Sunday 14 November 2010: Darlington Park to Home

Damn!!  The time has come to pack up and return to the real world once again.  Rhonda and Ian have now sold up and are living in their van, so they are off to new adventures and we wish them well and hope to do the same one day.

Saturday 13 November 2010: Darlington Park

Another day in paradise.  We went for a drive into a friend’s property called Batinga, which is in the valley below O’Reilly’s Resort in the Lamington National Park.  A bit of four wheel driving in the new cruiser, which included 10 creek crossings.  We continued up into the hills which looked like something out of a story book, with huge green valleys and jagged cliffs.  We eventually found Burgess Park on the Christmas Creek road.  This is a small camp ground that would be great for about 10 to 15 vans and one we will revisit.  Well it’s back to camp for happy hour, a huge dinner and off to bed for our last night of the trip.

Friday 12 November 2010: Darlington Park

A day of rest and relaxation, followed by a roast lamb dinner cooked in the camp oven on the Oz Pig.  Beautiful!  A few beers, some bubbly and some rum liqueur and we were ready for bed.

Thursday 11 November 2010: Bingara to Darlington Park QLD

Only about 450 klms today and it started to rain as Ian and Rhonda arrived in their new van.  We are about 25 klms south of Beaudesert in a beautiful campground on the banks of a running stream.  It’s only $12 a night here and camp fires are allowed.  It’s also great to be wearing shorts again as it’s been a long winter and the weather down south was colder than usual for this time of year.

Wednesday10 November 2010: Goolgowi to Bingara NSW

Another long day on the road, with plenty of road works to slow us down due to the recent rains.  We arrived at Bingara in the dark, which made finding a level spot on the banks of the Gwydir River quite a challenge.  The bugs were out in force and were swarming around our lights, but we still managed to sit outside away from the van a little to enjoy a couple of drinks and a meal before bed.

Tuesday 9 November 2010: Springton to Goolgowi NSW

We left Springton and went via Sedan as recommended by Val.  This was a very scenic drive and avoided the traffic of the major roads.  We crossed the Murray on a free ferry at Swan Reach and travelled via Loxton and Mildura.  It’s great to see the Murray flowing so well again and the farm lands looking so green.  We spent the night at a rest area just before Goolgowi which we had to ourselves.

Monday 8 November 2010: Adelaide to Springton

Unfortunately we had to start our journey towards home and saying goodbye was very sad for all of us.  Oliver was growing and changing daily and it was a joy to see this happen and to be able to share these moments with his very proud parents.  But we will now revert to Olivers’ electronic grandparents seen via Skype until next time.

We drove up through the Adelaide Hills into the Barossa Valley to visit Chris and Val (Kedron friends) for the night.  Springton is a beautiful little town, which has been their home for only the last two years, but one they hope to remain in from now on.

Sunday 7 November 2010: Adelaide

Today was dedicated to Oliver’s christening followed by the Smith family gathering at Jason and Maddies’ place to celebrate.  Oliver was very well behaved throughout the event and laughed and smiled most of the day.

Saturday 6 November Adelaide

This evening was a party at a hotel to celebrate Kirsty’s 40 th birthday.  We volunteered to baby sit Oliver while Jason and Maddie had a night out.  Oliver is a breeze to baby sit as he slept right through until about 5am in the morning.  This turned out to be a one off for several weeks, it must be the grandparents touch.

1 to 5 November 2010 Adelaide

Lots of Oliver cuddles from our grandson.  Daily visits, shopping and as the weather gradually improved we did some cycling along the water front and along the banks of the Torrens River (Creek?) We went to the movies and saw Red, a great Bruce Willis action comedy.

Saturday 30 October 2010 Adelaide

Spent most of day at Jason and Maddie’s fussing over Oliver and taking lots of photos.

Isn't he cute?

Friday 29 October 2010 Clare to Adelaide

We left Clare and headed for Adelaide, but I wanted to visit Kapunda and see where Sydney Kidman lived on the way.  It’s seems to be a very historic mining town with lots of character and some very nice old houses.  The Kidman residence was donated to the High School along with the 5 acres it was situated on.  A very impressive building.  Their original house is out of sight and overgrown by trees and weeds.  The new owners mustn’t want people looking in at them all the time.  We entered Adelaide via the new northern expressway, which made the trip a lot quicker than we had expected.  The rain had started and the winds were on their way, which is fairly common for here.  We dropped in on Jason, Maddie and Oliver and had some fantastic Chinese takeaway for dinner.

