Author Archives: shorty

Day 15 – Murray Bridge to Mt Gambier

Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2016 by shorty

This morning it was bright and sunny at the Murray Bridge Showgrounds, but things went downhill from there. In fact the most exciting thing about this morning was lunch!

Bright and sunny first thing at Murray Bridge Showgrounds.

From the showgrounds we hit the A1 highway and soon passed through Tailem Bend. At this point the weather turned a bit poor, skies went grey and drizzle started.

We ventured on at reduced pace and eventually stopped for morning coffee at Coonalpyn. I dashed over to the bakery for sustenance while Ann prepared coffee in Bertha. On the way I had a quick chat to a couple of Avanners who we had in fact met at Renmark – it can be a small world can’t it?

The weather actually got a bit worse after that and for the rest of the day we experienced either rain or heavy rain, trucks, and roadworks. Grumble, grumble…

Rain, trucks and roadworks – what a great day!

We continued down what was now the A8 highway until we reached the outskirts of Keith, where we turned south onto the Riddoch Highway (A66), without actually going through the town of Keith itself.

Eventually we pulled off the highway into a gravel pit where we enjoyed lunch. Seeing that we hadn’t been able to stop and see much of anything along the way so far, Ann got busy in the kitchen and put together an omelette with home-grown semi-dried tomatoes, bacon and toast. Oh the joy of being in a self-contained motorhome!

Delicious cooked lunch in Bertha.

After washing up we got back on the highway and continued through to Padthaway, where we stopped at the General Store for a few provisions. As fate would have it, the store also sold some of the finest wines from the local region. We had a nice time checking out the wine racks, purely for research purposes of course!

Padthaway General Store.

At Padthaway the clouds parted and we actually had blue skies and sunshine for a little while, but it didn’t last for long. From Padthaway to Coonawarra and onto Penola we passed vineyards from many recogniseable brands, including Lindemans, Seppelts, Wynns and many more. If the weather had been better and if we had more time we certainly would have stopped many times along the way.

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Recogniseable vineyards along the way.

Penola

Continuing down the highway we reached Naracoorte, where we had hoped to do some sight-seeing. However the weather was horrible and we were behind our anticipated schedule so we drove through town towards Mt Gambier.

Coming into Mt Gambier we came passed the start of the many pine plantations in the region.

Pine plantations near Mt Gambier.

The GPS finally took us to the Mt Gambier Showgrounds where we checked in for the night. There was a brief respite from the rain while we hooked up power and water, and from then on we bunkered down inside Bertha, warm and dry as the rain set in again.

Ann whipped up a delicious Moroccan inspired couscous with roasted vegetables, which was accompanied by a cheeky 2015 Giggling Goose Sav Blanc from Padthaway.

The rain is still beating down on the roof of the motorhome. After finishing this blog post we’ll settled down in front of the TV and have an early night.

Hopefully the weather will ease up tomorrow and we will be able to at least do a bit of sight-seeing at the Blue Lake!

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure | Tags: mt gambier, padthaway

Day 14 – Melrose to Murray Bridge via Clare

Posted on Wednesday, May 18, 2016 by shorty

It was a little chilly this morning but so quiet and serene. We had a couple of kangaroos run out in front of Bertha yesterday afternoon so we weren’t in a great hurry to hit the road too early.

Looking out our back door this morning.

Within a few kilometres we passed the Melrose Showgrounds where we had intended to stay last night, and they looked pretty good as a place to stop. Another couple of kilometres and we were at Melrose, which is a lovely little town.

Melrose.

We are really taken by the old stone houses, pubs and churches throughout SA and this particular area seems to have more than its fair share of them all. It is even better when we see these old stone buildings properly restored or renovated, or recycled into shops etc. We have seen a number of old churches that have been converted into beautiful residences.

It was too early to stop for a coffee at one of the great looking cafes in Melrose so we continued down the highway through a few more pretty little towns including Murraytown and Wirrabaru.

Scenes along the way.

Eventually we stopped for a quick walk around the township of Laura, which features a large statue of poet C J Dennis – apparently he spent his formative years here.

C J Dennis statue at Laura.

The countryside has changed a bit since we came over the mountains yesterday, and we are starting to see olive trees and a few grape vines. This road isn’t as good as we had been used to so progress this morning was not as quick as we had planned. After Laura the situation got worse as we had to go through several kilometres of roadworks at 25 kmh. This was sort of compensated for by several kilometres of absolutely superb highway, but unfortunately things eventually deteriorated and progress slowed again.

We finally stopped for coffee in Gladstone, in a rest area next the caravan park and a playground. There was a fire pit just over the fence in the caravan park and the smell of the fire created a lovely ambience at our stop. Gladstone is another town with beautiful stone buildings and a very nice looking hotel (or two). The caravan park looked pretty inviting too.

Scenes of Gladstone.

