Day 4

Streaky Bay to Cape Donnington, Port Lincoln

Distance Travelled - 368.6 km

Most of last night was spent listening to the rain which was a good test of the swag tent, good news - no leaks! Whilst the fly had to be packed away wet this morning pretty much everything else remained dry. The rain followed me today all the way to Port Lincoln and out to Cape Donnington where at 8pm it is still raining. I am camped (well parked anyway) at the base of the lighthouse waiting for the rain to stop so I can hopefully get a few night shots of the lighthouse in action. If things go according to plan the weather is meant to clear during the night giving me a chance to do some shots tonight and again early in the morning.

On the way through today I stopped at a few places to take photos of old stone buildings and tree lines. There are lots of old buildings on the drive down the coast and I could easily have taken a whole day to simply make it to town had I stopped at them all.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get to Cape Catastrophe at the other end of the Port Lincoln National Park to photograph the lighthouse there and then make my way up to Whyalla and maybe on to Burra.

 

 

Day 5

Cape Donnington, Port Lincoln to Burra.

Distance Travelled - 660.5 km

Well, true to form for photography purposes it pretty much rained all night making night photography very limited. It rained persistently until just after 2am when it eased off significantly so out of the car I stumbled to start taking photos. The rain break lasted until about 3am when it decided to bucket down again. Unfortunately I did not have much success and the image I have in my head remains there and not on my camera. Not to be defeated I decided to get up early and get amazing sunrise photos with a few clouds in the sky and the lighthouse as the focus. Well.. at 5.30, 6.00, 6.30 and 7.00am there was still no visible sun even though the light had increased. Thanks to a hugely cloudy and overcast morning there was no visible sunrise - strike idea number 2.

During my wait last night I discovered on one of the 4 maps I was looking at, another lighthouse marked down at Cape Catastrophe. Further investigation on the only map to have it listed showed you need to go through a locked gate to access it. Information at the entry point to the park said the key was available at the Visitor Information Centre - funny they didn't mention that to me yesterday when I was talking to them about taking lighthouse photos. So I made the 41km drive back into town, waited half an hour for the centre to open and went in to get more info. None of the 5 people there could tell me for sure whether there was an actual lighthouse there or not, one seemed to think it might be more like a light beacon or buoy. Computer research did nothing to help. Finally the decision was made when they said that there was significant clearance needed in your vehicle and they didn't think the Subaru would clear some of the rocks - how rude! So now it was off to Whyalla.

It was a pleasant, if somewhat rainy, drive to Whyalla where I dropped in to the Visitor Centre and chatted for a while about directions, campsites and lighthouses. Went to the Point Lowly lighthouse and took a few snaps before heading on through Port Augusta, past Port Pierre and finally into Burra with rain all the way. Stopped along the way for a few photos of interesting things and got to the Visitor Centre just as they were getting ready to close. With rain forecast for all night I decided to get accommodation rather than swag it or "sleep" in the car like last night. The pub seemed the best option from the ones provided and I booked into a comfortable, if basic, room. Yummy fish and chips for tea before retiring to read and sleep ready for an early start tomorrow - hopefully the clouds will allow a viewing of sunrise.

    Cape Donnington Lighthouse

 

Point Lowly Lighthouse