WEDNESDAY – A LAZY DAY

Today was yet another quiet day meandering down the Coast. We are now at Burners Beach right on the water on what you might call the northern coast of the “foot” of the peninsula.

I had to spend some time on the phone and computer this morning so we got away to a slow start.

Last night we had some beautiful snapper and prawns we found at Port Pirie. Tonight we are having flathead and snapper from the fish outlet at Port Victoria.

We are told that the area will become busy over Easter but, at the moment, it continues to be delightfully quiet.

TUESDAY – FROM THE BUSH TO THE BEACH

We have started the process of meandering down the western side of the Yorke Peninsula. Once again, we have bypassed the nicely manicured caravan parks for a camp site at The Gap being a beach south of Moonta Bay. The camp is between a very large lucerne paddock and the sand dunes with only distant neighbours.

We came here via Port Pirie, Port Broughton, Wallaroo and Moonta, a mixture of modern beachside houses, historic workers cottages, modern industry and the relics of past industrial activity.

The weather has improved dramatically. It got up to 30 degrees today and even the water felt palatable as we went for our afternoon walk along the beach.

As I type this, the peaceful sound of gentle rolling waves provides the background.

 

Sorry I haven't included more pictures but the signal is very weak and they take a long time to load.

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL

Thank you for all the birthday messages received today. Facebook certainly tells the world when your birthday is.

Just to prove what an old bloke can do, we had a very active day today – an 8km walk this morning and a 6km walk this afternoon. In both cases we walked along Mambray Creek being a water course which only flows in heavy rain but there is the occasional wet spot so there is enough water for the numerous birds and animals which frequent the area.

 

 

 Its claim to fame is that the water course is home to numerous very large and very old river gums which are very different to those which line the Murray River in that the old ones are very large and have hollow trunks. They are supported by what is virtually a tripod of outer trunk. They drop very large branches so one doesn't spend too much time under them.

We are not the only campers in the camp ground but we might as well be in that the other campers are congregated around the amenities block about 150 metres away and we have this end of the camp ground to ourselves – very peaceful.

Tomorrow we head south along the western edge of the York Peninsula for some coastal scenery.

Perhaps I might have an extra glass of wine tonight given that we don't have any cake or candles. That can wait until we get home.

BACK IN THE BUSH

We left Adelaide this morning and headed north via the Clare Valley, another wine growing district and are now very comfortably settled in our preferred environment among (but not under) the river gums at the Mambray Creek Campground in the Mount Remarkable National Park. We will be here for at least two nights. 

 

 

We are a little way north east of Port Pirie at the southern end of the Flinders Ranges There are a number of interesting walks, a short one of which we did this afternoon. We will do more of them tomorrow.

 

 

As the photos show, the locals were happy to welcome us.

THE BLOG HAS RECOMMENCED

What you see above and below is our campsite for the last week. It was very different to our normal campsites but very pleasant.

Some of the golf was good. The "non golfing ladies" did lots of sight seeing and a good time was had by all.

We now return to the real world. We will be heading for the Mt. Remarkable National Park via the Clare Valley tomorrow and will probably be celebrating my 65th birthday there on Monday.

ADELAIDE

We are now here for our week of luxury and golf. If I have anything exciting to report, I will do a blog otherwise it will resume next Sunday when we head off for another two weeks of travelling and national park camping.

THURSDAY / FRIDAY– ALMOST AT ADELAIDE

Today was quite boring really until we got to our campsite for tonight. We are in the Coorong National Park on the shore of Lake Coorong which meets Lake Alexandrina near the mouth of the Murray River. The temperature is somewhat cooler than we are used to but we don't have any flies or bees to keep us company.

 

 

We have swapped the inland birds for pelicans, ducks and swans, more of the latter than I can count.

 

Tomorrow we will explore the area and probably stay here tomorrow night before heading for the high life of Adelaide on Saturday.

I was expecting to be able to send this tonight but, although we have some signal, there isn't enough so hopefully, I can find somewhere with sufficient signal tomorrow.

As it happened, we didn't find enough signal on Friday so this is being posted from the bank of the Murray at Tailem Bend where we have stopped for morning tea en route to Adelaide on Saturday The temperature is 19 degrees but that hasn't stopped an intrepid water skier in the river.

WEDNESDAY AT MURRAY – SUNSET NATIONAL PARK

Another fabulous day. This time we were the only occupants of the Lake Crosbie Camp Ground at the Pink Lakes, not far as the crow flies from where we were last night. Once again we are camped on the shore of a lake but, like Lake Mungo, there is no water. The lakes in this national park are salt lakes which, until 1979, supported a significant salt mining industry.

 

 

There are various reminders of the former industry including the log ramps leading out on to the lakes and stockpiles of salt which are rock hard.

 

The lakes are referred to as pink lakes, because, in certain light, the salt appears to be pink. Hopefully the photo tells the story.

What this campsite will be particularly remembered for are the bees. Several of them tried to appropriate my beer but I was able to get it back when they retreated briefly. As I type this, I am hiding in the van with bees buzzing at the door. Hopefully they will disappear as the sun goes down and I will be able to get outside to cook dinner. Strangely enough, they have not been a problem as we drove and walked around today. They just seem to congregate at the camp site. Perhaps they are attracted to the white caravan.

 

There is not enough signal here to post this so you will see it some time on Thursday.

