site. It held 1200 people in its heyday.

Part of this farm's Christmas display

Amazing quilt depicting the town's history made by the ladies of Moonta

Mining ruins

The compacted tailings at the old copper mine

Looking up one of the chimneys

High up in the ruins a pair of barn owls

Moonta mine ruins

The colouration shows the copper residue

The old Moonta Mines Wesleyan Methodist church

Moonta buildings

Moonta Methodist church

Steve's Cornish pastie

From there we drove across back roads to Port Victoria where we camped at the oval. The wind was blowing a gale but we decided to do some of the Walk the Yorke trail that had started at Moonta Bay. We walked along the coastline being blown all over the place, and then through Aboriginal land before we turned to retrace our steps. All of this was on a well defined path that was easy to follow.

The signs on the walk are very clear

This clever sign was visible all over the Yorke

The walk through Point Pearce

Making our way south towards Warooka where we would stay in the community run RV stop, we passed through Minlaton where we walked, shopped and definitely went to the Chocolaterie, and then crossed country on dirt roads to Port Minlacowie where we walked more of the trail. This time, however, it was more like rock hopping on unmade tracks.

Minlaton front yard sculptures

Minlaton Anglican church is so picturesque

The walk at Minlacowie was not so easy

Unhooking the van at Warooka, we drove across to Point Turton to do more of the trail, part of which was on scenic cliff top tracks and part which went down into the town. Deciding not to walk through more heated streets, we went to the jetty, watched the pelicans waiting for discarded fish ends and talked to a couple of young Tasmanian nomads. Before heading back to camp, we saw more of the trail which we would have loved to have walked, but this time viewing it from the car as we made our way along more country back roads.

Such a beautiful coastline at Point Turton

Sea birds abound

Touristing!

The next morning we drove the longer coastal route through farm and bush to Innes National Park where we stayed for two nights, explored and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The wreck of the "Ethel" has deteriorated a long way since we last saw it when our children were little. The coastline there is spectacular and in the 48 hours there we walked many parts of the trail, checked out the history of the gypsum mine and the almost ghost town of Inneston and soaked in the solitude.

We side tracked into the coast

More Walk the Yorke down these stairs ...

...and along this beach

The Ethel

An interesting stainless steel lighthouse at West Cape Headland

Walk the Yorke along the beach at Pondalowie Bay

Fishing wreck on Pondalowie Bay

Surfer's Beach at the end of Pondalowie Bay

Harvest time on the Yorke Peninsula

The day we drove to Edithburgh Caravan Park it began to rain and we found out that the caravan repairman at Port Lincoln was incorrect! We had a lot of cleaning up to do and we rang New Age in Adelaide. They told us to bring it to Adelaide on Monday and they'd take a look to see if they could find the leak, but that their service centre was booked out until the end of January. And so the weekend was spent keeping an eye on further possible leaks, walking more parts of the trail, doing the other Yorke Peninsula parkrun which is on the trail in Edithburgh and definitely worth doing, listening to a sermon from Ulverstone Pressies, driving the backroads and contending with very, very strong winds on the Sunday. We also spent an hour or so with Horsburgh relatives whom I had never met. My Dad and their Mum were first cousins so we shared a great grandfather. We arrived a week after the Yorketown and Edithburgh fires and it was sad to see the lost crops and the devastation. We listened to people's accounts of evacuation as the fire made it to the edge of town. On our drives we again marvelled at the beauty that is found in the heartache of fire and our thoughts went to all the firies who have been battling such huge fires already this summer. When Ivan Southall wrote Ash Road and Colin Thiele wrote February Dragon, two classic children's books dealing with Aussie bushfires, I doubt they'd have imagined that these ravaging fires could happen in November before Summer actually started.
(NB I am posting this with some reluctance with the horrific fires that are now burning in Victoria and NSW, but this was the reality of this time on our journey.)

A small stand of crop remained standing

Edithburgh wind farm

Fire came right to the edge of the windfarm

Rugged coastline

I turned 180 degrees from the seascape and saw the dust blowing from the dry country

The fire retardant dropped on the crop beside my cousin's home

Leaden skies at Edithburgh

Edithburgh tidal pool mural

Edithburgh parkrun on the Walk the Yorke trail

Cousins I didn't know I had!

Such comical birds, the pelican

Unfortunately we had to miss the eastern side of the Yorke and further adventures on the trail as we left early Monday morning and did the mad dash to Adelaide to find the New Age Service Centre. We were impressed with the two men who took the time to find the tiniest three cornered hole that the other fellow had missed and they repaired it there and then without charge! We did, however, buy a replacement hubcap for one of the caravan wheels. That hubcap must have come off on one of the very rough roads we'd driven on to see the amazing Yorke scenery and walk parts of the trail as we were travelling.

We phoned to book, sight unseen, into the Windsor Gardens Caravan Park because it was the closest to the Lochiel parkrun and we were very pleasantly surprised when we arrived. We couldn't have had a better base. The Linear Park along the Torrens River (although a SA friend called it a creek) with its wonderful trees and parklands from the Hills to the City was directly behind the caravan. We spent eight wonderful days catching up with friends, exploring the Barossa, walking the city and Hahndorf, riding the O-Bahn (what a wonderful transport system) and the tram to Glenelg AND seeing the pandas at the zoo. We walked and walked and I did my 100 milestone parkrun at Lochiel - the only parkrun in Adelaide where I knew someone. I had walked parkrun with Janet, the Event Director of Lochiel, when she had been in Tassie a while ago and she'd wanted us to come to Lochiel. It was a wonderful day as all the volunteer roles were done by children. To see the confidence of the joint Run Directors who could not have been older than 10, and to experience the enthusiasm and encouragement of the other young vollies was definitely a highlight. On the Sunday we were able to spend plenty of time after the service at the Presbyterian Church at Para Hills encouraging the pastor there; in fact we didn't leave until after 1.00p.m. having had a 10.30a.m. service! The more we did in Adelaide, the more I really liked the city. I am not a city person but I thought that we could have easily lived there.