Blog 2 2019 SA through to the NT boarder.
April 17th
After leaving the border of Victoria we travelled through Renmark SA, deciding to have two nights in a free camp at small town called Lyrup, near Berri and just 20 kms from Renmark. This free spot was very popular and good facilities, and was on the Murray next to the ferry crossing.
We stopped briefly in Renmark to made an appt with Westpac for the following day and revisited the river front and paddle streamers.
The next day we toured Berri seeing the murals on the bridge and walked along the foreshore of the Murray. We saw a caraboat and the people answered lots of questions and showed us around their caraboat. We would love to have one of these in 3-5 years time when we have explored Aussie in our current van. The idea of both a van and a boat in one most appealing to us, a would love to do the Murray and NSWs in the caraboat.
The following day was spent in Loxton, we walked some of the heritage walk with its wooden statues and eucalyptus trees with the most amazing red shiny bark. We visited lock “four” on the Murray, again noticing the big difference to the locks in France. The Murray locks are much safer.
Easter Friday 18th
We drove via the pretty town of Morgan and stopped for lunch by the Murray river where many people where out enjoying the weekend. Morgan’s area down by the river is very pretty and a great place for a picnic, our lunch was just sandwiches and yogurt. Unfortunately no van overnight stopping was allowed in this area, so onto a free stop at Mt Bryan, an old rail town. This old town had barely any life, the pub closed down but the free spot convenient , flat and good toilets for an overnight stay.
The area had a wind turbine blade in the park, and a history on wind energy, otherwise nothing to see.
Peterborough for three nights over Easter.
The first afternoon was spent exploring all the history of the steam trains , Peterborough was previously the rail link for all trains from Port Pirie , Broken Hill and Adelaide. The rail first reaching Peterborough in 1881 so it become the cross link of the rail network in Australia in 1920.
In town we visited the old YMCA building with a Meldonfield miniature display of Cobb and co coaches amount other things and viewed the federation quilt displayed in the foyer of this building.
A steam train carriage in town gave a history of the town and sitting in a seat in one carriage provided a moving scene of the countryside going by, this was very lifelike.
The tale of Bob the dog was noted in town, a stray from 100 years ago that used the rail to venture all over the state, and an icon in the town.
We attended a guided tour at the Steam town Hertiage Rail Centre which was very informative, with many trains from steam to diesel and carriages from 3 rd class through to First class carriages with luxury furniture and a piano. See John blow sitting in this carriage.
A day in Jamestown was our next days activity. We walked the centre of town which has many murals, one was displayed on the oldest butcher shop still operating in Sth Australia, it opened in 1887.
Bellowrie creek runs through the middle of town but the town is mostly known as the town where RM Williams was born and a small billboard and statue gave his history.
A cannon from WW1 was displayed in the Memorial Park , this Turkish cannon is only one of two of its type in Australia, the other at the war memorial in Canberra
9 kms out of town is Bundaleer forest, a small man made forest with predominantly Canadian pines. We did the maple walk , a leisurely 25 minute stroll , very pretty and the smell of the trees delightful.
It rained on and off in the morning and most of the afternoon, the first rain seen here for months. Luckily we got our walk in just before a heavy shower. We spent the afternoon at the pub with me blitzing John at pool, 6-4. He was not happy!!! Commenting to the bar tender that women should be barred from pubs.!!!!!
Our final day in Peterborough was freezing and windy, an inside day to catch up with the blog and washing. We went to the light show that night at the stream train museum and it discussed the history of the steam train development and its eventual demise here In Peterborough. It was very interesting and they had used the old carriage standing on the round house for inside seating with a projection to the trains in the sheds.
Tuesday March 23rd
Today we had a short journey to Orroroo (pronounced Orru) and stayed in a town caravan park.
Later we drove a route from here to Pekina, centre of Bolooroo and Melrose.
We visited magnetic hill, a area where your car is meant to roll up hill on its own, supposedly an optical illusion. Our car rolled back down the hill and the whole thing seemed a farce or what a load of bullsh#! as John described it
Orroroo has some tin statues in town and we took some photos , plus more photos from the Tank Hill lookout of the rural area, then spent the early evening with a drink overlooking the golf course talking to a young couple who also had a new age van travelling with their three young children.
