Day 74. 17th July 2024. Whyalla. Why indeed.

Whyalla? Exactly. Trip planning is difficult and Linda has done a sterling job planning before we left and getting us to Freo, and then we worked together to as to how to get across the Nullarbor and home. From Ceduna to Melbourne, we needed three stops to break the drive, with the last being Mildura. It was a little bit of guesswork, little bit of just needing a place to rest, and trying to make the drive even. The caravan park just had to be clean and neat for an overnight stop.

Whyalla was selected, being a 5 hour drive and we arrived late afternoon with an entertaining stop at Kimba along the way. No sausage roll today, but we did have scones with Jam and Cream, good op shop to browse and of course, the Big Galah.

On the subject of sausage roll’s though, please let me digress. South Australia is a different place, and we know this, but I was not prepared for the sauce protocols of this state. The first SA sausage roll, I was asked if I wanted sauce, and upon confirmation the cashier put the nozzle of the sauce bottle into the sausage roll three times and injected directly into the sausage roll, placed it in a paper bag and then handed it to me. I thought this was strange, but put it down to a country town oddity. The second, the staff made an incision down the side of the sausage roll and then lifted the pastry off, applied the sauce onto the meat, and then replaced the pastry and served. The last one in Renmark, just before crossing the border, had the bakery employee almost cut the roll in half longwise, and then apply the sauce into the gash before serving. I am unsure why South Australians are not trusted to apply their own sauce for starters, but what is it with not having it on top of the sausage roll? Or even allowing for dipping? Direct insertion of sauce is just not called for, and I think I left the bakery owner in St. Arnaud a broken woman when I told her of these practices.

With a southerly gale and a wind chill factor that would cool your beer faster than an industrial freezer, we briefly toyed with the idea of relenting and getting a cabin for the night. We inspected the one remaining available cabin and the smell of the cleaning product left us with a headache, and a sense of suspicion as to what had happened here previously to use so much bleach. Instead, we braved the conditions and hit the sites of this industrial town. When the lookout and their unique circular jetty were done we hid from the cold in a highly google rated Indian restaurant and treated ourselves to a warm room and some burning mouths.

With no reason to be hanging around, we were all packed up and ready to go that night, waiting for the morning.

Facilities: With no reason to be hanging around, we skipped the facilities and took our chances on the next one. 6/10.