Back on the highway and a few more pretty little towns later, we came through the village of Yakka. This place is amazing; lots of great looking stone buildings, everything looks quite well maintained, but we didn’t see a single person or any movement at all. Strange.

Buildings at Yakka.

Our next major stop was in the Clare Valley at the township of Clare. As you might expect, there are plenty of vineyards in the Clare Valley, and the town is full of hotels, cafes, cellar door operations, and the like. We went for a good cruise around town but weren’t able to find a car park for Bertha – as an old but reinvigorated town many of the streets are narrow, and winding, but not suitable for Bertha. Just out of town we came across the Clare Wine Food and Tourism Centre, where we found a suitable carpark. We went inside and this is a great version of the standard tourist information centre. It is chock full of local produce from wines to relishes and jams, to honey, olive oils, snack products, and so much more. They have a huge range of local wines available for purchase and wine tastings all day every day. They have special happy hour events as well. There is also a café with coffee and a variety of cakes and snacks. The staff were very friendly and helpful, and did show us a few places on a map of town where we might be able to park next time we’re here. The map of Clare is a keeper!

Scenes around Clare.

Lunch stop was a couple of kilometres down the highway at Sevenhills, where we enjoyed a well earned lunch at The Little Red Grape Bakery.

Lunch stop.

From there the plan was to head basically due south and then head east towards Victoria. At this point we had the driver’s worst nightmare – we set a destination into the GPS and it wanted us to go one way and we wanted to go another way. As a result we did a very scenic tour of Gawler, which appears to be quite a nice place, but finally Ann worked out where we really wanted to go and we hit the motorways.

Battling the traffic.

Eventually we managed to bypass the centre of Adelaide and get on the Eastern Freeway (M1) at Glen Osmond. Once on the M1 we had a bit of a climb through the hills then down again, through the Heysen Tunnel, and eventually to Murray Bridge and the showground there.

Tackling the motorways.

Once at the showgrounds having paid our $10, Ann drove Bertha up the yellow ramps to level us out. Even before we had turned off the engine we had been invited by our neighbours to come and sit down and have a beer. I didn’t even bother connecting power and water it was such a great invitation. After meeting our neighbours and having a very welcome drink, it was getting dark so we thought that we should go and set up Bertha, and think about what we would have for tea.

Today has been a bit of a mixed bag. This morning we started out slowly visiting a beautiful area of South Australia that neither of us had been to before. We could very easily spend a few weeks just slowly moving from pretty little country town to the next taking our time and simply chilling out. This afternoon we were doing battle with the SA motorway system.

Overall it has been a great day, and we will both sleep very well tonight.

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure | Tags: clare, gawler, laura, murray bridge

Day 13 – Lock to Melrose

Posted on Tuesday, May 17, 2016 by shorty

As expected, Charlie the Chook woke us bright and early this morning, even before the sun came up. Suddenly we were surrounded with noise – the chap in the caravan next door started his 4WD and drove off, a couple of trucks roared down the road, and other unidentified noises. Then just as suddenly things went quiet again. We were awake so we got up, showered, breakfasted and got Bertha ready for an early start.

On the way out of Lock we saw a side of the town that we hadn’t noticed yesterday, and it is quite a nice little town, with sports fields, community park, bowling club, churches, and a magnificent sculpture celebrating the town’s farming heritage and its centenary in 2014.

Statue at Lock.

Morning tea was at Kyancutta, which is at the junction of the Tod Highway and the Eyre Highway. We parked Bertha in Polkdinney Park, which features examples of equipment used in the development of the area along with plenty of parking, seats and tables, etc. Going for a walk we were immediately taken by the Kyancutta Store, which is quite amazing. There is a large café area, an area set aside for local artefacts and memorabilia, souvenirs and merchandise, and it is great. We stopped for coffee and delicious jelly cakes in the window, enjoying the sun. Kyancutta bills itself as “the centre of the universe” and is apparently the hottest and coldest place in SA. What’s more, you can free camp around the back. What a great find. From Kyancutta we turned onto the Eyre Highway (A1) towards Port Augusta.

Polkdinney Park at Kyancutta.

Morning tea at Kyancutta Store.

We stopped for lunch at the Rotary Park at Kimba, which describes itself as “the centre of the continent” and as being “half way across Australia”. We went for a cruise around town and a walk up the main street. Kimba is a very nice town which is very supportive of free camping, and has at least 3 free camps close to the centre of town. There appear to be some very nice bakeries and cafes, and all the facilities a traveller might need. On the way out of town we stopped for a photo opportunity at the Giant Galah, before returning to the highway towards Port Augusta.

Bertha and the Giant Galah in Kimba.

Along the way we were passed by several wide loads, and each time we were able to pull off the road safely – the UHF/CB radio comes in handy at times. One of the wide loads had a warning vehicle and then two Police Escorts, followed by two huge trucks.

Wide loads along the Eyre Highway.

We also passed the Arrium mine that we commented on when we went passed on the other side near Whyalla.

