Day 111. Bridgewater to Home Sweet Home. 30/08/2015

We don’t like these cold mornings and we slept a little longer than we had intended to, so consequently our departure was not as early as we have hoped it to be. The temperature was only about 6 degrees and there was a cold wind and it looked like we were heading into some rain clouds. Stopped at the bakery in Bridgewater before we even left town for John to purchase some of their delicious pasties. 
We were surprised at the amount of traffic on the roads even though it was a Sunday, but I guess we have travelled many kilometres without seeing another vehicle on the road. A little sprinkle of rain but nothing of any great consequence. We arrived home about 11.15 and very quickly we had some of the car and caravan unpacked. We received a couple of “welcome home” telephone calls from our friends in the Village along with some visits from others.

Later in the afternoon we had a wonderful “welcome home” greeting from all our family and they had bought dinner for us to enjoy with them as we caught up on family matters. The grandchildren seemed to have grown so much in the time we have been away.

We have had the most wonderful holiday that really was an epic journey that took us over 22,000 kms around this great country. We have seen and done the most amazing things all of which will live on in our hearts and minds forever.

It is very special to have shared some of our travels with Rod, Jude, Don and Heather and also, when we have been on different journeys, to catch up at some point and discuss our respective travels and stories. Our "happy hours" were priceless special times.

A very special time for us was sharing Wendy's 70th Birthday in Fremantle with Judy, Terry, Ellen and Doug who flew all the way to Fremantle to spend that time with us.

We hope that all of those that have followed our blog have found it interesting.

Safe and Sound back home.

Day 110. Robinvale to Bridgewater. 29/08/2015

Very cold morning as we farewelled our fellow traveller Ted and Daisy. The sun was weakly trying to appear but the temperature stayed quite low for most of the journey to Bridgewater. The scenery was very uninteresting and in particular we thought Kerang was very poor quality land with not much going for it. However, as we moved further on the landscape changed considerably and we began to see some lovely farming land with crops and sheep and cattle properties and even some dairy cattle which we have not previously seen. The crops are not advanced as we had seen in W.A. and S.A. but the cooler weather would made quite a difference in their development. 

We arrived in Bridgewater about 3 p.m. We were very impressed with the park. It is a council park that has been completely rebuilt after being flooded in 2011 and is situated right on the Loddon River. The river attracts large numbers of speed boats and water skiers and the facilities are excellent. Apparently the skiers come from all around the world to hone their skills each year before our Moomba Masters.
After setting up we had a visit from our friends Pam and David Payne who have made Bridgewater their home for the past 15 years. We later joined them for dinner at the local Bridgewater Pub and although it was a freezing night we enjoyed their company, the meal and the warmth of the cosy fire in the dining room.

Back at camp we watched the last half of the football before adding an extra blanket on the bed and retiring.
Last sleep in Calinda tonight. She has been amazing, always enveloping us incredible comfort, never letting us down and taking care of our every need. She is a little grotty at the moment, but as soon as we get home we will have her sparkling once again.
Home tomorrow.

Dinner with old friends David and Pam Payne.

Day 109. Burra to Robinvale. 28/08/2015

Very cold morning but fine as we departed from the lovely Burra Caravan Park. The journey of 420kms was a bit boring early this morning as the landscape was just as we have been seeing for a few days now, plenty of saltbush and scrubby trees for some distance before the views changed as we entered the farming areas. 

Had a short stop for a morning coffee at Renmark, then continued on in the direction of Robinvale changing highways to again find ourselves on the Sturt Highway.  

As we came closer to Mildura we began to see Orchards, Vineyards, Almond tree plantations and other fruit growing crops. Crossed over the mighty Murray River at Euston then a short time later we found the Riverside Caravan Park at Robinvale.  

Our site is wonderful, a lovely grassy site right on the banks of the Murray. 

We have timed our stay here to catch up with Ted and his little dog Daisy who we have seen on a number of occasions at other places on this journey. We first met Ted at Glendambo, then Coober Pedy, Daly Waters, Mataranka, then Darwin and have been following his journey to finally meet him here again in Robinvale. 

Ted lives at Wodonga and today is his final day on the road, so it was wonderful to spend the afternoon and evening with him and his little dog. We shared a great campfire together at our evening dinner and swapped stories of our adventures over the past four and a half months. A very nice gentleman who has an interesting life story.

