July 23

Our last blog post said we were heading for Broken Hill, but that turned out to be a lie!  After checking weather roads etc, it seemed that we had a huge chance of driving a very long way and not getting to go on the roads we wanted to because all or part of many of them were closed due to the pesky rain.  So, we reluctantly came to the conclusion that it was not sensible to press on regardless, so we took a right turn and headed south instead.  Spent a couple of lovely days in Clare, wandered through Gawler and checked out all the beautiful old buildings.

We decided that we should call into Maarten and Evelyn's in the Adelaide Hills seeing as we were so close, which ended up being perfect as their niece and her husband, Sara and Keon, were staying with them.  They spent some time with us a few years ago on a previous trip out from Holland and are a lovely young couple (Sara's dad, Maarten's brother, was another of the Aussies we met in the Wimbledon house, although he then met and married a native Hollander and returned to live there), so it was lovely to catch up.

On Wednesday we drove across to Wellington, where we took the ferry across the Murray and drove down through Meningie  to the Coorong and were impressed with all the water in the lakes and then the lagoons.  Saw very few birds, apart from lots of pelicans.  An impressive sight was to see them returning in large numbers to one of the islands in the lagoons which are pelican rookeries.

Camped Wednesday night in one of the Coorong National Park camps.  It was absolutely freezing, although sunny, on Thursday morning.  Set off towards Robe, stopping in Kingston for a bit of a walk, where we checked out the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse.  It was relocated from the Margaret Brock Reef in the 1970s and was regarded as a marine engineering feat as it was the only Australian lighthouse with quarters for a keeper 'built in'.  We are a bit 'hamstrung' at the moment, as the injury Murray sustained to his his 'good' knee whilst clambering up Mount Ohlssen Bagge in Wilpena is still bothering him  (I look like an Olympic athlete beside him at the moment), so we are not doing huge walks or lots of steps.

Next stop was Robe and whilst we had passed through here before, we had never stayed.  It is a beautiful spot and definitely somewhere to come back to when the weather is warmer.  Mind you, we have had two lovely days here with lots of sunshine.  We took the opportunity to explore the Little Dip Conservation Park yesterday, with its amazing  limestone rock coastline, with beautiful white sand beaches between rocky headlands.

 Whilst driving along the 4WD track which follows the coast, Murray got a bit excited about the photo opportunities and left the track at the top of a beautiful beach, because there were other tyre tracks a bit lower down.  Bad move!!!!  As you can see in this photo, the sand was of the bottomless variety and it was soon painfully obvious that we were well and truly bogged.  

After a bit of inspired digging, which did not help resolve the situation, Murray decided he had best hot foot it back to the previous beach, where we had passed a family (with a Land Cruiser) playing in the sand dunes.  I sat on the edge of the track trying to convince myself that the tide was going out and that even if those people had nicked off, we would have plenty of time to get assistance.  The sense of 'oh dear!' was compounded by the complete lack of phone signal, so I was also plotting about whether a climb to the top of the nearby sand-dune would help.

After what seemed like an interminable time, Murray re-appeared with Fergus and his Land Cruiser (plus son Oscar and dog Webster).  The real bonus was that Fergus knew what he was doing and with our trusty snatch strap and his vehicle and expertise we were rescued.  The same thing had happened to Fergus in his wife's vehicle a couple of years ago so he was not even judging us (not out loud anyway) as dopey tourists!

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying sitting in the sun with our various books, drawing materials and knitting - not much possibility of getting into trouble doing this. 

Woke this morning to the sound of rain.  Rats - was not meant to arrive until this arvo!!!  Will now pack up and drive down towards Millicent and Nelson, thus finishing our look at the Limestone Coast.  Not sure whether we will divert through Penola and take a look at the bottom of the Coonawarra wine area - again will depend on the weather.

Don't know when we will be home - if the weather packs it in, we will travel home quite quickly.  It has been a funny holiday - so dependent on the weather, although it has been much easier to make decisions to leave bits rather than go just because that was what we had decided, knowing that we can go back later when things dry up a bit.  As Py philosophically said the other day, it is not as if we are wasting our annual leave - now we are free agents we can do what we like and when we get home I can go back to playing with our new kitchen and finishing all that off, which will be quite nice.