Arrium Mine

Afternoon coffee was at Iron Knob. We were here several years ago and it was totally dead – a victim of the end of the mining boom. This time, however, some changes had been made and the town was a bit more active and attractive. The free camp had about six vans in residence and the camp kitchen is of a standard that many caravan parks would be proud of. We would certainly consider staying here next time.

Views of Iron Knob.

Free Camp at Iron Knob.

Last time we were in this area we stayed at a place called Nuttbush Retreat, which was basically a small caravan park situated in the front paddock of a working sheep farm. It isn’t listed in Camps 8 so we were interested to see that Nutbush is still operating and in fact looks better than ever.

Once through Port Augusta, our next challenge was Horrocks Pass. We have been down twice now but this was our first time in the reverse direction. It was quite a lot easier going up than down.

Horrocks Pass, going up this time.

Rather than go back through Peterborough we decided to head down the Horrocks Highway through Wilmington towards Clare. Our plan was to stop for the night at the Melrose Showgrounds but just before we got there we saw a caravan in the Goyders Line Memorial rest area (SA303) and decided to stop there. We found a nice flat spot to park and I set up the BBQ to cook steaks for dinner before it got too dark. By the time I finished tidying things up outside there were about half a dozen groups staying here. We’ve got great TV reception here and good internet access, which is a bonus.

Free Camp at Goyder Line Memorial rest area, 3 kms from Melrose.

Still living the dream …..

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure, Free Camping | Tags: iron knob, kimba, kyancutta, melrose, nuttbush retreat

Day 12 – Port Lincoln to Lock via Coffin Bay

Posted on Monday, May 16, 2016 by shorty

Yet another wonderful day in paradise. We would love to have stayed in Port Lincoln another week, but it was time to move on. So after showers, breakfast and packing up Bertha, we slowly wound our way to the Lincoln Highway via the scenic route.

Driving this morning was nice and easy. Temperature in the low 20s, blue sky with a few clouds, and a light breeze. We’re driving on B class roads so they are wide and generally well maintained. Traffic, particularly trucks, is very light. As we head out of Port Lincoln the breeze blows up a bit but we are protected by decent wind breaks on both sides of the road.

Roadside leaving Port Lincoln.

The country-side is mixed, with large areas of cropping land, yet other places where the scrub shows signs of obvious regrowth after bushfires not so long ago. The ground appears to be sandy with plenty of rocks.

Eventually we turn off B100 to the Coffin Bay road and it seemed that immediately the wind picked up and made driving a little more difficult. Very soon we caught our first glimpses of boats on the water at Kellidie Bay approaching the township of Coffin Bay.

Waters of Kellidie Bay nearing Coffin Bay township.

We took a slow cruise around the Esplanade, as only a large motorhome can do. Coffin Bay’s esplanade is unlike the Esplanade in Port Lincoln and doesn’t have a strip of trendy shops and cafes. At Coffin Bay the Esplanade features quandongs, mangroves, dirt roads to picnic areas on the beach, and so on. There are some very nice houses and holiday apartments in Coffin Bay, a jetty, a yacht club and a few businesses, but there is no shopping strip in the usual sense. The caravan park looks very inviting and it is definitely on our list of places to revisit as soon as we get a chance. Interestingly, the real Coffin Bay is some 21 kms from the Coffin Bay township so the waters lapping up at Coffin Bay townships aren’t actually from Coffin Bay.

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We stopped at the Beachcomber café/general store/take-away/whatever – a very typical beach-side establishment from days gone by. We enjoyed a coffee at Beachcomber before going for a short walk along the Oyster Walk around the bay.

Views from the Oyster Walk.

Ann had her eye on Café 1802 which has a great reputation for seafood, and it certainly looks like a very nice restaurant. Unfortunately 1802 didn’t seem to be open today so we returned to Beachcomber for lunch. Ann finally ticked “eating fresh Coffin Bay oysters” off her wish list and enjoyed them immensely. In fact she savoured them all afternoon. They were fresh, full of flavour, well prepared and presented, and they were ridiculously cheap. I’m not so much into seafood but I enjoyed my lunch equally.

Beachcomber Cafe, Restaurant, General Store, etc.

Today we only scratched the surface of the beauty of Coffin Bay and we got no-where near the renowned Coffin Bay National Park. But, we’ll be back.

Eventually we returned to Bertha and headed back along the Coffin Bay road. One thing that struck us was that there is basically no beach at places around Coffin Bay – in many places the water just comes up to either mudflats or mangroves.

No sandy beaches here.

We’re now approaching time to head back home so rather than continue exploring the Eyre Peninsula coastline we turned back on to the Lincoln Highway towards Port Lincoln and then turned off at the Tod Highway (B90) which basically goes North through the centre of the peninsula.

