Trekkin

Day 3 – 18 April Monday

We are on the 7^th floor in an older style hotel, The Thistle Marble Arch, on Oxford Street, very close to Hyde Park.  The room has everything for our comfort, it is a bit noisy (we are in the middle of London, what else could we expect) but we didn’t hear a thing last night, we were out to it.

By 7.30 am we were showered & down for breakfast in a huge restaurant where they served a smorgasbord.

We decided to “walk the streets of London.”  Everything is so close – we walked through the famous Marble Arch into Hyde Park.  It’s good to see so much green in the middle of London – we missed the daffodils but we came across some lovely tulips & other spring flowers.  The walk was beautiful, we delighted in seeing the old buildings, statues & the magnificent gates on a “balmy” (very smoggy) morning.  Of course, like all good tourists we headed through Wellington Arch & Green Park to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards – we were there about an hour earlier – but SO MANY people there, thousands, we were lucky we got a reasonable spot to see the guards marching by, not the actual changing of the guards.  There is also a lot of temporary construction scaffolding & structures built for the filming of the royal wedding next week.  There are police everywhere.

Next along Birdcage Walk through Green Park & St James Park down to Westminster Abbey, what an impressive building.  Such ornate carvings & stonework, it is so large.  There were hundreds of people lined up to go in the north entrance, so we skipped the chance to stand in line for a couple of hours & kept on walking to Westminster Hall & the Houses of Parliament, with Big Ben on one end.  A few Morris Dancers were protesting against the dropping of the May Day holiday outside Parliament, another very impressively carved & ornate sandstone building with elaborate gilt work on the top of the towers.  We also had a peek at the old Jewel Tower, formerly part of the old Westminster Palace.  Then off across Westminster Bridge to the south bank of the Thames & a cheeseburger at a cafe over the water next to the bridge.  Continued along the Thames past the London Eye (a huge ferris wheel), there were hundreds lined up here as well.  Back across the Golden Jubilee footbridge & up to Trafalgar Square & Nelson’s Column, it is so much taller than I expected.

There are so many black Mercedes limos, red double-decker buses & London cabs, plus the odd Lamborghini & Bentley sports cars.  There are also lots of crazy people on bicycles mingling with all the traffic, I’m surprised we didn’t see anyone get knocked over.  There are so many people walking on the streets, all nationalities & languages.

Next, up to Piccadilly Circus & the theatre area, then up Regent Street past some very expensive shops, the high end of London town, onto Oxford Circus. We had a look in the Ferrari shop & for a pittance you could buy used engine parts from old Formula 1 Ferrari race cars, like a used motor for 47,000 British Pounds.  We followed Oxford Street back to the Thistle Hotel, past Selfridges then Spencer & Marks before getting back at 5pm.   A bit of blogging & a snooze, then off for dinner & we had a look at Selfridges Food Hall on the way.  We ended up at Hog on the Pound, an old English pub for some fish & chips and a pint of ale.  When in England do as the English. Unbelievable, Ron got sunburnt in London!!! (I forgot my hat)

Day 2 – 17 April Sunday

Up, shower & breakfast at 8am then a walk in a crisp sunny smog (or Seoul fresh air) of downtown Songdo.  This area is a new “Tomorrow City” the motel we stayed in surrounded by lots of vacant blocks (ready for a forest of high rise buildings). The parks have been built first & they are really amazing, beautiful walkways, watercourses, bridges, fountains, cyclepaths, pergolas, all next to wide roads with hardly any traffic.  The high rise buildings are architectural masterpieces, buildings that look as though they are leaning, windows with basketweave design, cut-off angles on buildings, radical looking designs some have futuristic night displays. It really puts Canberra & Australia to shame with our box high rises.  They are really are doing things in style in this new city.  The whole place being built fully from the ground up.  The railways are already underground.  The centrepiece is an artificial lake surrounded by man-made hills planted with great gardens with pathways meandering all the way around, with feature rocks everywhere.  This area was originally all swampland that was flat, again, a credit to the forethought of the planners, it has all been done on a grand scale.

