Every Picture Tells a Story

Treetops scout camp

Great to be back here at treetops, or ,perhaps I already said that. Today, a new adventure for me. The rest of us, well mostly, have previously been to the Hanging Rock, Festival/market/picnic. Work has prevented me from attending in the past and nothing prevents me going anywhere now. Today was another great day. I had let Keith and Angela know where we were  going and also Elise wanted to go, so, this morning, we met at the Hanging Rock market. What a great day. Plenty of variety as far as the market stalls went although more "crafty" than produce or bric-a-brac.Some talented people doing great things with wooden barrels, tops and staves, really nice.A small band played pleasant music while we perused the goods for sale. Tried several samples on display including truffles,licourice,olive oils and dips. Home made dim sims and spring rolls and those little dutch pancakes, proffitles or something!!All good. Had K & A come back to the park for a visit and an appreciation of how good this place is.The fire is good even though we have a nice warm day. A crisp night should produce a stunner of a day tomorrow with 30C forecast for tuesday. Bring it on!

Moama to Riddells Creek

Four nights in Moama and still not quite enough time to catch up with our hosts,Jac and Mark  still, that will happen. A busy time with my meetings, Marg. catching up with some workmates, a bit of shopping and off to Mooroopna. Caught up with  James, Kate and kids over dinner and a day catching up in park at Mooroopna and off again. Head wind down the Goulburn Valley highway that is mostly duplicated now. Thats gotta be good for road stats as it has been a horror piece of road for a long time. The stretch from Murchison to Shepparton holds some horrendous records and is why I started the driver reviver along that stretch in 1979.
Swung off the GV at Nagambie and headed West. Through the rolling hills of the early goldfields depicted by mullock heaps and the native iron barks through Greytown and Costerfield we headed for Heathcote.A break for morning tea/lunch at  Gaffneys bakery which has been a favourite stopping place for years. Met Kate and Pete White, from Echuca/Moama there and a good catch up. Kate and I worked together at the Port years ago and Pete now runs E/M tourism and is doing a great job there.
On to Tooborac, Lancefield down the range to Romsey. Called in on Elise, Alistair and children before moving on to Treetops at Riddells Creek. We had pre-booked and our host, Paul had already placed a fire drum and enough wood for a couple of days at our site. Great to be back. The grounds are greener than when we left, the kangaroos are still plentiful and the sounds of the distant planes from Tulla can be heard. Nice to be here.

Adelaide

We breezed into Adelaide from Auburn an easy yet uneventful drive. Stopped for morning tea at Gawler, checked our e-mails etc there as well, couple of  phone calls and onwards. We hadn't definitely planned to stay in Adelaide but the Adelaide Shores caravan park at West Beach, has a great record of prizes and awards, so I wanted to see for myself. It's not hard to see why that is the case. This park is worthy of your consideration in every aspect. Need I say more?
On our way in to Adelaide, the GPS took a coniption and refused to load a new destination. Fortunately, I remembered that Military road runs into Old Port road ,from my DECA days there and the park is on military road, no problem...
Next morning off to Murray Bridge, and further South, past Culburra where we had our first bush camping experience. Pushing on through Bordertown and called in to Serviceton. Once the main change-over point between vic and s.a.as far as rail was concerned. The majestic station is still there and open for guided tours (free) by a very enthusiastic local, Ron.The station is built on 3 levels and consists of about 15 main rooms and about the same number of fire places. A magnificent building built in the 1880's and still looking quite good, but of course, a lot more work has to be done. We toured from the upstairs residence down to the dungeons and morgue, yes morgue.. Wow..
We stayed about 1klm out at the rec reserve, power and toilets showers and QUIET, although another two vans pulled in after we did. We were glad to be off the road and out of the wind as it hadn't been a good day, travel wise.

