We woke up this morning with no soldiers around and no more war games going on. Some breakfast and we took in the coastline to the north of our camp – what a well kept secret view. It was then off to Whyalla to do some quick caches before catching up with the rest of the cachers at Kimba for a BBQ Lunch.

The last time I was in Whyalla was a kid so the place has changed a bit since then, of what I can remember. Spent some time picking up a few caches on Hummock Hill then it was time to head west.

Along the Whyalla-Kimba Road, stopped at the Vermin Proof Fence and then Secret Rocks. A spectacular view from the top and of course a cache.

It was then into Kimba to meet our our travellers and enjoy a BBQ put together by the local cachers, ThisMechiciCan.

We were olny a third of the way across to tonights campsite so the pace was increased (glad we didnt leave Adelaide with the rest of them this morning). There was a quick off the road moment when two large Mining Trucks being transported from the west came through.

The journey took us through Goyders Line, Kyancutta, Wudinna (with a huge monument to the Australian Farmer), Poochera (home of Peters Humpy), Wirrulla (with a jetty and no beach) and finally making it to Acramans Creek campsite on dusk.

It was a good night for a campfire as it kept the mosquito’s at bay. It didn’t take long before the crews that left Adelaide this morning headed to bed  – they were a little exhausted. Even though we were out the middle of nowhere, we still had 3G coverage so the netbooks and iPhones were out and surfing the net abounded.

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What was going to be a family 4WD trip across to Googs Track north of Ceduna, didn’t quite start out that way. Bradley ended up going to Japan for a 2 week school trip, Rachael when hearing of the mice plague over there didn’t want to go and Jenny had to stay back with Rachael. It ended up a mate and his family came over from Canberra so Jenny and Rachael acted as hostesses for them.

As soon as the family vacated the seats some geocachers quickly filled up the seats. We were all heading to an event called Sunny Side Up on Googs Lake. This event had started out with 20 vehicles indicating attendance but when it came to the death knock we were back to 9 vehicles.

With the bulk of the group leaving on the Friday morning at o’dark a clock, there were a few of us that a more leisurely start time and pace was required and we left Adelaide at 10 am on Thursday.

Myself and another vehicle left towards Port Wakefield. We stopped of course at Kiplings Bakery for lunch. On hitting the road, I rang the Burtons who I knew were also out here somewhere and it turned out that they were 500m up the road. We caught up and we had a convoy of 3 heading towards Port Augusta and eventually somewhere to camp after there.

We started grabbing caches from Port Pirie but I had done all these with my first cache find at Port Augusta. (310 km drive to find a cache).

We found some interesting places around Port Augusta including old style tensioning fence posts, train wreck dumping ground, old dump site on a salt lake with a lot of old cars rusting away.

We caught up with the Parrotheads who had grabbed a hotel room for night then headed down the east coast of Eyre Peninsula looking for a campsite. Our goal was Fitzgerald Bay but how to get there.

There was a road called Shacks Road which followed the coast but after driving 22 kms, we came across a padlocked gate, a red flag flying high and signs saying “Keep Out”. It was the Army Training Area and they were very much in attendance this night. Some back tracking and driving around the edge of the Training Area and eventually around 10:30pm we found our campsite at Fitzgerald Bay – the other end of the Training Area.

Camp was set up and with the kids in bed a few beverages were consumed and we started to see flares in the sky, followed by mortar, tracer and machine gun fire. The army was starting their night exercise. This continued well into the night but all we hoped was that their rounds and them stayed on their side of the fence as it would have been interesting waking up to armed camoed soldiers staring into the tents.

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Left Adelaide at 3:30 pm on Friday 20th August.

20th August – 244km, 18 finds

21st August – 275km, 61 finds

22nd August – 305km – 37 finds including 1 FTF

23rd August – 488km – 68 finds

Total finds of 184 after travelling 1312km.

Arrived home on Monday 23rd August at 9:50pm.

The final day of my Yorke Peninsula Geocaching trip and the weather was mixed with sunshine then rain, strong winds but very cold. I am not complaining though as this weather will find its way across to the snowfields of Falls Creek and drop a record amount of snow.

Starting at Point Turton, the trip took me through Warooka, Hardwicke Bay, Brentwood, Minlaton ending up at Bluff Beach for lunch. One thing I have noticed on the Peninsula is the large amount of building going on at coastal settlements. And we are not talking shacks but 3 car garage, 2 storey houses.

After being blown away at lunch, I kept moving up the coast to Port Victoria and coffee with Mollypix.

It was now time to head inland through Maitland and the dirt roads were no different to 12 months ago with all the rain and mud.

As it was approaching dark, I grabbed more caches coming out at Paskeville before hitting the road to home.

Today’s count was 68 finds with 6 DNF’s. Total for the weekend was 183 geocache finds and 19 DNF’s – a long way short of the 300 I was hoping for but I guess that leaves 150 for the next trip 🙂

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