Kimba to Penong

 Saturday 20 August 2022

Day 6
Kimba to Penong

It hasn't been a very cold night and at least it's dry again in the morning. (It rained upon arrival last night)

We leave the campsite and have forgotten to take pictures, however there are some reasons down the road: the Halfway Australia sign and the Big Galah.

Further down the road we stop for morning tea at Warramboo and I discover the fact that we have parked right next to a cache.  However, we searched in vain and since it started raining again the search was over very quickly! 

On to Wudinna where we see a big sculpture.  Lo and behold, it's an earthcache!  We stop for pictures and I walk across the road for a second cache, a traditional.  That's two!

#2388 - The Australian Farmer (earthcache)

#2387 - The Australian Farmer (traditional geocache)

Although our plan is to make it to Ceduna today, we are on track and thus make a small detour to Streaky Bay.  There we walk around for a bit, take pictures, find another cache, have lunch at the Drift Cafe and get some groceries...

#2389 - Kerrin McEvoy Statue (virtual geocache)

At the Drift Cafe

Arriving at Penong some time later we notice a collection of windmills.  It appears to be a Windmill Museum, so we stop and take pictures and have a good look at the assortment of mills.  Quite interesting.

Before we left home Kevin had seen information about a 'Pink Lake' and we found out that it is Lake Macdonnell situated south of Penong.  So, we took on the 14km gravel road to have a look.  A great disappointment for Kevin, because the conditions were not right and there was no pink to be seen. (We later learned that since the salt winning in the area the levels of salt have gone down too far for the algae to turn pink and colour the lake.  The lake hasn't been pink since 2007!)

Wikipedia says:

A pink lake is a lake that has a red or pink colour. This is often caused by the presence of salt-tolerant algae that produces carotenoids, such as Dunaliella salina, usually in conjunction with specific bacteria, which may vary from lake to lake.

In 2014, when I visited South Australia with friend Patricia, I saw the pink lakes for the first time.  The were a bit dry at the time, but the crusted salt at the edges was distinctively pink as the following photograph shows:

On the way back from the not-so-pink lake we drive straight to our camp for the night: Cohens Old Schools Site (#614 31 52 16 S 132 53 02 E) and find a spot away from the roadside to eliminate traffic noise, which works quite well.  

Kevin remembered to take pictures and I have added another sunset for good measure...