Yes, we are home safely after another adventure. Thanks to Sue and Andrew for once again sharing a great holiday together. I hope those of you still reading the blog enjoyed my tales and the photos. Who knows when the next epic will be written (and don’t forget my CRAPP) but I’m sure the blog “Be Brave On Tour” is not finished yet. Thanks for ready, cheers everyone!

Today is our last full day of our trip, with our plan to be home tomorrow afternoon. After a great breakfast at Steve & Vicki’s this morning, we headed off on the road to Melbourne. We stopped off at Coonalpyn and Kaniva to view the silo art and of course we had to have our obligatory “TT” (Toastie & Tea) which we did at lunchtime in Bordertown. Overcast and rain followed us but best of all we had a wind up our backside so that helped our fuel economy. We’re has the last 3+ months gone?

We left a very cloudy and misty Wallaroo on Monday morning travelling thru to Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills to catch up with Steve and Vicki. Some of you will remember we travelled with Steve and Vicki in 2020 on our “Lap” thru SA, WA & the NT with a memorable 8 week “lock down” in Esperance. It was a cold and wet couple of days but nevertheless it was great to stay with them for a couple of days. Hard to believe its been over 2 years since we last saw each other. We leave Wednesday morning for home with a stopover in Horsham Wednesday night.

Today is our last day on the Yorke Peninsula and the end of our trip is nigh! Sue & Andrew left us today to head home to Wodonga, whilst Susan and I are heading to Adelaide tomorrow to catch up with our friends Steve & Vicki. We haven’t seen them since our lap of Oz in 2020 when we spent 5 months together, including the 2 month COVID lockdown in Esperance. We plan to be home to family and friends this coming Thursday.

We enjoyed our time here in Wallaroo, although we didn’t tour the Yorke peninsula as much as we originally thought we would, we did really enjoy Wallaroo, Moonta and Port Hughes. This area of the Yorke is known as the Copper Coast, as Copper was discovered here in 1861 and mined thru to 1923. The Copper mining is very much based on Cornish miners and each year the area has a Cornish Festival. In fact Moonta advertises itself as the Cornish capital of Australia.

Well this is my last CRAPP for this trip! Andrew and I played the the Copper Club course in Port Hughes. This is a Greg Norman designed course, only 9 holes at present but the plan is for a full 18 hole course. We had mixed emotions in rating this course as its not completed but there seems to be same conjecture whether the additional 9 holes and clubhouse will be built. As I have said before we can only rate it as we played it. So here we go …….

Design – With only 9 holes its coming from behind other courses. The 9 holes were well structured but the Pro Shop/Clubhouse was a huge distance from the 1st tee, we had to walk thru a couple of the residential streets to get to the tee. We thought the placing of the Club House and the course was very questionable, even if its a work in progress but the course has been open for 10 years, so what is going on! Also there were 2 flagsticks on each green, black for the front nine and red for the back nine, despite there being available area for seperate tee boxes. This did prove rather confusing and another negative of the design. Rating: 11 out of 20

Condition – A very big plus, probably the best conditioned course we have played on this trip. The fairways were beautifully grassed and wide, the first cut of rough was as good as some other golf clubs fairways. The approaches to the greens were also in excellent condition and the greens, even though recently cored were very true. Rating: 19 out of 20

Cost – The price for 18 holes was reasonable but could be better seeing its was only a 9 hole course. Rating: 14 out of 20

Visual Appeal – Its hard to explain this course as it was very difficult to find the Pro Shop and you can’t really see the course until you stand on the 1st tee. Once all the houses are built around the course there will be no real view. We have probably been a bit generous in our rating. Rating: 13 out of 20

Facilities – Basically there are none and what there is doesn’t rate very well. Rating: 5 out of 10

Ambience – Again basically none. Rating: A generous 4 out of 10

Summary – A final score of 66, which is disappointing when you consider it was the best conditioned course we have played. Despite the wind we both enjoyed playing the course but there are two many negatives for it to rate up amongst the best.

Finally – Griffith Golf course came out as the highest rated course on this trip, mainly because it was above average in all areas not because it was a standout! From my point of view I was most disappointed with Palmerston in Darwin, its highly rated and the NT PGA is played there but I didn’t think it was of that sort of quality. What did surprise me was Broken Hill, I would be happy to play that course as a member all the time. So that’s my last CRAPP, I’m sure many of you are relieved!

Well today was a big day, 580 K’s is a big day when towing a 3 T van. We left Streaky Bay with the plan to stay in a free camp on the southern outskirts of Port Augusta. Unfortunately for the first time on this trip the camp site was full so we decided to soldier on to Wallaroo, arriving around 5.30 in the evening, just on dusk. We did manage a few stops, Kimba for morning tea and Port Augusta for a late lunch.

We have a few days on the Yorke Peninsula at Wallaroo. Andrew and I will play golf at Copper Club in Port Hughes on Saturday whilst Susan and Sue do the markets at Kadina. We’re very close to the end of our trip now and I suppose our focus is getting back home but still a couple of days “sightseeing” ahead of us.

After 4 nights of free camping in was off to Streaky Bay and a caravan park for a few days. First it was thru the Quarantine station and breakfast at Ceduna, basically finishing off our Nullarbor trip. Fortunately we had the wind up our back for most of the trip but the last day we had a bit of a headwind and that certainly made a difference. It felt funny going thru a quarantine station after 400+ K’s of travel in South Australia. No fruit or veggies to declare so it was off to breakie and some shopping.

From our Bunda Cliff site it was off to Nullarbor Roadhouse for breakfast and then to the Head of the Bight for some Whale watching. A quick stop off for lunch at the Penong Windmill Museum followed before we headed to our camp site, all in all a busy day.

We left WA today when we crossed over the WA/SA border at Border Village. The Eyre Highway follows the coastline for about 130 K’s once you get into SA and there are many free camp areas to choose from. We stayed in the Bunda Cliff Campsite No. 2 which is at the 131 K’s peg from Border Village. We had a nice sunny day but once the sun went down it got quite cool and windy.

Today we had just over 300 K’s to our next free camp just outside Cocklebiddy. Half the distance was on a straight piece of the Eyre Highway, as the sign above states. Susan and I stayed in this place back in early March 2020. It was from here that we made our 630 K dash to Esperance, when we heard that Australia was going into lockdown from COVID.