Next to the lake was a bible scene recreation area, they had a major Christian religious event here some time ago & the amount of effort & the length they went to creating the scenes is amazing.  For example, the whale that swallowed Jonah is huge & made up from thousands of tiny glass bottles filled with different coloured water.  The temple is made from thousands of porcelain plates, all tied to scaffolding with string.  The animals in the Garden of Eden are all very well made from material over a wire frame, the parting of the waters is also extremely well done, as is all of the myriads of other bible scenes.  There was hardly a soul wandering around when we were there, the exhibition looked as though it had closed many months ago.

We wandered back to the motel, packed & were in the foyer by 10.15 for the bus back to the airport.  Inside Seoul airport terminal we wandered around looking at some of the duty-free shops & were treated to a show of a royal Korean wedding, with guards in traditional costume, the King & Queen, the consorts & the bridal couple all in traditional Korean costume parading around the airport terminal.  Wow what an amazing & colourful treat.  Tereza even got to learn some traditional Korean craftwork at a Korean cultural store. We enjoyed our short stay in Korea & wished that we would have spent more time exploring the country & culture.

We boarded Korean Air KE907 at 1.15pm & took off at 1.30pm for the 12 hour flight for London where we landed at 5.30pm local time.  By the time we got into London from Heathrow, checked in & got to our room in the Thistle Hotel at Marble Arch, right in the city, it was 8.45pm local time.  A quick shower & crashed in bed, the flight is so tiring, sitting in one spot for so long, though they did have a good selection of movies on the personal LCD TV we each had.  The Korean meals on the plane were also very good. The service, food & even seating & leg room was good, A 1 to the Korean  Airlines.

Eurotrek 2011-04-16
Day 1 – 16 April Saturday
Well, the last minute tidying things up at home saw us get to bed at 11.30pm on Friday night with the alarm set for 1.45am Saturday morning for the drive to Sydney. A ten minute sleep in & we were on the road to Sydney in the thrifty rental car at 2.20am. A stopover at Pheasant’s Nest for a refuel of the rental & a walk around to keep me awake & arrived at Sydney international terminal at 5.30am. The rain was a bit of a pain in Sydney, but thankfully stopped when we parked the rental & walked into the terminal. We found the Thrifty key drop after a bit, then checked in at 6am on Korean Air KE122 to Seoul. Boarded at 7.30am after a bite to eat in the terminal. The flight was long & uneventful, a bit of turbulence here & there, we were served breakfast & lunch & had our first taste of Korean food, Bibimbap with Gochujang (hot pepper paste) – very nice. The smiling stewardess were not too bad on the eye either. After 10 hours flying we touched down at Incheon airport, on an island a short distance from Seoul, crossing over to the main land on a very long bridge. It was unusual for us to see such an array of colourful neon sign display. We arrived at Songdo Bridge Hotel 7.30 pm, somewhere in the outskirts of Seoul. We were booked in on the 12th floor in the 18 story hotel. Hotel, staff and our room is great. Dinner was a wonderful Korean smorgasbord. I fell asleep watching a good Korean movie – amazing how tired you get from sitting in one spot for 10 hours.

Up before sunrise & I disturbed lots of rabbits walking around the homestead yard, then after sunrise I sat in the warm sunshine putting some more words into our blog.  We had a good chat over breakfast with Chris & Gill before Chris headed off to work, then stayed outside birdwatching (we saw a Spotted Harrier) & chatting with Gill (an avid birdwatcher).  Craig & Ben had a very heavy weekend, their friends (about 18) from their boarding school came to stay on the farm & they were so exhausted that they slept almost all the time we were there but they got up to say goodbye.  We left at 10am.  The roads in western NSW are the worst sealed bitumen roads we have been on in all of our travelling, the Western Australian roads are the best.

