Time to move on

As the word "travel" suggests, we are always on the move.  On Friday it was time to pack up our gear, ensure that the house we had been sitting at was being left perfectly clean, complete some shopping so that we left fresh food in the fridge for the home owners on their return from Hawaii and prepared for an early morning departure to Melbourne.

We left Sydney by 7.30 a.m. and joined the freeway that eventually becomes the Hume Highway which we would follow all the way to Melbourne.  It is a number of years since we have travelled the Sydney to Albury which is on the Murray River.  Last year we had travelled from Sydney to Melbourne via the coast road (to complete our coastal loop of Australia).

It was a long week-end in Sydney as it was Labour Day on the Monday.  The SES volunteers were out in force servicing the "driver reviver" stops.  We stopped at the Mundoonan Rest Area where the volunteers had tea and coffee available along with biscuits and sausages in bread.  This is a free hot drink service for drivers and a small donation is requested for passengers.  What a great service they are providing to the travelling public and the service is provided twenty four hours a day over all long week-ends and some others as well.  Well done!

We stopped to stretch our legs and support the volunteers.  The rest area also had tables, BBQ's, toilets and showers and plenty of room for children to have a play and run around.  All this adjacent to the Hume Highway but far enough off the road to be safe for everyone.

We continued south and we were making very good time as the road is four lane now from Sydney to Melbourne.  Next stop was at Albury in NSW for lunch at a park alongside the Murray River.  As we had plenty of time we took the opportunity for a half hour walk along the river track.  It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people around enjoying the facilities.

The river is beautiful as ever, however we didn't see any house boats this time.  We were surprised to see that the authorities have closed the boat ramp which seemed a shame for boating enthusiasts.

As we still had about four hours travel ahead of us, we continued on crossing the border from NSW into Victoria as we left Albury.  Wodonga is the first township over the border and is only four kilometres from Albury - literally over the river.  After five months away we were back in Victoria and it seemed very "normal" to be travelling roads we are very familiar with.

The paddocks close to the freeway as we drove south from Wodonga looked very bright with the yellow of the canola flower looking brilliant.  The canola is grown from seed and is crushed for the oil which is used in margarine and cooking oils.  Apparently in Victoria the main production of canola is in the south west, but is becoming more common in the north west .

Before long we were on the outskirts of Victoria and the welcome to Melbourne sign - it is always great to be back in Melbourne where we have many happy memories of our years living in Box Hill and have made a lot of friends.

Burra and continuing north

We stayed overnight in Burra in a historic miners cottage.  The cottages are set in long rows around a square and had a separate bedroom, lounge, kitchen and bathroom.  They were certainly unique but lacked in some of the more modern day necessities – there was one power point in the bedroom (accommodating the queen bed and a single bed), none in the lounge, and one in the kitchen powering the small fridge, the small hot plate, jug, and toaster.  This provided a challenge to run the one heater which the cord allowed only to be used in the bedroom, and power up i-phones, i-pads, i-pods etc.  A lesson in how life used to be especially when none of the boys knew how to turn on the lights using a pull cord!  Tim and Jake slept in the lounge in which we were able to light a small open fire but typical of an old style fire, most of the heat went up the chimney.  Fortunately it wasn’t too cold overnight and we all slept well.

This morning we explored the town a little – the houses and buildings were all built out of light coloured old stone bricks.  The younger boys enjoyed playing down by the river looking for the various native birds and taking lots of photos.  We visited the information centre and also the regional council rooms as we wanted to see the fossil display – the fossils of ancient creatures were found east of Burra and provided a history very different to today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way out of town we stopped off at a lookout to see the copper mine that operated in the area until the late 1800s – the levels of the mine could be easily seen with the various tall buildings high on the hill above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued on and our first stop was at the site of a wind farm – there are four wind farms in South Australia which provide 20% of the state’s electricity.  There was a blade of a windmill on display and we were all amazed at how big it was – it was 44 metres long.  The wind farm we saw provided electricity to some 40,000 homes.

 

 

 

 

We stopped off at Peterborough for lunch – cooked cheese and tomato toasted sandwiches using the small gas cooker at the rest area in the middle of town.  There were at least ten caravans parked up at the same time – reminders to us of our travels over the last couple of years.  Obviously most of these people were heading to the Flinders Ranges.

Peterborough is a town in the mid north of South Australia, in wheat country, just off the Barrier Highway. At the 2006 census, Peterborough had a population of 1,689

We continued on to Hawker at the south end of the Flinders Ranges and then taking the road to the west of the Ranges we travelled north initially to Parachilna.  Unfortunately time does not allow us to explore the Flinders Ranges.  We had initially planned to stop overnight at Parachilna but a vote was taken to continue another sixty kilometres to Leigh Creek to reduce the travel tomorrow.  We have driven through some pretty arid sheep farming land today and we have been surprised to see the number little lambs.  The ruins of many old cottages are also scattered along the highway telling stories of life in the area. 

