#rndtheworldn44 - Day 15 - Adelaide to Streaky Bay

We woke up in Adelaide on the morning of December 5, 2017, our Outback Adventure Tour behind us, and our 7-day drive across the Nullarbor and the Southwest Coast of Australia ahead of us.  After breakfast at our motel, we grabbed a ride into downtown Adelaide to pick up our rental car for the long drive.  It would be seven days of 5-7 hours' driving each.  This is not our preferred style of travel, but we had the time we had, and we wanted to see this section of Australia.  So off we drove.

This first day would be a long drive:  7.5 hours.  We had to make our way back up to Port Augusta from Adelaide, and then across the top of the Eyre Peninsula, with the Gawler Ranges to our north:

Looking for an interesting lunch stop, we found Port Germein up the coast before getting to Port Augusta.

Port Germein was once an important transport hub for the surrounding districts following the opening of its jetty in 1881 – at the time known as the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. Due to the shallow water along the coast, the long jetty was built to allow sailing ships to be loaded with grain from surrounding districts. Use of the port declined when rail was extended to Port Germein in 1934.  The jetty was later reduced to its present length of 1532 meters due to storm damage, and is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.

I'm here to tell you that 1,532 meters is still pretty long - just about a mile, and of course we had to walk it before lunch.  As we neared the end of the jetty, we met some good ol' Aussies with their fishing carts, just wrapping up their morning's fishing:

We passed them and made it to the end, where the only sights worth remarking were the old pilings where the jetty extended further in days of yore, and the seabirds perched upon them:

Looking back toward Port Germein, we could just barely make out the buildings in the town:

At regular intervals along the jetty, steep stairs extended down to the water - presumably so that boats could tie up and allow their occupants to climb up to the jetty.  David stepped down just about as far he could:

Continuing back along the jetty, we were catching up with our fishing buddies.  Clearly, they had had a generous amount of the drink, and they were feeling no pain.  The wheels on one fellow's fishing cart broke and, in true backcountry fashion, he stripped his fishing equipment off the cart and tossed it - broken wheels and all - into the bay.  He loaded his equipment on his buddy's cart and the two of them proceeded to try to balance the overloaded cart as it swayed back and forth across the jetty, trying to find its way to shore:

They were pretty proud they had figured out how to get the extra equipment home:

We overtook and passed the happy fishermen, and, as we got closer to land, got a good view of the lighthouse, which has been moved in from the end of the jetty since it isn't as necessary as at time past:

Remnants of the railroad track that served the port still point along the spit of land basing the jetty, leading one's eyes out to the lighthouse:

We finished lunch, ducked back into the car, and drove another 4 hours until - suddenly - we returned to views of open water, but this time it was the Great Australian Bight.  We had arrived at Streaky Bay, our refuge for the night.

We just had time to check in and get down to the pier to catch the sunset.  One fishing boat was tied up, its occupants presumably sharing a cool beer up at the pub where we would be eating our dinner.

We waited out on the dock until the sun set, enjoyed one of the prettiest sunsets we've seen, and then strolled back to the pub for dinner.