Home sweet home!

This will be the last blog of our trip. We eventually got the car back and in retrospect, it was only a tiny hiccup, but at the time seemed to be a long wait. 

We celebrated the return of our car by watching the John Farnham movie at Port Pirie - which we really loved! We went to the afternoon session when it was mild and sunny, and came out later to find it cold wet and miserable. Seems like that was the beginning of winter for us as it’s been like that since then. We visited my sister Heather in Victor Harbor and saw the seat honouring Mum & Dads memory - pity it was a bit damp to sit on it! 

Our trip ended with a lovely day at Seppelt’s  Winery at Great Western where we undertook the underground cellar tour. That was an amazing tour -  to think how difficult it must have been, digging all those tunnels by hand all those years ago, then the foresight people have had to preserve that for others to enjoy today. We also popped into Best’s winery where their cellars were a little more modest but great to see as well. Thank you Paul & Noelene for your hospitality and for encouraging us to stay and do the tour. The wine tasting was pretty good too! 

We arrived home to find our fire going - (many thanks Trevor) the river up high again (thank you Kristian for rescuing the jetty) and our front verandah cemented. What a difference that has made and we’re certainly glad to see the last of those brick pavers! I can’t wait to put pot plants and furniture back to see the full effect. 

We’re now sitting in our comfy chairs, enjoying the warmth and reflecting on the many great times we enjoyed on this trip. We are certainly very fortunate to be able to undertake these trips and explore the wonderful country we live in. So until our next big trip, I’ll sign off and thank you to our readers for making writing these blogs worthwhile. ❌❌❌❌ Marg & Darryl. 

The little bit of trouble becomes BIG trouble.

Our problem with the electric handbrake has become more complicated as parts are not available in Australia! So what we thought would be just a reset, is now a long drawn out waiting exercise. Port Germein is a lovely spot, but after 10 days we’ve sort of run out of things to do. We’ve walked the long jetty a few times and there’s been some unsuccessful fishing!

We even played a bit of bowls at the greens  next door - maybe a little differently as we seemed to take up a lot of space!

Dennis found an island he loves at nearby Weeroona  Island. It’s not a conventional island in that it only becomes detached from the  mainland with high tides.  Most times the causeway is just surrounded by mangrove swamps, but the elevated views on the western side are beautiful. We also saw the wreck of The York.

We had a great day Saturday when we enjoyed the Pichi Richi steam train. It was very well patronised on this sunny day, and it was lovely chugging along the narrow gauge between the hewn rocks. 

Dennis and Tops have left us now to travel home - there was no point in both of us sitting around waiting waiting waiting! We try to be positive as things could  be a lot worse - we have our health, our van is a comfy home with water & power supplied and we do have a loan car. We’ve haven’t been using that car much, but the chap has told us we are  welcome to do day trips and use it sensibly - maybe not a trip to Murrabit!  So we hope that by the next blog, we’re underway with our car and van and are able to complete the last part of our travels. ❌❌ from Marg & Darryl. 

A little bit more trouble …..

We’ll it hasn't been our week vehicle wise as now our car is in Port Augusta with problems with the electric handbrake. It’s been playing up all along a bit but Wednesday it decided to drive us nuts by non stop dinging!!  We couldn’t stop it so had to drive the 60odd kms to Port Augusta with the dinging ringing in our ears! Not pleasant. We were fortunate that the Ford service department were able to fit us in and it was determined that we need new callipers and actuator - which of course need to be sourced from Melbourne & Adelaide. They kindly gave us a loan car so now Darryl is a Toyota man!! They hope ours will be ready today but we’re not real hopeful and seeing it’s a holiday Monday, we might have to wait till next week. We certainly can’t go anywhere as the loan car doesn’t have a Towbar! Luckily we still have Dennis’s car and yesterday we enjoyed a lovely scenic circuit drive over the hills to Gladstone, Laura and Wirrabara and back through the very pretty Germein Gorge.

We firstly had a look at the ships in at Port Pirie and were impressed with the lovely waterfront areas (not depicted in these shots) 

Our morning tea stop was at a little place on the Highway called Warnertown - where the boys enjoyed talking to the very knowledgeable ARB chap set up next door. From there we drove through the picturesque rolling hills to Gladstone and had a good look around there - the town is much bigger than we thought as usually we drive straight through. We went onto lovely Laura where the statues celebrate CJ Dennis who spent much of his young years here. 
We browsed through an antique shop then drove onto Wirrabara where we enjoyed a delicious pasty from the bakery. We admired the silo art - how clever are these artists?

 We visited the nearby forest where the first plant nursery was established in the 1870’s to determine which trees would be best for plantations. The Radiata Pine was the winner and I guess from these experiments, the pine plantations developed. The king tree was an attraction and it certainly was huge - although not all that healthy.

