Day 114: Lake Macdonnell, Point Sinclair and surrounds

 With a sunny, and warm 27 c forecast for today, it is T Shirt and shorts weather for a morning drive to Point Sinclair via Lake Macdonnell.

It is a semi surfaced road, riddled with potholes, so progress is slower than normal. There is very little traffic mid morning when we set out.

The drive takes us through the mining area where GRA mine gypsum at Lake Macdonnell. It is the largest gypsum deposit and mine in the Southern Hemisphere. It is here that CSR Gyprock sourced much of their natural gypsum and very familiar territory for Jurgen who in his Gyprock days would have visited here many times.

A little further on we reach Lake Macdonnell, which is supposed to be pink one side of the road and blue the other. Unfortunately, it is not always pink if salinity levels drop, and I guess within all of the rain we have had this year, that is probably what has happened.

A further 10 km  down the road, it terminates at Point Sinclair. Access to the beach is down a tight 1 lane track which would prove difficult if there was a car coming the other way.

Port LeHUNTE Jetty (also known as Point Sinclair Jetty)

At the jetty car park, there is a gazebo with picnic tables and a nice beach.

In addition to being important for the shipping of supplies to and from the local community, the jetty and beach was widely used for recreational purposes.

Sadly, in 1975, there was a fatal shark attack.

This led to the installation of shark netting to provide a protected swimming area. The netting was attached to the jetty and an arm extended out one side to encompass a broad area.

The netting boom on the right hand side (with nets currently rolled up))

The netting was not in use as it is out of season, but the shags make good use of the structure

On the way back to Penong, not far from Point Sinclair, we noticed a bush camping area which was quite extensive and is a privately owned paid camping spot. We discover the place is Cactus Beach, a World renowned surfing spot.

Gated entrance to the camping area

Walkway from the public carpark to the beach

There is great constant break off this point

It is hard to see but the black dots in the water are many surfers waiting for a wave

These two had enough and were coming back over the dune to get back to their car

This occupied a good part of the morning and it was close to lunchtime when we arrived back in Penong. Another tourist highlight here is apparently the Woolshed Museum, run by volunteers. It is not easy to find, but eventually we tracked it down after a few failures by navigation apps.

We found it, but it is closed

Not to worry, we will go to the Comet Cafe for a cup of coffee. It too is closed a Saturday and Sunday. Obviously it is not tourist season, although the caravan park was nearly full last night.

After lunch back at the van, I went for an afternoon walk to see if anything was open. Surprisingly, the Laundromat was, and the owner is obviously not happy about some of their clients.

A sobering message. The real test for a town is if the pub is open. I am happy to report that this was the case and a local told me that they serve meals on Friday and Saturday night. I was also told the local footy club was having there end of season celebrations there tonight and it might get a bit noisy.

It looks like we have exhausted most of the tourist attractions here, so to complete our Penong experience, we get the golf clubs out of the car and wander across the road to play the 3rd Hole of the Nullarbor Links Golf Course. We haven't played for few months, and a few stray tee shots quickly disappeared into the rough to join the snakes.

Nevertheless we played on and it was an experience.

Tomorrow we head to Streaky Bay.