Walkers Rock to Tumby Bay
Our greatest expectations were again beaten down by blustering, freezing winds dictating our reasonable early pack up and move on. Walkers Rock is a beautiful place but not that beautiful.
We headed down to Elliston, found the bakery and ate excellent pies. We unfortunately found out that the toilet dump point in town was out of order. A change of strategy meant we had to manage inputs and outputs a little better till we could next empty the on board cassette.
Memories came flooding back the minute we drove up to the sign saying no heavy vehicles or caravans past this point. Last time we were here we did exactly the same thing. Reversed the same distance, taking the same exit road towards Cummins. What’s that saying about doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same results?
Not far down the track we turned seaward to Sheringa Beach. Being one of the most picture perfect beaches in the country, today did not disappoint. As we climbed a hill overlooking the beach total strangers beckoned us to the edge of a cliff. Not totally convinced we approached cautiously to be greeted by a pod of about 20 Dolphins feeding close to shore. We watched them for a good ten minutes whilst chatting to our new friends from Western Australia.
A visit to the far beach revealed wind of an unrelenting nature forcing us to retreat to a small lunch spot behind some dunes. The retreat coincided with the dreaded red triangle appearing on the dash of Sue and Trevor’s Discovery.
Soon enough we figured the likely culprit was a mass air flow sensor on the blink. A quick code clear with my little electronic box of tricks got it going like a steam train for about 10 minutes before the ‘reduced performance’ message flashed up.
The trip to Cummins was a slow battle for Sue and Trev, followed by an equally slow trip for the next 40 ks into Tumby Bay for the night. In the freezing wind and dust we cleaned the sensor, reset the codes and prayed. Thus far; thus not being very far at all; it seems to be working.
The shouts of appeal had my ears burning. I just had to walk the few hundred metres across the park to the cricket ground to watch some of the Tumby Bay senior A Grade competition. The standard was not bad, the enthusiasm up there and the wind still ridiculously cold. It did not look like the fielding side were enjoying the weather much either. I skulked back to the van for a quick dinner and an early night.