The landscape is now much more scrubby with only the occasional flock of sheep – Tim has been on kangaroo patrol as he is very keen to see a mob of wild kangaroo but as yet has only seen a couple.  We continue to see quite a few emu and the odd hawk.  Other than that the only evidence of wildlife has been the road kill which the boys are quick to point out.

We are now staying at Leigh Creek which is 66 kilometres north of Parachilna.  South Australia generates about 40% of its electricity from coal mined at Leigh Creek – apparently almost daily the mine fills a 2.8 kilometre long train with nearly 10,000 tonnes of coal bound for Port Augusta.  With a bit of luck we just might see the train tomorrow.  Tonight we have stayed in a cabin but the weather is certainly getting warmer so we will tent from tomorrow.  We cooked our dinner of hamburgers followed by crumpets with honey outside on the BBQ’s while the boys played spotlight with the help of headlamps. 

 

Victoria to South Australia

Today we followed the Sturt Highway crossing the border into South Australia prior to visiting Renmark.  We have travelled this way before and we are always surprised that we need to dispose of all fruit and vegetables passing quarantine. 

Today the officer wasn’t prepared to accept our statement that we had no fruit or vegetables on board (we had also had to dispose as we entered Mildura due to control of fruit fly).  I had forgotten about the need to dispose and had made a special trip to Queen Victoria Market on Saturday to stock up on fruit and vegetables for our trip.  We  disposed of all the fruit we couldn’t eat before Mildura and after dinner preparation on Sunday night left the balance of the vegetables in the cabin fridge.  So annoying that I had forgotten.  After casually looking into the Patrol and getting Peter to open up the back doors the officer allowed us to proceed.  I do wonder about the disposal methods – all single items were put in a bin yet bagged and plastic wrapped items were sitting on the top.  Perhaps these go to charity but I doubt it!

Renmark is the first town over the border.  We have stayed here previously and it is a lovely town on the banks of the Murray River.  We made our way to the centre of town on the river bank and while I shopped for lunch items Peter took the boys down to look at the river boats.  There was a house boat tied up owned by a guy named Frank – it was quite unique as you will see from the photos.  It even had chooks on board!  Frank invited the boys on board to have a look around and after our lunch he offered to take Peter and the boys for a ride up the river.  The boys each had a turn of steering and blowing the whistle having to remember how many hoots were made for each directional turn.  The boat trip made their day and certainly increased the time we spent in Renmark.

 

 

 

 

With a delayed start we continued our journey driving through vineyards and citrus orchards before the land became very scrubby and barren.  We were on kangaroo lookout for our NZ boys but although we saw a number of signs warning us of kangaroos we didn’t see any.  The only wildlife we saw was a few emus.

We are now staying overnight in the small town of Burra.  This town is an old mining down with many historic homes and buildings.  We are staying in the Paxton Square cottages which are original miners homes – they have power and bathrooms but very little else has been done to modernise them.  There is a caravan park adjacent to the town but unfortunately they don’t have any cabins and as it is to be around 6 degrees C overnight we opted against putting up the tents when there was another option.

We walked the old town and bought supplies of vegetables for the next few days – there is one small IGA store in town and a number of bakeries and specialty shops.  Not dissimilar to a number of small towns there are four pubs.  There is a small river opposite where we are staying and the boys enjoyed being able to play down at the river bank for a while – they are long days in the car and not very interesting at this stage for them.  The trip on the house boat and seeing the paddle steamer in Renmark were the highlights of their day.  Tomorrow we head further north skirting the Flinders Ranges and head to Parachilna.  From there north we will soon be on to the Oodnadatta Track and our real adventure into the outback commences.  We are hopeful the temperature increases as we will possibly need to tent from tomorrow as options for cabins decrease.  It has been about eighteen degrees today with blue skies and no wind so quite pleasant but the temperature definitely drops around 5 p.m. and gets quite chilly. 

The next journey begins

We have been house sitting in Kensington, a western suburb of Melbourne, for a young couple who have been holidaying in Fiji.  We have also looked after their two dogs, Lennox and Kostya.  On Sunday, 26^th May we packed up and along with our nephew, Connor who is 13, and our two grandsons, Jake aged 9 and Tim aged 8, we headed out of town on our next adventure.

Peter had a challenge getting all the camping gear for five people, plus the boys gear and our gear (this is the beginning of a four month adventure before we return to Melbourne for us but the boys all return home to their respective parents in the middle of June) into and on to the Patrol. Mind you there was assistance from three boys in getting the job done!!   The level of gear on the roof rack seemed to be getting higher and higher and there is still the brazier on top!  As we pulled out of Kensington to commence our trip north to Mildura there was very little room inside either.