Thursday 28 October 2010 Clare

Well we thought we had recovered sufficiently from our bike ride 2 days ago, wrong!!!  We set out from Clare to ride the northern end of the trail, which was about 9 klms each way.  There was little signage and no rest points constructed as this part of the trail has only just been opened.  The first 4-5 klms were up hill which took it out of us pretty much, but the worst was the pain in our butts that were still a bit delicate from our previous ride.  We had to walk some parts which was a great relief.  After lunch we went to Knappstein Winery/Brewery in Clare for some tastings.  A rich flavoured beer that had a very unique flavour.  The wines weren’t anything special so went dropped in to Tim Adam’s Winery.  It is the first time I have ever seen Debbie like every wine that she tasted.  They must be very special!  It was a very tiring day so it was back to camp for a nanna nap.

Wednesday 27 October 2010 Clare

We visited a couple of wineries today and had lunch at the very popular Skillogalee Winery.  The setting and gardens are beautiful and the food was fantastic.  We had a lazy afternoon and cooked roast beef and vegies in the camp oven for dinner.  Gee I hate roughing it!  I think we need to go for a ride again tomorrow to work off the food.

Tuesday 26 October 2010 Clare

Another nice day and we mounted our pushbikes and headed off on the Riesling Trail, which is a bike/walking track that follows the old train line route.   The idea is to take various exits and have lunch at a pub or vineyard and do some wine tastings on the way.  But we rode from Clare to Watervale, about 15 kilometres each way up and down gradual hills as we went.  We thought we would visit the wine cellars by car tomorrow, as venturing off the trail meant you had to go on roads and up steep hills in places.  We did have tender butts , but the scenery was beautiful and needed the exercise anyway.  Pizza for dinner is justified!

Monday 25 October 2010 Port Germein to Clare

We were packed up, moved and set up at Clare in no time.  It was a beautiful day and most of all no wind.  We had happy hour and got the Oz Pig out to cook a roast chicken and vegies.  This caught the attention of some neighbours who were impressed with the pig and envious of our meal.

Sunday 24 October 2010 Day trip to Auburn

A beautiful day today and we’re off to meet Jason, Madie and Oliver for lunch at Auburn.  It’s a quaint little town with a lovely park and lots of history, as do many towns in the area.  We decided on The Rising Sun Hotel for lunch and ate too much as usual.  On our return journey we decided that Clare Caravan Park had a lot more appeal and that we had had enough of the coastal winds for now, so we would move there tomorrow.

Saturday 23 October 2010 Port Germein

I think the oysters I ate upset my tummy a bit during the night so we ended up having a sleep in this morning.  It was still blowing and cloudy so we decided to go for a drive around the area.  We visited Port Pirie and washed the car at the car wash as it had a good layer of bugs on it by now.  We drove to Telowie Gorge and walked the 1.6 klm return track, then drove on up the Port Germein Gorge road and stopped in at Glenholme Vinyards at Blesing’s Garden.  The owner was very friendly and provided wine tastings and Devonshire teas.  We continued on towards Laura and came across an Olive Grove/Café and had a late lunch with some oil tasting.  Very nice meals and unfortunately we were then too full to have any of Laura’s famous ice creams.  There were a number of forestry trails and survey tracks through the hills but it was getting late in the day so we returned to the van to hide from the wind which had gotten stronger as the day went on.

Friday 22 October 2010 Port Germein

The wind had blown in from the north boosting temperatures into the low 30’s.  Fuel consumption was noticeably heavier going into the wind and it was great once we passed through Port Augusta heading south, now with a tail wind.  We pulled into Port Germein CV Park and caught up on some washing etc.  The park owners are very friendly and explained how they hire crab pots and supply bait for park visitors who want to walk out on the 1.5 klm long jetty and catch some blue swimmer crabs.  We’ll try that if and when the wind drops. 

We went to the pub for dinner and for a town of about 200 or so people it was a pretty lively night.  When you looked around the bar you saw the wildest bunch of characters including the hairiest barman I’ve ever seen.  There was a fat lady and man singing and they were quite good, with plenty of bantering going on between them and the crowd.  We had a brain-fried druggy with coke bottle glasses and a western shirt jigging away beside us and his conversation made Ozzie Osborne sound intelligent.  But the surprising thing was everyone was having a great time and the mix of characters added to the atmosphere.

Thursday 21 October 2010

We left Lincoln National Park and headed up the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula as we had a number of places recommended to us.  We visited Boston Bay Winery that had a great view of the harbour just north of Port Lincoln.  The wines weren’t too bad luckily, as we needed to restock supplies.  We checked out a number of spots including Tumby Bay, Lipson Cove (Beautiful little beach), Arno Bay and Cowell.  We bought some oysters at Cowell Roadhouse and headed for Point Lowley for the night.  It’s a free camp that’s virtually in the car park of the boat ramp about 300 metres from a lighthouse.  There’s a rock wall to fish off, but I only caught weeds and rocks as usual.  This spot is very popular and you need to get in early and the flies were prolific and very friendly.

