27th April 2013

Well folks I must apologise for getting behind with this blog, a lot of the time that we have been travelling we haven’t had internet access or phone. Also son David joined us at Uluru and having an extra person has generated a bit of work one way and another but to top it off, on a 4 hour scenic hike around Kings Canyon rim Nancy had a nasty little fall and broke her foot, This was just over a kilometre from the end of the hike so the poor old thing had to hobble out best she could over pretty rough country. I strapped her foot up with sticky plaster the best I could to help support it and already it was blue and swollen on the top part of the foot so it took us quite some time to get her back to the car. We kept her foot packed in ice and frozen peas for the next few days until we got to Alice Springs where as soon as we were established in a caravan park I took her to Alice Springs hospital. Apparently she has a serious break in her foot that has been temporarily plastered to disable it and she has to see a visiting orthopaedic surgeon next Wednesday to determine if the foot needs an operation and pinning or just a plaster cast, in the mean time we are heading out to the West Macdonnell Range for a couple of days, so once again we will be out of range. Eventually I will get the blog back up to-date and as soon I can I will post some photos. 

20th April 2013

15^th April 2013

We used 26lt per hundred kilometres on the run from Pimba to Coober Pedy, by far the heaviest going so far and the dearest with fuel $1.77+ per litre.

Once settled in the caravan park at Coober Pedy we found the supermarket for essentials and found prices reasonable considering where we were, although milk is expensive.

While in the supermarket we ran into a couple we had parked next to overnight at Pimba, turns out they were in the same caravan park only three vans away from us and we had parked next to someone they had become friendly with from a previous stop. So the three groups enjoyed happy hour and some good laughs and as we are all heading in the same direction we have started travelling as a group.  (safety in numbers)

Yesterday after a very slow start, apparently it was Sunday anyway, we joined a guided bus tour in and around Coober Pedy. Pick up at the caravan park 1:15pm and got us back about 6:30pm right to our caravan, hot, bumpy and pestered by flies it was still the best monies worth we have encountered for a guided tour anywhere. As a lot of you would know quite a large percentage of buildings are actually constructed underground in Coober Pedy. In a lot of cases people have taken advantage of original mining activity to start a dwelling or building but in a many cases underground occupation is purpose built and now days has to comply with town planning approvals. Building underground isn’t carried out for economics as it is usually quite a costly exercise, the main reason is temperature control. We were told the temperature remains reasonably constant at between 22 and 24 degrees centigrade, summer or winter, winter the outside temp gets down around -5degrees and in summer up as high as 55C. We were given a running commentary as we were driven around the town, through opal fields, visiting an underground home, underground mine, underground church, underground museum, out of town to a vista called “The Breakaways”, that was once an inland sea and an area that has been used on several occasions for movie sets including one of the Mad Max movies “Thunderdome” with Tina Turner, there were others but I can’t remember the names. Back at the caravan park they have a woodfired pizza restaurant and as we had pre-ordered before our guided tour, we just had time for a quick happy hour before all shuffling over for the best pizza we have eaten in a long time.

Water is scarce out this way, Coober Pedy relies on a de-salination plant water source 25 kilometres out of town that produces good drinking water but you have to buy it. At the caravan park there is a dispenser were you can fill your tank 20c for 40 litres, we needed almost 200lts.

15^th April

Three caravans departed Coober Pedy heading up the Stuart Highway on our way to Uluru (Ayers Rock to the oldies). We only travelled 150kls to a large roadhouse called Cadney Station that has a caravan park alongside. The plan was from here the following day we would leave our vans at the roadhouse and drive out to the Painted Desert a 100kls out on the Oodnadatta Track a dirt road that was in surprisingly good condition. At the caravan park we were on power and bore water that tasted a bit soapy but the girls could get their washing done, however no phone, internet or TV so we watched a video that night.

