01/10/21 You'll Die!: Cowell

 

Remember the problem with the car not having reverse when first started, and therefore always needing a forward exit when parked? Well, we went for a drive along Beach Rd to Port Gibbon today, and along the way we stopped at the cliffs to look at the view while we drank our cups of tea.

Our smoko view, from inside the car due to the pesky wind.

In our efforts to gain the best smoko view we forgot small matters like always having a forward exit, and of course the car chose that moment to misbehave and we had to sit for a further 20min while the poor thing sorted itself out. So far it has always sorted itself out which is very good because the requisite part has to come all the way from France and with franco-australian trade relations at their current low who knows how long that will take. 

The drive down to Port Gibbons was very pretty, with wheat on one side and the sea on the other. 

Wheat to the west of us,

...and sea to the east of us.  We're further down the eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula, so the sea is acting like the sea, with proper waves and everything.

We saw Pacific Gulls, which is not something you see in Queensland,

...and a seal just chillin' in the waves. 

Bouyed up by our seal spotting, we continued to Point Gibbons where a small sea lion colony is reputed to hang out on the beach and provide further spotting opportunities. This involved a short trek through the sandhills...

"We better leave a breadcrumb trail or we'll get lost in the sandhills and perish."

 

"We'll wander in circles, never to be found, our bones slowly covered by drifting sand..."

"...years later our bleached skeletons will be found."

"Oh look at that! Bicycles! Lucky we left them on the car.  We're saved!"

Alas, after all that wandering the sea lions were nowhere to be found, other than one which was decidedly dead and which we initially mistook for a rock. 

I rode my bicycle back to camp and a very nice ride it was too with the wheat on my left and the gulf on my right.  Behind me was a raging tailwind and before I knew it I was back in camp after spending the last 7 km thoroughly enjoying myself following little tracks through the low scrub beside the mangroves.

Cowell in the distance.

 

We ended up in the camp kitchen making dinner and talking with G and S, who hail from Warrnambool. S was very interested to hear that we came from Roma and on hearing we would be settling near Mt Barker she spontaneously burst into laughter and said "You'll die!" which was demoralising to say the least especially as we've been watching the temperatures in the Adelaide Hills and she may well be right.

With our imminent death from exposure weighing on our minds, we donned our thermals and took ourselves off to our tent for the cold and windy night.