Continued on our coast cruise and headed past Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula to do the York Peninsula. The height of this is the Innes NP. right at the very bottom of it. There are some great views to be had and some nice walks to lookouts and Lighthouses. There are some great beaches and camp sites up against the sand dunes as well. Very popular with surfers and fishermen alike. Just a warning though, if you do the hike along the old Thompson-Pfitzner Plaster Trail, beware that at the time we were there we were attacked by the biggest March fly swarm I had ever seen. We had to run for a couple of kms as they just kept bitting us!

Cable Bay Innes NP. and a Kangaroo with Joey in the pouch West Cape.

Heading now up the west side we dropped in at the Moonta Copper mine where we did a mine tour. They take you down 65 metres by tractor and then you walk down underground a further 55 metres at this time. The council had bought it after it was closed down in 1995 but it took them 18 months just to pump the water out. They will continue pumping it out to the 85 metre level so they can take the tractor down to where there is a turn around area underground. Staying with the mine theme we went through Port Augusta and down the Eyre Peninsula to the big mining town of Whyalla. The huge steel works run by One Steel (formerly BHP) is there and we just got onto the very last tour of the year. It was really great to see how it all works again as I had been through while on school holidays from Secondary Collage 23 years ago with my parents.

Suited up to go down under in the Moonta Copper mine and Whyalla Steel works.

They show you the whole process from the raw ore coming in from the nearby Iron Knob mine to the making of the coke that fires the blast furnaces to pouring out the slag and everything in between.

Pouring out the molten slag and hot steel ready for forming.

While we were there they were making 300 mm I beam which is the only place BHP did so. I used to use a lot of these beams when I was a boiler maker in structural steel fabrication. Great to see where it all came from. We found some great bush camp sites just off the main road south where we saw all these tracks leading off so just took one until we found a nice spot. Rather be out here on my own than in some caravan park with kids running around!

300 mm I beam in its early stages and my beautiful wife at our bush camp.

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