We stopped just south of Bendigo for lunch and a stretch – it was certainly cold so the picnic didn’t last too long.  We continued north stopping every hour or so for a stretch and eventually arrived in Mildura. 

This was over five hundred kilometres and hopefully will be the longest travel distance in one day although we will need to travel each day to reach our destination of Townsville via the Simpson Desert by the 8^th June.  Fortunately we had pre-booked into a cabin at a caravan park so we didn’t have to erect the tents in the dark as it was after six p.m. before we arrived.  We only stayed overnight but before we left on Monday morning we had a chance to wander down to the banks of the Murray River and see the house boats moored.  Tim had collected a brochure of the native birds to the area so enjoyed looking for the various varieties. 

With the load back on and in the Patrol we commenced our trip to South Australia.    

Our plans for travelling north

After two very comfortable periods of house sitting in Melbourne (with a few days with family and friends as well) it is nearly time for us to leave the cold of Melbourne and travel north.

Our plans are to leave Melbourne on the 26 May and initially go to Mildura, then into South Australia and make our way to the Oodnadatta Track.  We will pass through Parachilna, Blinman, William Creek, Oodnadatta and then on to Mt Dare and Dalhousie to enjoy the warm springs.  From here we will really feel we are in the outback by travelling west to east across the Simpson Desert to Birdsville.

From Birdsville we will visit the outback towns of Bedourie and Boulia (shame the camel races are not on when we pass through) and then to Winton to again see the dinosaur museum.  Continuing north to Hughenden, passing through Charters Towers we will eventually arrive in Townsville in Far North Queensland. 

We normally travel with just the two of us but this time we have some passengers.  We have invited Connor who is our 13 year old nephew who lives in Frankston in Victoria.  One boy was not enough for us, after all he may get lonely, so our two grandsons, Jake and Timothy from Huntly in New Zealand will also travel with us.  Jake and Tim who are only nine and eight respectively, will have their first unaccompanied flight to Melbourne on Saturday and then together we will commence the 4000 kilometre journey north.

 

In about three weeks Connor will fly back to Melbourne from Townsville and Jake and Tim will fly to Auckland from Cairns.  We have many adventures ahead of us all before then.  There is a lot of dusty and sandy roads to travel, the cold then the warmth, 1000 sand dunes to cross as we travel the desert, tents to be erected and taken down, dishes to be done (!) and bound to be the favourite - the Aussie flies and hopefully we don't encounter up close too many other Australian wildlife.  As and when the internet is available we will update the blog to share the story.  Watch this space!

Back in Melbourne

After walking the board walk at The Nobbies we headed for Melbourne - it
seemed sad to think that we were on the very last drive of our trip around
Australia. However, in other ways it was good to be back.

We are house sitting for three weeks in Wheelers Hill and about an hour
after leaving Philip Island we were here - we purposely pulled over as we
came off East Link to take a photo of the GPS showing that we only had 750
metres to go. After close to 50,000 kilometres we were safely back in
Melbourne.

We had the ceremonial turn off of "Spot" the EPIRB which we have named
Malcolm after our good friend who kept a regular track of our travels -
thanks Malcolm it was always good to know that you were checking up on us.

Of course at the end of any journey is the task of unpacking - we are
fortunate to be able to housesit for our friends Jocelyn and Greg who have
returned to NZ for a month. This has meant that Peter was able to back the
trailer into the garage and unload into three piles - goods to be returned
to NZ by freight, stuff to be retained in Australia for our travels next
year and stored until then and then the pile which needed sorting to give
away, sell or dispose of.

We have had an amazing trip and we will do a separate entry with some
statistics of our trip and learnings etc. We hope that you have enjoyed
following our trip and that it may give some inspiration to others to
undertake something similar.

The Nobbies, Philip Island, Victoria

The Nobbies is at the southern end of Philip Island with the nobbies being
the two small islands off the coast. There are wooden steps and walkways
around the cliffs to give vantage points to look out. We have visited a
number of times and there have been large colonies of seals present but
there were no seals at all on Monday.

Some of the walkways were closed off as protection for the seagulls which
were nesting - there were certainly heaps of seagulls swooping around and it
was a matter of watching your head for any droppings coming your way.

Under the walkways there are also nesting boxes for the penguins and at
times you can see the penguins sitting on the nest. We couldn't see any but
there were tracks leading into the nesting boxes.

The last time we visited The Nobbies the information centre and café were
closed and we understood this venture had been a financial failure. It
still looked as though it was closed with very little activity around, but
closer checking found the souvenir shop open and the café had been open but
was by then closed for the day.

There were a few tourists about but everyone was very windblown - not a
pleasant place to be but at least it wasn't raining. Obviously from my
photo I looked rugged up against the wind, have the cares of the world by my
frown and generally keen to get going and not stand to have my photo taken!

