Hi again – I can’t believe 4 weeks from today we will be home.  Our great adventure has whizzed by.  Conversation these days tends to be all about head winds, tail winds, no winds, litres per 100k, where to stop, how long to stay the list goes on…but don’t forget the navigating – that just never goes away and after 20 weeks it still stresses me out!!  So far we have traveled about 20,000k and taken 1800 photos.  My job has been to name the photos along the way so when we get home it will all make some sort of sense.  Traveling through SA has been very picturesque with the canola fields and wheat fields all looking very colorful due to the good rains they have had through winter.  After leaving the Flinders we headed for Melrose, then onto Burra where Tony’s great grandparents settled after arriving from Cornwell, then to Yorke Peninsula & Renmark where we caught up with some of Tony’s friends and we are now at Mildura.

Brachina Gorge was my favorite part of the Flinders because of its spectacular colours, creek crossings and amazingly, solitude. We wandered through this part of the gorge with our picnic lunch just soaking it all up.

This was our last morning in the Flinders Ranges.  We had very cold evenings and early mornings but luckily bright sunny days.

Finally then onto Melrose.  I don’t remember too much about Melrose because as you can see I was very happy to meet up with these three little delights (and their parents too of course).  The weather wasn’t so kind to us here unfortunately. By the time we packed up we were all ankle deep in mud around our vans but that didn’t stop us walking around the town finding a cosy little coffee shop with an open fire, lots of farm animals , going for hot rod rides, (there is a hot rod display held every 2 years to raise funds for the local school and this weekend happened to be it- the kids loved it).

In Burra you can purchase a town pass which gives you a key to access historical sites including the old goal, brewery and original cottages around the town and 3 museums. The main feature of Burra is their copper mining history in the early 1900s. After some searching in the local cemetery Tony found a couple of headstones belonging to his ancestors.

We were surprised to see these daisies along the highway through SA.  Made me think I should plant some when I go home to brighten up my world.

We certainly got lucky with this park right on the Murray riverbank –  NSW side.  We had decided it was time for a rest and seeing it is such a lovely spot we will probably be here 5 or 6 nights.  The van with the awning out is ours.  Tonight Tony lit a campfire and we had 10 people for happy hour .Most of them from SA or Melbourne just getting away from the cold for a few nights.   One of the good things about the weather improving is we can now start enjoying happy hour again.  In the colder weather everyone is tucked up inside by 5.30-6pm.   As you can see from the top photo Tony is getting into the relaxed mode.  He says he is not too sure what he will do when he gets home now that he has retired.

Jenny x

Hi again everyone,

Arrived @ Coffin Bay via a roadside “bakery”.  No idea where the bread was baked but everything was $4 via the honesty system and the yummiest, crunchiest vienna bread ever! Tony read in one of the brochures Coffin Bay is the place to buy oysters, so first stop after setting up was for oysters.  As luck happened just opposite the caravan park. $18/dozen for kilpatrick. (He went back the next day for another dozen).           We went on a boat tour on Boston Bay, Port Lincoln to see some seal lions and find out about the tuna fishing industry.  This proved to be a very informative day.  The tuna are caught at sea weighing about 20kg and then placed in the farms (up to 2000 in each enclosure) until the grow to about 40kg then they are processed and loaded on to ships bound for Japan.  80% of all tuna farmed go to Japan.  The buyer supervises the killing process and it must not take any longer than 11 minutes from when the tuna is caught by hand by the divers until it is killed and gutted.  The average time is 4 minutes.   The buyer also supervises the packing to make sure the tuna do not lose their shape. The tuna are worth $1000 each.  We then stopped beside a Japanese ship watching the loading process.

Then back to calmer waters for a Bluefin tuna sushimi tasting.  The tasting was prepared by each person (6) being given a paper plate, a small medicine glass size plastic cup with a sticky on the bottom to attach to plate which was filled with soy sauce, then wasabi, pickled ginger and horse radish put on the plate.  The idea was to put a little ginger, wasabi or horse radish on the tuna, fold it over, dip it in the soy sauce then eat it with plastic fork supplied.  From my point of view it was OK but certainly I would not pay $200 a plate for it!

Then on to Whyalla.  We did a bus tour around the Wyalla Steel works.  .  Went to see the blast furnace (where they make pig iron), saw the loading of iron pellets from rail wagons to blast furnace and then taking away  molten slag in huge containers and tipping it.  The red hot pour reminded me of a HUGE gold pour.  Then on to have a look at the coke ovens (there are 104 in total) where coal is heated up to 1600 degrees to produce coke then pushed out of the ovens, which looks like molten lava tumbling out, then to a cooling tower where water is poured over it making huge clouds of steam.  Then a tour of the steel mill..  After the tour ended we decided to go to a local hotel for lunch (roast of the day) and then back to the information centre for a tour of Whyalla Maritime Museum which included a tour of the wartime corvette HMAS Whyalla.  The Whyalla was sold after the war and bought back by the Whyalla Council in 1988 for $5000.00.  It cost $450,000.00 to move from the waters edge to its present site at the Museum.  The museum houses one of the largest model railways in the southern hemisphere.  It has 400 metres of track featuring lines between Whyalla and the iron ore mines and the setting is in a natural landscape.

Next a 300k drive to Parachilna (north of Port Augusta). . The population here is under 10.  The Prairie Hotel has been licensed since the late 1890’s. Their claim to fame is a meal called something like “Critters Delight” which is a camel sausage, some emu fillet mignon  and a kangaroo steak.  Tony then tried the Critters Delights – verdict – camel sausage – OK, emu – tough,  kangaroo – delicious.  I had fish and chips. We had a non powered site, overlooking the Heysen Range, in the old school grounds which is now a bush camping spot run by 5 locals ($10.50ea). – I guess that is most of the town! Tonight we are the only ones in the school grounds. It is kind of sad coming across these almost ghost towns that were quite busy in times gone by.  In this area there are a number of house ruins dotted along the highway.

With a bit of trepidation we left the caravan in the school grounds all by itself and set off for a drive.  We went on a 120k loop drive through the Parachilna Gorge, crossing creeks, admiring the everlasting views, walked a VERY small way on the Heysen trail (the trail starts here and goes to Cape Jervis – a total of 1200k) then on to Blinman then 26k south to drive through the Brachina Gorge, a bit more of a challenging drive again crossing creeks.  I think this Gorge was even more spectacular.

After 2 nights in Parachilna we set off for Rawnsley Bluff Tourist Park in the Flinders Ranges. On Sunday we decided on a long walk to Wilpena Lookout at Rawnsley Bluff.  This was an 11.5k hike, rated difficult, taking us 4 ¾ hrs. (the signage says 4 hrs but Tony maintains if you are over 60 you can add an hour!)The track was up up all the way with one third of being relatively easy on a gravel track, another third was difficult walking over uneven rocks and one third was very challenging for us needing all fours to scramble over and up and down the rocks.  The effort was certainly worth it with magnificent views over Wilpena Pound but the views going up are more appreciated on the way down were equally as beautiful.  The red colours change every corner you turn.

We have heaps of photos of this spectacular region because you just can’t stop taking just one more great shot.

Today was just a driving day after all the exercise yesterday.  Once again you just can’t help but marvel at the scenery.  The rich colours of the range, together with many different shades of green in the trees and grass dappled with small yellow flowers and the gum trees with their beautiful white trunks.  Unfortunately our little camera doesn’t do it justice.

We are here for another couple of nights then off to Melrose where we are meeting up with Dean, Sen & the littlies for a few nights.

Catch up again soon,

Jenny x