Posts Tagged With: nhill

As we had decided to stay put in Nhill for another day we got off to a lazy start.  First item of business for the day was to visit the caravan park office and pay for another night, then we headed off the 400 metres or so into town.

Right next to the caravan park is Jaypex Park, which is a fantastic family destination.  There is play equipment, BBQs, covered seating areas, and one of the biggest slides we have ever seen – and it was nearly all under cover.  Also in the park is a restored historic cottage, and the start to the Nhill Swamp Boardwalk (more about that later).

Jaypex Park with its amazing slide – our grand-daughters would love it!

A little further up the road we entered the main business district of Nhill.  This is a historic town with many beautiful old buildings. Wide verandahs were definitely the order of the day when Nhill was established.  The Nhill Post Office is a standout.

Nhill Post Office

Farmers Arms Hotel

One of the features of the main street of Nhill is the wide median strip separating traffic going into and out of town.  Within the median strip is some off-street parking, a delightful rotunda, tourist information, toilets, grassed areas and gardens, tables and chairs, and a bus stop.  It makes a very friendly and inviting environment.

Main street Nhill

There are several decent looking pubs, some very interesting art galleries, a good range of retail shops, and several options for meals. We stopped at the Olivia-Rose Café for a coffee and stayed for lunch once we saw the menu.  I couldn’t finish mine!

Lunch at Olivia-Rose Cafe

After lunch we returned to Bertha to change into tee-shirts, before heading back to the Nhill Swamp Boardwalk.  This is an incredible structure over 600 metres long over the Nhill Swamp.  Today this area looks nothing like a swamp as it is terribly dry, but apparently there are irregular but massive floods at which time the water levels rise considerably. There are signs of bushfires, drought and swamp all in this area.

There are signs of bushfires, drought and swamp all in this area.At the end of the Boardwalk is Nhill Lake, and the tide is out there as well.  Walkers are presented with 2 options for walking from there, and we chose the longer walk right around the lake.  It was glorious and incredibly peaceful.  Several brave folk were fishing in the lake, and one fellow actually caught something as we walked passed but threw it back in as it was a bit too small.  Apparently there are rainbow trout in the lake so a decent size would make a nice meal.

Nhill Swamp Boardwalk

We then returned to Bertha at the caravan park, both having completed close to 10,000 steps today.  Out came the chairs and we put out the awning and had a quiet time catching up with a bit of reading.  As dusk set in I did some quick preparation for tomorrow’s early (maybe) departure, before we came inside for a light dinner, some computer time, and then settling in for some favourite TV shows.

Our home among the gum trees tonight.

Having looked at the weather forecasts for the next few days, it looks as though we’re going to get wet where-ever we go.  We’ll check the forecasts again in the morning and decide exactly which direction we will go from here.

The adventure continues…..

Last night was a beautiful, clear, starry night with the sky unpolluted by big city lights.  We heard on the TV news that we should be able to see lots of meteorites as a result of Halleys Comet passing, but that was best seen between 3.00 am and 7.00 am, so needless to say we missed the meteorite display.

One of the by-products of clear skies overnight is cold – and it was still very clear and quite cold when we finally awoke this morning.  Unfortunately it turned out that the heater didn’t want to operate, and we had an error message on the solar controller.

Beautiful clear morning

A few phone calls later and we headed back to Stawell to visit an auto-electrician recommended by our motorhome dealer.  Ann took the opportunity to pick up some lunch treats and we then enjoyed a coffee at the nearby café while the auto-electrician crawled under the van and did his thing.

Bertha at the auto electrician

The cafe had some interesting visitors, and great coffee.

We then enjoyed an early lunch at a very nice park in Stawell.  There were clean facilities, friendly ducks, a bridge across the lake to a walking track and plenty of picnic tables.  We sat outside near Kelly’s Bridge in the sun enjoying our lunch before eventually hitting the road again.

Beautiful place to stop for picnic lunch on the outskirts of Stawell.

From Stawell we headed back along the A8 Highway past the Grampians on our left and stopped for a photo opportunity at the Giant Koala at Dadswells Bridge.

Unmissable tourist photo opportunity.

The road condition from here was not all that great and the landscape was very flat and dry.  The clear skies and horizon were punctuated by grain silos.  We drove through Horsham without stopping as there seemed to be roadworks everywhere, so we kept going.

Dry and flat, with silos along the railway line.

We took a brief detour from the highway and stopped in Dimboola for a walk around town.  Dimboola is a pretty little country town but it is extremely sad to see so many vacant shops and so little activity.  Attempts have certainly been made to spruce up the town and make it more attractive to tourists, and there are several very nice shops, cafes and a good supermarket, but overall it is still very sad.

Dimboola streetscape.

From Dimboola we continued along the highway in the general direction of Adelaide, and stopped overnight at the Nhill Caravan Park.  This is a nice, small country caravan park under new management.  We found a good level site and hooked up power, water and sullage, then set up our chairs with cool drinks and a snack outside.  I then cooked dinner on our new BBQ which we ate outside before we retired inside to escape the mossies.

As I write this the temperature is still in the low twenties and we have the door open and fans on.  Another beautiful, starry night.

We are looking forward to a long walk around this very pretty and lively town in the morning.