DAY 159 – A WET DAY IN WHYALLA
On the move
again today moving closer to the departure time of Ian and Kathy who plan to
leave us at Port Augusta as they head back to Qld to spend Christmas with their
families..
Meanwhile,
we will head to Adelaide for a few days before making our way east across to
Melbourne where we will spend Christmas with our youngest daughter Chloe and
her husband Dan…
It was quite
wet when we got up this morning and so pack up took a little longer as we tried
to pack a little more in between each shower of rain.
Fortunately
we didn’t have too far to go as Whyalla was just a little over 100kms down the
road and we really couldn’t get access to the park before 11am anyway.
We had rung
ahead and booked into one of the Top Tourist Parks, which was right on the
waterfront in Whyalla…. I don’t think we realized how close to the water our site
would be… this meant that being so close to the water’s edge would also mean we
were pretty exposed to wind….
It pretty
much rained on and off all the way to Whyalla and we arrived around 11am. It was still pretty wet when we got there,
and there was no wind for a change….
It took us a
while to set up properly due to the weather, and then by the time we had lunch
it was 1pm. As the weather was so poor,
Ian and Kathy decided to go to the movies for the afternoon, Steve and I
decided to go do a little shopping as we needed to get fuel and do a grocery
shop.
Whilst we
were at the shopping centre we discovered a shop called “Cheap as Chips” and
didn’t we have some fun there. It was
similar to the “Reject Shop” but larger and with more variety. We did a little bit of damage there buying a
few items for our Pakkeleg Game on Christmas Day. Pakkeleg is a Danish game played at Christmas
time, and since it is a tradition of our Danish family we have no adopted it
here as well….
After doing
our shopping, we thought we would check out a couple of the lookouts around Whyalla,
so we headed up to the Flinder’s & Freycinet Lookout which overlooked the
coast, and where you get a great view of the enormity of the sand flats that
are around Whyalla when the tide is out.
In 1802 Matthew
Flinders was the first European to navigate and chart this unknown coast of SA,
solving the centuries old mystery as to whether Australia was one continent or
two. Ten months later, in January 1803, Louis-Claude de Freycinet (1779 – 1842)
navigated and charted the isolated coast for the Baudin expedition. He and his
crew spent a night at False Bay, off what was to become Whyalla, and were
impressed by the local scenery.
As part of the
Encounter 2002 project to recognise French exploration, the two explorers were
commemorated at the lookout by contemporary sculptures, whilst the area was
renamed the ‘Flinders & Freycinet Lookout’.
From here we
headed back down to the foreshore. There
were masses of Galahs feeding on the grass at the Rotary Park. Hundreds and hundreds of them, and they were
such a pretty sight. I can sure
understand that they would be a real pest to the wheat farmers on this
Peninsula, but to us tourists, they look wonderful.
After photographing them all, we then went for a drive up the Hummock Hill
Lookout which offers
exceptional 360 degree views. It was developed by BHP as a gift to the city to
commemorate the company's centenary year, and opened during the 1986 SA Jubilee
Royal Visit.
Hummock Hill was the site of first settlement at the turn of the
century. Development of the lookout utilized the old gun emplacements which can
still be seen today. Along with a picnic
area, Hummock Hill Lookout also included
as restored wartime gun, heritage interpretive signage and a sheltered viewing.
During World War
II Hummock Hill saw service as a gun battery with four guns and command and
signals posts. Early stages of the fortifications were built by BHP workmen,
but the majority of the work was carried out by gunners of the 26th Heavy
Anti-Aircraft Battery under the supervision of the 65th Deputy Commander Royal
Engineers who arrived in Whyalla on February 14, 1942.
Hummock Hill afforded us unequaled view of
Whyalla and the vast OneSteel operations.
It also had amazing views of the Whyalla Foreshore and Marina; across Spencer
Gulf to the Southern Flinders Ranges. Whilst we were up here we noticed that the
wind had really sprung up…. Something we didn’t need as we had our awning half
up to shelter us getting in and out of our caravan in the rain…. Time to head back down and check it out and
secure it before any damage is done, as we are right on the beach front which
is bearing the full force of the wind….
When we got back to the van, our worst fears were realized. There was indeed a
tear in our awning, so so disappointing.
Fortunately for us our neighbour had come over and pulled it in for us
and secured it otherwise it could have been a lot worse. Still we have been through so much wind on this
trip and have been so careful, it was disappointing to find that we now have
to find somewhere to get it repaired.
After securing it all, Steve went for a walk out
on the beach in front of our van to see if anyone was catching anything
worthwhile. We hear so much about the
amazing fishing on this coast, but we see little evidence of it as we have traveled around… I think you definitely need a boat if you are going to catch
anything…
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