Month: April 2018

When Things Just Go Wrong19 Comments

Running on empty

Itching for Hitching

On our trip down the Eyre Peninsula we were planning on visiting Tumby Bay until Woody suddenly realises that we are low on fuel and this being Sunday it isn’t worth the risk leaving the highway (it’s sometimes easy to forget that not everyone has 24 hour trading). We press on grimly, calculating the car’s DTE, Distance To Empty versus the Kms to Arrival on the GPS. Of course, we’re punching into a head wind with the caravan on the back. I’m trying to keep our mates The Prado’s informed of our situation but can’t reach them on the CB … Continue reading Running on empty

Places, SA2 Comments

Arno Bay

Itching for Hitching

On the east coast of South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, Arno Bay is set on a curve of stark white sand. A jetty extends out into Spencer Gulf. At the southern end there is an aquaculture centre and fish hatchery as this is a breeding ground for tuna and cuttlefish among other sea creatures. The sheltered caravan park fronts onto the beach and the old Arno Bay Hotel next door offers camping for RV’s as well. Out at the end of the jetty we meet a somewhat reticent man who is hauling in bright green leather jackets. We feel as though … Continue reading Arno Bay

SA, The Characters You Meet25 Comments

Where else could you live?

Itching for Hitching

We spend a chatty happy hour with a chap who along with his wife has been on the road for a year. They are now looking for somewhere permanent to settle down as they no longer wish to return to their home in the Sydney suburb of French’s Forest. He calls it French’s Apartments. His conversation gets us thinking, if you had to choose another place to live where would it be? Then we met another chap in Streaky Bay who said that they came to Streaky Bay and never left. “It’s the community.” He said. We found that there … Continue reading Where else could you live?

Point of Interest, SA, The Pubs4 Comments

Burra Passport Tour – Smelter’s Home Hotel

Itching for Hitching

Guidebook in hand and still engrossed in the history of Burra we stop outside Smelter’s Home Hotel which for a time was operated by Woody’s ancestors in the nineteenth century. A tradesman pops out and suggests that we should meet the owner. Val is a charming lady who knows the history of the pub and of all its publicans. It is Australia’s oldest unrenovated hotel. In the early days when there was a death in the district the pub was used as a mortuary, which has to be better than using the butcher shop. Back when the miner’s dugouts in … Continue reading Burra Passport Tour – Smelter’s Home Hotel