We stopped for coffee in Bertha at Cummins, which is a small town with something of a split personality. The railway line splits the town in half, literally. The highway goes down one side of the railway line and has a collection of shops, cafes and businesses, and there is another road along the other side of the railway line which also has a collection shops, cafes and businesses. There are crossings from one side to the other, but it is a bit strange. This is definitely grain country, and there is a flour milling business based in Cummins. At one point we all of a sudden became surrounded by large trucks and B doubles, so finished our coffee and got out of their way very promptly.

Some views of Cummins.

Another 80 kms up the B90 found us at Lock which is a bit of a junction for traffic heading north-south as well as traffic heading east-west. We decided to stop here for the night and sought out the local caravan park as there didn’t seem to be a suitable free camp nearby. After paying for our site at the post office we were told to park anywhere we liked, connect to whatever we like, and generally make ourselves at home. Which we did.

Lock Caravan Park – not overcrowded tonight.

We did however face a challenge on this, our shakedown trip. We’re getting used to having to park with Bertha’s nose down a bit – it seems that most caravan parks, including those with slabs, design their sites that way. But with Bertha’s slide-out, we need to have a reasonably level site from side to side as well because the slide can give Bertha a bit of a sideways lean. And we couldn’t find one – but we were being very picky. So Ann did a great job of driving both the front and rear wheels on the low side of Bertha up the yellow ramps so we were nearly perfectly level. Great job!

Today’s challenge – park one side of Bertha on ramps.

After connecting the power, water and sullage, we had some visitors. I don’t know how she does it but Ann loves chooks and seems to attract them out of nowhere. Two very healthy looking chooks came clucking around Bertha so Ann couldn’t resist feeding them.

Locals came for a visit.

I think we know what will wake us up in the morning!

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure | Tags: coffin bay, lock

Day 11 – Port Lincoln

Posted on Sunday, May 15, 2016 by shorty

We woke up to another beautiful day so I dressed in shorts and tee-shirt and went up to the office to book another night. It turned out that this site had already been allocated for tonight but the friendly receptionist changed things around and we were set to retain the same site again tonight.

After breakfast we packed up Bertha and set out on some sight-seeing of Port Lincoln. Unlike a caravan where you can unhitch and go for a drive in your tow vehicle, we have a 24 ft long car to drive around in, and we need to get used to doing that. We’ve already found that angled parking can be a challenge, and the Macca’s drive-through is an absolute no-no!

One thing of note is that Port Lincoln is quite a hilly place – for some reason we had both imagined Port Lincoln to be flatter. But it does mean that some houses, especially the more expensive ones, have great views.

It didn’t take long for us realise that a cup of coffee was in order, so in best tourist mode we headed off to the Esplanade and were very fortunate to find a large carpark close by. This is a really nice place with a good collection of shops and cafes, so we stopped and had a very nice coffee outside, overlooking the waters of Boston Bay. From our vantage point we could see the extent of the Port Lincoln Wharf and grain terminal complex and also a small squad of yachts practicing turns in the light breeze. Like most similar esplanades around Australia, there were the hotted-up classic car guys who cruised up and down showing off. There were some very nice cars though!

Views of Boston Bay, Port Lincoln.

After coffee we went for a longer stroll along the Esplanade to the Jetty where a large swimming enclosure caught our eye. It certainly looked like a safe place to go for a swim.

Swimming Enclosure.

At the end of the jetty we came across a sign which gave some clues as to exactly why the swimming enclosure was necessary.

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Further along the Esplanade we came across the life size statue of Makybe Diva, celebrating the three time Melbourne Cup winner. The owner, Tony Santic, was a fisherman in Port Lincoln.

Statue of Makybe Diva.

We were starting to feel a bit hungry so we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at the award winning Del Giorno’s Restaurant, which specialises in local seafood and has won multiple awards for its seafood and generally as a superior restaurant. We don’t treat ourselves like this very often but Ann is a huge seafood fan so why not? Ann had a fantastic sashimi dish with both tuna and king-fish. I had a delicious risotto. Presentation was to die for, as was the taste, but it would have been a bit gauche to whip out the camera for a food photo. Lunch was completed with excellent coffee.

Views of the Esplanade.

Eventually it was time to move on from the Esplanade so we made our way back to Bertha and enjoyed a bit more of the sights of Port Lincoln. The Flinders Picture Theatre in particular caught our eye.

Nice old theatre.

I was interested in seeing some of the fishing fleet so we headed to Lincoln Cove Marina. This is quite a modern marina which accommodates the largest commercial fishing fleet in the Southern Hemisphere.

Views of the Marina.

From the marina we came back to the caravan park where we set up our chairs in the grassed area in front of Bertha and spent some quiet time reading and enjoying the view.

It will be a very light tea tonight!

Today has been a great day, but we have barely scratched the surface of the sights and food of Port Lincoln, and there were some places we would have liked to have seen but were closed on a Sunday. We will have to come back another time as tomorrow we will be leaving Port Lincoln to see more of the beautiful Eyre Peninsula.

