Day 218 Cowell, SA

What a difference a week makes.  We have gone from warming the van to cooling the van.  From five degrees to thirty five degrees.  Sheesh....

I was woken early this morning by the glorious sunrise.  I raced outside to get a photo of the blood red sky but I was just a little too late.  Still and all it was pretty fantastic.  I apologise for the blurry photos as I didn't have time to change my camera settings.....

I didn't go back to sleep and lay in bed patiently waiting for Philip to wake up and make us coffee.  Yeah.  Spoilt.  After coffee we decided to go for a walk around this lovely little town.  So many people make the sea change to Cowell and I can certainly understand why, particularly if you are into fishing.  It seems to have everything you need as far as stores go and Philip had a win in the hardware.  The trigger on our external shower was on the way out and we were able to pick up a replacement, plus we found a $3 part that we needed for the waste water hose and hadn't been able to find anywhere on our travels.

I wanted to check out the Silo Mural that gets a lot of attention on WikiCamps and I have to concur.  It is one of the best silo murals I have seen.  The colours really pop.  The information board says that the artist completed this mural in three weeks.  Wow.

I also love this mural depicting the oyster that this area is famous for

As we wandered along the streets of Cowell I was smitten with the beautiful old homes.  Most have been restored to their former beauty.  I came across one that stood out from the rest because of the lovely cottage garden and as I took a photo the owner came out of the house with her wheelie walkie to tend the garden.  How beautiful.

We came across the "Black Stump".  The story goes that as a new year prank in 1972, a large stump was placed between two hotels and a sign was erected stating "best pub this side of the black stump" .  The original was stolen.  This larger stump was erected in its place also paying tribute to pioneer land clearing battles.

I love Cowell.  It is a quiet little town with a big heart.  When we arrived home I cooked us up bacon and eggs for breakfast and placed a boned out leg of lamb in the crockpot for our lunch because we decided that we would do the tourist drive known as "Port Gibbon Coastal Ketches Drive" and have a late lunch.  It is less than 30km to Point Gibbon and rather than taking the highway we followed Beach Road all the way.  We have been along some pretty spectacular drives over the past eight months and this one had its own beauty.  We ducked in and out of every side road that we came across and most were camping areas.  The sand is soft and white but covered in seaweed after the very big winds from last week.

We can see in the distance that there are some red cliffs lining the oceans edge and it didn't take us long to reach the township of Port Gibbon that sits high above the ocean.  I commented to Philip about the "jetty" that seemed to be sitting in the middle of nowhere and we later read that it was the landing platform for a chute that ran from the top of the cliff at Port Gibbon to waiting ships.  Bags of grain where sent down these chutes.  Pretty ingenious......

When we arrive at Point Gibbon we read the information board that says there is a Sea Lion colony living here.  It is also a camping area so we are a bit dubious about spotting these creatures. I would think they would be shy of people.  However as we walk along the beach we spot a Sea Lion frolicking in the shallow water.  We can't get close enough for a photo but we did get a little bit of GoPro footage.  Oh yes and we spotted a very large snake (think it might have been a tiger snake) heading towards the camping area.  Don't think I would want to camp there although the camping area looks great!

We turn around at this point and head towards the Igloo Shelters that were used as bomb shelters in World War 2.  It is the strangest place to build bomb shelters.  They are sitting in a very open area in the middle of nowhere.  You would have thought they would have been an easy target.

It was a terrific drive and I'm pleased we did it.  Tomorrow we have an early start to arrive in Whyalla for two tours that we have booked starting at 9.00 am and then we will drive to Port Augusta where we have two nights booked.