Big Trip 2024 - Day 16 (Barrier Highway)

 Today was a good day.

The anticipated distance on the road was going to be a shade under 500km. I ended up doing slightly more than that.

Yes, I also can remember in times gone by doing 800 or 900 km in a day. By myself. Those days are long gone. I appreciate the journey more and realise it's not a sprint. It's a marathon. And one to savour.

Morning tea was in Port Augusta. When driving around looking for a bakery (pie review below) I realised that I may have erred in choosing Whyalla over Port Augusta as my two day stopover. It's a much nicer town and feels more in tune with its self. I  know how that sounds, but it's the truth. 

Next stop was Wilmington. A small town with a bit going on. 

Those cars you see outside are full scale models.

 Whilst the Toy Museum had an open sign out the front it was closed when I was there. They might have gone for a coffee.

It also had the "Sansouci Puppet Museum" which is apparently the largest puppet museum in Australia. It's also the only puppet museum in Australia.  Unfortunately it wasn't open this morning.

After Wilmington I stopped briefly at Orroroo, to take a look at the "giant gum tree".

I'm not sure what to say. It was a gum tree. It was pretty big.

At Peterborough I turned on to the Barrier Highway and stayed on it for the rest of the day.

I had chosen Yunta to be the designated lunch stop. It had a pub (closed) and two roadhouses, one on each side of the road. Apart from that there was nothing but red dirt  and scrub for miles and miles (kilometres and kilometres).

I stepped in to the Ampol Roadhouse, bracing myself for a dodgy dim sim or some soggy potato cakes. Instead, the Indian family that operated the roadhouse provided a range of curries. From Beef Vindaloo to Butter Chicken and from Chicken Korma to  ... something else I had forgotten to note. I had the Chicken Korma. It was cooked fresh and was a taste sensation I was not expecting on the Barrier Highway today.

About 90 minutes after this tasty lunch I reached the South Australia / NSW border with the clapped out town of Cockburn. The 2016 census showed a population of 56 and I reckon most of those had left since then.

Note the signage on the right showing the border

 One of the things that I really appreciated today was the red colour of the dirt. I saw this a couple of days earlier first, when driving into Iron Knob, the town before Whyalla. I guess it's part of Australia's Red Centre?

The red is caused by the oxidization of the iron dust in the dirt. Whilst I "knew" this  before I don't think I actually got what that meant. I tried to take photos but I think I mostly failed to capture how special it looked. So they're not going up here.

What this meant was one of the most enjoyable days driving that I have had just soaking up the views, driving through red ranges or along red plains.

The end of my journey, Broken Hill, came as quite a shock, seeing a largish population, and traffic. For the previous 6 hours, after leaving Port Augusta, there may have been only 100 vehicles in total. In Broken Hill there was a traffic jam as school pick up time meant plenty of cars on the road. Well, it felt like it.

I'm going to be here for a couple days, and am looking forward to exploring what is here.

PIE REVIEW

Today's pie is courtesy of Port Augusta French Hot Bread. The pie in question is the Egg and Bacon Pie.

I forgot to take note of the price.

The mince was very well seasoned and the crust was firm. The bacon on top was plentiful and there was a bit of cheese on the top as well. The egg in bacon and egg pies can sometimes taste quite dry as the yolk can be overcooked. That was not the case here, The egg complimented the rest of the pie very well. This may feature in the top half of the list at the end.

Podcast of the day: News Weakly.

- Author, comedian and former ABC Melbourne breakfast host, Sami Shah, gives his unique take on news satire where he extends beyond the standard low hanging fruit to discuss news from other parts of the world. This podcast is recorded from the Singapore Writers Festival.

Total km travelled: 4,360

Big Trip 2024 - Day 15 (Whyalla)

Whyalla is not a tourist town.

It's a working town, built on the back of iron ore mining and steel manufacturing.

Steelworks.

 Whyalla is not a small town. I had mistakenly thought it was the smaller brother of Port Augusta. Turns out that Whyalla is the fourth largest city in South Australia with just under 21,800 living here. Port Augusta has only about 13,000.

Whyalla was originally known as Hummock Hill in around 1901. In the early years it was essentially a BHP service centre until in 1920 it officially became a town.

Whyalla is a sprawling town, it has 6 football teams and its own league. Driving around the town it feels as though it was designed with a much bigger population in mind. According to online sources, it did reach a peak of 38,000 in 1976 before slowly declining over the years. At one stage in the 1960's planning was undertaken for a possible population  of 100,000.

Shipbuilding was a very important industry in the town up until 1978 when they were closed down. The shipyards built 64 ships in total. including in 1941 when four patrol boats were built there for the war effort. The HMAS Whyalla was one of them, Now decommissioned, this boat can still be seen near the town's Information Centre.

