Day 131 - Coffin Bay. The River Red Gum (Eucalyptus Camaldulensis) occurs all over the place, they have one nasty habit in that they shed branches with no warning. They are more likely to do it on a still day than a windy day. You camp under them at your own peril, they have a deserved reputation as "widow makers". I was reminded of all this whilst camped at Katarapko Creek (see left), there are a large number of Red Gums near where I was camped, the temperature was 44, there was no wind and you would every now and then hear the crash of a River Red Gum shedding a branch.

Recently I bought you the worlds smallest mountain and had a little winge about the big things in Australia (Big Banana etc). Well at Orroroo (no idea how its pronounced), they don't muck around with big things, they are fair dinkum thinking out of the box. They have the GIANT River Red Gum (see below). It has a 10.89 metre circumference and is approx. 500 years old. With any luck this "Giant" caper may take off and we will have lots of giant things to admire.

Stranded beach deposits aren't something that usually spring up in a conversation. Given some of the drivel I have to put up with it might not be bad thing if they did pop up in conversations more frequently. Anyway at Fitzgeralds Bay the stranded beach deposits form sinuous, well preserved ridges up to 2 metres high and 3-5 metres above the present sea level. Similar deposits have been traced over a distance of 50 kilometres to the top of Spencer Gulf. They were formed when the sea level was about 3 metres higher around 50,000 years ago. They are rare in Australia so I hope you all appreciate the effort that went into getting the picture, you will no doubt feel better informed now. See picture below.

I have been able to survive the heat, 6 days in the 40's (45 one day) isn't a lot of fun. They say that what doesn't kill you makes you tougher, if its true I would suggest that you wouldn't want mess with me after what I went through last week.