One more day to go for us on this epic journey and are now so close to home. The children have been in touch and are looking forward to seeing us on Sunday. Just hope they remember to bring food!

Robinvale Riverside Park next to the Murray. Our site was right on the waters edge.

A very pleasant and relaxing afternoon with Ted.

Ted and his best friend Daisy.

The fire needed some kero!

Day 108. Port Augusta to Burra. 27/08/2015

Departed Port Augusta after a little sleep-in this morning and travelled South via the Sturt Highway. We drove for many miles with a water pipeline running directly alongside the highway, and we think it is the same pipeline that we have been seeing since we left Ceduna. More farming land on either side and we did see an Alpaca farm as well as a very large wind farm along the coastline. We saw both Port Pirie and Iron Knob in the distance but did not turn off the highway to visit. Our journey took us onto the Goyder Highway that would take us towards our destination of Burra. 

A beautiful drive over undulating hills with magnificent scenery of lush farming crops of Wheat, Barley, Canola and sheep farms. 

We stopped at the very lovely township of Crystal Brook where we found a fantastic Bakery that provided our coffee and bakery treats for morning tea. John remarked that his pastie was as good as his Mum used to make - it must have been pretty good. Crystal Brook is one of those lovely quaint farming townships in the wheat belt of S.A. that has a lot of history and is definitely worth another visit at some other time.

A little further on we drove through the township of Spalding where we saw a magnificent herd of cattle that had the most amazing reddish/brown hides that were almost like fur and with gorgeous faces (I love Cows). Again we saw another huge windfarm on the ridges of the rolling hills. At this point we lost sight of that water pipeline - don’t know where it disappeared to!

Arrived in Burra about 12.30 pm. and after settling in and a quick lunch, we left to acquaint ourselves with this very lovely and interesting town that has large heritage settlement.
Burra is an old mining town and there is still plenty of evidence throughout the area that at one time this was a very successful mining town. In fact the Burra mine was one of the richest copper mines in the world. We visited the open cut mine site that still has the remnants of the old mine buildings.

There are many mining cottages from the 1840’s and plenty of very attractive heritage buildings in the township. Visited the Burra Cemetery (I love a good Cemetery). Oldest grave is dated 1850 and there are 3994 grave-sites which is a really large Cemetery. I imagine that it is the resting place for the residents of not only Burra but nearby communities as well.
The restored train station museum was closed when we arrived but we will see the displays in the future.

We have decided that maybe next year we will come back into this area to spend some time enjoying Burra, Crystal Brook and nearby surrounding towns such as Hallett, Eudunda, Robertson and the Clare Valley region.

The beautiful town centre of Crystal Brook.

The huge peppercorn trees lined the main road.

Parking under the peppercorns back in 1870.

Steam trains transported wool and wheat from Crystal Brook in the early 1900's

Sheep stations along the Goyder Highway.

The bright colour of the Canola looked beautiful when the sun came out. The pipeline is in the foreground.

Welcome to Burra.

The central square at Burra.

The closed copper mine - one of the most productive in the world. 

Some history on the mine.

Beautiful heritage homes.

Very special heritage property.

The restored Burra Station.

What sweet will I pick - the butterscotch won out.

Day 107. Penong to Port Augusta. Completed the Circle. 26/08/2015

This morning we woke early and the sunrise was spectacular. An extremely cold morning of 1 degree so a quick wipe of all the car windows was needed before we could set off from Penong on our planned 540 kms journey.

As we would be going through the border check for fruit and vegetables at Ceduna I left whatever veggies I had in the “exchange tray” at the Penong Caravan Park. I figured it was a good plan to leave them for other travellers than have the “Veggie Nazi” take them off me and throw them in a bin. At the border I very proudly announced what I had done, but of course the “Veggie Nazi” had to check inside the fridge only to find my bowl of cooked apples that are allowed.
We had a morning coffee at Poochera a very small farming hamlet whose main feature was huge grain silos. The areas ahead of us were all grain growing farms with a few large flocks of sheep every now and again.  

Lunch stop was at a very pretty township named Kimba. The further we travelled it appeared we were approaching rain clouds but as luck would have it we did not see rain today.  

Arrived in Port Augusta about 3 p.m. and as we settled into our camp site at the Big 4 we commented that we had come the full circle. It is now three and a half months since we were here the first time before heading off to the Flinders Rangers. We definitely started our big trip at the peak time as the park was full then, and now, not many travellers around. 