The following morning John played golf and got his best ever golf best score 42; and a real tah-dah moment with a hole in one, this was very exciting , but no one else was their to witness this as I had walked into town and posted the Mother’s Day cards. Had it really happened??!!.photo below
The next day, after a late start, we travelled via Hawker to Wilpena Pound where we booked into a non powered site and checked out the tours available in this area. The pound is in the Flinders ranges National Park, and is now managed by the Aboriginal people. The caravan and camping areas are huge but being the holiday break over Anzac Day , the place was crowded with vans and tents.
The drive into the flinders ranges.
Day1 at Wilpena pound
We undertook a 4×4 drive tour with an aboriginal tour guide and explored the corridor of time tracing more then 600 million years of geological history, and drove through the Brachina and Bunyeroo gorges, all dry of course. We saw some yellow footed rock wallabies and some majestic views, plus fossils and lots of geological features showing signs of tectonic plate activity. The rock formations dated back to 650 million years ago. The scenery in parts of this area amazing.
Day2.
Our flight over Wilpena pound , planned for today was cancelled due to cloud filling the pound. So we set off early to Blinman a town 70 kms to the north of the Wilpena pound. We explored this small town, a small mining cottage, its historical cemetery before seeing the inside of the copper mine which produced over 10,000 tonnes of copper and 200,000 tonnes of ore. It was a working mine for four periods between 1859 and closing in 1907. photos are of a small mining house below plus views and inside the mine.
On the return drive to the Wilpena campground we took the rough road into the sacred valley and did the short walk to see some very ordinary aboriginal etchings. Most had faded except a few rings. We had seen this walk on SBS ondemand with Ernie Dingo and tour guide Mick ,who was our tour guide yesterday on the 4×4 trip.. John told Mick he was famous because he saw him on TV with Ernie
Day 3 , We walked the 2 km to the hills homestead and up the Wangatta lookouts to view inside the pound . After the walk, I only made it to the 300 m tower, John climbing the hard 500m further up. I was happy that my new knees had made the walk and climbed to this level.
Our rescheduled Flight, to view the pound from the air was at 2pm , the view over the pound and surrounds was amazing and the pilot gave us great information around the geology of the rocks the oldest 650,000 million years old. The changes in rock dependent of the previous ice ages and global warming periods. Afterwards, we set off with the van to Hawker for the night.
Hawker
We Stayed here, in Hawker in a van park which was a short walk into town , where John found a pool table at the pub and took his revenge but only just beating me 3-2 games, the last game down to the black ball which I should of got in, but left it for John set up. Dam!!, This was Johns revenge for me beating him in Jamestown.
Copley
A small ex mining town at the top end of the Flinders ranges and this was our next stop for a two night stay. The plan is to do a day trip with out the van. On the way to Copley we stopped at an old railway town called Parachilna, known for its railway and a stop on the original Ghan railway.
After leaving the van at Copley, we headed north through the wilderness , with mountain ranges in the distance and drove all the way to Marree, approx 120 kms north. Marree is where the Birdsville and Oodnadatta tracks start and where only 4 wd drive vehicles go any further. A lot of these tracks were closed , the Oodnadatta track very rough at present and the upper Birdsville track closed due to Qlds rain coming down in to the Artesian basin and Lake Eyre.
We stopped at Farina on the way up to Maree, an historic township settled by farmers in 1875; and totally abandoned in the 1970’s. The ruins are being restored by a volunteer group. The pictures below show the stone buildings that are partly restored.
The road from Lyndhurst, a small town between Leigh creek and Marree. was mostly gravel but in excellent condition as they are tarring this section soon all the way to Marree. Marree is a small town with its point of interest, the pub and some old train carriages scattered around town and the fact that it is the last stop before 4 we drivers attempt the Birdsville and Oodnadatta tracks.
Lyndhurst was visited on the home journey to the van at Copley. We visited Talc Alf , an old poet who sculptures talc rock and has an outdoor gallery and is a keen supporter of a new aussie flag that incorporates the stars of the aussie flag with the Aboriginal flag in one corner. Gosh what a rustic lifestyle he has, see photos below and as usual there were millions of flies swarming all over us. By this stage of our trip fly nets over our hats were mandatory
The Ochre cliffs were photographed outside of Lyndhurst, the aboriginal people use this coloured soil to trade and it is also used for rock painting etching and facial masks at ceremonies as well as tool making.
After overnight in Copley we returned via Hawker and stopped here for lunch and to visit the Jeff Morgan art gallery, a talented artist who paints huge murals of the surroundings landscapes
Next night was at
Quorn, the home of the pichi richi railway. The night was cold , windy and it rained which is great for this area so badly needing rain.
