Goodbye Flinders Ranges :-(

 I’ll start with an apology and some sad news ... my laptop has blown up so I’m pecking this out on my iPad, one finger style. It means that I can’t share the photos on my camera so unfortunately you’ll just have to wait until I’m home so see some of the stunning photos of rocks, birds and the views from the flight Liz and I took over Wilpena Pound and the park. 

We have stayed in the park for a week - having a substantial time camping in the pound and then the last two nights at Trezona campsite ... an absolute delight. We have walked the walks and driven the gorgeous gorges and had fires to warm the soul (and the feet and hands and ...).  It has been a delightful time. 

Much of the time we didn’t have much (if any) signal so it’s a bit of a shock to learn that things have deteriorated on the COVID front. How lucky are we to be in South Australia!

Heading to the Flinders Ranges

 Those South Australians might have passed on a COVID case to us Sicktorians, but they are very efficient at testing.  It only took 30 hours and "ping" went all our phones, telling us that we were COVID-less and free to exit our cabin.  Yay!  So we decided to spend another day at Renmark ... which is a lovely place!  Our camp is on the bank of the Murray and is the site of a pelican display every morning.  Possibly hundreds of pelicans arrive before the sun rises and start catching little silver fish, who occasionally jump out of the water, see all the pelicans and say "oh shit!" or something similar in fishese.  I have got up early most mornings, so have about 400 photos of pelicans.  I'll try and be restrained and only post a few.

Between Renmark and Berri is a National Trust property called Wilabalangaloo where there is a lovely nature trail that showcases the local flora and has fantastic views of the river.  I walked along the different trails, Mallee and River, with a constant chorus of birds coming from the bush.  

Olivegrove was another National Trust property, home to the Chaffey brothers in 1887 who were Canadian by birth and must have been totally gobsmacked by their new country.  They were invited here to set up the first irrigation scheme in Australia.  The house is quite lovely, surrounded by 130 year old olive groves and a palm lined driveway.  

But let's move on!  OK, there's heaps of history, really cute birds, gorgeous scenery and great walks.  But there is also a fantastic distillery, great brewery and lots of wineries.  Time to get my priorities right! The 23rd Street Distillery was a delight - great lunch and some quite stunning spirits.  OK, I might have bought a few bottles ... but perhaps they are going to be gifts!  Then we went out to the Woolshed Brewery where again I was impressed by the local ales.  It was turning into a very mellow day.

Tasting a few gins, vodkas, whiskeys before lunch.

Now for some real ales ...

A last pelican photo ... I have more if you're interested!

But it was time to leave the area and head north ... we were only a week or two late but the Flinders Ranges was now within reach. 

Hills!  No more flat horizons!

Morgan's main street

Our first stop was Burra.  Now here is a place that is a total delight - every house was gorgeous, made out of stone and with a cottage charm and simplicity.  And a very attractive price as well!  I was amazed that I could buy a two bedroom house, on half an acre close to the centre of town for a measly $150K!  And it wasn't even a 'renovators delight'!  Thanks to some excellent advice from Camila and Anthony (my wonderful housesitters) we got a key to the city and went around the sights, including the Monster Mine, railway station, miners' cottages etc.  And everywhere we went, I had the ghost of a memory of doing the same things but back in the 70s, on a South Australian family holiday.  I'll have to check my photos when I get home ... 

But perhaps the most important photo from the Burra region is this ...

Yes! It's the house/ruin from the album cover of Diesel and Dust by Midnight Oil.

So it's now off to the Flinders Ranges.  I'm so excited!

In Lockdown ... Where We Want To Be

 Hmmm.  Who would have known that I'd be keen to have a stick shoved up my nose?  Actually, that's not very fair to the very gentle girl who gave me a COVID test yesterday in Berri.  Yes!  Berri!  South Australia!  We're here!  Thank goodness!  Much as I enjoyed tripping around in NSW, the Flinders Ranges kept calling me.  Every second traveller we met had been there, walked a magnificent track or three, taken a brilliant flight over Wilpena Pound, camped in the most amazing spot.  And all I could do was grimace politely and feel overwhelmingly jealous.  But now ... now I can do all those things too ... once my test result comes back negative.  The stick wielder said it could be 24 to 72 hours before the results come through and I joked with Phill and Liz (Carter) this morning that I'll be the 72 since they probably do it alphabetically.

We left Barham and travelled back to Mildura, ready for a dash across the border on Friday.  We had our COVID tests booked and had arranged a cabin in Renmark to use for the 24-72 hour self-isolation ... so organised!  With a few stops along the way (some serious shopping at Manangatang and a great burger at Hattah) we arrived in Mildura, or should that be 'back in Mildura'.  We have now done a Murray River, Victoria and NSW loop ... marking time in a way before we could enter SA.

Identification required of these two

Border crossing ... tick!  COVID test ... tick!  We're now in a cabin on the banks of the Murray, surrounded by birdlife, great places to walk, distilleries, wineries and breweries, historic homesteads and various other tourist attractions that we can't go to.  However, we have Scrabble, Rummy, Chinese Checkers, playing cards, over 40 books and a decent amount of coffee.  We'll survive.

Our cabin - strangely none of us slept in it last night.  I guess we are used to our beds in our campers.

Here we are in NSW ...

... but for how long? The rules have just changed (again!) and it now looks like we can go to South Australia, depending on a negative COVID test. Excellent! Stick a swab up my nose ... I'm keen.  Just let me get to the Flinders Ranges!  So really our plans have just been delayed by 10 days or so - and we have been to some rather lovely places.

