2013 # 2 Tumby Bay

On Thursday we were hindered by a very savage wind, the narrow black velvet ribbon is called the Sturt Highway.  The Prime Movers hurried along the ribbon heading for Adelaide.   A long steep hill was so difficult that we pulled over in a rest place and the van nearly blew off the spot. It was shaking and raging like an old toy in a dog’s mouth.  Graeme looked for the nearest town, Nuriootpa, Barossa Valley. 

 We hadn’t realized we were so close to such a beautiful place.   We spent 3 nights there enjoying the rural and wine growing region, stretched out for miles and miles through the valley.  The rain was almost ceaseless.  We saw everything through low cloud, mist, light and heavy rainfalls.  Few photos.

A return trip to Maggie Beer’s farm shop saw me chosen to be the co-chef for the visitors who had come to see the famous lady.  Though she was not in attendance, it was a very fun thing to do.  I cooked a colander full of brown mushrooms in about 3 lbs of unsalted butter, with a little swish of this and that.  Graeme captured the moment in a movie. The rain and mist continued! We will try to go back in Spring to see all the trees springing to life with blossom and the Spring flowers blooming.

We arrived at the very large church to worship, and found we added to the count of 4, making 6. The rest of the congregation had been to Cambodia on a missionary trip and were just arriving back in Oz or recovering from jet lag. They treated us kindly and we were able to contribute with a great story of faith, from a Taliban killer to a believer in the beautiful Jesus.

Today, Sunday, we drove via the outback farming tracks, zigzagging between the more used farming roads until we reached Wallaroo.  At Wallaroo is a brand new passenger and vehicular ferry (very flash, $17 million to build) which brought us across Spencer Gulf to the Eyre Peninsula.  Graeme said, “don’t ask the price”. We landed on their door-step as they were about to leave, so we just drove on. We palled up with a man (who happened to be the ferry’s engineer) and said we’d happily take him with us to the Sterling Ranges, so I told him to hop in the truck.  It turned out that he gave us the trip of our lives, right upstairs in the very flashy bridge (control room) of the ferry with Skipper and all the staff.   What a fun ride for two hours, we entertained them with stories and they entertained us with theirs!   Great ride.

Our goal was to drive down the Eyre Peninsula to Tumby Bay.  We are now here for another break - on the water of course, not far from Port Lincoln, and still looking out over Spencer Gulf.  The sky entertained us with moody blackness, glowing bright cloud, water spouts and even commercial vehicles in the sky racing along on wheels, made by the clouds - a most entertaining journey with rain pouring down on both sides of us, but not coming on us. All this was accompanied by a magnificent colourful and large rainbow which shone in its full glory the moment we pulled into the van park!

The Eyre Peninsula houses 2.2% of the state’s population, however, it produces over 60% of the state’s seafood, and local grain growers produce 30% of the state’s grain harvest. It is the shape of India to my mind’s eye. When we reach the top of the far side we will be heading across the Nullarbor.