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure | Tags: port lincoln

Day 10 – Cowell to Port Lincoln

Posted on Saturday, May 14, 2016 by shorty

As we were only planning on travelling a relatively short distance today, we had another leisurely start. After-all, we’re not really in a hurry to get anywhere! Sun was shining, sky was blue, and all seemed to be good with the world. It was a little windy but nothing like the windstorms we had experienced recently.

Views along Lincoln Highway.

After getting back to the Lincoln Highway, it wasn’t long before we diverted off the highway to Arno Bay. We had seen that there was apparently a free camp behind the pub so we thought that we’d check it out, even if we weren’t going to stay there this trip. Arno Bay is very literally a little sleepy fishing village. The Arno Bay Hotel is a big building and looks as though it has been recently restored. The views over the bay from one of the first floor accommodation units would be excellent. There is a very impressive array of solar panels attached to the pub too.

Arno Bay Hotel and impressive solar array.

We stopped at Humphries Park which has a new toilet block, a large children’s play area under shade cloth, plenty of tables and chairs, access to the Jetty, a number of historic displays and so on. After going for a decent walk around the park area, we stopped at the Jetty Café for an early lunch of fish and chips overlooking the sea. The fish was Butterfish and it just melted in your mouth – YUM!! The Jetty Café is an interesting place, a bit of a general store with take-away food, or eat in, an area for the local craft and quilting ladies to display their work, etc. The business and adjoining residence is up for sale if anyone is interested. The caravan park is next to the Jetty and the Jetty Café, and very close to the pub, so it could be a great place to stop for a while for a relax and chill out time.

Views of Arno Bay.

What surprised us most about coming into Arno Bay were the large grain silos. Until now the landscape looked anything like cropping land, but once we left Arno Bay and headed further South more and more of the countryside was obviously under cultivation, and in some places was quite green from recent rains.

Green after the rain.

Back on the Lincoln Highway our next diversion was to Port Neill, just to have a look around. This is also a sleepy fishing village but a bit bigger and more active than Arno Bay. We had a good cruise around town, which was pretty dead for a Saturday afternoon, and returned to the highway without stopping anywhere.

Port Neill.

Next stop, and our potential overnight stop, was Tumby Bay. Again, it’s a fishing village, but on a totally different scale to Arno Bay and Port Neill. It has some beautiful old buildings that have been restored, but also some beautiful old buildings with totally ugly modern additions. Obviously not a heritage listed area. We stopped for a very nice coffee at the Ritz Café and sat outside admiring the view out over the water. A quick drive around Tumby Bay was a bit disappointing; we had perhaps expected a bit more activity. Rather than stay here tonight we decided to continue on to Port Lincoln.

Views of Tumby Bay

Port Lincoln is a pretty amazing place. It is quite built up and from our drive around town there are some huge mansions in some areas, some very large boats in the marina, and some very nice shops and cafes in town. We had a quick look at an area that was apparently available for free camping but rejected it as a suitable place to stay on a Saturday night and continued on to the Port Lincoln Tourist Park. This is a very big and busy park but they found a great spot for us with a million dollar view across the Bay. Can’t ask for more than that.

Amazing view from our front window, and some furry neighbours.

We’ll probably book this spot for another night and head out tomorrow in Bertha for a really good exploration of Port Lincoln. From our first glimpses today there seems to be plenty to see.

Tonight we’ll have pizza for tea before watching some DVDs as we can’t get TV reception. We have a DVD about Port Lincoln so that will probably guide our travels tomorrow.

The adventure continues …….

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure | Tags: arno bay, port lincoln, port neill, tumby bay

Day 9 – Whyalla to Cowell

Posted on Friday, May 13, 2016 by shorty

It’s Friday 13^th today but we’re not superstitious – we woke to a beautiful warm morning with blue sky and hardly a cloud in sight. What a great start!

Early Morning at Whyalla Foreshore

As usual we got off to a leisurely start. We decided last night not to worry about the steelworks or Whyalla ship tour but to head off to the beaches we had come to see as quickly as possible, so we only had a short distance to drive to our first destination.

We started the day by taking a drive around Whyalla. We explored some of the newer suburbs and were very impressed by the Westland shopping complex. Still, the red dust was everywhere and things probably looked a bit younger and brighter in the sunshine. We stopped to refuel Bertha, and as Maccas was next door to the servo, we had a quick coffee before continuing out of Whyalla for destinations further South.

Beautiful weather, nice straight roads in good condition, an occasional undulation to prevent boredom – what more could we want?

Not far out of Whyalla we came across a sobering sight –the wreckage of a fatal smash involving a car and a truck that happened only yesterday. The truck was almost unrecognisable and there was plenty of heavy equipment on the scene to remove all the debris onto the back of several tray trucks. Certainly makes you concentrate on your driving after seeing something like that!

Very soon after, we were passed by a “Wide Load” warning vehicle after which a Police Escort waved us right off the road. Clearly something big was approaching. Then came another Police Escort and two huge trucks, and despite all my experience taking photos of moving vehicles I stuffed up the photos of the trucks going passed. Damn!