Junction of the Darling & the Murray, at Wentworth

Once we realised that we could leave the diseased and locked-down state of Victoria, we went to Wentworth, home of a lovely old goal and the site where the Murray and Darling rivers join.  Apart from a rather drunk man in a hoody who insisted on playing very loud, obnoxious music, we were taken with the beautiful scenery and the lovely birds.

Wentworth Goal, the first goal in Australia that was designed for australian conditions

After being tourists at the goal, it was time to go out and relax in the bush and we found a lovely campsite in the Yanga NP, near Balranald.  We were perched on the banks of the 'Bidgee, as Col (you'll meet Col soon) would say, surrounded by majestic river gums and a multitude of native birds, including two magpies and a cheeky noisy miner, who seemed to be the camp birds.  

Yellow form of the crimson rosella

Striated pardalote

Near our campsite was the Yanga Woolshed, an enormous place that was built in the late 1800s.  It could fit 3000 sheep undercover and had that unmistakable stink of lanolin and urine.  Mmmm hmmm!

Sadly, we had to escape the campground due to forecast rain.  However, we weren't finished with Balranald ... which I found to be quite a fascinating little place.  It had an art gallery which boasted the addition of an Anh Do portrait, sadly tucked away in the back room.  The lady there was only to keen to tell us all about it ... and about everything and anything else she could think of.  Boy, she could talk!  But that was nothing to Col!

Corellas, the evening chorus in Balranald

Balranald also boasts the Southern Cross Museum, which houses the replicas of two planes flown by Charles Kingsford Smith, the Southern Cross and the Lady Southern Cross.  The connection to Balranald is that he landed there in 1933 for a short visit (a rather tenuous reason for having a museum).  The shed (an old Ford garage) houses the two replicas, various old cars in different states of repair, memorabilia, old bottles, tools, machines, etc, etc, etc.  It also houses Col, who greeted us with "Yous'll need a bit of time here.  I've got a lot of history to tell youse."  And we did.  And he did.  For over an hour.  In the end, Liz interrupted the flow to say that we really did have to leave soon ... but we couldn't get away that easily!  He sat us down and told us about a German 44-wheel drive petrol driven monster truck and the invention of semitrailers and the stock crate and lazy bogey wheels and ..... I'm laughing at him but he was quite magnificent!  He had a passion and interest in all things Balranald and just wanted to share it all with us.  Heather Ewert of Backroads, you need to meet Col!

Liz in the Southern Cross

Col and his captive audience

Not far from Balranald is the little town of Moulamein, which is famous for being the home of the biggest river redgum in Australia.  It has a circumference of 11 metres!  We went on a walk to find the tree ... found it and hugged it ... walked further on and found the real Big Tree (the first one was obviously only a Biggish Tree).  The trees along the 'Bidgee are beautiful, with their patterned trunks and huge girths.  If we end up escaping to SA, these magnificent trees and broad rivers are something I'm going to miss.

Phill at the Big Tree

Me hugging the Not-So-Big Tree

Goodbye Victoria!

 There is exciting news!  It looks like we are able to leave Victoria and enter NSW.  We've checked with the police here in Mildura because we don't want to become famous like THAT WOMAN who went to Queensland ... and they seemed to think it was ok.  So that's what we're going to do.  I'm not sure where we are going - we're open to suggestions!  Please text me places that are fun, a bit different, interesting, historical ... just any of your favourite NSW destinations.

Here are your useless facts for today:  Wycheproof is the site of the smallest mountain in the world, standing at 43 metres above the surrounding land and is the source of Wycheproofite.  Wycheproofite is a hydrated sodium aluminium zirconium phosphate and is pink.  As far as I can find out it is also useless.

Standing on top of Mt Wycheproof

The railway running through the main street of Wycheproof

Gorgeous metal sculptures in Wycheproof

I've been feeling for all of you with the wild and wintry weather that has descended on us.  We rushed out of Maryborough and made our way north (assuming this would be warmer) to Lake Boga.  I have to say that it was quite frightening driving the van (2.65 metres high) through the gale force winds.  It's like trying to drive a kite!  But we made it and camped around the north side of the lake, sheltered behind some stands of bamboo.  It was almost pleasant ... unless you had to leave the warm confines of the van. 

We stayed two nights, exploring Swan Hill and relaxing while waiting for the weather to improve.  Which it did.  I woke up on Friday morning to a beautiful crisp day, the skies were clear and the lake was still, not a breath of wind to be felt.  As I walked along the shore, ribbons of ibis flew above.

Our next stop was meant to be Hattah Kulkyne NP.  While Phill and Liz went to Ouyen for fuel, Van Morrison and I went ahead to snaffle a good campsite.  Which I did - but when I rang up Parks Vic to book the site, they told me to get out because the park was closed!  So unfair!  So instead, we went to Lake Walpeup, a very poorly named place since there is no lake but a very pleasant campsite.  The change of venue was a disappointment but the travel was not.  Vast paddocks of ploughed red sand, huge grain silos and numerous railway crossings, tumbleweeds and enormous horizons, this is part of Victoria that is very foreign to me.  But it is so beautiful.  

Lake Walpeup

Silos in Manangatang

Endless straight roads (C roads, of course!)

So I really don't know where we are going now ... the best way to travel sometimes, don't you think?  I believe we'll head for Balranald first ... we were going to go to Lake Mungo (another lake with no water) but it is (a) booked out and then (b) closed ... since there's going to be a lot of rain here in a few days.  It just feels fantastic to be on the move and leaving Victoria ... rather than travelling in circles up here waiting for some border to open.  NSW, here we come!