Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XXVI) - The West Coast Exploration

 DAY 38

That run of days off came around pretty quickly! Looking at the weather forecast and it looked pretty good with a big high pressure system centering itself over the continent for the bulk of my days off. That would make for some pretty decent weather if I were to head west - so, it was go west, young man!

Leaving Adelaide I actually had clear blue skies for the first time since having the bike down here. It was cool but that beats being rained upon before even leaving town.

I headed straight up Port Wakefield road as that was the quickest way out of Dodge and the most direct way to Port Augusta at the head of the Spencer Gulf and hence, Port Lincoln, my intended destination for tonight. The catch with getting to Port Lincoln, which is only 280 kilometres from Adelaide in a straight line is that one has to circumnavigate the Gulf of St Vincent and the Spencer Gulf to get there - so some 650 kilometres by road!

The road up to Port Wakefield is pretty straight dual lane carriageway but is marred by being cursed with "average speed" cameras. This made the ride tedious as I needed to keep a hawk eye on my speedo to avoid any "creep" that would see me paying extra taxes to the South Aussie Garment. (so far, so good though...)

Just south of the Port Wakefield township (and just north of the last average speed camera) is the Port Wakefield Proof and Experimental Establishment. Here, the army and navy test fire artillery into the Gulf of St Vincent. Interesting stuff!

There was a lot of roadwork going on from the main street of Port Wakefield until well out the Port Pirie road, so that was frustratingly slow going as well. Luckily I didn't see any plod along here. I didn't stop until I hit the outskirts of Port Augusta, even though I was VERY tempted to ride up the Bridle Track again. No, I needed to cover some ground today.

I did stop to get a few photos of the wind farms that dot the countryside just south of Port Augusta. These things are huge! I have been told they make a eerie sound but I couldn't hear anything today with my ear plugs in.

A little further up the road was the SunDrop project. I remember seeing illustrations and reading  discussion on these in Popular Science magazines at my local library back in the mid 1980s but I had never seen one in the flesh until today. There is something sort of disturbing about the tower bathed in focussed sunlight. Perhaps I have watched too many Star Wars movies? Either way, just slightly disturbing....😓

I stopped briefly in Port Augusta to fill up as I wasn't quite sure where the next fuel might be. The first reason was that I wanted to be able to just head off the main road on a whim and the second was that I had done exactly ZERO research of my route and I wasn't sure what was up ahead!

I did do some on the run research into Hungry Jacks cheeseburgers though. Would you believe this is the first one I have ever had in my life? It filled a hole but I reckon I can go another 51 years before I need another! (the chips were pretty good though😉)

After a quick lap of the town centre I looked for a road out of town. I managed to stumble on the road to El Alamein quite by accident, which was good because this is the way I wanted to go. 

The western side of the Spencer Gulf is lined with hills and is home to the Cultana Training Area. It seems large areas of South Australia are only good for blowing shit up! But I reckon it looks pretty spectacular and I was going to ride as close to it as I could.

The road was narrow and pretty old looking. Definitely not the main highway but that was good. I soon rode past El Alamein airfield. I guess this area was named  El Alamein because it reminded folks of the area of the same name in North Africa, where Allied troops (many of whom were Australian) were involved in the fighting during WWII.

Just a bit further along here I passed the Baxter Immigration Detention Centre. No, I didn't roll in for a look or stop for a photo.

Interestingly, just a few kilometres further up the road I could see four motorcycles pulled off to the side of the road. They looked like big tourers and as I approached I slowed down as I thought they might have a flat tyre. No flat, it was four police officers and their bikes, just standing by the side of the road, on a bend, in the middle of nowhere. Odd!

Well, just 500ish metres up the hill and fully visible to the police back down the road was a stop sign on a railway crossing. 

Ahhh. 

The penny dropped. They were pinging non-stoppers at that crossing! As I approached the crossing, a car coming the other way dutifully stopped as did I. No extra taxation via us today!

Another 200 metres up the road and I was back on the main highway, the Eyre, to Perth. Only I wasn't going to Perth. I avoided the right turn and kept going straight for Whyalla.

It wasn't long before I rolled into the steel town. The Whyalla Steelworks was saved from closure a couple of years back by a billionaire Indian born British businessman. Without it, frankly, the town wouldn't have much going for it.

I zipped straight up onto Hummock Hill lookout once in town. The views over the town and the Spencer Gulf are impressive from here. An obvious spot for a gun emplacement when you need one.

Every man and his dog has been here. Even Liz thought it worth a look. I can recommend it too!

I copped some lip from a local Karen as I stopped here to get this photo. Apparently I wasn't allowed to stop...even though I wasn't blocking the one-way road or causing any real issue. The view to the south east was amazing and worth the abuse!

I thought about taking a look around town as I honestly can't remember downtown Whyalla - even though I used to overnight here in my regional flying days - but I decided that I still had a fair way to go until my goal for the night and therefore pressed onward.

There isn't much to say about the ride south of Whyalla. It was very scrubby country and I didn't stop until I rolled into the tiny town of Cowell. The painted grain silo grabbed my attention. This sort of art is popping up all over Australia, mainly in Victoria and South Australia, but it is spreading and I must say I love it! The artists try to capture something of the local spirit and history and this is Cowell's story.

My next stop was just outside Port Neil. I had been riding through lush green wheat fields for a while when I crested a rise and was greeted with this cheeky sign. The locals know how pretty the views are here!

After ages of zero traffic, the road seemed to be alive with vehicles and I couldn't get the lonely motorcyclist shot I was after. This will have to do.

It was getting late now and I was glad of being further west where the sun would set a bit later than the east coast. As I got closer to Port Lincoln the sky got darker and darker until it tipped down with rain. I had a couple of "squirmy" moments from the rear tyre so backed right off. No tyre that I have tried on the Twin has given me a scare in the wet- until now. I guess that is how the Motoz gets double the life of other tyre brands. Harder compound rubber is the take countering the give.

The rain didn't last long and I was glad to see Port Lincoln's airport slide past on my left. This meant I was nearly there!

Soon I could see the port gleaming in the last rays of the day.

I was glad to get to town for another reason. My fuel guage had been flashing red at me for a while now and I wasn't sure how much more range I actually had. After topping up it looks like I was only about 40km from walking. That is as close as I want to push my luck out here!

A quick Google search found me The Pier Hotel which had rooms available. $90 a night seems to be the standard rate everywhere in South Australia which is a LOT more than the $50-55 that most are going for in Tassie. While the Pier's rooms were nice enough, most others are nowhere near double the standard of Tassie rooms - in fact most of the Tassie pub rooms I stayed in put the South Australian ones to shame. Tassie = best roads in Oz with cheap accomodation.....make of that what you will.....but tonight's selection was very nice, if quite deserted. 

Pirate Life Stout on tap. Mmmmm....

Even though I was in tuna town I decided on the next rung down on the seafood ladder - King George Whiting. This is a winner either side of the Gulf and a bit of an S.A. icon. It tasted as good as it looks and was washed down with a couple of Pirate Life Pale Ales. Mmmmm

It was a solid day at 660km. I didn't stop for many photos so I think getting away a little late and lots of road works on the eastern side of the Gulf made for a slow/long day. Here is today's route on Ride with GPS.

And from the Spot tracker. The separation of the dots gives away where I might have stopped or delayed throughout the day.

Early to bed tonight as I had the alarm set for an early start tomorrow. 

Cheers.

Note: After constructive feedback from Warren at Motorcycle Paradise I have linked all of my photos in a larger format. Meaning, if you click on a photo, it should open in a near full screen size. Please let me know if this is working for you. 

Thanks!