Narromine was our turn-off point & it seems a prosperous lively little town, the journey down to Parkes was uneventful apart from some roadworks we had to stop for.  We turned off at Parkes to head through Eugowra before stopping at Cowra for a late lunch.  The countryside is so green & lush with all the dams full & water laying around in lots of places.  There is also lots of canola in flower & the brilliant yellow still hurts our eyes it is so intense.  Cowra had a cold wind blowing & it was a bit chilly sitting in the park eating lunch, (preparing us for home) we were joined by a hopeful magpie looking for a handout.  Some of these old towns have some beautiful old buildings in them, some in really good condition & others sadly neglected.  The traffic was building up more & more the closer we got to Canberra, we’re not used to driving with so many vehicles on the road.  We refuelled at Calwell before finally arriving safely home at around 5.30pm after 20,006 km.

The grass was lush green & very long, the weeds are plentiful.  Our dear friend & neighbours Anji & Andy have been keeping an eye on our place.  It was such a wonderful welcome to find a beautiful bunch of flowers & a bottle of bubbly.    They are the best neighbours anyone could wish for.  Our beautiful friend, Margie sent us a lovely card to welcome us home.

Now for the fun (not) of unpacking, washing, cleaning then back to work on Friday.  Back to reality.

Monica, Jackson, Austin & James will come over tomorrow – we missed them so much we can hardly wait.

We had a wonderful trip.  Mother Nature laid out her best for us – good weather, green desert & wonderful native flowers in bloom.  We travelled a long way but we had great adventures, a few mishaps, some terrible roads but at the end of it you come to something wonderful – the long distances & bad road dim.  Ron has been the best travelling companion in the world.  On a trip like this you must have someone you really get on well with because you are together 24/7 & most of the time in small confined spaces (car, caravan).  You have to plan well for the time you have.  Someone has to be handy to repair things that go wrong (they will), someone who can cook – you can eat very well – there are no shops or restaurants for days & at the borders you can lose all your fresh vegetables & fruit – must plan well & cook things up & have a double ration before crossing over (after the border you may not be able to buy any fresh food for a few days).   Road Houses are a blessing (you wonder who on earth would want to live out there hundreds of kilometres from nowhere) they provide petrol/gas/diesel, sometimes road service & repairs (usually very ordinary) basic food but welcome when there isn’t anything else.  We will miss the many (often nameless) fellow travellers who were always nice, friendly & generous with good road advice & must see places.  There are people on the road always but as nice as it has been on the road it is good to come home and to have our children & grandchildren (every time we talked to them we got our fix).  There are days when you really feel isolated – there is no phone reception.

It was very good when Sue & John joined – we couldn’t have had better travelling companions, on the long lonely tracks, when we had problems, wonderful meals with great reds under the beautiful big starry nights, meaningful conversations & a lot of laughs.  We parted from Sue & John…………they went to see the flooded Lake Eyre, then Clare to visit Sue’s sister & mum & they arrived safely home last Saturday.  We had a great time & we will have to plan another one for next year.

Caravan:               Kimberley Karavan Limited Edition

Vehicle:                 Mercedes Benz GL 320 CDI (diesel fuel)

Tires:                     Pirelli Scorpion ATR – zero punctures the whole trip

Total distance:     20,006 kilometres

Total fuel:            2,696.97 litres

Fuel average:     13.48 litres per 100km

Total fuel cost:  $4,099.15

Cost average:    $1.52 per litre

Most costly:       $2.30 per litre – Rabbit Flat (NT)

Least costly:       $1.27.9 per litre – Waikiki (WA)

The Cobar Visitor Centre didn’t open until 8.30 am so we had a slow start this morning, refuelled at the Caltex next to the caravan park then had our choice of Karavan parking spots at the Visitor Centre.  Cobar have really done well in catering to the tourist trade, the Visitor Centre is in the magnificent old two story CSA (Cornish, Scottish, Australian) Mine managers residence.  The shire bought the residence from CSA for the princely sum of $1.  The Visitor Centre function is very small, just at the entrance, the rest of the building is devoted to the museum, which is one of the best local town museums we have come across.  We thoroughly recommend having a look through, it took us over two hours to go through (we could have stayed longer).  They have an interesting article on how women should look after their husbands when it is hot – very relevant & practical.  There was also an old statement from the gold rush days where one hotel proudly claimed that “they endeavoured to wash their sheets once every seven weeks” (pity being there on the sixth week in summer).

