The night before Jude becomes closer to 70 than 60!

Out of Wallaroo into Port Pirie. Stopped the night after walking the jetty at Port Germain – 3.5 km. Nothing else to see here. Took in the Railway Museum in Pirie Tuesday morning and then on to Port Augusta. Some major expense to see the Outback Centre in town so decided we would pick this up on the way back in September. 

We’re now sheltering up in Port Lincoln. The wind howled through Point Gibbon last night and rocked us to sleep (well some of the time). It eased during the day, enough to travel slowly on to Port Lincoln. The skies are overcast and its actually quite cool – the first cool weather we’ve experienced since October. We “free-camped” Monday and Wednesday nights firstly at Port Bonython near a crude oil and gas storage facility but with a great view out to Spencer Gulf. The place was chockers and we actually had to double park but we got to test some oysters and found some more frogs. Sophie & Max from France triple parked in their little old camper ute thingy and came for a visit. Met many locals, great exchange of interests.

Tuesday night we wimped and found a paid c’van park at Wyalla, primarily so we could offload Suzie and explore. Checked in for a steel works tour on Wednesday then drove out to Iron Knob to see where the ore came from. It doesn’ t come from there anymore and I’ve yet to see a more derelict township that people still live in. The ore is sourced these days from the same range but further south at like Iron Duke or Monarch or some other silly royal location. Everything is rusty – as you drive the road out to Iron Knob the road follows the train line on which the ore is transported and the iron dust covers everything and rusts. Same around town. Then you get into the plant and the rust is overwhelming or if its not rusty its covered in  coal dust. The steelworks are huge. Shots taken from town overlooking the plant don’t even suggest the magnitude. We actually took a bus tour around which lasted one and a half hours.                                                                                                                                                 

What I couldn’t get over was the size for the outcome. The plant seems to go on interminably but all we saw at the output end were a few stacks of railway track and some I-beams and angles. Our driver did say that One Steel was doing it tough and there is some concern in the town that the plant might shut down and as it employs about 1700 people it would be disastrous for Whyalla. Took the tour over the “Whyalla” – the first ship built here in 1941 – a corvette for mine clearing one of four of the class built here and the first of 66 ships all told. Sad in a way to see it parked up on dry land but also a bit heroic for the townsfolk. Apparently they bought it back from Victorian Govt. where it served in the bay after WW II for 50K and spent 540K getting it to site. Still, good to see.

Moved on to Point Gibbon to freecamp only to find a 6 km very corrugated dirt road in but passable slowly and then a site also close to full. Just arrived in time for happy hour and met up with a new batch of roadys. Great fun. Bought fresh oysters in Cowell on the way through and worked out how to shuck’em. Oysters and pizza for dinner – wow!  Didn’t find the one that worked though.