Auburn caravan park

Serviceton railway station

The wind died down and next morning we were gone, on our way East through Horsham, Stawell, Navarre and on to Avoca. Checked in for two nights as this place has a certain attraction. As does a lot of this area.Yesterday, we got going a little later than usual, for no particular reason other than we can. Through Maryborough, Bendigo and to Echuca Moama. Circle done, well sort of!!

Every Picture Tells a Story

Clare valley to Adelaide

The sprouting vines of the Clare valley

Paulett vineyard

From olives to grapevines

Our stay in the Clare was truly amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.From the stone architecture, that IS south australia, to the Clare agricultural show, all amazing. Yesterday we discovered another treasure. An English manor house near Mintaro, about 12 klms out from Auburn in the Clare Valley. Martindale hall has an interesting but sad story. The owner/builder was a wealthy Englishman who came to Australia mid 1870's. His love was in England and refused to come to Australia even after he built this grand house in the English style.Nearby Mintaro is classed as a historic town and the nearby slate quarry still exports loads of stone all over the world.We were quite taken by the neatness of the area. The grapevines all showing their different stages of spring sprouting with some vines running North South, some running East West and yesterday, we found some following the contours of the hill, Great..This area is well known for some fantastic reds and their most famous variety, reisling. We have tasted several and liked most of them.Paulettes winery has a couple of real beauties. I had a glass of their 2008 Shiraz the night before at the local pub after my fish stew. A lovely, thick sticky red wine of mammoth proportions. Mellow and delicious at the same time. We  tasted several of their range on visiting the winery.Sparkling reisling was surprisingly fruity and refreshing. Their house reisling also excellent. I found the reserve shiraz a little shallow and not quite as full bodied as the current release,2008. Still a lovely shiraz.To be able to cover all of the wineries in the area you would need months and extended credit. Several of the wineries have also diversified, museums at some and restaurants at others.

Port Broughton to Clare Valley

Now the westerlies at Port Broughton aren't too bad although they have increased over the last few days to the point of us not taking any more.Generally, the mornings are ok until about 11.00 then the winds come up and become almost unbearable to be out in it. Fair enough. We decide to move inland to the Clare valley, at least within a valley we should be out of the winds.Leaving we had a good side wind, not so good for fuel consumption though. Over the green hills we run down into the Clare valley, named after County Clare in Ireland. There are a whole lot of Irish connections going on in this valley, areas like Armagh, winery names and b&b names hold traditional Irish names as well.
Saturday is the annual Clare show and we have a great time at a well supported community event. 148 years this event has run by volunteers that struggle here and wherever they have an agricultural show like this one.We loved the alpaca display and judging, watched the horse events in the main arena and moved on to the official opening with the national anthem being sung by a couple of the local girls. At the right place at the right time when a pair of sisters won the blue ribbon (first prize) for their entry in the under 6 scarecrow building competition. They also won best exhibit in show for their scarecrow and VERY excited..Great.. Stopped in at the shearing  to witness a couple of rounds of that competition as well. Moving on we saw the machinery display as well as caravans and back to the main area before the queues got too long for lunch. The exhibits within the pavillion were huge. Lots of singular flowers in vases, bunches of flowers, decorated plates with flowers wow. A good cross section of baking entries that reminded me of both my grandmothers, not for local shows but Melbourne Royal, if you don't mind. Quilts, painting, vegetables, all good. Lutheran school entry for years 6 & 7 challenged students to create a 4 generation family tree and see the results. That was great I said that should create a spark . Hopefully that spark will create a fire that the student may get a desire to research their family history even further.A walk around the show is incomplete without going down sideshow alley, some things never change although Marg noted that there were no rides that "went inside" like tunnel of love, ghost train or anything similar.

Beautifully manicured vineyards

Alpaca judging at Clare show

Floral displays at Clare show

Today the Blythe car boot sale was on and so we ventured the 12kms out to this very pleasant small stone built town.Sale was at the local picnic/bbq area and was not huge but again well supported by the local community.We bought a bag of lemons, a chrissy present and a couple of sausages in bread. Sat and chatted to the rhubarb seller who was ripped off at the clare show by his grand daughter in the rhubarb competition, YEAH right!!