The museum takes you through the mining industry, history & how this shaped the town of Cobar, the issues they have had with the lack of water plus the sheep industry & the current environmental issues they are having.  Outside they have a restored train carriage, which was the Nursing Mothers Travelling Clinic.  There are lots of mining & farm memorabilia as well.  The path has great information boards about the history of a lot of the items on display outside, then there is the first open-cut mine out the back, dug by hand with pick & shovel plus a large pool of water, which is around 450 metres deep.  This is the top of a flooded mine shaft where a lot of the locals use to go swimming.  Across the road is a poppet head from an old mine plus an old gold stamper that was used to crush the ore.

There is one fascinating story about one of the old residents of Cobar, when applying for citizenship the magistrate asked him a series of questions to determine his age.  When he was asked how many children he had he replied “three”, when asked where they were he replied “dead”, when asked how they died he replied “old age”.  At 103 years of age he was charged with killing a person & sentenced to jail, at 109 years of age he was given a 38kg box of food, which he hefted up onto his shoulder, slipped on the wooden boardwalk & broke his hip.  He died 6 months later, he didn’t recover from the injury.  You will have to read the rest of the story yourself, it is fascinating.

Next up was a stop at the magnificent church in town, it dominates the skyline with a tall square steeple. The Great Western Hotel built in 1898 must have the longest cast iron lacework verandah I have ever seen.  The Court House & the Police Station next door are also great examples of colonial architecture.  The main street of Cobar has a lot of old buildings in good condition, the mining wealth appears to be treating the town well, it looks prosperous.

On the long straight road again we passed the Florida Rest Area, it certainly looks a lot different than the Florida we remember, this must be the Australian version, a dusty carpark next to the highway sandwiched against the railway line.  As we crossed the bridge into Nyngan (after making sure there were no horses, obviously they haven’t changed the sign since last century) the river appeared to be in flood, it was overflowing it’s banks, there was certainly a lot of water around, we had a few years of drought so it is great to see. Nyngan does not appear to be as busy or prosperous as Cobar.

The countryside gradually improved in fertility with more wheat farms & more healthy sheep visible before we turned down the isolated unmarked (no signposts) dirt road to the “Ulingar” homestead where my friend Chris & his wife Gill live.  They are on a massive farm that grows wheat, canola, chick peas & cotton.  After Chris got home from work he drove us around the farm a bit to show us some of the crops & the full water storage dams. The farm has been in drought for a few years so it is wonderful to see so much water & everything looking a beautiful lush green. The big dam is 1 ½ kilometres long & he has a couple of Hobie cats on it so that they can sail.  The dams are also home to an amazing number of waterbirds. The sunset was very nice over the farm before we escaped the mosquitos & went inside.  There has been so much rain, water is laying around everywhere so the mosquitos are breeding up quickly.  For 20 years every July we have been together with Chris, Gill & their sons Craig & Ben at Minnie Water on a fishing holiday but this year we missed out so it was great catching up.  We have known the boys since they were tiny babies & now they are tall handsome young men.  Gill spoiled us with a very tasty roast lamb dinner.  We washed dinner down with a very pleasant Taylors shiraz before going off to a late nights sleep.

Away from Broken Hill by 9am & we were impressed by the piles of new concrete railway sleepers lined up along the railway line.  There were thousands of new sleepers stretching for many kilometres so that will keep some people employed for a while.  The road was straight & featureless for a long time before giving way to masses of blue & yellow flowers lining the sides of the road (it was still straight).  There has been a lot of rain recently, the desert is so green & vibrant, with big pools of water lying at the side of the road now & again.  All of the creek beds have been scoured clean, there is no debris in them at all.  The creek beds are a vibrant reddish orange colour & contrast is striking with the surrounding foliage.  The wildflowers are also spread out across the desert & it looks lovely.  Mother Nature certainly laid out her best for us.