While driving from Hacker to Quorn we stopped to view the Kanyaka Waterhole and Death rock on the way down. It is a aborginal historic site where a 7m high quartzite rock sits above a permanent spring fed waterhole and near the old Ghan railway tracks.
From Quorn it was on to Port Augusta, from here we go north again to reach the NT.
We spent two cold nights here at Port Augusta , one night wet and raining. We didn’t sight see here ,as we had done so last year. The stay was at a very popular cheap van spot next to a football club and the charge very cheap at $7; making it very popular. Our stay here in PA was another shopping spree to stock up on food before we head north to the NT, where things cost more and it is often hard to find what we require. John stocked up on wine casks as they are not sold anywhere in the Northern Territory due to the problem of Aboriginals getting too drunk
After Port Augusta we stopped at another free camp inside an enclosure near a petrol station in the town of Pimba. We unhooked the van and the following day undertook a day trip to Woomera, to see the Missile and rocket display. This area was used as a testing site for launching rockets and satellites in the 1950’s to the 1980’s. This is Australian’s version of Cape Canaveral.
We drove further north to Roxy Downs , where we would have like to see the Arid centre and mines area but all was closed for this week. Roxy Downs has quiet a pleasant township for a town this isolated. A drive further north east was to Amarmooka, a opal mining town with historical dug- outs displaying how the miners lived years ago.
On the return trip, we saw many eagles as well as crows feasting on the road kill plus a huge flock of galahs.
We arrived at our next stop after a long drive through dry countryside, with the usual huge amounts of road kill, to the central SA town of Coober Pedy. below some scenery shots along the way.
Coober Pedy, a opal mining town where most people live underground due to cold in winter and the extremes in temperature in Summer, often in the 50 degree heat.
We are having a week here, to site see and just take a break from driving, catch up with the washing and clean the van inside.
There is no point cleaning the van outside as we are constantly in red dirt, and water here is so short. The van parks don’t even have water connections available, you have to fill your tanks from a central stop in town and pay $1 for 30 litres, one good thing the water is okay to drink. So to reduce water usage in the van , we showered in the amenities block and use their washing machines. This is extremely rare for us, as we always use our shower and washing machine.
While in Coober Pedy we visited
1/ the Umoona opal mine and museum , which gave an interesting film clip on how opals form. They form in the silica layer of the rock by dripping water over millions of years.
2/ a house and mine dugout, called Fay’s home
3/ Dessert cave hotel , a motel with a underground bar , where I bet John at pool again the first time and the return time I got beaten 5/5.
4/ the Serbian and Catholic Church both underground
5/ 70 km trip to the breakaways , an amazing landscape, starting with red dirt and rocks along the dog fence. The dog fence goes for over 5,000kms and was built to keep the dingos away from livestock. After the landscape changes to different coloured mounds , one called two dogs or salt and pepper, see pictures below.
6/ the big winch, this is mining equipment and is on a small hill in town and provides a good view over the township.
In Coober Pedy most people live underground due to the weather extremes, 50 deg in summer and very cold nights in winter. the photos above show the air shafts above ground from the underground houses, and previously pictures show inside the underground houses and churches.
Another thing we noticed here in Coober Pedy was how the indigenous people hang around the top end of town , and different groups frightening and yelling from one side of the intersection to the other. Apparently they have been kicked out of their tribes for poor behaviour and now congrate in town.
The weather in Coober Pedy caused us to stay inside the van a lot. One day was nice and the next freezing and blowing a real gale, the thick wind jackets out. These days alternated throughout the week.
We had two dinners out while here, one at the roadside diner, a good pizza, the next joined another couple from Melbourne at the Chinese restaurant and had the WORST Chinese ever. John ordered honeyed chicken and I reckon it had been re- fried to reserve many times and when served was crispy burnt piece of char and my dish they ‘d pour sauce from a jar over reheated chicken and cabbage. YUK. If we hadn’t been with other people we would of complained.
The breakaways had amazing scenery, areas of white and brown and coloured scenery mixed with dry red rocky scenery with no vegetation as we made our way along the dog proof fence. the fence was built to keep dingos away from live stock and goes for over 5,000 kms.
After a slow but relaxing week , it will be on the road again.
Outside Coober pedy and the mining sites.
One last stop in SA at a pub and road stop, a game of pool and tomorrow we will enter NT and a new blog will begin.
