See you soon Adelaide.
The 12th of April was upon us. It was my birthday and that day we packed up the rest of our things and set off on our new adventure. Although exciting, I couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed with sadness. Just writing this brings a lump to my throat as I think about the three amigos we have left behind. The past year living with Andrew, Lana and Halle Bear has truly been one of the best years of our lives and although we are still in the same country, for now, not seeing them every day will take some time getting used to. We will miss them and Adelaide so, so much.
But it was time to be brave, step out our comfort zones, away from our familiarities and home comforts and begin #vanlife.
I would never have thought Tom and I’s first official home together would be on four wheels! But we are so proud of how we’ve renovated it and made it into something pretty special to us.
We didn’t get too far away from Adelaide in our first few days on the road. Our friend Will often spoke about his hometown in the Yorke Peninsula and we were set on making that our first stop to see what it had to offer. We had a great first night in a free camp spot in Arthurton. Will laughed when we told him that was our first stop on our ‘big adventure’ as there really wasn’t anything there, but it was perfect for what we needed that night. We found a local bar, toasted to turning 27 years of age and enjoyed our first tea on the stove cooked by chef Barry. Despite it being next to a cemetery, we felt content as we noticed the incredible sky which was completely full of stars, and already felt that sense of freedom. Camping life had truly begun.
The next morning we noticed the weather forecast wasn’t looking great at all but chose to ignore it. We headed south to the bottom end of the peninsula with the intention of staying in the Innes National Park where Will was going to come and camp with us. We made it all the way to Marion Bay and could only enjoy the views from our van windows as the rain came down hard. Will offered us an alternative to come back up to Clinton where his parents live, park outside and go for dinner at the Clinton Community and Sports Club. It was an opportunity we couldn’t refuse! It was awesome meeting Wills parents, seeing his family home and farm and having a beer in his shed. A big thanks to the McInerney’s for having us, and for the pancakes!!
The weather wasn’t much kinder to us the following day either, as the 3 of us drove to Moonta and Wallaroo we were struggling to find things to do in the rain. We did manage to meet up with another friend of ours who I used to work. She was also in the area with her family so we caught up over some lunch. We headed to our next free campsite in Alford. We spent the rainy night playing board games, drinking rum, eating snakes (the jelly kind…) and chef Barry rustled us up some noodles on the stove. We made it a great night and Mr Legend Will I AM stuck around with us and ended up sleeping in his car for the night! Not sure he got the best nights sleep mind…
The following morning we said our goodbyes to Will and started our onwards journey towards the Eyre Peninsula. Tom and I exchanged a look at each other both thinking ‘as if we are really doing this’ as it started to sink in a little more than we were now on our own.
We headed towards the Eyre Peninsula, stopping for lunch at Port Pirie where Tom’s drone nearly crashed into the sea (heart stop moment – thank you rocks which saved it!) We also made a pit stop at Port Germain where we took a walk out on one of Australia’s longest jetty measuring 1.53km.
Chinamans Creek was our next camp spot, just south of Port Augusta. Barker took a little beating as we had to drive 10km down a bumpy dirt track to get there, but we made it all in one piece. The location was cool, Tom spotted a few kangaroos but no signal anywhere. Luckily Tom bought an emergency Telstra SIM card the day we left as he noticed Vodafone didn’t have the best coverage outside of major towns and cities so it was a backup for when he needed to work and when we wanted to keep everyone in contact so they know we are still alive. Safe to say we have already used this backup a lot – Vodafone’s rural coverage is pretty useless!!
3 days into the trip and we seemed to have already established a little routine in the van. Chef Barry liked to take control of the cooking whilst I am happy to do the washing up afterwards. We have also mastered changing the sofa to a bed and vice-versa in good time which only takes us a couple of minutes.
Next stop was Whyalla. We’ve been using an app called ‘Wiki camps’ which is the bible for campsites, water stops, toilets and everything else you really need to find whilst camping. We were on a mission to find a shower as we hadn’t had one since Will’s parent’s house (don’t judge us) and wiki camps was telling us that there were hot showers available at the Whyalla yacht club. We found them, and they were great! Feeling fresh with clean hair felt amazing.