July 16

A quick update before we leave Wilpena tomorrow.
Murray's conquering of Mount Ohlssen Bragge on Thursday had the undesired and unexpected consequence of damaging his left (and until now, good!) knee.  Yesterday was therefore spent quietly, taking anti-inflammatory tablets at regular intervals and cursing!  The only walking Murray managed to do was up to the cafe for a coffee and a lap of the camp ground.
Sue, Ian and I embarked on the 'Drought Busters' walk in the afternoon and that took us part of the way up the Mount Ohlssen Bragge track (far short of the top though, I hasten to add) so I took a couple of photos of the offending Mount seeing as Murray had forgotten to take the camera, so lacked any documentary evidence of the toughness of the climb to the top.  Here then is Mount Ohlssen Bragge taken from the safety of the 'Drought Busters' track:

The views even from our relatively easy climb up and around were spectacular - across to Wangarra Hill, beyond which is the Pound, looking through the native pines and grass trees.  The colours were superb, even though the cloud meant we did not have a beautiful blue sky as a back drop.  I was reminded often of why the Flinders Ranges is one of my very favourite places.

As the afternoon went on and the sun started to get lower in the sky, the cold set in again, so we soon found ourselves enjoying a drink and trying to keep warm around the camp fire at Sue and Ian's van.  Managed to almost cremate the tea as we barbequed it on Murray's plough disc, as the fire was so hot.

This morning was freezing cold as the cloud had disappeared and the sky was clear and blue - the temperature inside Sue and Ian's van was two degrees!  Very hard to hop out and head for the showers in those temperatures.  Sue and Ian set off for Port Pirie as they have to home by the 20th, whilst we stayed put to give Murray's knee another day to recover.
By the afternoon we decided that we should walk a bit of the way down the track to Hills Homestead seeing as it was such a beautiful (but still quite cold if you were out of the sun) day.  Set off along the Wilpena Creek and surprised ourselves by making it all the way to the homestead, a distance of 3.2km.  It was a beautiful walk through this small gap in the ranges surrounding the Pound - superb River Red Gums and native pines along the way and the blue sky highlighted the reds of the rocks and the greens of the vegetation magnificently.

We decided that we would walk back, even though we could have caught the shuttle bus and were very proud of ourselves.  A 6.4km walk was quite an achievement for both of us and at 10.30pm I can report that neither of us seems to have suffered any major damage, which is even more surprising!
Tomorrow we will start heading for Broken Hill en route to the Menindee Lakes and will probably make it to Peterborough.  The rain is forecast to return in the morning, so hopefully we can get going before it arrives, although as this part of the journey is on sealed roads it is much less of a problem.

July 14

How we move around!  Am writing this new post in the beautiful Flinders Ranges, at Wilpena, where we set up camp yesterday after leaving Marree in the morning.
Should really start at the beginning rather than here at the end, so here goes . . .
Our last post explained that we were changing our plans and going to Marree first as we were a bit concerned about rain, as the roads we needed to travel over to get to Marree and out to Lake Eyre are dirt.
Arrived at Marree mid-afternoon on Sunday and just managed to get spots for the three vans in the local caravan park, which is obviously not even slightly interested in chasing star ratings!  Wandered up to the pub for a drink, which was quite pleasant and booked ourselves on a flight over Lake Eyre and the Cooper Creek on Tuesday afternoon.  After tea we joined in the campfire in the caravan park, where the major entertainment was watching the local contingent of the mouse plague scamper all over the place!  Was easy to pick the city tourists - they were the ones taking photos of the mice!!
Tuesday morning we all decamped and headed north west towards Muloorina Station along a dirt road which was not too bad at all.  Got ourselves into the camping ground and as we were early-ish, managed to get a great spot right by the waterhole, which is fed by a bore.  It is a fantastic habitat for both wetland and terrestrial birds and we were thrilled to bits with all the birds we saw.  Gordon, our bird expert, kept a list and  we ended up seeing some forty-four different species.  There were some very exciting ones - Hardheads, Blue-billed Ducks, Black-tailed Native Hens and lots of White-faced and Pacific Herons and Intermediate Egrets.  The Whistling Kites were on constant patrol, looking out for young Coots and Purple Swamp Hens which were not being kept out of harm's way by their parents.
Just a couple of photos for our bird watching friends - a Kite, an Egret and a Native Hen.

