A bit of a
special day today as Ian and Kathy celebrated their 42nd wedding
anniversary.
I woke this
morning with a massive headache after a very restless night and it took me a
while to get going. I enjoyed a lovely
long chat with Sarah, Willow and Max. In
fact I think we face timed for over 2 hours.
I am really missing the kids at the moment…. They have grown and changed
so much in the six months we have been away and I must admit, as much as I hate
to see this adventure end, I am really
looking forward to getting back to Qld to see our precious grandchildren.
We had a
late start to the morning… Ian and Kathy went off earlier to have morning tea
together for their anniversary. I had a
bit of a sleep to try and shake this headache and make up for the lack of sleep
last night…
We left the
van around 1.30pm to do another scenic drive around Cowell this time heading
down the coast to via Flat Rocks Beach and the Knob to Port Gibbon and Point
Gibbon. We saw some of the most
stunning beaches today…
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| Flat Rocks Beach - Cowell |
Port Gibbon
is a settlement which is located in the middle of the Spencer Gulf behind the
cliff line and which extends from a
headland called Point Gibbon (formerly Point Price) in the south for a distance
of about 5 kilometres along the southern end of an unnamed bay whose northern
end terminates at a headland called The Knob in the adjoining locality of
Cowell. The coastline consists of a series of beaches backing onto a cliff line
of “red bluffs composed of Pleistocene alluvium” with heights up to 10 metres. There is also a camping ground situated here
which has both water and toilets, but no electricity or showers, all for a
total cost of $5per night per vehicle.
Bargain…. Pity we didn’t know about it before booking into the van park
in Cowell. If we come this way again, it
is definitely an option for us to stay, as the fishing is really good in this
area….
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| Couldn't get over how close this was to the beach... |
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| Still can't quite workout how he got it on this rocky ledge.... |
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| Amazing beaches... |
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| Stunning landscape |
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| How on earth he got a car up and in here I'll never know... |
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| Succulents everywhere |
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| You can see we are very fascinated by how he managed to get his van in on this rocky ledge |
We did the
drive in to each little lookout, rest area or beach access along this stretch
of the coastline and were fascinated to see a caravan parked on the rock ledge
right on the beach near the Knob. We are
still amazed at how the owner actually got the van in place over such a rocky
terrain. I was so impressed that I had
to take several photos. I would hate to
be parked where it was though in very windy weather, as you would cope the full
brunt of the winds…. Still the beach in
front of the van was quite stunning and in good weather it would be a really
lovely spot…
As we moved
closer to Port Gibbon there were more rocky headlands and cliff tops and the
views down onto the beach were really beautiful. This area of the coast is a bit of a hidden
gem and I am so pleased that we did end up coming out here to explore it… This whole Eyre Peninsula has been
gorgeous. I had no idea we would
encounter such beautiful beaches in South Australia, as it is always the
beaches in Western Australia that you hear about…. I think the thing I love about it the most is
that they are not commercialized or made into major tourist attractions but are
pretty much still in their raw state with lovely developed beach fronts and
jetties in the small townships. No
high-rises at all along this part of the coast…. and there are still plenty of
good fishing spots….
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| Wildflowers at Port Gibbon |
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| Looking from the lookout back to Port Gibbon |
On the map of Cowell we were given at the Caravan Park, we noticed a sign for Igloos on one of the roads leading out of Port Gibbon. We had no idea what these were until we accidentally came across them. They were built as air raid shelters in World War II and are now a tourist attraction in the area...
Cowell was a
real surprise to us, we had no idea there was so much to do and see here and
honestly you could easily spend a few more days here.
As it was
Ian and Kathy’s wedding anniversary, we ended our day by going out for dinner
at the Commercial Hotel in Cowell.
What
a great night. Our meal was fantasic… so
well priced and fresh. We ordered a
Seafood entrée which consisted of 4 prawn cutlets, 4 Salt and Pepper squid, 4
spring rolls, 4 chicken bites and potato wedges all for $12.50. It was massive and anywhere else for
something like this it has been somewhere between $25 and $35. We shared it amongst the four of us. Our meals were equally reasonable and as
good.
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| Celebrating with these special friends. |
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| Our entree - couldn't believe you got all of this for $12.50 |
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| Steve and I out for dinner with our good friends... |
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| Steve's meal... |
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| My meal with the special commercial seafood topping... plus unlimited salad bar all for $12.50 |
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| Kathy's prime rib fillet steak |
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| Ian's roast of the day... |
Steve ordered garlic prawns, $26,
and I had the special Chicken schnitzel, which came with their very own topping,
of chilli sauce prawns, bacon onion and melted cheese with chips and a serve
your self salad bar for $12.50. The
chicken was really tender and their commercial seafood topping was delicious. Ian had the
roast of the day with vegetables and Kathy had the topside steak and
vegetables, all very well priced and delicious as well.
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| $1 extra if you order desert |
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| Ian's desert |
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| We wondered how he would get through it all |
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| Kathy, Steve and I all had the Chocolate Fondue Desert |
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| with salted caramel sauce |
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| with cream and macadamia ice cream. So rich.. |
We even
lashed out and ordered desert. I was
pretty full so Steve and I decided to share our desert of a molten lava
chocolate desert with salted caramel sauce and macadamia ice cream. Kathy ordered the same. When they arrived out at our table, they had
bought a desert out for everyone.
Steve
informed them that we had only ordered one but two had come out so he offered
to pay for it, and they were impressed with his honesty and told us that it was
on the house as it was their mistake.
It was delicious but I couldn’t finish it.
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| Christmas Lights at our caravan park. |
We had a
little drive around Cowell at night along the esplanade where we could see all
the Christmas lights around the caravan park.
It really did look very pretty from across the bay.
Cowell
surprised us and we really enjoyed our couple of days here…
On the move
again tomorrow….
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