The starting point

The starting point

Thursday 14 April 2022

9/4/22 Penong

 


  The wind did drop enough for us to continue on , plus the road also turned , getting us out of the wind a bit . Given the extra fuel being used , we stopped at Nullabor roadhouse and put 20 litres in , just for a back up , then kept driving east . The wind and road swung around and we had a bit of a cross tail wind , which is a whole lot better than a head wind , so we kept driving to Penong , where we'll stay for a couple of nights .

  This old ruin was along the way to Penong .  


  Penong is famous for it's windmill museum , it's just across the road from the caravan park .


  After getting some washing done & hung out , we headed out to the coast - only 18klms out . First stop and fly was at Lake Macdonnel . This side of the Great Australian Bight has enormous amount of sand dunes - suppose it cant get to the top of the cliffs so has to wash up this side .
   Lake Macdonnel has a salt farm , and we were on the western side of it . This is the view to the south , to Point Sinclair . 


  One of the salt farm access tracks .


These 2 sections don't appear to be farmed , but could be wrong .


   Fresh water springs coming up out of the sand & limestone .



  Another shot of the dunes , they go from here up to the head of the bight .


  Further out is Cactus Beach , a popular camping and surfing area . There were a couple of groups out surfing , one out of picture .



   A view straight out of the Arabian Nights .


    Point Sinclair has a sheltered harbour and a jetty , also a netted swimming enclosure . An 11 year old used to swim out to the cray boats and get a crayfish for his mum - he was taken by a great white shark , so the enclosure was built . The water didn't look friendly , deep and dark with lot's of weed - we didn't swim , water temp wasn't great either . The surfers and a lake swimmer were all in full length wetsuits - very keen !!


   Here's the jetty and on the other side of the point directly above the end of the jetty is Cactus Beach .



  This is why we think they called it Cactus Beach - if you were washed up here , you would be cactus 😆
The next sandy beach is Cactus Beach - just around the rocky point .


This is on the western side of Cactus Beach - beach & dunes go on forever .

   Another view of salt lake from ground level .


   There's a strange area that's been dug up into rows and piles of white sand/ gravel - maybe gypsum ??? They used to send gypsum , wheat & salt from the jetty . This area on satellite stretches for a long way - maybe 10klms or so - have a look and zoom in on the map link !


   Back to town and rescue the washing that was getting blown away , then went for a wander around the windmills . This one's the largest at 35 feet across .


 there are plenty of other in all shapes and sizes and materials .


   This one is timber .


  And unfortunately , that's the Nullabor done and dusted . Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did .
















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