April - Adelaide to Ceduna

Hi All,

Well we left Horsham & headed for Adelaide. Our stay in Adelaide lasted 5 days, on the first day we went to the Adelaide Zoo to see the Giant Panda. We decided to drive in "big mistake" with our truck, it took 1/2 hr to locate a parking spot that it would fit into, then it was 1km from the Zoo in a metred area and only 3hrs, the metre didn't work but the parking officer was on had to OK our stay. So we had a quick 1km walk then 2hrs in the Zoo & a quick 1km walk back. Adelaide Zoo is small compared to Melbourne but quite nice, lots of trees, birds & animals to look at. The Giant Pandas were just cute, Wang Wang was not in a good mood as he tried to keep his back to people. Fungi on the other hand was busy walking round her enclosure. 

Wang Wang with his back to everyone

Fungi walking round looking at everything

This Meerkat was the one on lookout, he would look left, right & up to the sky
then repeat this movement over, as you can see he is very alert.

I had never seen a Tree Kangaroo before so was surprise to see one. a very heavy looking Kangaroo but not quite right.

These two Cotton-Top Tamarin were very funny.

On the second day we went back into town again to see the Library & Museum. We decide to catch the bus this time, it cost nothing for seniors after 9.30am till 3pm & $2 after that for 2hr any where in the city. We went to the SA Museum first as the Library tour was at 2pm. The Museum was great, we saw the Sir Douglas Mawson exhibition. The sled that he cut in half with a pocket knife and many other items that he had in Antarctica, minerals & fossils that he collected in the Flinders, Arkaroola & Antarctica. Then at 2pm we did a free 1 hr tour of the reference library new & old. This was amazing, they had books collected for the library before is was built. A most beautiful building inside & out.

The main hall of the old reference library

The outside

Just loved the colours of these minerals

We visited with my cousin Darren & Rose for dinner &  2 most enjoyable evenings was spent with them. 

Darren & Ava

Rose & Ava

Madina Darren's older daughter

Ian playing on the adult equipment @ Semaphore Beach SA

We spent time shopping, cleaning the van etc. On the day we left for Port Augusta we went by Air Command & they serviced our air conditioner, it is a lot better now, no drips or thumps. On our way to Port Augusta the stone guard over the front window of the van came adrift, so in Port Augusta we managed to get a new gas strut & Ian managed to repair it for the time being. Continuing on our way on the Eyre Highway we had a free camp at Poochera, which was the junction of the Eyre Hwy & the road to Streaky Bay. Ian let me drive today so I did, we arrived in Ceduna in good time, I also put the Van on the site. We had a lovely few days here nice park, great patchwork shop, we had a good look around, Denial Bay, McKenzie ruins, look out & the weather station.

Truck being loaded with salt

Navigation light @ lookout

Entry stone @ ruins

Made of hand made bricks, water tanks, houses & much more

Ian with the manager of the weather station

the ballon in flight

the new weather station @ Ceduna

Sunset at Ceduna

We left Ceduna and headed toward the boarder of Western Australia, we played our first hole on the Nullarbor Links course @ Penong and free camped again near Nullarbor. This takes us to the middle of April so I shall sign off till next time when I shall tell you more of our trip west.

Cheers  Marilyn & Ian