A couple of hours later & 200 kms on, we drove into the sleepy town of Wilcannia.  We were going to drive through without stopping but the sandstone Post Office caught our attention.  We stopped to take some photos then went for a walk on the old bridge to look at the Darling River in full flow.  A local resident we spoke to told us that just a few months ago the riverbed was dry with a few stagnant pools of blue-green algae.  We started to read the local history signs that are at all of the places of interest, Wilcannia was a vibrant & rich wool river port in the late 1800s & early 1900s, hence the impressive sandstone buildings.  We explored further & admired the beautiful sandstone Court House & Police Station before deciding to stay & have lunch on the banks of the river under the shade of a river red gum.  We went exploring a bit further after lunch & admired the old sandstone bank building, now the Wilcannia Shire Office, as well as the restored sandstone hospital.  There are a few other sandstone buildings in town that are in need of loving care & attention, if they are restored the town would look significantly better.  The rest of the town looks a little bit shabby, in need of money, soul & love, with a few exceptions.  The new aboriginal settlement on the east of the river consists of new looking houses.

On the road again & the open plains are a field of white flowers, it really does look good.  Then as the landscape gets a few more tree’s the white & yellow flowers disappear into the distance around them, looking stunning.  When the sun hides behind a cloud the white flowers lose their brilliance & look like there is snow covering the ground.  The rest of the drive to Cobar is pretty with the mass of flowers in full bloom, however, the roads are very long & very straight.  We pulled into the Cobar Caravan Park after travelling 470km for the day.

We had goulash for dinner, no red – I am becoming a tee-totaller like Tereza. (Oh Sue & John where are you?)(come back please, I need someone to have a drink with)

First up this morning was the Broken Hill Visitor Centre where we bought the walking & driving guide to the historic buildings & sites around town.  We started out with the walk around town & were very impressed with the Court House, the Town Hall Façade & the Trade Union Hall.  There are a few very good old hotels made from stone that are still in great condition plus a number of other immaculate buildings.  We called in at the old Tramway Station that is now a railway museum & had a climb over the old steam trains & through the old carriages.  They do have a lot of interesting old stuff there, including an original early quad bike that would be ideal for our friend Sue.

We had an early lunch then headed out on the self-driving tour around town.  Our first stop was on top of the tailings heap that dominates the town, where a lookout has been built & a restaurant plus a memorial to the hundreds of miners who have died while working in the mines.  Tereza found a park bench that was just right for her plus an inquisitive emu in the restaurant.  The lookout does have a great view over the town.  Tom Keenan (a unionist) lookout was next & it offered great views looking towards the tailings heap & where we had just come from.

Our next stop on this tour was at the white quartz outcrop where two Afghans where killed after starting an insurrection on 1 January 1915 by attacking a picnic train & shooting dead four people & injuring a number of others. The 2 Muslim men were sympathisers of the Turks & weren’t happy about the Australian diggers fighting against them.  This was the only gun battle fought on Australian soil in the 1^st World War.  There isn’t really a lot of cover there if you had to shoot it out with a load of angry townsmen.  One thing I didn’t know, an angry mob burned down the German Club that night.

There sure are a lot of old corrugated iron houses in Broken Hill, interspersed with some old stone houses.  Some of them have great character, some of them don’t.  Most of the churches are impressive stone buildings.  The newer houses are typically on the outskirts of town & look similar to any other anywhere.

We called in to the Geo Centre, an interpretive display centre on the structure & formation of the primary mineral deposit of Broken Hill, plus a display of a lot of the different types of minerals that have been found in the mines.  A lot of these minerals are unique to Broken Hill due to the way the ore body has been formed over billions of years.  On display was the “Silver Tree” an amazing sculpture created in the late 1800s & once owned by Charles Rasp, the person that found the ore & registered the mining claim.  A 45Kg nugget of raw silver was also an impressive display in its own right.  Out the back of the Geo Centre an old miner’s cottage has been set up as a static display, complete with all of the outside necessities of life.