TUESDAY AT LAKE HATTAH

Two blogs in one day. That's a bit much but we are very comfortably settled as the only campers in the Hattah Kulkyne National Park camp ground on the shores of Lake Hattah and we have signal so why not?

After doing the domestic chores in Mildura, we headed 50 kms down the road to here. What we now appreciate is that we should have camped on the banks of the Murray in the adjacent Murray Kulkyne National Park but the Camps Australia book was a little unclear and we ended up here.

 

 

No problem though because we spent the afternoon exploring both parks including an extensive but remote stretch of the Murray- much more interesting than the manicured part passing through suburban Mildura.

Tomorrow we head for the Pink Lakes being in the southern part of the Murray Sunset National Park. We will be crossing into South Australia on Thursday on target for Adelaide on Saturday.

 

 

 

 

MONDAY AT MUNGO

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that there was no phone signal at Mungo National Park (160 kms north west of Balranald) so this is being published on Tuesday from Mildura on the banks of the mighty Murray. Trish is at the laundromat doing the washing and I have just filled the water tanks and emptied the waste ready for our next National Park adventure at Hattah Kulkyne National Park about 50 kms south of here.

 

 

Mungo was delightful. The van survived its 100 kms of dirt road each way quite comfortably and we camped at the very well set up National Park camp ground where the locals were very friendly.

 

 

The National Park is based on a number of former sheep stations, one of which was Mungo. The shearing shed remains as a reminder of previous activity. The name Mungo comes from Lake Mungo which is part of the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region. Having said that, they are lakes in name only. It is 15,000 years since they were last filled with water.

 

 

In formation, they are very like the Menindee Lakes or Coongie Lakes but without the water.

The lake is famous for Mungo Man and Mungo Lady being aborigines reputed to have lived here 40,000 years ago whose remains were found as a result of the erosion of the lake edges.

 

 

The signature formation is known as the Walls of China (presumably a reference to the Great Wall of China). The area constituting the Walls is what originally constituted the eastern beach of Mungo Lake, known as the lunette. Because the prevailing wind is westerly, the eastern shore is a series of sandhills eventually becoming very large white sand sandhills comparable to sand blows on Fraser Island. The western shore is a typical outback dune of red sand. 

 

 

The area nearest the eastern shore of the former lake is hard sand/clay which, as it erodes, reveals aboriginal artifacts and remains as well as remains of the animals which inhabited the area between 15,000 and 50,000 years ago. 

There is a 70 km self guided drive tour which gives access to the numerous very interesting natural and man made features of the area.

SATURDAY ON THE MURRUMBIDGEE

As anticipated, we spent today in the car and are tonight camped in an idyllic spot in the Mamanga Campground in the Yanga National Park on the banks of the Murrumbidgee not far from Balranald.

What makes it particularly special is that apart from the birds and the kangaroos, we are the only ones here. It has very much an outback feel to it.

 

Tomorrow we head for Mungo National Park.

FRIDAY AT THE ZOO

Well, as you may have gathered, we were not in phone range last night so the Friday blog is being posted on Saturday.

As anticipated, we spent Friday afternoon at Dubbo Zoo reliving our youth riding bikes around the 6 kms circuit We didn't hit anything and we didn't fall off. It was delightfully quiet. The pictures tell some of the story.

 

 

We spent Friday night deep in the bush about 60 kms south of Dubbo in the Goobang National Park We didn't quite have it to ourselves. There was one other caravan there.

We were able to fill our water tanks and empty the waste tank at Coonabarabran so we can live independently of civilization for the next few days.

Tomorrow will be a driving day as we head for Balranald, the nearest town to our next interesting destination, Mungo National Park.

 

 

WALKING THE WARRUMBUNGLES

What a virtuously active day today. We did the Bread Knife track being a 12.5 km round trip. As you might expect, the track in is all uphill and, of course, the converse applies to the track out.

Needless to say, the scenery was spectacular and we virtually had the place to ourselves. We saw only one other couple.

Just before we arrived yesterday, there had been a storm which brought significant rain. We had to ford creeks to get to the camping area. Everything was therefore nice and moist today. Storms threatened again this afternoon but, apart from some drizzle, they didn't come to anything.

This is the Bread Knife formation itself. the photo doesn't really show how steep and narrow it is.

Tomorrow we are thinking we might go to the Dubbo zoo as we continue our trek south.

All van systems are working perfectly. Time to top up the water tanks tomorrow.

THE WARRUMBUNGLES

On the road today. 500 plus kms to get to the Warrumbungles west of Coonabarabran. We had a bit of excitement at lunch time in that we couldn't get any gas appliances to work. That's a major drama for National Park camping because, when we don't have power, the fridge runs on gas. We dropped into a plumber at Narrabri but, of course, everything worked perfectly for him so, we have a mystery. Hopefully it won't reoccur.

We are now comfortably settled in our campsite where we will stay for at least tomorrow night. Tomorrow will be a walking/exploring day.

THE BLOG IS BACK - CARAVAN TRIP TO ADELAIDE

 

 

 

Having collected Trish from the airport this morning after her overnight flight from Cambodia, we completed the packing up process and headed off. We are now comfortably camped at Leslie Dam near Warwick and hope to make it to the Warrumbungles tomorrow.

As you can see, we are in a large paddock which we have to ourselves and all systems seem to be working (and I have worked how to prepare this blog on my new notebook which is way more complicated than it needs to be).