Our Latest Travels - Port Lincoln to Whyalla

Over the years, most of our holidays have been road trips, generally only staying one night at each place we visited.  We are really enjoying spending a few more nights at most places now and having a better look around.  Having said that, after a few days we are happy to get back on the road.

The next day of our travels took us up the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula, travelling through a few small towns. This side is much more populated than on the west coast.  

Our first stop was Tumby Bay and its painted silos.  It was painted in 2018 by Argentinian artist Martin Ron and depicts two local boys jumping off the Tumby Bay jetty.  

Next, to go into town and have a look around.

We stayed overnight at Tumby Bay back in 2010 and it was really windy.  At the time, we took a walk out along the jetty and watched a kite surfer.  We were looking forward to walking out along the jetty again, only to find that it is in a very poor state of repair and they don’t know if it will be fixed, due to the huge expense. So sad.

The little town has placed itself firmly on the map in recent years, as the town has a huge collection of murals painted on their buildings.  We got the map, but I still don’t think we saw them all.  They are really impressive.  Here are just a few.

Imrpressive, aren’t they.

I did call into the little patchwork and craft shop and bought some low volume fabric to restock.  When chatting to the lady behind the counter I learned that the staff work on a voluntary basis.  The nearest craft store is in Port Lincoln, an hour away, so this way they can help to retain their local store.  The ladies also sell a bit of their craft in the store.  What a good initiative.

The next town up the road is Cowell and we were there in time for lunch.  This is a really pretty town.

There was a patchwork shop here too, which was a nice surprise.  Then I went in and learned that they were having a closing down sale.  What a shame.  There was a terrific range of fabrics, all at half price.  Oh, if only I had a project in mind.  There was French General, Tula Pink, Kaffe Fasset…… I did buy a little more low volume cream.  It must be so hard for shops to remain open, with so much variety available on line and with the price of fabric being so high.

I went to the public loo and there was this sign.

How quirky to have art for sale in the loos.  It brightened the place up.

Cowell also has their silos painted, completed in 2019.  The artist is Austin Nitsua and depicts local man Lionel Deer, a real bushy, who raised camels.

And with the ute and van.

Heading further north we started to see evidence of the iron ore mines in the Middleback Ranges, which supply the Whyalla Steel Mill.  John Eyre, on his explorations in 1839, discovered that there was iron ore in the ground, thus implementing the steel industry in Australia.

We set up camp at the caravan park, once again with a foreshore site.  You can’t get much closer to the water than that.  We stayed in Whyalla for three nights.