The drive out to The Painted Desert was interesting and very scenic passing through various types of countryside ranging from flat barren plains covered in beds of shingle as far as the eye could see, to rolling hills, through dry creek beds, past rocky outcrops and colourful escarpments it was a photo shot at every turn. We called into Arckaringa cattle station not far from the Painted desert lookout, where a few cabins and a camping area is set up and a lovely young lady came bounding out of the homestead to greet us, quite excited about getting visitors. Turns out with her boyfriend they run the 24,000 square kilometre cattle station for a company and as a side-line she looks after the camping ground and does morning teas (Devonshire Teas), should passing travellers want it. On her suggestion we continued on the track to the lookout area only a few kls further out where we spent an hour or so admiring the scenery and taking heaps of photos all of us wearing hats with nets to keep the flies off our faces, they are so thick they get into your ears and nose and crawl in behind your glasses, little bush flies smaller than the sort you get when cooking food at home. These little blighters aren’t after food they just want moisture and salt I guess, but they drive you crazy. Locals say you never get used to them but you learn to put up with them (I don’t think so), apparently they go around May until at least the end of the year, I find that hard to believe also but it’s probably when it cools down. Let’s face it we were out all day never saw another sole so what were they doing before we came along and where were they hiding and geeze they can fly fast because when we got back to our caravans they arrived about 5 minutes later.

The scenery at the Painted Desert lookout was quite sensational, you are up on a high promontory and look out across what was obviously once an inland sea and looks as if the tide has just receded. Here and there rocky bluffs of many different colours rise up reminiscent of pictures we have seen of the Arizona Desert. In other areas hills and valleys like small gorges eroded away by time are splendid in contrasting colours of ochre.

After our fill of natural beauty we called Lauren at Arckaringa Station to let her know we were on our way back for what was now to be afternoon tea. Lauren greeted us at the homestead with her pinafore on straight from the kitchen and invited us to a shady spot under a Quandong tree where she had set a table with a beautiful lace table cloth and silver ware. Where upon we were served with tea and coffee the biggest fluffiest scones fresh out of the oven and still warm, home made quandong jam and fresh cream and to top it off Lauren sat down with us and chatted, absolutely delightful.

What the hell is a quandong? Some of you may well ask. Here is a little extract of information.

 The Quandong is a truly unique native Australian fruit. Found in the arid and semi-arid regions of all Australian mainland states , Quandong trees have been classified as belonging to the santalum genus of plants. Ideally adapted to arid environments, the Santalum Acuminatum species is known to be a semi-parasitic plant. Quandong trees can tolerate high soil salinity levels and often rely for their complete water requirements from the root systems of host plants. Across their native distribution range, Quandong trees typically grow 2 to 3 metres in height, with a dense leathery crown of leaves perhaps 2 metres wide.

Just so you know quandong is pronounced rightly or wrongly as quondong. Aboriginals gather the fruit for bush tucker, they separate the flesh of the fruit from the kernel to eat raw or dry it for later use as food and the kernel is used for making medicines for various ailments. Quandong leaves are crushed up and mixed with saliva to make an ointment for sores etc. and I believe a type of hair conditioner can be made from some part of the quandong.

When the fruit is ripe Lauren say’s she has to collect it quickly before the emu’s beat her to it apparently it’s quite a favourite of theirs. Lauren being ever enterprising collects the fruit and makes jam to sell to travellers like ourselves. Yes we bought a bottle, it’s really nice on toast.

From Cadney Station it took another two days to get to Ayers Rock caravan park Yulara, Uluru. It is hot but the flies are not so bad here thank goodness and was I whinging about paying $1.77 per litre for fuel, over the two days getting to Uluru we paid $1.96 and $1.99 per litre.

   

13th April 2013

12^th April 2013

We spent 4 nights at Mount Barker and during that time caught up with a couple of good friends down in Adelaide and joined them for dinner at a nice Vietnamese Restaurant.  Adelaide Hills is a beautiful area, its many small centres are all so attractive with their old charm houses and tree lined streets each small town has its own special attraction and charm.