In the afternoon we piled into the two four-wheel drives and trekked out to Lake Eyre North over a track which was not too bad as long as one was sensible and did not go too fast.  Arrived at the car park and walked up the sand-covered gravel ridge towards the Lake and were surprised to find that the water was not lapping at the bottom of the ridge - it was, in fact, quite a way out.  Murray had taken his bathers and towel, ready for a swim so had to make do with a quick sun-bathe instead!

We walked out into Level Post Bay over salt-crusted soil until things were getting a bit soft and Gordon, to our great surprise and delight, produced a bottle of champagne, with which we duly toasted our good fortune at being in such an amazing place.

Murray decided to walk on until he got to the water, so he and Gordon went what they estimated to be another kilometre until they got to the very shallow and very saline water, where they cavorted for a bit before rejoining the rest of us.  Murray brought a couple of well-salted small fish back with him as further evidence of their achievement.

Back to the cars and back over the corrugations to the camp site, where we went for a walk along the bore drain, finding yet more birds and then fired up the camp fire and unearthed the plough disc so we could barbeque our tea.  What a fabulous spot!  The birds continued to entertain us and the Muloorina mouse population kept the excitement levels at fever pitch by running up Sue and Pat's trouser legs.
Gordon got us out of bed early to see the beautiful sunrise - a glorious sight over the waterhole.

After an appropriate breakfast of barbeque-cooked bacon and eggs, those who hadn't walked to the source of the bore water yesterday did so and then Murray and Gordon returned there for a swim in a warm swimming hole.
Decided that we would take the vans with us into Marree when we went in for our flight, as the weather was looking a bit like the forecast of rain could well be right.  Got ourselves into town and luckily managed to score a spot behind the pub, which offered free camping.  Out to the air strip and Pat, Gordon, Murray and I piled into our six seater Cessna, whilst Sue and Ian got to go in a different plane.  The flight went north along the Birdville Track over the Tirari Desert, passing Lakes Marion and Harry, both of which had water in them, to the Cooper Creek, where we had amazing views of the floodplain and Lake Killamperpunna.  The creek has cut the Birdsville Track, so cars were lining up to take the punt.  The flood waters have not yet reached Lake Eyre - they have about thirty kilometres to go and the water in the creek west of the track is left from last year's floods.  The way it is spread out, I am amazed to think that it will ever get to the lake!

From here the plane followed the Cooper Creek across to Lake Eyre North, passing by some stunning salt pans on the eastern shore.

Lake Eyre is only about 50% full at the moment and locals do not think it will fill up, but it still looked pretty impressive from the air!

Flew down the Lake to Lake Eyre South, which is much smaller and dry as it is fed from two river systems which do not bring Queensland flood waters, then back to Marree.  What an experience, particularly seeing the Cooper Creek in flood and spreading out over vast tracts of the desert.
Treated ourselves to tea at the pub and another bonus - Ted Egan was staying there the night so he performed four of his songs.  An entirely appropriate finish to our visit.
The predicted rain arrived over night and the advice of the publican was that if we wanted to leave, we should do so sooner rather than later, particularly with Pat and Gordon travelling in the Commodore.  The journey down to Lyndhurst through the mud was pleasingly uneventful, but requiring care,though when we got to the made road and stopped for a coffee it was obvious that we were carrying a fair bit of the dirt from the track on our vans!

Travelled down to Hawker, with the rain continuing and here we said goodbye to Pat and Gordon, who were travelling back to Port Augusta and then home.  We, along with Ian and Sue, decided to go into Wilpena seeing as our original plans to go along the Oodnadatta Track to Coward Springs had been curtailed by the rain, so off we went.  Set up camp last night and Murray and Ian devoted no small amount of time to trying to wash the worst of the mud off the vans before it set hard.  Was still wet and very cold, so we hoped for better weather to come!
Today was still very cold, but dry, so three of us had a bit of a lazy day, whilst Murray went walking and conquered Mount Ohlssen Bagge.  Hopefully the weather will be even better tomorrow so we can do some more walking.