Philip Island

Philip Island has been a favourite spot in the years that we have lived in
Victoria and we have visited a number of times. As we are uncertain when we
will next be in the area we decided we should take the opportunity and stop
off. From San Remo there is a bridge creating a causeway to Philip Island
and it always looks quite impressive. We have never stopped in San Remo
before, as we always want to get to our destination on Philip Island, so
this time we did. There are a number of shops in the village and a nice
foreshore area. As it was Monday, and not the best weather, there were not
too many people about.

Up and over the causeway and we were on Philip Island and headed to Cowes.
There are a number of new shops in the village with a large new Woolworths
all finished ready for the influx of visitors over the summer period. We
made our way straight down to the jetty and took some exercise walking along
the coastline. There were a few walkers about and a large school group but
the cold wind was still present so not that pleasant really. We had
initially thought we would book into a motel and stay over but it wasn't
that appealing and as we have visited a number of times there wasn't
anything new to explore so made the decision that we would drive on to
Melbourne which is only about one hour away.

Before moving on to Melbourne we drive down to see "The Nobbies" area once
again. It is near here that the popular penguin parade is held each night.
We didn't see any penguins but we did see a family of ducks out scavenging
on the roadside.

There were some mighty big waves crashing the coastline and lots of black
bodies bobbing around as the surfers tried for the best waves. They
certainly needed their wetsuits to retain their body temperature!

The south coast

We woke to a cold windy morning in Lakes Entrance and it didn't encourage us
to stay on. A brisk walk along the esplanade was more than enough of the
conditions and we decided we will pack up and move on towards Melbourne
deviating at Sale and taking the southern coast road via Inverloch.

We diverted again so that we travelled through the rural areas of Middle and
Lower Tarwin which is where friends have a holiday home and we have enjoyed
a number of great week-end retreats. It was lovely to meander through the
rural roads which were quite familiar. Although we didn't see any live
wombats every few kilometres we saw the road signs warning us to watch out
for them and unfortunately there were a few as road kill on the side of the
roads.

Wilsons Promontory is the most southern point of Australia. We chose not
to divert down to "The Prom" as we have visited and stayed there a number of
times.

Lunch stop was at the beachside town of Inverloch. Again the wind was not
pleasant so we didn't stay around for long. There were only a few people at
the beach - a couple braving the conditions to fish, some dog walkers and
two young couples who thought it was the middle of summer with skimpy
clothes.

The highway soon follows the southern coast of Australia and we stopped off
at Kilcunda. This coast always have huge waves and it was no different
today. There is a caravan park high on these cliffs but it wouldn't have
been pleasant staying and fighting the wind. Just a short stop for us and
we continued on towards Philip Island.

Historic Genoa bridge, Vic

We stopped off at Genoa as we rejoined the Princes Highway. There is a
heritage listed bridge which was built in 1905. This bridge would have
transported many people by foot, horse and horse drawn vehicle, and cars
over the years. It was taken out of use and many of the local people
petitioned to retain the bridge rather than have it demolished by the road
board. It was heritage listed in 1995 and restored in 1997.

The first section of the bridge has been lost during a flood and there is
now a steel ramp to the original bridge. It is showing significant signs of
age and wear but has been reinforced with concrete and steel. Still it was
a bit creepy walking across it especially when Peter said I would be dead if
the bridge collapsed and I fell into the river! He is so kind.

The village of Genoa did not look too impressive - an old but still
functioning hotel, a café which was closed today, a block of old motels
which didn't look as though they had been in use for years and two or three
old houses. Apparently there was quite a village here in years gone by.

We have now moved on to Lakes Entrance and the cold wind has remained with
us but fortunately no rain. We have booked into another motel right on the
esplanade. We took a walk along the esplanade to see the many fishing boats
tied up. All the walkers were rugged up in coats and jackets and winter
clothes - do we really want to be back in Victoria? What has happened to
summer?

Mallacoota, Vic

We stayed overnight at Mallacoota. We had heard about Mallacoota quite a
bit as good friends from Box Hill holidayed in the area each year.
Mallacoota is about twenty five kilometres off the highway and is on the
coast and there are many lakes in the area also. Unfortunately there was a
cold wind so we didn't do too much exploring.

There is a large council caravan park in Mallacoota bordering the
waterfront. Apparently there are over 800 power sites at this park and we
were surprised to see it was nearly full. We then learned that there was a
caravan club muster on and over 300 caravans had arrived on Friday and more
were arriving each day. This would be a great financial boost to the area
in an otherwise quiet time of the year and it is just a shame the weather is
not being kinder.

We went to Bastion Point and then to Bafkta Beach before going to see the
WWII bunker. Unfortunately the bunker museum wasn't open as it only opens
to the public on Tuesdays. It is very well maintained and Peter would have
enjoyed going inside.