We took the opportunity while having a few days break to ensure we were well stocked and everything was up to scratch for our trip up the centre to Darwin. Wednesday night I had a talk to Nancy regarding the merits of leaving earlier than we had been and so on Thursday morning we got away by 8:45am instead of 9:00am and as she climbed back into the car after handing the caravan park key in at the office she informed me the lady in the office had told her about a prize winning butcher shop that wasn’t very far away. Of course my objections and comments regarding stocking up the previous day, fell on deaf ears and besides it was probably on the way. Fifteen kilometres later in a totally different directions to the quickest way my GPS was set on, we finally found this nearby butchery where Nancy delightfully purchased half a dozen sausages for tea. By this time the GPS had stopped chanting “Re calculating” and took us on the very picturesque, long, hilly and windy tourist route (that took twice as long and used a lot of fuel). It was a lovely drive that also included several kilometres of rough dirt road before we finally ended up out on the highway north of Port Wakefield on our way to Port Augusta where we topped up with fuel. My back went out while getting the van ready the day before and hadn’t settled down over night but although I was in quite a bit of discomfort it was ok driving, I tried to get into a physio at Port Augusta to no avail. So we kept forging on. Eventually pulling up at the servo at Pimba where the road forks off to Woomera (5kls) and Roxby Downs (80+) and in the other direction Coober Pedy – Alice Springs – Darwin etc. we had covered 510kls and that’s a long way with a big rig behind you.

This is a free camp area where most travellers seem to pull up and park overnight, it’s a large compound in the middle of nowhere not a tree to be seen anywhere, not a breath of wind, hot as buggery and very friendly flies.

Road-trains pass by on their way to Roxby Downs Olympic Mine and trains pass by just far enough away that you can’t hear them. The trains are very frequent and would have to be the longest trains I have seen, general goods, refrigerated units and dedicated ore trains from various mines. Last night we saw the Indian Pacific go steadily by on it’s way to Adelaide.

12^th April

Friday – we left the van at the Pimba and drove the eighty odd kilometres out to Roxby Downs. Roxby Downs is located 560 kls north of Adelaide and was built to support the Olympic Dam that is now a thriving community of 4500 residents and a real oasis in the desert. Looking around the town it is clean and modern with every facility, well laid out with plenty of trees and greenery. Talking to residents it would appear they thoroughly enjoy living in the remote town where there is a strong community spirit.

Olympic Dam Mine

100% owned by BHP the ore body is the world’s fourth largest copper deposit, fifth largest gold deposit and the largest known uranium deposit, it also contains significant quantities of silver.

It has an interesting history, to quote: it was named after a nearby livestock watering dam located on Roxby Downs pastoral lease that was built to water stock in 1956 the year the Melbourne Olympics were held.

In 1975 one of the world’s largest multi-metallic ore bodies was discovered on the pastoral lease, based on theoretical studies of the formation of copper deposits.

A low budget ten hole drilling programme was undertaken in 1975 and exploration was about to be given up when the tenth hole intersected 178metres containing 2.1% copper and .6kg per tonne uranium indicating a major discovery. Although geologists and drillers were looking for copper, they were surprised to also find minerals not previously found together.

Olympic Dam was acquired by BHP Billiton in 2005.

The mine itself is underground and the processing infrastructure to support it as in smelter and refinery is all situated at the Olympic Dam site, the place is colossal. What it means is that the mined raw material is processed and the finished products of copper, uranium, gold and silver bullion are dispatched to customers as finished products.

As usual we were a day late for the mine tour, they are conducted on Monday and Thursday and of course we were there Friday, but a very pleasant lady in the tourist information centre offered to show us a fifteen minute video all about Roxby Downs so sitting sipping a flat white, in the equivalent to a Gold Class movie theatre we enjoyed a mine visit and history lesson without the flies. It was very interesting.   

  

From Roxby Downs we continued another 30 or so kls further out to Andamooka a remote opal mining settlement, it is a surprisingly large settlement but talk about a shanty town. A few reasonably respectable looking dwellings are starting to appear but the majority are a mishmash of shacks in all sorts of disrepair dotted in no particular plan all over the place interlinked by unformed dirt roads and interspersed with evidence of small time mining activities.

After spending a pleasant evening chatting to out neighbours and laying back staring at a starry sky watching satellites cross the sky and some other terrestrial object burn out entering the earths atmosphere like a giant sky rocket racing across the heavens ( actually I thought the mad Koreans may have got it all wrong), anyway we got away about 0830 and travelled 350 kls up to Coober Pedy very un-interesting drive through salt bush plains and what I call slow hills that is ones that are slight and gradually climb and prevent you getting into top gear for lengthy periods.

