Off to See the Wizard - Penong to Kimba

We got a relatively early start from Penong, having a quick look at the old buildings in the small town before heading on our way.

This is just a few of the windmills on the eastern side of town.  They are hard to take a photo of as you drive along.

The next town, only about 70kms down the road is Ceduna, what is generally considered to be the end of the crossing of the Nullarbor, although the Eyre Highway actually continues on to Port Augusta.

Just before Cenduna we had to go through the quarantine station.  The caravan park in Penong had a terrific idea.  In the laundry they had a poster with all the quarantine regulations around Australia.  We have the little book, but this was great if you don’t.  They then have a spot where you can drop off any foodstuffs that will be taken at the quarantine station, either at Ceduna heading east, or at Border Village if you are heading west.  That way anyone who can use it may take it, rather than it being surrendered and destroyed.  After losing quite a bit of food when we entered South Australia, heading west at the start of our trip, this time we were prepared.  I was able to leave a lemon at the caravan park and someone had dropped off a couple of carrots, which would be OK to take to South Australia, so I was able to take them. There was some honey dropped off by someone heading to WA, but I was unsure if I could take it to SA, so left it.  As it turned out, honey was OK.  At the quarantine station I did lose a couple of potatoes, but that was OK.

We called into Ceduna as we needed to stock up the larder after going through quarantine.  I bet the supermarket does a roaring trade in fresh fruit and veges.  We had to check out the jetty.  Ceduna is known as the Oyster Capital of Australia and they have Oysterfest.  It was on the weekend after we were there.  It would be a bit of fun, but I think it was going to be wet.

There are some lovely old Norfolk Pines up the Main Street.

And a couple of nice old churches.

We had to make a big decision at Ceduna.  Do we go south around the Eyre Peninsula or just head directly east across the top of it?  We had been pondering this decision for some time and it all boiled down to what the weather was doing.  We would have liked to take the detour, but it was still quite breezy and fairly cool, so we made the decision to just take the direct route home and save the peninsula for another trip.

Once we had made up our mind we were now once again in an area known for grain crops.

Grazing sheep is also one of the main agricultural activities.

There are more little towns along the highway, but I must say the ones in WA were much nicer from a tourist point of view.  The first we visited was Wirrulla.  

They have a few old buildings, but nothing looks as fresh as the other wheatbelt towns. 

They do have a quirky thing, an Inland Jetty.  It sounds like they were bemoaning that they don’t have a jetty as an attraction, so they built one back in 2001 as a bit of a joke, using mainly recycled timbers from an actual jetty from which the wool and wheat from this district was exported.  A nice touch.

The largest building in all these towns is the silo.

The next little town was Poochera.  

It is famous for an ant - the “Dinosaur Ant”.  Apparently, it most resembles what the original dinosaur ants were like.  They are nocturnal, foraging alone and taking the food back to the nest. Their sting is painful, but as hardly anyone ever sees the ants and they aren’t aggressive, next to no one gets bitten.

There is a little outdoor museum with the centrepiece being “Peter’s Humpy”.

It was built in the 1920s out of flattened out kerosene tins and local pine logs.  

It is interesting to read about him and his humpy.

I dare say he was quite comfy in there……..except when it was really cold…..or really hot, particularly if it was hot.

Continuing on our way, don’t you love the colourful section of road, where they have used different road materials each time they have widened it.

More wide loads, now with police escorts if they load was particularly wide.  I must say, having the UHF radio in the ute has been very handy, particularly with wide loads, as the pilot accompanying the truck advises people that a wide load is approaching and how wide.  That way we generally had plenty of notice.

Wudinna is the larger of these little towns, but was still quite small.  Their main feature is the “Australian Farmer” sculpture.  I really liked it.

 The spiel says “The Australian Farmer stylised human form. Elements - sun, source of life, wheat and sheep, female side, missing grain, drought years, children, families, generations.”  You can see it all there, and so elegant.

We arrived at Kimba fairly late in the afternoon. We camped at the Recreation Grounds, which is a community based free camp.  

Just as well we didn’t arrive any later, as there were hardly any spots left.  There would have easily been fifty vans parked up.  

The campground is award winning and you can see why.  There were two blocks of amenities, spotlessly clean and a coin operated shower, if you didn’t have an ensuite in your van.  There was also a huge camp kitchen. It would be one of the best we have ever seen.

We didn’t have a look around the town when we arrived, as it was just about to rain.  Fancy that.  The weather was quite a contrast to what we had experienced in the more northern parts of the country.

I noticed that a peewee had its nest in a tree near where we camped.

We finished the day with another nice sunset, once the rain had passed.

The highlight of the day was just driving through the lovely countryside.