8/12/2023 The Weather Was Kind To Us: Point Turton to Marion Bay

We planned to spend a few days at the Dhilba Guuranga-Ellis National Park at the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula. Along came the weather warnings for SA: heatwave conditions with dry lightning and fires expected (a catastrophic fire day), followed by two days of 'torrential' rain and flooding which at least meant that the predicted fires wouldn't get much chance to get established. The National Park was closed.  We decided to go to our cabin in Marion Bay anyway, and see what happened with the park.

Point Turton said goodbye to us with a fabulous sunrise.

The pelican crew slept in on their cramped high-tide real estate.

 

The weather change came roaring through while we had breakfast. Up at the top of the Gulf Port Augusta baked in 40+ temperatures and fires popped up as lightning struck willy-nilly over the wheat paddocks and bushlands.  Power went off in thousands of homes.  In Port Turton, down at the southern end of the district, the impact was felt much less.  The wind blew our bins over and thunder grumbled in the background. The temperature almost hit 40C for a few hours in the middle of the day.

Roger hadn't been out of the house at all so we started off with a quick visit to Flaherty/Longbottom Beach, the one that is ostensibly the third best beach in South Australia. There wasn't much to see there.

I think the white sand and clear water would look better in the sunshine.

Hardwicke Bay sat at the far end of Longbottom Beach.  It was another fishing shack ghost town with a fine collection of old tractors.

We stopped at Corny Point for lunch so that Roger could see a little bit of the territory which I had cycled over the last couple of days. 

The tide was in and at Corny Point the shallows extended way out from the beach.  Groups of paddling children made the most of the hot weather.

 

 

 

Away in the distance the tractor from two days ago still sat in the water.  I don't think it goes anywhere any more.

Roger had stolen my left over cycling snacks for his lunch and was traumatised when, for the first time in his 50+ years, he tasted vegemite and peanut butter in combination. After all the wailing and spitting was over we continued down Marion Bay Road, dropping in to the coast whenever it was convenient.

A beach shelter, festooned with all manner of debris from the sea.

We criss crossed the WtY on our way down the coast.  I'm jealous of the WtY walkers: they get to tramp along some stunning beaches while bicycles get sent down gravel roads inland from the sea.

In case you were wondering, the sign says 'Caution: Crumbling Cliffs' and has a picture of someone falling to their death.

Despite the relatively benign weather at the bottom of the Yorke, it was subject to the same catastrophic fire danger rating as the rest of the peninsula, therefore the Dhilba Guuranga-Ellis NP was closed.

Being the law-abiding people that we are, we did not enter the DG-E NP.

Instead we went on to the Marion Bay Caravan Park, where we were greeted by a wombat in Christmas finery.

Hello.

I went for a walk along the beach to the Marion Bay jetty, where the usual collection of fishermen were not catching fish (yet). 

The beach.

The jetty.

The nightly news informed us that all dry lightning fires had been contained and the catastrophic fire danger day was over although high winds remained.  The weather had moved on to rain and flooding, and sand bags were available for those who needed them. Those of us who planned to cycle through the National Park tomorrow decided that they would wait and see what the weather was like in the morning before getting the bicycle off the car.

That dot is Roger, enjoying the ability to walk, albeit carefully, along the beach.