8th April 2013

7th April 2013

We did cross into South Australia in fact we got all the way down to Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills.

We got underway from Underbool around 0830, Nancy was easier to get up this morning as daylight saving has finished down here (thank goodness). Getting up in the dark and trying to get Nancy moving when it’s already 0700 is no joke.

Once again there was very little traffic on this highway so we made good time at our own pace. For best part of the journey we passed through grain growing areas in fact on either side of the road as far as you could see in this flat land, was either land prepared for planting or kilometre after kilometre of stubble from the last harvest presumably around Xmas. Ploughing and planting must be done by laser these days as each row is as straight as a die and just disappears like parallel lines into the distance and the ground is so flat and stubble fields are cut so even they almost look like well manicured golden lawns.

From Underbool to Tailum Bend a distance of 230 kls where the Malee Highway meets the Murray River again and a 100 kls from Adelaide, grain country dominated the scenery. The highway is called the Malee Highway so we presumed the dominant scrub that lined the highway like a treed avenue was actually Malee . Considered scrub in most areas these small trees were rather attractive with their glossy green leaves and crimson trunks, it would appear that at some stage of their lives or season the coarse stringy bark just falls off exposing smooth, shiny, scarlet limbs that eventually dry to a matt crimson finish.

We stopped at Tailum Bend for fuel at a Subway servo and both demolished a foot-long, hungry business this travelling. Another 68 kls and we lobbed into Mount Barker Caravan Park, a really nice, quiet and spotlessly clean park and only $28 a night.

Nancy’s front loader was hard at it within one minute of power and water connection and ran until late to catch up, and again the next day for a couple of hours.

8^th April 2013

We’ve done nothing but spend money today. As a precaution I decided to get all of our batteries checked due to their age and not wanting to get caught when in more remote areas. Sure enough two deep cycle house batteries in the caravan on their way out and one of the two big cranking batteries in the Toyota was shot, so both had to be replaced. So $1400 plus later we have new batteries all round, pop goes the weasel. My concern started when we had been driving hard for a while and when we stopped a smell of rotten eggs came into the vehicle, Nancy got most indignant when I just looked at her, so I knew I had problems one in the cab and the other under the bonnet. When I checked the batteries one was boiling and obviously giving off Sulphur Dioxide, hence the smell. With the caravan our batteries should last several days especially as we have solar charging them, but at our last campsite they only lasted a couple of days and started to fail miserably. We also needed to get a gas bottle filled today and tomorrow I have organised an oil change.   

cheers

   

2nd post 7th April 2013

6^th April 2013

If you read my first post you may be wondering how we survived the night where the crim was supposed to be camped. Fortunately he didn’t turn up during the night but that didn’t really help with our sleeping arrangements. For most of the night it was very dark with little moon poking though the trees until early hours of the morning so you couldn’t see the crims tent even if you wanted to. However Nancy was very vigilant and checked for any arrival of a stolen blue car many times during that long night and because she couldn’t see in the dark she would wake me and ask if I could see anything. Fortunately I didn’t lay in bed worrying and fell into good sleep fairly quickly each time. I didn’t even hear the chap in an old motor home leave about 2:00am.

In the morning while preparing the car and rig for our continuing journey I asked the ladies in the neighbouring camper trailer how they had slept and I got the impression they were much like Nancy and heard every little noise during the night, they also heard the motor home leave early in the morning, which we all thought a bit strange. How the mind conjures up scenarios.

“Strange looking bloke with dog sits next to old truck style motorhome constantly watching our end of the campsite. Enter police looking for crim, check inside tent next to us and talk to strange man with motor home. Police depart, motorhome man immediately gets on mobile phone. Crim doesn’t turn up during night, motor home departs in wee hours.

Question: Was the motorhome man a fence, contacted the crim and told him not to come back and arranged to meet him somewhere to collect the ill gotten gains in the wee hours.

Sound far fetched? You would be surprised how many of us thought exactly that scenario independent of one another.