July 9 2011

A quick update before we leave Port Augusta tomorrow morning.
Yesterday we spent a lovely hour or two walking around the Arid Lands Botanic Garden and what a fabulous place it is - my idea of heaven!  200 hectares of native plants of the arid lands of South Australia & some of them were just stunning - why so many people use exotic plants in their gardens and properties when we have such magnificent plants astounds me.
Here we can see Murray admiring a Eucalyptus Kruseana and just look at the Eucalyptus Youngiana (Ooldea Mallee)!!! Sorry about the botanic names, but I know a couple of people who will be looking these up!

Also visited the Wadlata Outback Centre, which gives visitors a great look at the geological, Aboriginal and European history of this part of SA - another well spent couple of hours.
Murray finally got his dive this morning.  We drove down to Whyalla and hired the gear he needed before heading out to Point Lowly, where he just went off the rocky foreshore and saw Giant Cuttlefish very quickly in water between 3 and 6 metres.  Luckily he was in the water before the many people who were arriving as we left. The cuttlefish have apparently arrived later this year as they do not come in until the water temperature drops to 17 degrees and below. The salt level in the water also reduces at this time, which is critical to the breeding and subsequent hatching of the eggs.  Here he is heading down to the water.

We are all off to Maree tomorrow - the weather is still a bit unpredictable and rain is tipped for Tuesday, so we want to get into Muloorina Station, which is about 50km from Maree if possible as it sounds like a great place to stay and affords good access to Lake Eyre.  This part of the trip is turning out to be a day-to-day proposition depending on which roads are accessible to the vans, but that just adds to the adventure!

The Water Tour 2011: July 8

Here we are - this year's adventure is underway.
Left home last Sunday at 3.50pm after much rushing around to get the new kitchen 'sorted'.   The bits we didn't sort we left to Tim to organise.
Spent the night in a roadside stop at Ravenswood, just outside Bendigo, thus fulfilling our aim of getting through the city.
Spent Monday travelling north to Mildura, then west to the Riverland, surviving the onslaught by the Fruit Fly Inspectors by having had a huge cook-up of the vegies and fruit I had brought with us on the side of the road at Hattah.  Monday night saw us camped up in a side street in Cavell, a tiny town near the Murray River, right outside the local church - figured that should afford us some measure of protection from evil.
Had kept in touch with Jill and Andrew Waters, who are off to WA, as we travelled so we met up with them in Port Germein after driving across from Burra in incredibly windy conditions - could almost hear the diesel being sucked up as we fought the head wind!  We went together the short distance up to Mt Remarkable National Park, which had been recommended as a 'must do' by Terry and Sharon Dalgleish.  They were quite right too - we set up camp and went for a beautiful walk up through Davey's Gorge and up on to the side of the Black Range, from where we had superb views across the Spencer Gulf to Whyalla and beyond.  Lots of beautiful birds, including Emus and kangaroos and Euros.  The most stunning thing though was the magnificent old River Red Gums - huge trees which had somehow managed to survive the ravages of the settlers in this rugged area.
Here are Murray, Jill and Andrew inside the trunk of one just near our camp.  Had a wonderful evening together around the camp fire - nothing beats being rugged up sitting around a fire in a beautiful bush setting.

On Wednesday Jill and Andrew took off for Woomera (not literally, however appropriate!) and we headed into Port Augusta.  The original plan had been to go down to Whyalla for Murray to dive to see the Giant Cuttlefish, which gather at this time of year to breed, but unfortunately the southerly winds meant that they would have headed to deeper water for protection.  Hopefully he can dive on Saturday.
Settled in to the caravan park, then went for a wander around the town.  Had a great surprise at about 8.30 when Gordon suddenly appeared at the door - they had decided to come through from Peterborough rather than set up camp there.
Thursday was spent relaxing, checking out the local gallery which is in the old railway station and doing a bit of 'housekeeping'.  Sue and Ian arrived early afternoon, so the group was gathered.  The absolutely necessary pre-dinner drinks were organised and once we were rugged up against the cold it was just fine sitting outside the van.  As you can see, Pat has been well kitted out by Rhoda to ward off all cold winds!