The Desert Park was next on the agenda & we walked firstly through the Desert Garden part, protected by an electric fence (to keep animals out) with a track around a hill covered in all different varieties of wildflowers.  One thing that did spoil this was all of the irrigation pipes running above ground to keep the plants alive during drought.  The plants in flower are beautiful & the view from the hill over the desert is superb.  We walked up the long hill to the Sculpture Garden & came across a few great displays of magnificent Sturt Desert Peas.  The sandstone sculptures are right on top of Sunset Hill, some are OK, some are not my cup of tea (but who are we to criticise art).  The view from the top of this hill is even better than the Desert Garden.   We had the place to ourselves until almost sunset when a lot of people come up to view the sunsets, hence the name I guess.  We liked the wildflower displays on this hill far better than in the Desert Garden.  The desert is so green & full of lovely flowers after all the rain.  Apparently they were to start shooting the next Mad Max movie around here but it is too green, so they have put it off until March.  On the way out we drove very slowly as it was getting late & we came across two separate kangaroos with joeys right on the road.  They all stopped & looked at us for a little while.

Refuelled & shopped at Woolies on the way back to the caravan park before Tereza cooked up a storm with Mexican style pancakes (no red).

Yesterday we lost ½ hour after crossing the border, now we are back to home time (Canberra), but in Broken Hill they are using South Australian time even though it’s in New South Wales.

Bacon & eggs on the BBQ was a great start to a cool morning with dew over the hills, caravan & car as the sun was rising over Flinders Ranges & the Heysen Walking Trail.  We had just finished breakfast & cleaned up the breakfast gear when a couple of fully loaded cyclists pulled up in the rest area.  They were from Bendigo & were riding around a lot of Australia.  They had started at Easter & planned to be home for Xmas.  They had caught the train from Perth to Port Augusta & arrived at 3am this morning where they waited until it was light enough before setting out.  We had quite a good chat with them, along with another couple passing through on their way back to Perth (in their car) so we didn’t get away until around 9am.

The road down the pass was very windy & scenic, with lots of yellow wattle in full flower.  Again there were vivid green wheat fields stretching as far as the eye could see.  We stopped on the outskirts of Orroroo to look at the GIANT red gum tree.  It was huge, it’s not so much the height, but the girth of this tree is massive, measuring at a 10.89 metre circumference.  The tree was absolutely full of red-rumped grass parrots & nesting hollows everywhere, befitting a tree estimated as being more than 500 years old.  As we entered the small town of Orroroo a family of kangaroo sculptures greeted us at the town sign & in the main street, a couple of sculpture horses were pulling a stump-jump plough.  They were absolutely magnificent, made from corrugated iron with glass balls for eyes, even the heads moved in the wind (Chief Minister, why didn’t you come to Orroroo & commission their artist before you spent all that money on those very ordinary art pieces that adorn Canberra). The person that made them is very talented.  The town is full of old bluestone buildings & houses, it is full of charm & character, we both really liked Orroroo.  We stopped for a coffee & there was even a kangaroo outside the coffee shop.  This is definitely a town we will be coming back to & spending more time at.

Peterborough was the next major town we went through & there were a few nice old buildings as well, but Peterborough was a lot bigger & busier, we didn’t like it as much.  Again, we will have to come back & spend some more time in this area.

The wheat fields gradually gave way to desert & bare mountain ranges.  We had a quick stop at Mannahill where the abandoned stone railway station caught our eye, complete with resident hawk on one of the roof spires.  We stopped at Olary Creek, just past the “township” of Olary (a few buildings), for lunch.  The creek recently had a small flood & the river sand was still very damp with some large pools under the road & rail bridges.  It was a lovely spot under the shade of some trees, with parrots calling everywhere. Unbelievable, yesterday we were freezing, today it is shorts & t-shirt weather & we were seeking shady trees to sit under.   We would have stayed there the night, but we haven’t the time anymore.