Through Wangaratta our journey took us further into Kelly country, we made a brief stop at Glenrowan just to say we had been there and then spent a considerable amount of time aimlessly driving around the countryside (while towing a large caravan) looking for Ellen Kelly’s grave. Ellen must have been a bit of a hot pants, she was the 4^th of eleven kids herself and ended up having at least 12 kids of her own to several different blokes and in each case she was either not married or was pregnant when she did. (we never did find the grave)

Eventually after travelling through centres of Benalla and Shepparton we arrived at the old Murray River port of Echuca, where we camped for a couple of days on a bend overlooking the river about 8 kls out of town.

Around 1870 Echuca was considered to be the largest and busiest inland port in Australia. Bullock drays had previously lugged goods from Melbourne to local sheep stations and subsequently wool bales back. Apparently it was not only an extremely long and expensive process but it also meant that fragile goods including glass for windows couldn’t be carted on the rough bullock wagons and wool clips were limited to the dray capacities and numbers. Over time steam paddle wheelers made their way upstream and made transport not only faster but far more cost effective. Fragile goods were available and with the introduction of steam and machinery into woolshed shearing for example, the woolclips were able to increase in size as well. So it evolved that Echuca ended up being the busiest and largest port with a huge number of paddle wheelers carrying cargo and people or towing barges with cargo and timber. Today there are several old working paddle wheelers operating around Echuca but nowdays carrying tourists and a major section of the original massive wharf that existed has been rebuilt to its original design with red gum timber which apparently doesn’t rot in  water.

Just upstream of the Echuca Port complex is an old bridge built in about 1870 (not hundred percent sure of the exact date) this old bridge built of what I would presume is malleable iron (similar to steel) is hot riveted not bolted, it was originally built as a railway bridge but nowdays is the only means of getting across to Moama on the NSW side of the Murray, one lane either way it becomes quite a bottleneck in an incident, but all credit to those early designers and builders as these days all sorts of traffic travel over it, cars, trucks, buses B-doubles to name a few.

We spent best part of a day in and around the old port and Echuca itself, including a 45 minute trip on the wood fired steam paddle wheeler Pevensey. Interestingly the old steamer was named after a large sheep station in the area at the time. But I remember a different Pevensey, when I was a kid living in Sussex on the English Channel, there was a small village not far away at a place called Pevensey Bay where there were ruins of a large castle naturally called Pevensey Castle, probably from the Saxon era.

Sitting on cushioned wool bales in beautiful sunshine with the methodical rythum of paddle wheels and rythmic chugging and clunking of the old steam engine, I found myself tapping a foot in time to the beat and noticed others doing similar, I reckon you could easily knock out a tune. These old paddle wheelers have a massive barn door rudder that is linked to the small bridge or better known as wheel house, by chains where the skipper steers the thing with a monstrous ships wheel. Before we arrived back at the wharf the skipper announced that all the kids on board could go up to the wheel house and have their photo taken steering the boat, I was very tempted.

What a revelation it must have been for those early pioneers when steam arrived to replace the rugged hardship of bullock dray days.

We spent another peaceful night at the same campsite overlooking the Murray, the people in the nearest caravan were from Mackay in Qld, basically slowly on their way back home.

6^th April

By the time we got into town and topped up with water then across to NSW to a golf course where there was a public toilet dump for caravans and motor homes, time was marching on, fortunately the roads in this region are good and also flat being what they call the Murray River Valley and that is a misnomer, there are no hills to make it a valley and really they are river plains. Anyway we put some kilometres on the clock passing through border towns on the Murray such as Swan Hill where we stopped for lunch and fuel. Turning left at the little town of Piangil we left the Murray area to travel west down the Mallee Highway eventually stopping for the night at a nice roadside rest area in the middle of a little town called Underbool, two shops, one pub and a police station with no one in it. Very little traffic on this road so we had a quiet night hot showers and toilets and on power for $10 in a honesty box not bad. The journey through from Echuca took us through areas of grain growing as far as the eye could see or fruit growing as far as the eye could see, grapes, apple and pear and stone fruit. I noticed also in some concentrated areas where people were cultivating prickly pear for the fruit.

7th April

Today we should cross into South Australia.