'Wherarwee' in Oz: 2012

Monday, July 9, 2012

Log 9-07 Condobolin

Well, it’s been a while since Wherarwee has moved off the front lawn & we were anxious for even a short trip.

When Liz arrived home from work Wednesday I had the van packed so, after she had a quick shower & a cuppa, we hit the road. It was down the freeway & into Sydney’s peak hour traffic. Soon we were through it & onto the toll roads, then on to Lithgow via the Bells Line of Road. I had forgotten how steep & winding this road is. Arriving at Lithgow around 8 P.M. we found a quiet back street, heated up a pre-prepared dinner, watched a bit of telly & hit the sack.

On the road by 8 o’clock next morning & arrived at Condoblin by noon, contacted Sally & found she & David were staying at Gum Bend Lake, about 3K out of town. All joyous reunions when we arrived at this delightful free-camp spot. It was level, grassed, & with plenty of trees for shade. Sally had prepared lunch for us so we sat around the fire while we caught up on their wanderings & ate her delicious soup.

Checking out the amenities we found them to be very clean with really hot showers, country towns look after their visitors. They were situated on an embankment with the campground on one side & the lake on the other so it was a pleasure to visit them.

We stayed for 3 days before having to return home, first up in the morning had to light the fire (usually Liz) which we then kept burning all day as the mornings were sub-zero & the temp. only got above 15º on one day although every day was sunny & bright. We went out for a few hours each day, checking out the town, the club (where we had a delicious dinner), the river & the surrounding area, but it was best just sitting around the fire for happy hours each afternoon with the other tourists there. Sally baked a leg of lamb in the camp oven on our last night & it was so tender it melted in your mouth. It was great to catch up with them & a pity to leave so soon but work awaits (for Liz anyway).

On the way home Sunday we detoured to Ootha to see the ‘utes in the paddock’ display, well worth it as the artwork on the utes is outstanding, just check out the photo’s. We left about 8 A.M. once again & by 9 o’clock there was still lumps of ice on the side of the road. We stopped at Macca’s for lunch arriving home at 4:30, a great little trip & another 1000K’s on the clock.

S & D's rig & us at our campsite

A portion of the camp area

Happy hour

Gum Bend Lake

Lake at sunset

Sunset again

Morning mist on the lake

Utes in the paddock, Ootha, NSW

Do you know this lady?

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Log 26-02 homeward bound

Victor harbor was our next stop, just 60K’s from Cape Jervis. The waterfront was all parkland with cafes, boutiques, take away shops & masses of tables lining the footpath. Just off-shore was Granite Island with a long bridge joining it to the mainland which we had to walk of course. After lunch the inevitable shopping & we decided to stay the night at a local c/van park.

We then proceeded on to Goolwa, where the Murray meets the sea, checked out an old paddle steamer we then moved on to McLaren Vale & checked out a few wineries before stopping at Hahndorf, a little tourist type town with a German theme & the main street lined with food & gift shops. Finding a shop that sold kransky & sauerkraut rolls, we stopped for lunch. After lunch we moved on to Murray Bridge but decided not to stop there & so proceeded to Swan Reach where we parked at a nice gravel pit on the banks of the Murray. Murray Bridge is a very small town with lots of great old houses all in very good condition. It has a pub that overlooks the car ferry that crosses the river.

Next morning we boarded the ferry for our trip across & then drove on to another riverside stop just West of Renmark where we stayed for 2 nights. A beautiful spot where we put down the yabbie trap, fished & read books. We stayed for 2 nights & no, we just got snagged all the time & only caught a couple of small fish in the yabbie trap. The only small blemish on this place is the squadrons of mosquitos that strafe us repeatedly at dusk & when they go, along come millions of tiny insects that we are at a loss to keep out.

When we were about to leave I checked the tyres & noticed that the right rear looked a bit down so we drove into Renmark (6K’s) where we saw the inside rear was dead flat (2^nd time for an inside rear wheel), but as it was Sunday I had to change it myself. We did a tour of the city & it is so attractively laid out. Extremely wide streets, gardens down the middle, really green grass & the Murray flowing through. After a look around we left for Mildura, it was much the same. We stopped there for 2 days & it was at another riverside c/park. There were houseboats, private boats & the paddle wheelers plying the river at our doorstep. On day 2 we took a paddleboat cruise down the river, we went through lock 11 which dropped us 3.5 mts in 4.5 minutes. We cruised down level 10 for a while before returning to the lock & being raised up the same amount . Very hot nights & difficult to sleep but otherwise fantastic.

Travelling on to Hay we stayed in the showground for the night, primitive but O.K. Since getting to S.A. & now NSW we are running into a bit of rain, not constant, but showers or a downpour for a while then clearing. We’re just not used to it. Hay is a typical little country town of 2600 people, nice wide streets with shops as they should be, strung along each side of the main street.

The route we’re taking now avoids having to travel through Sydney, instead taking us Northward through the plains & then cutting across the ranges North of Newcastle. We’re doing this for two reasons, one, Telarney & Corey have moved to Miswellbrook & we will pop in & see them & two, We’ve bought a folding boat that folds down to 10cm thick & has brackets that enable it to be stowed along the side of the van. It is at Newcastle so that suits us fine.

Calling into Forbes, we love these country towns, we found a mixture of old & new architecture and a stroll along the main street was well worth it. We stopped at another van park for the night with lots of lovely grass under our feet, it was nice to walk bare footed through it.