Wide Load.

After the convoy had gone we had black stuff all over the windscreen. The wipers only made things worse so we pulled off into a rest area as soon as we could. We discovered that there was sticky thick black stuff all over the front and side of Bertha. I didn’t want to leave it all there to dry in the sun as we travelled, so I spent the next 45 minutes cleaning it off with a mixture of metho and water, which did a pretty good job. In the meantime a couple of caravans had pulled up for a lunch break. Ray came over and introduced himself and we had a bit of a chat. His theory was that we had been sprayed by hydraulic fluid from the passing truck, and that made total sense. The trucks had gone passed him but he had been able to pull well off the road before they crossed paths and had probably therefore missed the worst of it. He did check the front of his X-Trail before he left though! Ann and I had lunch after I had cleaned Bertha and continued towards our destination.

Along the way the scenery changed from red dirt to saltbush to scrub to mudflats with mangroves. We also passed an impressive Arrium mine where the terraces were very clear and you could see where revegetation and reclamation works had begun.

Arrium Mine.

We soon arrived on the outskirts of Cowell. There are two caravan parks and a motorhome park (self-contained vehicles only) in Cowell so we drove off the highway to check out the Harbour View Caravan Park. It looked quite nice, had plenty of space, and great views across to Cowell, but we decided it was too far from town.

View across to Cowell.

So we continued into town to the Cowell Foreshore Caravan Park which is an older park with large sites, clean amenities but most important for us – location, location, location. It is only 100 metres walk into town and not much more than that to the jetty and boat-ramp. It is well set-up for fishing people with separate cleaning tables, crab cooking pots and a boat wash area.

Arriving in Cowell.

Crab kitchen at caravan park.

After doing a quick set-up of Bertha we put on our walking shoes and headed off into town. Cowell is a nice, quiet little town with most of the shops, services and facilities you would expect. We were impressed by a tile/sculptural/artwork piece near the jetty.

Views around Cowell.

Tile sculpture near Cowell jetty.

According to the tourist brochures there are some worthwhile sights and tours nearby so we might check them out tomorrow. We stopped at the Franklin Harbour Hotel for a cold beer (Coopers of course) outside to contemplate tomorrow and the world in general.

Cold beers at Franklin Harbour Hotel.

After our refreshments we walked over to the Jetty. There were quite a few cars with empty boat trailers parked there so hopefully some-one is catching some fish. We stopped in at the Fishbox Kiosk to pick up some fish for dinner, but they were sold out! A couple fishing from the Jetty weren’t having any luck, but perhaps they were there at the wrong time.

Fishbox Kiosk at Cowell jetty.

Cowell Jetty

On the way back to the caravan park we made a minor detour to the mangrove walk, which is a board-walk through the mangroves with several shelters along the way. We were a bit surprised that there were mangroves here.

Mangrove Walk.

Finally it was back to Bertha until it was time to cook our steaks in the camp kitchen.

It doesn’t get much better than this! Bring on tomorrow!

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure | Tags: cowell

Day 8 – Peterborough to Whyalla

Posted on Thursday, May 12, 2016 by shorty

It was freezing cold last night so we needed to put on the electric heater and throw another blanket on the bed. We slept snug as a bug!

We woke to slightly overcast skies, cold, but not much wind, so not a bad start to the day. We weren’t travelling too far today so we got off to a lazy start (again).

Leaving Peterborough a fine but steady drizzle started, but the road was in good condition and the driving was pretty comfortable. The first small town we went through was Orroroo, which was a quaint town with a stereotype country pub and a decent looking caravan park.

The Commercial Hotel at Orroroo.

Just past Orroroo we stopped at the Giant Gum Tree. This tree is estimated to be 500 years old, and the circumference is 10.89 metres just 0.61 metres above the ground. Unfortunately there is no information as to how high it is, but it is certainly a giant tree.

The Giant Gum Tree outside Orroroo.

Until now the roadsides had mainly been cultivated red soil, with some stubble and a few sheep here and there munching on stubble. After Orroroo the scenery changed and changed to low scrub.

Scenery along Horrocks Highway.

Morning coffee was at Centenary Park in Wilmington. This was a great stop with tables and chairs, shelter, toilets, a dump point, drinking water, and some play equipment. Unfortunately camping wasn’t allowed here. There was an interesting hand-painted map inside one of the shelters. Wilmington looks like a nice little town with an interesting Toy Museum and a Puppet Museum.

Hand painted map of Wilmington at Centenary Park.

Scenes of Wilmington.

As we have been along this road before, we knew that we would soon encounter Horrocks Pass, which is a long and winding, steep downhill adventure. Still being new to the motorhome we were a bit apprehensive, but somewhat relieved to remember that we had survived in the Ute with the Trailblazer behind. At this point the full concrete mixer we had happily been following decided to pull over and let a ute and ourselves overtake him. I don’t know how any of you readers might feel, but going down a steep hill I would prefer to behind a concrete mixer rather than in front of it! So I politely declined the offer to overtake and copped a real mouthful of abuse as thanks.