We found another free camping spot in Port Neill, beachside amongst some sand dunes which had only one drop toilet in a questionable hut and nothing else. Two other camper vans joined us this night, but we couldn’t help feel pretty isolated still as the camping grounds were huge so we were fairly spread out, and when the sun went down the site was in complete darkness. It didn’t help when we heard a scurry and a squeal in the large bush beside us. It was loud enough that we heard it from inside the van with our doors shut, so nervously thought it may be better to move the van a little closer to the other campers. As soon as we switched the engine on and turned the headlights on, we spotted a fox run from the bushes and laughed about how ridiculous we felt that we were considering moving. We stayed put, manned up a little and slept okish that night…
We were excited when we arrived in Port Lincoln later that day. Known to be ’The seafood capital of Australia’ so of course, we had to try out the fish and chips. YUM. The only free campsite around that area was about 30 minutes away called Fishery Bay. We thought we would try it out for the night but with no service anywhere and on another bumpy dirt track we knew it wouldn’t be ideal for the few nights we were planning on staying in Port Lincoln. But we had a fun night there at least, it got quite eerie at night as there were no lights anywhere, not even in the toilets and only the sounds of the waves from the beach just behind us. A German couple, Saskia and Sven asked us if we were staying the night as they also felt a little on edge and Tom invited them to camp next to us so at least we had some company. They asked us to have a drink with them and it was really nice chatting about their experiences which were very similar to ours. As they are heading West too, who knows we may bump into them at another camp in the future.
We decided to check out the Lincoln National Park the next day. As we missed out on camping in the Innes NP and having camped for free every night so far, we were more than happy to spend $12 to stay plus the $11 vehicle entry fee.
We took a hike up Stamford Hill to enjoy views across Port Lincoln, and also saw our first live snake slither across the path. It was pretty small and looked harmless and was long gone before we had the chance to worry about it. Whilst chef Barry was cooking up another delicious meal that night, which usually consists of either noodles, pasta or rice with a yummy sauce and an array of veggies, I headed down to the beach to catch another sunset. I spotted some ripples in the sea which was deadly still and saw what looked like a large fish wave at me. I watched it for a while, following its shadow trying to work out what it was. No fins, but too big to be a fish. Was it a turtle!? I went into the water ankle deep and spotted the outline of a huge stingray! It stayed pretty still, giving me a few more waves, I couldn’t really believe my eyes. After a few videos and photos taken I rushed back to tell Tom so he could come and see for himself. Luckily she hadn’t moved far and we soon saw that she had a baby stingray with her too. It topped off a great day.
We headed back to the centre of Port Lincoln to await our sea lion tour which we had booked for the Friday. My lovely Aussie family had given me some birthday money to put towards the trip that I desperately wanted to do while I was here. So after a day exploring Port Lincoln, we decided to park up in a spot that overlooked the ocean. Unfortunately, I had my worst nights sleep yet. Ocean views sure come with a price – that is wind! And that made the van pretty noisy, but I guess that’s camper life!
It was finally sea lion day and we were eager beavers waiting to board the boat at 11 am. There was only 9 of us on the whole tour, a father and son, a brother and sister and 3 other poms! One girl who was also from Cambridge – small world hey.
The tour was amazing. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to Langdon Island. As soon as we were in our wetsuits and arrived, the sea lions started making excited noises and many jumped into the sea ready to play. The guide told us the more interactive we are, the more they stick around us and want to play so as soon as we jumped in, away we went. Blowing bubbles, trying to get us to follow them, performing twists and jumps in and out the sea. It was pretty funny watching Tom imitate them too. But one, in particular, seemed to like him a lot and I was able to get some great shots of them together.
We left the tour buzzing that afternoon – as if we had just swum with sea lions, the ‘puppies’ of the sea! It was an incredible feeling. We took to the road again and drove to the Farm beach caravan park in Elliston. This was a $10 donation campsite which we liked and made do for the night.
The last couple of days have seen us push on through Coffin Bay, Venus Bay and nowhere in Streaky Bay where we plan to stay for 6 nights whilst Tom does his working week. It’s got good Telstra coverage in the town centre and a couple of shops, toilets etc. The campsite we are staying in is only 15 minutes away too, right on the beach where we’ve already seen horses have a paddle in the sea and some more incredible sunsets. With no Vodafone coverage, it will be a lot of walks, reading, crosswords and naps for me! Already looking forward to starting our journey across the Nullabor Plains next week as we get closer to the Western border.
Gemma