24 Nov, Nundroo

Hello again. Emily and I are doing well. On Saturday morning we arranged to meet with a friend, Pastor Dean and his wife Louisa, who I (rob) have come to know through Yalata mission trips (and other brief Ceduna ride-by’s). We arranged to meet at their house at 10:30am. We arrived, knocked, called, sat, waited, gave up. Thought, oh well, maybe something came up… Turns out Dean was taken off by ambulance to hospital. So we went to visit him there, briefly (supposed to be resting). We agreed that we would catch up in better conditions. All the best Dean, thanks for your friendship, Get well soon.
From there we travelled to a quiet spot called Davenport creek for 2 nights. Drove up to the carpark, Em and I agreed, this will do. At this stage I will mention that the car brakes have been feeling very spongy for the last 500km, to add to my workload it turns out the front left wheel bearing was as loose as a… it was loose. So for the next 2 hours, I had the tools out in order to find just what was wrong. I was getting very frustrated pulling the front wheel apart, as only 3 weeks prior did I pay a mechanic to fix it, was I doing it again…
see photo in my left hand, for the typical 2 cent part $35 labour!! Not to mention the you-beaut tool I bought was left at home. By this stage I’m ropable. Lucky for me I have a great friend to calm the frustrations. Thanks for your help Em, who might I say, got her hands greasy for the cause! Needless to say, 250k’s on and we are stopping very well and cornering without the wheel trying to wobble off.
Mechanics aside, sitting down watching the real worker work (cooking dinner), the “unofficial ranger” (UR) drives around and says, ‘this isn’t the best campsite mate, this is where you wanna be’ (pointing on a map). Ok, I feel like a goose now, thanks buddy. So over dinner Emily and I discuss the option of packing up the tent and driving to the actual creek site. Agreed, we will take out the pegs, flatten the tent, throw it on the roof and go flat chat over sand before sunset.

Ok, ‘UR’ was a bit vague on directions, and I was a bit nervous on the sand, turns out we drove 5k’s too far and ended driving with lights on to find this creek. Aaaaaaghhhh!!! Now we’ve been driving long enough, its getting dark, no wait, it IS dark, lets just stop. We did. I don’t know what it is about the south coast of Australia, but there is no such thing as consistency in the wind. Using the car as a windshield at due south, by 3am wind was due easterly and vicious, so up and out of bed, re-peg the tent, move the car, try and sleep.
We both woke up miserable and groggy at about 845. Should we go to church?? Yeh, ok. Bang, they’re off. Packing up sandy tent, and stuffing in breaky, driving off to the local. By the way, what church starts at 9am?? If you didn’t already guess, we are an hour late. Ok, next church, ooh, 1030 start, lets go there!! I might say things were a bit different than what Emily and I are used, but how shallow of us to think every church is the same. Drove back to D.creek
This time, with plenty of time to drive, we looked at that map, got our bearings and found that it was actually very simple to drive to this creek site. Quite a site too . Out with the rod, and fishing for a while. No bites. Back to car, set up tent, cook dinner, relax. Lovely evening walk along the sand - saw little orange jellyfish, and some crabs, and lots of fish coming to the surface for some insect delight - so wish we had a floater hook!! Tried again with the rod, but same no-result. Slept very well Sunday night. Through rain and wind, Praise God.
We decided we have had enough of Ceduna and we want to go to Yalata and then get out of SA. So we drove past fowlers bay, to see what accommodation might be like. 50k winds blowing southerly, not that again. We up and left driving past a Yalata trip favourite Mexican hat beach - see photo for explanation of location.
From there we drove to nundroo road house. We drove past a salt lake with water. Not something I expected. Then we got to the road house. When we got there, a lone aboriginal man asked for a ride up to his car, he didn’t want to walk back with a full jerry, fair enough, I wouldn’t either (but that’s why I carry enough fuel). Anyway, willingly I obliged. Was only ‘up the road’. 52kms later (by the way, Emily is at the road house, having a drink, shower, feet up) I am driving into Yalata a good 18hours earlier than anticipated. Mark is up from Adelaide for a funeral and we had a good chat along the way, sharing stories from past trips. Leaving Yalata I saw Ernie, one of our friends there, he rode over with this puzzled look on his face, “what are you doing here”. so I explained and said see you tomorrow.
Arrived back at the roadhouse conveniently too late to prepare dinner, so we gladly waltzed into the restaurant for a no effort required meal. Thanks for the fresh seafood! Yum.
That’s it, you’re all up to date. See you next time on the adventures of Rob and Em. Over and out.