Wednesday 3rd December

The storm had passed and we had one last day at Innes NP before we had to pack for Adelaide - how time pushes on and we want it to leave us behind.

We finally got down to visit the wreck of the Ethel - her poor sad remains rusting away on the beach - the surf rolling in and the sunshine bringing out the cool greens and pale blues of the ocean.

A young surfer took to the water while his girlfriend waited - we watched him but he caught only two waves while we were there and we watched for quite some time, so the action was closer to watching cricket than football.

We rode back to camp, made a few adjustments and picked up a load of rubbish to drop off in town - to make less for when we pack up camp. The rubbish bins at the National Park are just for the 10c refundable bottles and cans - the general waste bins have been removed - I assume the park is now funded solely by cashing in the cans - another tribute to Joe Hockey and his mate Tony.

We were heading in to town because we had promised ourselves pizza - and the pizza was not a disappointment - we ate one there and the other we got as take away for tea. While we were eating our lunch along comes a chap in motorcycle riding trousers - Sue chats him up and he joins us for lunch - his R1200GSA same as ours, sits out side the front of the pub - ours is sitting out the back.

David is a charming down to earth chap, about mid 40's - and we really enjoy his company -

We drop in to Chinaman's beach on the way back to camp, but it is hot and blowing a tornado (how many words are there to say "annoying, intrusive fast moving air?"

We shelter for a hour or so and catch up with our sole neighbours, Sandy and Carlos (Land Rover and caravan from near Albany) - they are real travellers, Africa, South America for two and a half years and so forth - really charming folk which we really did not have enough time with.

We had a trip planned to do the sunset at Pandalowie Lighthouse - it was now cold, overcast and raging strong enough to sweep one off your feet - we found a spot out of the fury and Mal did some drawing and Sue managed some good shots of small swallows who were also getting their feathers back in shape after some turbulent flying.

The sunset was a disappointment, the cold pizza was good and we found our way back to camp slowly to avoid a collision with a kangaroo or emu.

Thursday 4th December

Cold and overcast - we packed up and were on the road by 9am - we had a great pie in Minalton and did not take off our cold weather jackets until we were nearly back in Adelaide - we had a good run throughthe city and after a wild goose chase looking for the local BMW dealer we headed up to the Belair National Park were we have a campsite.

After a bunch of domestic chores the camp was set up and Sue had time to gaze up into the trees looking for birds. She had found one koala feather near our campsite, so she knew they were around - then she spotted one sleeping in a tree across the small creek - well she just about wet herself with excitement - so we headed off to try and get a closer look. We also found a second koala just around the corner - well what an afternoon for our nature loving photog.