12th November 2009

We moved on from Wilpena Pound to Rawnsley Park, a caravan park within a station. Great surroundings & far nicer than the 'management company- run resort at Wilpena. The people at Rawnsley park were happy for us to leave our trailer there at no cost, whilst we took off to explore Brachina Gorge where we planned to camp for the night. The road  through the gorge took us across rocky dry riverbeds, & exceptionally steep hills in places, so leaving the trailer behind had been a good decision. En route we stopped at Hucks lookout where I captured a few good shots of a beautiful ringneck parrot feeding on the seeds of a 'blackboy' (grasstree). The road up to Stokes lookout appeared impossibly steep from the bottom, but far less so on the downward return. At Yoongoona ruins (shepherds stone hut), off the road into Brachina Gorge we wandered along the dry creek bed, & came upon a mob of walleroos (Euros) drinking at a scrape. Several holes about 2' deep had a couple of inches of clear water at their bottom. The roos were careful to scrape a little earth out each time they drank, maintaining the integrity of the scrape. Without it they could not exist in this very dry country. Parrots, Corellas, & emus also visited this meagre water supply whilst we sat & watched from behind some bushes some 20 metres away.  We shunned the campgrounds & camped right in Brachina Gorge, alongside an impressive cliff face. Probably a mistake in hindsight, the cliff had absorbed a lot of heat during the day, & radiated it throughout the night, At 10pm it was still 36.3 degrees Celsius! It had dropped to 32 degrees Celsius by the time we awoke next morning.

We were 'visited' by a couple of Yellow footed rock wallabies & several rabbits, grazing on a 'rare' patch of grass nearby. The wallabies seemed totally unconcerned by our presence, hopping past within a metre of where we sat.

Friday 13th November 2009

No bad luck transpired.  :-) Our trip back to Rawnsley park took us up what was probably the longest steepest hill the bus has ever been up, but it managed it without drama. We have come a long way since the early frightening experience of running out of revs & having to slip the clutch to get over the crest of a steep pinch near Byron Bay about 14 or 15 months ago. Now that I have learned how to drive this old diesel I am confident she will pull us up just about anything. The key is selecting the right gear at the bottom of the hill & crawling up steadily, far less stressful & more successful than the 'belt up the hill as fast as possible & then go through a flurry of downchanges whilst trying to keep up momentum' method. Fantastic views of the Flinders from 'Razorback Lookout.

For anyone contemplating driving through Brachina gorge via Bunyeroo Gorge I'd advise travelling south to north if you have any concerns about your vehicle's hill climbing ability.  Back onto bitumen , we drove to Wood Duck dam where we whiled away a few hours watching the various visitors to the water. Many birds, roos, including one old fella who was just skin & bone, he looked on his last legs, but got right into the water to drink. Hadn't seen a roo do this before, they usually drink at the edge. An emu with his family of 11 well grown chicks dropped by.There were so many roos & emus in this area. Shade was at a premium. Almost every bush had roos or emus underneath sheltering during the hottest part of the day. More than we've seen anywhere else.

Upon our arrival back at Rawnsley park, our friends Peter & Margaret were there to meet us. We last saw them a year ago when we stayed with them at their home in Adelaide. They have a unique 4wd motorhome that Peter built & had offered to take us high up into the Flinders on the track known as 'Skytrek' on Willow Springs Station.

14th November 2009

Left Rawnsley Park for nearby Willow Springs station, where we planned to stop the night after 'Skytrek'. We all piled into the OKA 4wd & briefly marvelled once again at the many clever design features of the vehicle, before being distracted by the country we were driving through. Rough rocky tracks up very long & very steep hills were the order of the day, taking us up to spectacular views.