Port Broughton

Dunnies at Fishermans Bay

Fishermans bay.

Wattle in bloom, Port Broughton

Bearded dragon, port Broughton

Moving down the highway to Port Broughton we venture again into Port Pirie and once again impressed by the town.This time it's not just the architectural style of South Australia that dominates these areas but also the friendliness of the locals as well. In Port Augusta, we had to come back next Thursday to have a wheel taken off the caravan and replaced by the spare??? An F1 team can change all four tyres/wheels in less than 3 seconds but no, sorry can't fit you in. ok, Port Pirie Tyrepower, manager stated yeah no problems, do it straight away, and they did. Great. After lunch, thinking about the spare, that was a normal car tyre instead of a light truck tyre, went back to the same tyre place to buy a replacement, sorry, can't do, we don't have that size in stock but can give you address of a place in Adelaide where you can get the same type..Great thanks, off we go feeling even better about Pirie. Call into Port Germein, again lovely stone buildings and also magnificent dry stone walls/fences. Port Germein had the longest wooden jetty in South Australia until a lot of it was blown away in a mini cyclone a few years ago but it is still VERY long. On to Port Broughton where the caravan park has full digital television available. That was important for the forthcoming Bathurst 50th anniversary race.Lots of fishing being done here, mainly boats but some jetty fishing. Blue swimmer crabs come in here at about the same time as the big nobby headed schnapper come in. Neither of which is here yet and according to the locals, not warm enough weather yet. Still, you gotta have a go.
I found this lovely little frilled neck lizard amongst the leaves this morning. After lunch, we went out the 5klms to Fishermans Bay and came upon quite an interesting settlement that have their own dunnies all in a row, in several seperate streets. These residences are tiny little self built fishermans huts built on lease holdings that is proving difficult to manage because of re-sale issues etc. all of the streets here are fish names, Bream, Snook, Garfish Trevalley, whiting and DOLPHIN????
The wattle is starting to flower in trees in the park, confirmation of the change of seasons alright.

Every Picture Tells a Story

Port Augusta

View from park fence across to Flinders Ranges

All the washing is done and we appreciate a good drying wind without the dust. Around the town we explore the waterfront and speak to a couple of different people. One guy with a bottle on the end of a stainless steel wand walks down the ramp beside the water and takes a sample of water. I asked him if he was going to drink that stuff and he assured me not but was taking samples of water for some local authority. The stack at the local power station has not emitted smoke or anything that we have seen since our arrival. Maybe it's closed. As we drove across the bridge into town I notice what looks like a barge, with ribs exposed, lying in the mud beside the waters of the gulf. Gotta be a story there....A nice view across the backwaters of the gulf to the magnificent Flinders Ranges.
We said goodbye to Ivan and Josie (Gladstone Qld.) today and were just as fascinated today with the dispersal of the park as we ever have been. As usual, the park fills up again. At lunchtime, Neil and Phyllis (Ipswich qld) pulled in as we had just finished lunch. I told Phyllis that the pasta was off, our lunch and there was no more.. They joined us at Happy Hour together with John and ineke (Frankston) who are in another Scenic Vega. Good time as the sunset changed once again the colour of the Flinders Ranges in the background.

Coober Pedy to Port Augusta

Dust storm greets at Coober Pedy

Giant Blower Vac.

