Outback Trip

[AussieMick]

Spending our last week slowly traveling down the west coast of Yorke Peninsula staying in free camps and occasionally caravan parks to clean up.
Pics of Kadina, the largest town on Yorkes. Population 4500, a typical South Australian country town.
Pics also of various town coastal views, today is quite windy but that's spring for you. These towns which were little fishing ports are now expanding rapidly as it's only 2_3 hours from Adelaide. Big houses appearing where beach shacks used to be. Yorke Peninsula looks a lot like Italy in shape.

 

[AussieMick]

This part of Yorke Peninsula is known as the copper triangle. Miners from Cornwall settled this district in the 1860s to work the copper mines.
Grain from surrounding farms around here was sent to Falmouth Cornwall via Cape Horn by sailing ships right up until the 1940s.
Now that would be a tough trip.Now its just a nice holiday place. The old jetties are for fishing and such now days. Nice place for a beer today.

 

[Ayjay]

Mick - As always, keep it coming if only to maintain the jealousy levels over here in The UK. That said, I'm glad that you now seem to be by the ocean - I was beginning to think you was scared of it. I think the term is thalassophobia.

 

[AussieMick]

Thalassophobia, now there is a word I haven't heard before, I have always lived by the sea all my life and live in a beach suburb of Adelaide so I hope I don't develop it now.

 

[Ayjay]

Every day's a school day! Now I understand why you might head inland for an extended road trip. We used to live almost on a beach in Cyprus (more correctly, on top of a cliff overlooking it and a 5 minute drive to get there) and used to spend as much time away from the ocean as near it on vacations. That said, a very extended road trip in Cyprus would be a bit problematic as you can drive from one end the island to another in a (longish) day.

 

[Ricardo T]

Great to follow Mick...can I ask when you are planning your next trip so I know when to tune in?
When we were in Adelaide we stayed in a little bedsit right on the beach in the Henley Beach area, wife worked at Queen Elizabeth Hospital for around 10 weeks while I prepped the Kombi for the next stage of our tour, Western Oz. We found the driving quite challenging on Kangaroo Island!! Is the pie van still around?
stern Australia.

 

[AussieMick]

Hi RicardoT, still on the road for another week, haven't planned anything yet, l live in next suburb along the beach from Henley beach.
The pie cart which was an Adelaide icon seems to have quietly disappeared recently,
I see you were really driving down under on your trip.
Your Kombi would be worth a few bob nowdays.

 

[AussieMick]

Slowly traveling down the Yorke Peninsula staying in free camps or town football ovals for about $5 a night. Some are excellent but some are just an area to park for the night without any toilets etc.The ones you pay a small donation usually have toilet at least and sometimes a shower.
Most coastal towns are fishing villages with what we call shacks, these are an assortment of buildings often made by owners of various building skills, true old fashioned holiday homes.
Many have small boats for fishing and use an old tractor for beach launching their boat as not all have boat ramps. They buy old rusty tractors from the local farmers.

 

[AussieMick]

Well today is the last morning of our trip, we head for home in a few hours.
Its about 3 hours drive but as we get closer to Adelaide the traffic will increase and many traffic lights again. Haven't seen one for over 4 weeks.
The last week on Yorke Peninsula has seen a mixed bag of weather, some days sunny and some blowing a gale and drizzly.
Central Australia was just hot and sunny every day, about 35c degrees.
I will do a final post about how van went and any other relivant things.

 

[AussieMick]

Our trip to central Australia is over, we did 5874 kms over nearly 4 and a half weeks.
My van is a TDI340, 6 speed manual, LWB converted to a full camper. I've had the van for 4 years . Have heavy duty Springs and shocks in the rear as camper conversion caused rear to sag a little but now slightly raised which was good offroad.
I pulled a small trailer which carried all the bigger items like bbq , longer table, chairs, spare fuel and water, tools, compressor for tyres, bicycles and a box of food.
Not everything I took I used or probably needed so will revise for next time.
The van performed flawlessly through heat, crappy roads ,dust so that was great.
We slept in the van every night and were quite comfortable and my fridge stayed cold the whole time thanks to solar but in the constant heat my solar just coped. I have a fixed 150w panel on the roof and a 150w blanket and a 120ah leisure battery.
Luckily fuel prices were much lower than usual so that saved a bit but pulling trailer uses about 10percent more fuel especially into headwinds and hilly terrain but allowed the van to be lightly loaded and more comfortable inside.
Due to covid19 tourism was down 80percent or so which made it easier for us as these places can be very crowded normally. Of course hard for tourism operators.
It was good to see that area again as we haven't been there for years and it's so different from where we live on the coast.
Ran into a few other VW vans and we always seem to check out each other's interiors and compare ideas.
I have a few small mods l want to do to my interior as some things niggle at you and could be done better.

Well that's all and thanks for reading, Mick.