Wednesday 20 October 2010 Lincoln National Park

Another perfect day, sunny and warm.  I tried my hand at jagging squid but only managed to loose my lure on the weed and rocks.  The best part was seeing seals and dolphins swimming by and the birds sunning themselves on the rocks in the morning sun.  I did manage to upset a pair of Pacific Gulls who were nesting on the beach in front of us.  They swooped and sqarked at me, but didn’t get too close.  This is a beautiful location and again having a tinny would be an advantage as the weed around the rocks means I’m going to loose fishing gear.

Tuesday 19 October 2010 Streaky Bay to Port Lincoln

Today we leave Streaky Bay quite reluctantly and promise ourselves to return to this very beautiful spot when possible.  We were heading for Farm Beach as recommended by some friends.  This turned out to be totally different from what we had imagined.  The campground looked a bit feral and the beach was out of sight about 300 metres away.  You could drive along the beach if you wanted but I wasn’t going to attempt it on our own.  It would be great here with a small group and even better if you had a tinny.

We continued on to Coffin Bay, which appeared very touristy and not what we were looking for.  So it was on to Port Lincoln, did some shopping and out to the Lincoln National Park at Fishermans Point.  This is a good 30-minute drive out of town on a good dirt road.  We wriggled into a camp spot amongst heath land scrub on a point with views of Port Lincoln on the other side of the bay.

Sunday 17 October 2010 Streaky Bay

We woke to a beautiful day and headed off for the two loop drives.  The first is the Cape Bauer Loop, which takes you along some of the most scenic coast you’ll find anywhere.  The water seems extra clear down here and has this striking azure blue colour to it.  The fishermen on the rocks have got to be keen and I don’t know how they get the fish up if it’s anything over a couple of kilos.  There are blowholes that whistle and gush.  Unfortunately not gushing water when we were there but the air rushing in and out was quite loud.

The second loop is the Westall Way, which is further down the coast displaying more spectacular coastline and even a bunch of sea lions lounging on the rocks and playing in the water.  We also saw miles of pure white sand dunes but didn’t venture far out into them, as it’s pretty remote if you get stuck.

These drives took us most of the day so we treated ourselves to dinner at the caravan park restaurant.  A low-key affair, but fantastic value for money.  I had a dozen of the best oysters I’ve ever had for entrée then we had lamb shanks and vegies.  Desert was apple crumble, cream and ice cream, Yummy!!

Saturday 16 October 2010 Minnipa to Streaky Bay

Thank God the wind has died down today.  Patchy showers but still fairly cool.  Only travelled about 130 klms today and booked into the Streaky Bay Foreshore CV Park for 3 nights.  We scored a waterfront site, set up and went for a bike ride around town.  We made a booking for dinner at the Mocean restaurant, which was recommended by the people camped beside us who are regular visitors here.  On the way back the wind blew in our faces and the rain came down, once again I was freezing cold.  We had some lunch and jumped under the covers for a nanna nap.  Tomorrow we’ll explore a couple of circuit drives around the area as suggested by the park owners.  We may even try another bike ride along the foreshore if the weather improves.

Friday 15 October 2010 Wilmington to Minnipa

Eight degrees centigrade this morning with horizontal rain coming in at about 80 kph plus.  Not nice and we froze packing up and filling the tanks.  Heading west today to a little town called Minnipa and Pildappa Rock.  This is one of several granite wave rock formations around Australia.  We were heading into the wind all the way and the van has developed a small tail wobble, which I think is caused by the Coopers tyres.

We thought we would be out of the wind behind the rock, but it seemed to swirl around and get us just the same.  Deb climbed the rock after some persuasion but couldn't wait to get down again.  We spent the rest of the day in the van out of the wind and rain.

13/14 October - Wilmington SA

Wilmington's a little town 40 klms east of Port Augusta.  Staying for 2 nights in the caravan park.  A bit feral, but ok.  Drove about 10 klm to Alligator Gorge and did the 2.5 klm 2 hour walk.  Nice but lots of rock hopping and very steep climb in and out.  We need the exercise though.  Then we drove to Hancock's Lookout for spectacular views of the Spencer Gulf.  A beautiful day but cool and drizzling in the evening.

Eyre Peninsula South Australia Trip Oct 2010

Left our friend's place at Esk on Monday 11 October, spent night at Walgett NSW in free camp in town.  Then went through Bourke to Wilcannia via the dirt road (350 klms dirt) which was in good condition as we did 80 kph most of the way.  Spent Tuesday night at a rest area on a small hill in between Wilcannia and Broken Hill.  Drizzling rain but the desert country is green and the wild flowers are in bloom making the views quite spectacular.  Fields of purple, yellow, green, orange and flashes of red.  It even smells good!  Wednesday night we were at Wilmington near Port Augusta for a couple of nights.  There are a number of walks to do in the area and will post photos of them in the next post, so stay tuned.  The new cruiser is great and all is going well so far.  It's a little overcast at present but should be perfect for walking.