As a tourist, there seemed to be two main areas to visit. The Whyalla Jetty, and The Hummock Hill Lookout.

Here is the view from Hummock Hill of the Jetty.

And here is the view of Hummock Hill from the Jetty.

Hummock Hill is on the left.

Queen Elizabeth II visited Whyalla back in1986 (12th March) and actually went to the Hummock Hill lookout. A plaque was unveiled to commemorate this momentous day.

After spending some time admiring the views from both places I explored the town further.

Walking around the centre of town I couldn't help but notice a dozen or so posters around the that had been put up on the walls in a couple of the alleys, I took photos of a few of them.

Breathe Out

Notice the Sweet Scent of the Flowers

Notice the birds in the trees and on the buildings. How Many? What Types? LISTEN.

Be Still. Be Present. Breathe In.

Anyone that practices mindfulness may recognise some of this.

Even though Whyalla isn't, strictly speaking, a tourist town there are three caravan parks (though none of them are overflowing with visitors at the moment). And whilst there are some nice beaches here, the blowy weather experienced yesterday and today restricted enjoyment of that somewhat.

I'm glad I visited Whyalla. I knew nothing about it before this trip and now I know something about it.

On the road tomorrow and heading further inland into New South Wales.

PIE REVIEW

I tried my hardest. I really did. The two two bakeries that I could find were both closed. After I had lunch at the Eyre Hotel I accidentally found a third one - a Villis pie shop. Too late though, as I was too full to even think about eating a pie.

Better luck tomorrow.

Podcast of the day: The Cine-Files - Guardians of the Galaxy Part 1

- two Americans who, when not using the podcast as a means of dealing with their own psycological issues, provide some pretty good insight on how popular movies are made. 2 and half hours to only dissect the first half of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Total km travelled: 3,851

Big Trip 2024 - Day 14 (Across the Eyre)

 Today marks the start of my return trip back home.

I had been following along the coast to get to Ceduna.

Today I turned inland.

Poochera was the first stop.

A lot of the towns on this road looked half abandoned. Whether it was because today was Saturday, or because the temperature was going to reach 40 degrees, there was not a lot of foot traffic around.

Poochera did have a couple of interesting things to look at.

The first was their big ant.

The dinosaur ants were first discovered in the region in 1977. This "statue" was built in 2019. This article from the ABC describes a dying town pinning their hopes on this to save their town. Given the lack of people around, I am not sure it has worked.

I also saw this mural around their museum. Mind you, you've got to look for it. It's not obvious from the road that it's here.

A lot of these towns along this stretch of road were like Poochera, clinging on to survival.

The next stop was not like that. Wudinna seemed to be a natural stopping point for travellers doing the inland route.

Their bakery was doing a roaring trade (pie review below).

Photo not representative of the busyness of this shop

I liked their wood sculpture called "Gus".

 Kimba, was lunch stop. This is the largest town on this road between Port Augusta and Ceduna, and has a special claim to fame.

That's right, it is half way point between the east and west coasts.

It also had some special art. The first was Silo Art that I would rate as some of the best I have seen so far.

This is also one of the older ones, having been completed in 2017.

The other art is the large animal I saw.

Sorry, my attempt at a little joke. I think this is the Bundy Bear, and was in the dining room of the Kimba Pub.

Here is the real animal:

I had mentioned before that I love "big things", and it seems as though people like building big things in Australia. I am not sure if this is a thing in other countries.

As you would expect, somebody has compiled a guide to all the big things in Australia. You can find it here.

Did I print these lists off, bind them and then check them off when I see one, complete with a photo as evidence? 

Possibly.

Here are a couple more of the Big Gallah.

The driving today has been on the difficult side. I lost count of the number of road trains that I passed; easily 200+.

The rising heat and accompanying wind swirls also made driving a bit of a challenge.

After I arrived in Whyalla (here for the next couple of nights) the wind really picked up. After the temperature peaked at 40 degrees the wind direction changed suddenly and turned a hot afternoon into a mild afternoon. A mild, but very windy afternoon.

I'll have a decent look around tomorrow.

PIE REVIEW

I am back in the land of reasonably priced pies, as the Wudinna Bakery was charging $5.50 for all pies.

Trying not to double up on fillings I chose a straight mince and cheese.

This pie is going to feature high on my rankings, I think. The pie was a decent size, the meat was well seasoned and had good balance between the meat and the cheese.

Podcast of the Day: A Rational Fear - Direct from COP29: The juicy gossip and a beached whale.

- I have only recently started to listen to this podcast. Dan Illic is the main presenter and he had a discussion with a couple of attendees at COP29 in Azerbaijan, Linh Do and Richie Merzian. Not knowing too much about this event, I was brought up to date in an informative and entertaining way.

Total km travelled:    3,804