15th - 17th November 2009

Said our farewells to Peter & Margaret who had family commitments nearby & drove south to Melrose, via Quorn & Wilmington. Melrose showgrounds had been good a year ago, & remained so this time, despite a change of caretaker. Again we felt Melrose to be a particularly friendly little town. Horrible driving today - we had the three H's - Hot, Headwind & Hilly. Conditions saw us travelling at 60kph. We seemed to have been moving on daily for some time & needed to 'prop' somewhere for a few days to relax & revive ourselves. Melrose fitted the bill well. On our second night Peter & Margaret rocked up again & we enjoyed a pleasant evening socialising.

18th & 19th November 2009

Just over a couple of weeks left of our trip. It really feels like we are now just heading home, & that we are 'killing time' until we get home. We are not hanging out to get home, but know we must return. How best to use our time given that we are now back into familiar country which holds no surprises for us. We are 'floundering' with no 'next destination' to look forward to & to provide us with a reason for travelling. The radio is full of fire warnings as the weather has become very hot & windy. The wind is unpleasant, like a hair dryer blasting us constantly.  Even small birds are sheltering under any available shade with their beaks wide open. The rolling hills covered in grain crops are unexpectedly steep & our progress is especially slow. Harvest is in full swing with headers (combine harvesters) in action everywhere. It looks like it's been a good season. The short stemmed crops (mainly barley I think) are thick with healthy looking heads. Initially I was confused, thinking the short stem varieties were stunted from lack of water, but the short stems are to help prevent wind damage. After a little shopping in Burra, we checked out the camp ground at Redbank reserve, some 15kms out of town. It was a dusty road that led to a somewhat disappointing camp spot alongside a rather barren, weed infested & unattractive crack in the ground. We decided to return to Burra Creek Gorge, where we stayed previously. It was a good decision, Burra Creek was still flowing, & the shady green camp spot next to the water was just what we needed for what turned out to be the hottest day of our entire trip the next day. 49 degrees Celsius under the shade of our awning!  That night a band of thunderstorms created fires across South australia. We watched the nightime lightning show, but thankfully it didn't get too close to us.

We have decided to go home via the Murray River, & have made visting friends Ros & David in Newstead  (central Victoria) our final 'destination' before home. We expect that we may arrive home perhaps a week or so earlier than initially planned, but are prepared to be 'distracted/diverted' should we have reason to.

20th November 2009

From Burra we drove south east via Morgan, another friendly little place, on the Murray. Green paddocks of grapevines, citrus, & apricots in abundance between red sand dunes. We crossed the Murray by ferry at Cadel. There are a dozen or more of these ferries across the Murray, all cost free to the motorist. Must be cheaper than building bridges I guess, & rather nice that such things still exist.  Continuing on through Waikerie we were amused to read an evangelical sign erected prominently outside a church which read " Don't make me come down there - God".  The land along the river is fertile & extensively farmed, despite the River Murray being in it's death throes from over-use for irrigation. We stopped for the night at Moorook game reserve on the banks of the river. A pleasant bush camp accessed by a couple of kilometres of clay road that became extremely slippery after a spot of rain. We had intended to stay longer, but more threatening rain saw us leave early the following morning, to avoid getting trapped in there for several more days until the road dried out.

21st & 22nd November 2009

The road into Plushes Bend at Renmark was far more rain friendly. Just as well as it pissed down. We think we got something between 50mm & 100mm overnight, the first 'real rain' we have seen since we were in the south west of WA last March. In the morning our bus was parked in a 'lake''. Temperatures had plummeted & we put on warm clothes, quite alien to us. A sign of things to come, the move out of 'T shirt weather, back in the chilly south. We have become accustomed to temperatures in the high 30's & 40's & now have to contend with forecast tops in the mid 20's. Brrrrrrrr.

23rd November 2009

The closer to home we get, the harder it is. We are now in 'going home mode', but would prefer not to be. MrsTea has  always spent the last few days of any holiday we've ever had wanting to get home. This time is different much to her surprise. We are making lists of things to do, both to the bus & at home/work, planning for the future etc. There seems so much it is overwhelming - where to start.