This wood carving was very good - as was this lizard carved by a local bloke. Like most people, we had a spectacular thunderstorm the other night and recorded over an inch  - at home we had a good soaking and we heard the mountains had huge amounts. It’s cooler now but not freezing - although the fishermen on the jetty may think otherwise! Their catch to date is 3 yellowfin whiting which we’ll enjoy as entree tonight. The long weekend is upon us and we’ll be thinking of the activities going on at home and hope everyone has a great time. We are going on the Pichi  Richi steam train tomorrow so are looking forward to that - although we are a little disappointed it is only running from Quorn to Woolshed Flat. Happy long weekend everyone  ❌❌❌

A little bit of trouble

We loved our stay at Roxby Downs and sadly headed off along the Borefield track, which was surprisingly very good. We cut some wood along the way and hit the Oodnadatta track with plans to have lunch at Marree.

The track however had different ideas as 15kms out of Marree we had not one, not two, not three but four punctures between us! The track was in very good condition except it was stony, which we have learned is bad news for our tyres! As you could guess, we’re pretty disappointed to have new vehicles,  purpose built for off road driving, not meeting that criteria. As well as it being expensive - we’ve had to buy 2 new tyres, it was rather stressful and disappointing to be too scared to go off road. 

After 6 punctures all up, Darryl & Dennis are becoming experts at tyre changing - it’s always on the dirt, giving Tops and I more washing, and getting the tyre up and down is not that simple in these modern cars. 

However, things turned out ok as the people at Marree were just wonderful and even though it was a Saturday afternoon, we got 2 tyres repaired to get us both mobile again - albeit it with no spares. We set up our vans behind the pub and enjoyed a great night - live music, good company and an excellent meal.  

We enjoyed morning tea at Farina as the bakery was open and the hardest decision was which delicacy to choose! Copley was our next destination - this little place has been our fix it place quite a few times and we’re very happy to stay there. The local chap found our tyre was not able to be repaired so a new tyre for each of us it was! It rained in the night and overnight we went from dust to mud!! The creeks towards Hawker were flowing and the road was closed for a while - we saw the bus being recovered from being stuck earlier in the day. 

The magnificent Flinders Ranges were veiled in low cloud and it looked like it would rain all day.

So we decided to come over to Spencer Gulf and have set up at this lovely park at Port Germein. Then we realised a long weekend is coming up, so rather than try and find another location, we extended our stay for another 6 nights. We did have to move sites but the owners were very considerate and accommodating. It’s a lovely spot here and we will be able to visit Port Pirie, Port Augusta,  and inland to places like Melrose and have even booked a trip on the iconic Pitchie Richie train at Quorn. The long jetty also means there could be some fishing! 

We are sure we’ll be happy here and next blog will tell our adventures in this neck of the woods. Happy long weekend to everyone ❌❌❌❌❌from the travellers. 

Andamooka and Roxby Downs

We are so pleased we decided to visit these towns - no more are they just dots on a map to us! You could never find two towns so different - Andamooka’s town planning was non existent as the houses and streets are all randomly placed among mullock heaps. Roxby Downs however, is very organised and set out to a plan - maybe a bit too much as Darryl and I got lost this morning on our morning walk! 

Andamooka is such an interesting place and the people are so friendly and happy. We were amazed at the early houses and how simple they were - often built with whatever materials were available. We imagine in the heat of summer and cold of winter, life would have been tough. 

I was pretty keen to see Lake Torrens, so we took a fairly rugged 17km trek to the edge and really couldn’t see much. The joke was, back in town, we had a much better view of the lake - which is a huge salt lake that fills very rarely. 

We have never before taken a beer as an entry fee to anything, but that’s what we did to see Cal the Stoner!

His work is amazing - that tiger was made from all different small pieces of stone - the stripes are natural tonings in the rock and the claws and tail are made of opal. It took him 8000 hours to complete it - and now he is working on a full sized lady - she is coming along beautifully. In between, he showed us other projects which are incredibly intricate.  It was well worth giving up a beer!

Talking to locals, we learned such a lot about the opal business and the ebbs and flows of success. The community is very strong and we enjoyed a coffee in their community hub and every Sunday, they cook up a big breakfast - pity we will miss that. 

We came onto Roxby Downs and two things surprise us. One, it’s so clean tidy and organised and two, there are many empty shops in the shopping centre. That is the result of the centre management in far off Melbourne, setting rentals far too high, and possibly Covid, which encouraged online shopping. 

We watched a video on the Olympic dam mining which was very informative, and we did try to visit the mine today, but it’s all a prohibited site so we saw nothing. It’s unbelievable that there is 400kms of roads up to 4 kms under ground and that the uranium deposit is the largest known in the world - plus is has the 4th largest copper deposit. Gold and silver are minor by- products. It certainly is a huge mine and judging by the number of accommodation places - both here at Roxby Downs and at Olympic Dam, must employ hundreds of people. 

The caravan park here is excellent - we have the use of free washing facilities, can walk into town (probably taking a map would help) and are able to have our camp fire. The staff are very obliging and friendly - seems a common theme in these remote places. Tomorrow we will head off up the Borefield track to the Oodnadatta track and onto Marree and Farina. The weather has been mild and we’ve yet to pack away all summer gear - though we do believe some rain could be coming. After last years wet trip, this year we haven’t struck any rains. Good for camping - maybe not for farmers. We trust all is well with our readers, and send our love. ❌❌❌❌