More flat sandy desert with an increasing number of wildflowers appearing at the side of the roads before crossing the South Australia/New South Wales border at Cockburn. We stopped for the obligatory photo shot next to the signs near the Border Gate Store.  The road to Broken Hill was more of the same desert country with wildflowers on the roadside, then, LO & BEHOLD, Sturts Desert Pea.  Multitudes of them right next to the road.  We had only seen Sturts Desert Pea previously at Alice Springs, plus a couple of plants between Parabardoo & Nanutarra in the Pilbara.  We had only just mentioned to each other how disappointed we were that we didn’t see any when we crossed the Nullarbor Plain.  Fortunately we spotted a nearby roadside bay where we stopped & walked back through the prickly scrub to see such a magnificent sight, these flowers are really stunning.  When complemented with all the other wildflowers it really is a magical sight.  Mother Nature certainly didn’t forget New South Wales & blessed it with a wonderful array of colourful native flowers.

The drive into Broken Hill is dominated by the massive tailing dumps, they really are huge.  You also get an idea of the size of the town by the size of the cemetery, it is also huge.  There are a lot of old corrugated iron miner’s cottages in Broken Hill, with a smattering of bluestone houses.  We booked into Lakeview Caravan Park (if you stand on your left leg, on top of a hill next to the caravan park & lean sideways you can see a pool of water in the distance). After setting up & the obligatory cheese & bikkies, up we went for a walk to view the lake from the top of the hill (it wasn’t better than from the caravan park).  There is a great view of some more tailing dumps with a couple of associated mine buildings.  Plus, unbelievably, there are more Sturts Desert Peas just growing at the side of the hill.

Tereza made a very tasty spaghetti Bolognaise that I washed down with a Wolf Blass Eaglehawk Shiraz.  Does life get any better than this?

I had another look under the car & decided I needed a different type of strap so headed off to Repco before breakfast, then mucked about with it again back at the caravan park before breakfast.  We got away around 10am & headed to the Axel Stenross Boat Museum. We were impressed by the quality of the museum & the variety of wooden boats, photos, boating equipment & the original Axel Stenross workshop, complete with all original tools & living quarters.  The volunteers do a great job on restoration & maintenance work.  They even had a restored Heavyweight Sharpie on display plus a model of the Cutty Sark, a ship my great grandfather made a journey on out to Australia from Scotland.

We left Port Lincoln heading northwards, still 12 degrees & cold in the wind, towards our next destination, Arno Bay.  We passed lots of vivid green wheat fields & a few brilliant yellow canola fields, plus the odd sheep paddock extending down to the waters edge.  Some of the old farmhouses were made from stone & were either in really good condition or derelict.  Some great restoration projects for someone.

Arno Bay was reached at lunchtime so we drove to the mangrove boadwalk carpark & had lunch next to the creek using the great tables & shelter built by the Arno Bay Hotel Social Club, complete with gas BBQ.  The wind was so cold Ron & I wore all our warm clothes (I wore a singlet, shirt, vest & 2 jumpers). The mangrove boardwalk is quite extensive & very well done, at the start there were warning signs regarding a territorial butcherbird.  Well, he certainly was feisty, swooping us at every opportunity when our backs were turned.  It’s amazing, when I turned around quickly he would stop, so I had a little game with him, turning my back, then looking at him very quickly.  He would stop & perch as soon as I looked at him.  He still managed to swoop Tereza once & me a couple of times, (maybe the poor thing was worried when it saw all the feathers in Ron’s hat) however, once we left his rather large territory he left us alone.  The boardwalk even had resting stations & platforms built, complete with bait/fish cleaning boards, so that you could fish from them directly into the creek – fantastic.  We saw a couple of nesting Pied Oyster Catchers & a whole swag of pelicans on the beach. We really enjoyed our walk.

On the road before Whyalla we came across a huge mountain that had been severely disfigured with flat tops & multi coloured tailing dumping, this was Iron Baron, an iron ore mine that supplied the Whyalla steelworks.  The road from there to Whyalla was very straight, with a view of the town in the distance the downhill road didn’t waiver for 17km.  The steelworks & support industries dominate the township of Whyalla, with smoke & steam belching from the chimneys. As we approached Port Augusta the Flinders Ranges formed a magical backdrop, with the low sun highlighting all of the valleys & folds in the mountains.  Port Augusta is surrounded by water, it is very low lying at the head of the Spencer Gulf.  I took the opportunity to refuel & kept on heading south towards Adelaide before turning off toward Sydney along the Wilmington Road & through the Horrock Pass (another historical site).