Driving along the Murray we were looking for another riverside camp for the night, but all the access tracks were too slippery after the first good rains for some time, so we ended up in the little town of Wentworth, having crossed the river into New South Wales. The caravan park was probably quite pleasant for those who pay the extra $3 for a powered site, but being self sufficient for power we paid for an unpowered site. Unfortunately it seems that if you choose not to pay for power you are a second class citizen & placed 'up the back' in the weeds, with a view of mounds of rubble & a Bobcat, unlike the powered campers who get lush grass & a very pleasant outlook across the river. This sort of discrimination seems fairly common in caravan parks, just another reason to avoid them where possible. We ate out at the Wentworth Sporting Club, a huge establishment in a tiny town, no doubt funded by the ongoing profits from the many gambling machines they have. The meal was acceptable, & after we thought we might check out the 'pokies', but as totally inexperienced gamblers we had no ideas how to use the machines. The instructions assumed a certain amount of knowledge that we didn't have, so we gave up & kept our money in our pockets.

24th November 2009

Wentworth is the location for where two of Australia's major rivers, The Murray & the Darling meet. Back in the fifties Wentworth had it's biggest ever flood, & the whole town was under threat of innundation & destruction. A major effort was made to build levee banks around the town, utilising a small army of Grey Fergie tractors. The levee still sits between the town & the river, & there are tributes to the Grey Fergie all around town. We visited Lock 10, one of a number of locks along the Murray used to control water levels whilst allowing watercraft to move up & down the river. Drove out to the Perry sandhills, a collection of red dunes on the edge of extensive bluebush scrub, & then on to the old Wentworth gaol where I did my best (but failed) to leave MrsTea locked up in chains. Of most interest to me whilst there was the story of 'Possum' an old white fella, a local legend, who had lived a wild & free life along this area of the Murray for more than 50 years, shunning all contact with other humans. As we drove back into town we saw a nun built out of corrugated iron sheet. Norseman in WA has it's corrugated camels, Wentworth has it's corrugated nun! On through Mildura & southward to Watts Bend, another bush camp on the Murray, with slightly better access road than others we checked out first. Hooked something *big* in the river, but wouldn't you know it, the knot I tied the hook on with came undone! Damn! More rain forecast for the next afternoon, so we decided to stay just the one night, rather than risk getting stuck in there for a few days.

25th November - 26th November 2009

Took the back roads to Manangatang rather than sticking to major routes. Saw a huge goanna cross the road in front of us, & a short time later a bearded dragon. Managatang is a small place with a population of around 220, another grain town doing it hard, evidenced by the number of closed businesses in the main street. Despite this they provide one of the best amenities for travellers we have found. Ultra clean facilities, including hot showers, toilets & undercover eating area, with power, bbq - all free & heaps of parking space. What a shame that not all places have the same attitude to attracting visitors to the town. Managatang is a good model for all towns of differing sizes. On through Chinkapook (what a name eh?), across the Towan plain with all it's dead trees, to Nyah, where we spent a couple of nights camped again on the Murray, behind the harness club. Not a bad spot, made better by a visit from a local resident on the second day to check we were ok after more heavy rain, & to welcome us to his town. Little things like this make an enormous difference to how a town is viewed. Nyah will , to us, always remain a friendly place that we tell others about & probably re-visit ourselves. Like the chap in the store said, "Every carton of milk I sell to you is one I wouldn't otherwise have sold".