Would you overtake the concrete truck over double lines and on a bend, going downhill?

Obviously we survived Horrocks Pass again, and the first thing that struck us was that the ground was actually green, not just red dirt.

Horrocks Pass.

Greener pastures – the rains have turned things green.

Soon we found ourselves heading through Port Augusta. Again, we’ve been here before so didn’t go overboard on the photos, but Ann did take a few from the bridge into town. One thing of interest was the piles of coloured gravel along the water pipeline, presumably there to protect the pipe from over-zealous motorists.

Port Augusta.

Leaving Port Augusta we again encountered good roads, with a mixture of red dirt and low scrub.

On the road from Port Augusta to Whyalla.

We stopped for lunch at the Lincoln Eyre Highway Junction rest-stop (Camps 8 S550) before tackling the remaining 50 K or so into Whyalla.

Even several kilometres away it was obvious that we were entering an industrial town, with chimneys tacks, huge sheds, and so on.

First stop on the way into town was at the Whyalla Visitor Centre and Maritime Museum, which is located right next to the warship Whyalla. This was the first ship built at the Whyalla shipyard and served during the Second World War undertaking mine-sweeping, escort, troop transport and other duties. The Whyalla covered over 110,000 miles on active duty before transferring to Victoria where she patrolled The Rip. Unfortunately we missed today’s tours of the Whyalla and the tours of the Metal Works weren’t on today either. We may come back tomorrow and do both tours as they look very interesting.

Whyalla Visitor Centre & Maritime Museum.

From the Whyalla Visitor Information Centre we went directly to the Whyalla Foreshore Holiday Park where we secured a great site right on the foreshore.

Bertha on Whyalla Foreshore.

After setting up Bertha we headed off into town to keep our steps up, and to replenish some supplies. Two observations when tackling Whyalla on foot – it is very hilly, and there are no street signs. It took us a fair bit longer than expected to accomplish our task but we definitely did the steps. Whyalla is an interesting town, from what we have seen. Clearly things are difficult from an industry perspective, but the place looks “tired”. The red dust, and perhaps the emissions from the chimneys, just seem to stain everything a pale red colour so nothing really seems to look neat and clean. Having said that there are some beautiful houses around and some development happening. Let’s hope that the steel manufacturing situation and other industrial worries are resolved soon and stability returns to town.

Whyalla is the start of our planned 2016 Short Adventure. Getting here has been only part of the adventure but we are looking forward to now spending time in the small fishing villages on the Eyre Peninsula before heading back home to Melbourne. It looks as though the weather is going to cooperate as well!

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure | Tags: orroroo, whyalla

Day 7 – Renmark to Peterborough via Burra

Posted on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 by shorty

We both slept well last night and woke up to quite a nice day – slightly overcast but with blue sky poking through and great for driving.

Packing up Bertha is a lot quicker than what was required for the Trailblazer – just roll up hoses and power cable, wind-down the TV aerial, clean the windscreen, and without too much further ado we’re off.

Preparing to leave Renmark Big 4.

As we left Big 4 Renmark we spotted a group of intrepid Avanners heading off on their way into town.

Intrepid Avanners heading off to town.

I love driving around places like Mildura and Renmark with grape vines growing right up alongside the road even on the outskirts of town. After getting onto the Sturt Highway (A20) we passed through Barmera which again featured vines and citrus.

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Our morning coffee stop was at Waikerie where the roadside revealed vines, stone fruit trees, citrus, almonds and walnuts. Along the way we spotted several well-known vineyards including Angoves and Banrock Station.

Waikerie Tourist Information Centre – coffee stop.

From Waikerie we headed on to Morgan where we got two surprises. The first was that the road ran out and we had to catch a ferry across the river. As new motor-homers this was quite exciting but it was something of a relief to back on dry land again.

Crossing the river ferry style!

The second surprise was that the weather turned nasty – the skies clouded over, the wind came up, and it started raining quite steadily. And here we were thinking that we’d missed most of the bad weather. None the less, we persevered.

At Morgan we changed to the Goyder Highway and the fruit and vines pretty well vanished from the roadsides, to be replaced by mostly scrub and saltbush. We passed a turn-off to World’s End, but things hadn’t got quite that bad yet so we continued on the highway.

At our friend PK’s suggestion, we took a slight detour off the highway to Burra. This is a historic precinct with many delightful old stone buildings. According to the brochure from the Tourist Information Centre, Burra was made famous though the finding of copper in 1845. By 1850 Burra had one of the world’s largest copper mines and saved South Australia from bankruptcy. There are organised tours of the town for those who have the time. The copper mines resulted in a large Cornish population settling in the area, so we couldn’t ignore PK’s recommendation to have Cornish pasties for lunch. We got the last two in the shop and they were very good!