For our last night we decided to stop at Wellington, our map showed the turnoff just North of Forbes so, not using the GPS, we headed out. After 20 or 30K’s we never saw a sign so decided to push on to Dubbo where Wellington signs were plentiful but it meant backtracking so our stop was back in old faithful Dunedoo.

Pulling into the van park brought back memories of losing our parrot there last year, they were a mixture of both sad & happy, sad at the loss & happy as we thought of all the help the townspeople there had given in trying to find Lexie.

It was only 180K’s to Muswellbrook so we had a late start & a leisurely drive for the day, had a look at the township & then drove to Telarney & Corie’s house. As they were still at work we pulled out our chairs & sat on the front lawn reading, to wait their arrival. We spent 2 nights with them before pushing on for home finally arriving around 1:30 P.M. That last day’s drive seemed longer than any other.

So, I guess, that’s it till next time only we both agree that it won’t be a years traveling.

Bridge to granite Island, Victor Harbor

Campspot by the Murray

Sunrise on the Murray

The c/park at Mildura

Paddlewheelers

Lock 11

The lock opening at the lower level

Sunflowers on the way to Dubbo

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Log 15-02 Kangaroo Is.

Well, Whyalla turned out to be a disappointment after the beautiful places we have stopped at lately. Although we had a beachside site, the tide went out at least ½ K. We moved on to Port Augusta for a look around then started south down the York Peninsula. Our first break was at Port Germein who’s claim to fame is the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. We walked it of course, all 1,676 mts of it. No photos, how do you snap such a huge edifice?

We stopped for the night at Port Pirie, a nice country town, reasonable size, but not up to other coastal towns. The next day we decided not to continue down the peninsula but to cut across country towards Adelaide. We stopped on the way at a nice little roadside stop.

We arrived Adelaide early on Wednesday, went for a drive through town & then settled into a small caravan park that backed onto the Torrens River & close to the town center. We stayed 2 days & we went into town, walked around checking out the magnificent architecture that Adelaide is noted for & it seems to be every second building, even the houses around the c/van park were impressive. We then caught the tram to the historic Glenelg. Beautiful beachfront, lots of little craft shops, interesting museum on it’s history & cafes & restaurants by the hundreds. The beachfront is like Manly with pines all along the foreshore & Fremantle with the shops.

The next day we moved on to West Beach, a suburb on the coast & stayed at the most impressive c/park we have seen to date, it was huge & it was 4 star. Although it was right on the beach our site was at least 250mts back (& we were in the middle). There was a huge camp kitchen, 2 ovens, 2 microwaves, 4 electric sets of hotplates & 4 gas ones, there was 8 sinks, tables & chairs etc. etc. The laundry had a row of washers that seemed to stretch to eternity. There was game rooms, TV rooms, activities rooms, playgrounds & 2 swimming pools. We were impressed!

Moving on we travelled South to Cape Jervis, what a trip. We tried to take the Southern Expressway, only to find that the on-ramp was blocked off, so we travelled for 75 mins down the Main South Road which winds through every hamlet & village on the way down, this got us to where we could, once again, access the expressway, only to find the ramp still blocked off. NO detour signs, NO alternate route, NOTHING. Back to the old road where we arrived at Mybonga in time for lunch & the local markets. Talking to a stall-holder there I discovered that the expressway (only 2 lanes) is one-way Northbound in the AM & one-way Southbound in the PM????? Finally arriving at Cape Jervis we camped for the night behind the lighthouse ready for the ferry next morning. During the night we experienced yet another wind storm which shook & rattled the van for hours.

Sun morning saw us embark on the ferry by having to back in, although the wind was still up it was a fairly smooth ride across & we arrived at Kangaroo Island just in time for the monthly markets of local produce which we liberally sampled, unfortunately, the rain which had been threatening since last night, started bucketing down & we beat a hasty retreat. The fares on this ferry are very strange, hugely expensive when compared to the Tasmania ferry but, if you book a night in the c/park, it is $70.00 cheaper (inc. the cost of the park). If 4 people book 2 nights they save $115.00 each!

Kangaroo Island measures 155K’s by 55K’s, there are 1600K’s of roads, mostly gravel & has a population of 4,400 souls. Wildlife abounds (as does the road kill), there are Wallabies, roos, echidnas, koalas, seals & a smorgasbord of birds. Traveling along the road one day we came across a koala sitting in the middle of the road in the rain, we tried & tried to get it to safety but it just kept walking along the road, eventually we gave up. The weather has been less than perfect with showers every day alternating with sunny breaks. Temp range 12º to 22º. The locals say summer missed them this year.

There are many wonderful bays & beaches around the island as well as places like Seal Bay where the beach is littered with seals, koala walk, & Flinders Chase N.P. where there is the whole gambit of wild animals as well as the Admirals Arch & Remarkable Rocks. Some bays are restricted to vehicles 5mts or less so, once again, we wish we had a car. Tourists are well catered for with wineries, honey farms, wilderness lodges etc. Camping is prohibited anywhere except designated campgrounds. Penneshaw & Kingscote are the two main villages on the island & are a delight to see. We spent 10 days investigating the island & relaxing on the way before returning to the mainland. This is definitely a must return venue!

So, once again backing onto the ferry we proceed back to the mainland.