We stopped at the summit of Horrock Pass at a very large rest area next to a cairn that marks something of significance (no sign on it to tell the story).  Tereza whipped up a magnificent vegetarian meal, it was delicious (tomorrow we will be crossing the border to New South Wales).  A full moon was rising over the mountains as dinner was cooking & finished the day off nicely.  We are on our lonesome on this very isolated beautiful rest area.

It was time to have another check of the car & Karavan to make sure everything was still OK with them both.  I crawled under the car to check the rear suspension, rear transfer case, drive shaft, hydraulic springs, parking brake, brakes, rims, etc & found the front chassis bracket for the rear transfer case had broken.  This is what has been making the occasional clunking noise I have been hearing where it has been banging on the exhaust brackets, exhaust pipes & the broken bracket.  I sat & had a coffee & cheese while thinking about what to do with it.  I decided to strap it up with some webbing strap tie downs that I have been carrying as the transfer case pushed easily back up into position.  Doing all this took the best part of the morning as I wasn’t happy with my first attempt.  While Ron was having his fun under the car I didn’t want to miss out so I did our washing in a real washing machine in the community laundry.  This place has absolutely lovely new facilities, it is a huge beautiful caravan park on prime real estate.  Apparently a poor fisherman bought it for millions & is spending millions to re vamp it.

Lunchtime & we decided to have fish as Port Lincoln prides itself as the seafood capital of Australia. We drove into town next to the harbourside park & looked for a fish café.  The café we chose, Del Giorno’s, has won awards for being the best seafood restaurant in Australia.  We had the famous King George Whiting plus the kingfish & it was delicious, with the extra benefit of the splendid view out over the park & harbour.  We went for a walk out on the town jetty (of course) & chatted to an elderly Italian fisherman for a while, then headed back & looked at the life size bronze statue of the horse Makybe Diva.  This horse, owned by a Port Lincoln tuna fisherman, won the Melbourne Cup three years in succession (2003, 2004 & 2005) & won over $14.5 million in prize money.

We then continued driving around Port Lincoln on the tourist route, driving through the town & getting a good idea of the layout of the town & the types of houses.  Some of the houses are huge & magnificent with great views over Boston Bay (these are the homes of poor fishermen & their descendants). We also drove through the newest section of town, the canal subdivision, the commercial fishing boats lined up here are amazing.  Port Lincoln claims it has the largest fishing fleet in the southern hemisphere, with different boats for the abalone, mussels, oysters, prawns, scalefish, southern bluefin tuna & the southern rock lobster.  Fishing brings millions of dollars into the local economy & Port Lincoln is supposed to have the highest population per capita of millionaires in Australia (poor fishermen, now I know why we are paying such horrendous prices for fish).

We stopped at the lookout at Billy Lights Point & watched a few large fishing boats heading back into port with our caravan park on the other side of the bay as a green backdrop.  Back at the caravan park I waited for the car to cool a bit before checking what effect the 28km trip had on my temporary repair job.  The gap had widened a bit so I will try something a little different in the morning.  Tereza & I then went on a foreshore walk from the bottom of the caravan park & discovered more wildflower types that we had not seen previously.  The other thing we noticed in this region are beautiful fields of freesias (not natives).   The wind was cold & it was starting to get dark so we only went as far as the slipway, with two big fishing boats getting a repair & repaint, before wandering back.

Again, after such a big fish lunch we decided to settle for cheese, bikkies & coffee tonight.  Our standards are slipping now that John & Sue headed off to Lake Eyre.  We heard from John & Sue tonight, they arrived in Marree & had a 2 hour flight over Lake Eyre & Cooper Creek plus the Birdsville Track.  There is so much water out there, roads are flooded, Sue said that it looks as green as New Zealand.  It must be wet.  It is amazing, everywhere we have been to around Australia it is green, usually it’s dry & sand.