Views around Burra.

Returning to the highway we again faced strong winds, and then realised that we were passing a large wind-farm so it made sense that it was windy there.

Just passed Mt Bryan coming around a bend we were confronted by a huge tractor and some sort of harvesting equipment coming towards us and taking up most of the road. Immediately behind that were two B-Doubles with large “Explosives” signs on them. Needless to say we made sure we got off the road and let them pass safely. Ann was so stunned by this that she didn’t think to take a photo!

From Mt Bryan it wasn’t very far to our destination for tonight – Peterborough. Peterborough is a railway town and even the Tourist Information Centre is in a vintage railway carriage. We have stayed here before and found it to be a nice, comfortable place. We checked in at the Peterborough Caravan Park and set up Bertha for the night, then went for a good long walk into town. The rain had stopped but the wind was still quite fierce, so we rugged up for the walk. There are some beautiful buildings around town but like many country towns things don’t appear to be as prosperous as in the past.

Peterborough is a railway town!

Beautiful heritage buildings around Peterborough.

After our walk we came back home to Bertha for a light tea, update this blog, and do some reading. There’s no TV reception here but we can cope with that!

Today has been another tough driving day but the scenery has been interesting and varied, and we have stopped and seen some great places. Bring on tomorrow!

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure | Tags: burra, peterborough

Day 6 – Renmark

Posted on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 by shorty

The storm continued overnight. We put the TV aerial up for a short while but soon wound it down again as it was so windy. We did put the slide-out out as it is difficult to sleep with it in – that’s an adventure of its own for another day. I actually slept very well once my head hit the pillow, as it had been a hard day driving, but Ann stayed awake listening to the sounds of ripping awnings and tent pegs being hammered in.

By morning the storm had calmed down and there was blue sky. We decided to stay put in Renmark and have a look around town rather than venture potentially back into the storm. It does seem that the worst of the storm has passed us now – we saw some photos from the SA coast, where we are heading, and we are happy that our decision to detour north has been worthwhile.

The caravan park this morning looked quite different. The Avanners had their AGM somewhere in town so we were surrounded by Avans but no tow vehicles. Just looked a bit strange.

Avans

After a bit of a late start, we headed up the walking path from the caravan park into town. This is a proper bitumen path away from the roadway, but this morning was showing signs of the storm. The path followed the river and it was interesting to see several house-boats moored along the path.

Walking path into town.

Houseboats along the river bank.

The Renmark Paringa district is renowned as a state gateway to South Australia. Founded in 1887, Renmark is Australia’s oldest irrigation settlement, thanks to a joint agreement between the State Government at the time and Canadian engineers, George and Ben Chaffey. The brothers were instrumental is establishing the system of irrigation much of which is still in use today supporting the abundant horticulture and viticulture industries.

Renmark has a great many beautiful old buildings, including the historic Irrigation House and the Renmark Hotel. There are also some very nice modern buildings, and a significant amount of new housing development.

Historic Irrigation House.

Renmark Hotel.

One of the features of the main street in Renmark is the very wide median strip dividing traffic and the inclusion of lawns, gardens, tourist facilities etc within that median strip, much like we found in Nhill.

Main Street

Main street.

Although Renmark is quite a busy town, all is perhaps not as rosy as it may seem as there are quite a few empty shops around town and there are some signs of hardship. This is a real pity and hopefully the town can halt the decline and return to the status it clearly deserves.

After a good walk around town, we stopped for a light lunch at the Renmark Patisserie. The range of cakes and buns was enormous, but we both remained strong willed and opted for a healthy lunch. The place was packed with all the tables full and a lot of take-away traffic. We obviously chose a good place for lunch!

Great place for lunch.

After a quick trip to the supermarket for supplies of fresh fruit and veggies, we returned along the path to the caravan park. We hadn’t taken too much attention when we arrived yesterday, but right next the entrance to the Big 4 is a decent looking boat ramp and a Lions Park with picnic and bbq facilities and childrens’ play equipment.

Boat ramp near Big 4.

As we walked passed the caravan park swimming pool a fellow guest told us that the water was cold but it was more than compensated by the warmth of the spa. What a pity we forgot to pack our bathers. We’ll leave the pool to the intrepid Avanners.

Swimming pool and water fun park.

Returning to Bertha we spent a bit of time catching up with some reading, emails, etc and generally taking it easy. We then went for another good walk around this caravan park and realised just how big it really is, and they are about to open a new area that will cater for a heap more vans and motorhomes.

Another view of the caravan park in better weather.

As dusk settled in I headed off to the camp kitchen to cook some lamb steaks for dinner, which was accompanied by a delicious fresh salad and a nice glass of red.

We really needed a bit of a quiet day today after several challenging driving days. The weather forecast for the next week or so looks very promising so we look forward to seeing the sunny side of South Australia.

Categories: 2016 Short SA Adventure | Tags: renmark