27th November 2009

Left the Murray, heading south to the central Victorian goldfields, to Bendigo. Reaching Bendigo was a bit of a jaw dropper, we had expected a medium sized country town, as it was when we last visited many years ago. Time has marched on & 'progress' has seen Bendigo transformed into a small city, the city centre is ok if you like that sort of thing, but we wanted to get back out to the bush asap. We did check out the only 'low cost' camping option at the showgrounds, however the site was on rather scrubby ground, overlooked by a street full of houses - not very inviting. The cost for our bus was $20 per night, not exactly 'low cost' but worse was the fact that a caravan towed by a car & as long as us, cost $5 less! Discrimination we have not found anywhere else. We didn't stop, instead moving on to Castlemaine where we stayed at a caravan park for $3 more, but far nicer surroundings. Castlemaine seemed like a nice place to wander around, a mix of historic buildings, arty bohemia, & street rods.

28th - 29th November 2009

Drove a short distance to Newstead where friends Ros & Dave live. We had met Ros when walking the Lurijarri Trail north of Broome back in July. It was lovely to catch up again & meet Dave for the first time. Newstead is a lovely little village with a real sense of inclusiveness. A small cafe in town doubles as a second 'living room'  & meeting place for many of the village's residents. We spent an afternoon there meeting others & playing Scrabble. Arriving here was significant for us, we had reached our last 'destination' prior to home. Over the past few days we have begun to get our heads around the end of the trip & getting home. It still feels overwhelming, but a degree of acceptance of the end is sneaking in to our conciousness. A couple of days with Ros & Dave helped us to begin to face the prospect of our soon to be 'lack of travelling'.

30th November 2009

The bus's front suspension has begun to make a loud creaking noise at low speeds, we suspected that a rubber bush needs replacing, but in order to make sure, we took the bus to Ballarat, where the diagnosis was confirmed, at the same time being told we would be safe to drive home (as replacement bushes were not immediately available).  We took a back road route travelling eastward, north of Melbourne  to Kinglake, site of much destruction in the Black Saturday fires last February. We drove through extensively burned bush, where new shoots are now starting to grow on some of the trees, & many residents of the area are still living in tents & caravans after losing everything. It gave us an insight on what to expect when we get back home. Our final night on the road was spent in the little town of Noojee alongside the Latrobe River. This area wasn't caught up in the fires, & remains in our estimation a 'death trap' should fire pass that way. A beautiful forest location with crisp fresh air, but a potential death trap nonetheless.

Ist December 2009

Driving through the forest in country that is on our doorstep, both of us felt that the scenery was equally beautiful to anything we have seen elsewhere. It was good to look upon our own 'back door' through 'visitors eyes'. Prior to arriving home we detoured around the bushfire affected areas that surround our home, where most homes and a number of lives were lost. Passing sites where once houses stood & on to vantage points where we could look across hillside after hillside of dead & blackened trees to the little green oasis that is home at the top of the hill had us gasping in disbelief. It seems unbelievable that anything at all had survived.

Arriving home was strange to say the least. As well as the surrounding country having changed, our house sitters have felled 80+ trees for us that have long needed removing, so the place looks very different. At the moment it feels like just another place to camp.

This is probably the final entry for the "Big Trip' blog, I would like to be able to tell everyone who has loyally logged in to follow our progress throughout the past 18 months that we have the next part of our lives all planned out ........ but we haven't .......... yet. All we know is that our preference is to have a home base in a warmer part of the country, & that we want to travel more ........ much more. BUT as yet we have no idea how we might make this happen. Lots of ideas in the mix, but still totally open. First we have to 'consolidate & plan'

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all of our readers. It has been your willingness to follow our progress around the country that has in fact helped to shape the trip for us. At times writing entries has been a chore, at times a pleasure. It has been invaluable to me to have an 'audience' to ensure that I keep a record of the trip. A special thanks to everyone who has shown us hospitality, or assistance in times of difficulty, or simply shown interest & feedback via emails. The internet has really changed how we can travel, has allowed us to remain in contact & has provided us with a 'constant' in a regularly changing life experience. We live in a fantastic country & have managed to see & experience a heck of a lot of it. What we have seen has 'picked the eyes out of it' but we could easily spend another 20 years exploring all we passed by.

Thanks again folks

Regards

Cuppa & MrsTea

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