Dog fence Coober Pedy

Marg and miner friend

Coober Pedy, you either love it or hate it, was the opinion that we had heard from several people. So, the expectation was high yet curiously, unexpected. very difficult to say how we felt on the approach to this out of the way desert town. i suppose that we were fascinated by the sight of the mullock heaps so far before we actually got to coober pedy that started our amazement.A drive through the town before we checked in was equally fascinating, interesting? Yes. Should we find out a bit more? Yes. Lets get our digs first. As we checked in, the wind came up and we went through a typical pedy dust storm. Visibility down to about 15 metres and still about 34C. Nothing like a cool change or RAIN eventuated, a typical Pedy dust storm. Next day, a bit of exploring and book in for another night. Proprietor said, you already in for 2 nights, yes we want to extend, ok then...Also we would like to book in for this afternoons tour of the area..ok thanks....Mini bus tour takes about 5 hours and was great. started a bit slow with a look at the local footy ground, watered by "you tourists grey water" and about the only green place in the area.A little more history about the town before touring the diggings and explanation of these funny trucks with big drums at the back. On to an open cut mine before moving out to The Breakaways range, spectacular. on to the Dog Fence, a man made structure to keep dingos out of south Australia that runs some 3500klms.Moon Plains, strange, any wonder these areas were used to film such productions as Mad Max, Priscilla and Red Planet, it's Way Out There..Back in to town and tour of underground opal mine museum and dugout house all in one. Wow and the gorgeous opals again WOW. back on the bus to the Serbian Orthodox church, again underground, very impressive. At night, we had dinner out at the local Greek restaurant and that was exceptional. Quite busy for a friday night. We leave the next morning but not before we visit the Old Timers mine. This was South Australias winning tourist venue in 2011 and that's no wonder. This is well worthwhile visiting as you can walk through the mine, see samples of opal still in the rock, the old ways of mining and the modern systems that all lead to a dugout residence, all very well done.

Woomera central

A long way to port Augusta, just over 520klms and too big a day for us. Nice and comfortable with a couple of hundred instead of the BIG days over 400. We head out of town and Simone at Macdonnel ranges was definitely right. We had seen a variety of landscapes before and after Alice Springs and that stuck out. The trip South is very much the same old thing although we do see some change from flat drab gibber plains to all of a sudden straggly, treed plains and back to a red soil again.We see other messas in the distance and ranges that are yet far off. Could they be the Flinders? probably. We push on to Pimba, a spot on the map where there is a Tavern/roadhouse/fuel stop. Not gonna stay at the free stop there, we head North again to Woomera into the towns caravan park. While I finish setting up and am informed about the happy hour that starts at 4.00pm in the bar within the caravan park ( Now that's a NEWY) Marg chose to take the 10 minute walk up the town and came back with an interesting report. ALL the houses look the same, only some are occupied and others although empty like the school, the shops, the hospital and the theatre, all LOOK great. well presented town in need of another owner, currently defence department. Great museum display in middle of town with more rockets than a bonfire on Guy Fawkes night .Previously housing 6000 and now only 250, a town with a past and unfortunately, not much future...The next day on to Port Augusta. A short hop of about 170klms. we pass valleys that lead to large salt lakes surrounded by more red soil. For the first time we see feral goats feeding on the scrub, More emus and the road kill has also changed. We see more cattle now since leaving the Territory interspersed with big Red kangaroos. We have also seen more wedged tail eagles now as well. a coffee break at a roadside stop that sees a venturer on a pushbike arrive. We hear he is from Bali and we settle down to a well earned coffee. We had turned the gas on to boil the kettle. Another couple in a 5th wheeler pulled in and so we offered them the rest of our boiled water, no sense in throwing it out and they were very appreciative. The Flinders look bluer than last year and we are actually looking out across the dry bed of Lake Torrens, largest salt lake in South Australia. i remember flying over this lake last year during the flight back from William Creek and Lake Eyre. Fuel is getting lower and we push into port Augusta before the fuel light starts to glow. I had planned the consumption of the landcruiser from my previous useage and allowed us enough to get to where it would obviously be cheaper. We arrive in Port Augusta and book in for three nights, the park overlooks the top of the Gulf and is back dropped by the Flinders Ranges and we will explore the town a little later. Fuel is more reasonable at 1.51/ltr and as I fill up i  redeem a 15cents/ltr discount on my Everyday Rewards card.