Still a big distance for us to travel before we reach home. We are heading for Robinvale on Friday, Bridgewater west of Bendigo Saturday and expect to be at the Village around noon Sunday.

A short drive tomorrow to Burra so may get a sleep in.

A foggy sunrise at Penong- a chilly one degree.

Pretty town of Kimba along the Eyre Highway.

The Kimba War Memorial

Almost back to Port Augusta.

Back to the Big4 at Port Augusta.

A pretty big circle - Port Augusta to Port Augusta.

Day 106. Cocklebiddy to Penong. Well into South Australia. 25/08/2015

A good nights sleep at Cocklebiddy and we were ready to hit the road to clock up a large number of kilometres across the Nullarbor. A beautiful early morning but as we travelled West we seemed to catch the storm front that we experienced yesterday. It rained for at least two hours then fined up before lunch.

The landscape was continually changing which was not what we had expected and, therefore, the drive was not boring at all. 

Again there were signs warning us of wildlife that may stray onto the road, Camels, Emus, Kangaroos and even Wombats on various stretches of the Nullarbor. We decided to have a competition between us as to who would spot some wildlife first and it looked at one stage that there would be no winner, but John spotted an Emu (or so he said, and I cannot confirm) so I guess he wins. Hard to believe that we could travel some 690 kms today and see only one lousy Emu.   

We stopped for fuel and a morning cuppa at the Mundrabilla Roadhouse, another pleasant surprise along this journey. As we continued we were surprised to see that we were driving parallel to a ridge called the Moodini Bluff and then after steadily climbing we reached the top of the road at Eucla Pass and saw the Southern Ocean for the first time from the Nullarbor. At that point it is the Great Australian Bight and a very lovely sight. We noticed that the clocks on our mobile phones had switched over to S.A. time as we crossed over the border from W.A.

Our lunchtime stop was at Nullarbor Roadhouse, another welcome stop and also popular with other travellers. A little further on we turned off the main road to the viewing point of the Head of the Bight. A very beautiful spot but alas no Whales were visible.

Again the landscape changed and we started to see farming properties of sheep and crops.
Just before dark we arrived at a little town called Penong (the town of windmills) for our overnight stop. A very nice park that has one of the Nullarbor Golf Holes called “The Pioneer Drive”, a 260 meter Par 4 right next to the park. Rod plans to play the course at the various holes on his return across the Nullarbor.
Tomorrow we plan to drive to Port Augusta so that will mean early start and another long drive.

A Great Australian Bight lookout 

Some information on the environment.

Some information on the Land.

Tee notice for one of the Nullarbor Golf Holes.

Some history of Penong.

Information on the Penong water supply.

More saltbush along the Eyre.

Day 105. Esperance to Cocklebiddy - Across the Nullarbor. 24/08/2015

A reasonably early start to the day and we were pleased that at that point it was not raining however, as we drove towards Norseman the showers came again. We had a brief stop at Norseman, a very old gold mining town that has got absolutely nothing going for it, where we had morning coffee and a refuel before departing full steam ahead, as John wanted to cover a lot of kilometres across the Nullarbor before our evening stop. 

The drive along the Eyre highway was quite interesting with varying vegetation etc. The road was quite straight but we were careful not to veer off the road. Because of the recent heavy rains the sides of the road were very boggy looking and in some places we could actually see where large transports had been bogged. The rain started again and the boggy areas looked even worse. 

We came across the sign that announced we were about to travel Australia’s longest straight road - The 90 Mile Straight (146.6 Kilometres).  We also saw signs that indicated the 18 golf holes that are scattered over the Nullarbor. Also a number of signs warning of wildlife in the area to avoid, Camels, Emus and Kangaroos, but we saw nothing!  

The rain persisted for a great part of the journey but finally fined up not long before we reached what was to be our overnight stop at Cocklebiddy. Our drive today covered some 665 kms, a marvellous effort by John who refuses to let me help  out with the driving.  

Another refuel, early dinner tonight and then bed.

Clocked up 20,000 kms during this part of our trip.

Started off fine as we moved along the Eyre Highway but rain clouds ahead.

The heavens opened and the highway became very wet.

Flooding along the Eyre.

Typical saltbush that we expected as far as the eye could see.

And it was like a gun barrel.

Sunset at the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse - quite a surprise packet.