Here, There & Everywhere ... before Mundi Mundi

I've been having a very chilled time lately, meandering around some lovely areas and having a few extended stays in some of my favourite campsites ... in fact, not doing much at all except reading and relaxing.  So there hasn't been any earth-shattering experiences to tell you about but there have been lots of fun and fascinating stops.  Perhaps the first one I should mention is the Arid Lands Botanic Garden in Port Augusta.  What an amazing place!  I spent half a day walking around the paths, marvelling at the different plants.  It is organised in areas (Flinders, Gawler, Eyre, etc) but also had special sections such as the eremophila garden.  And all maintained by volunteers!

Eucalyptus websteriana

Singing honeyeater

I've been surprised how cold it has been.  It's been cold in the van and Maggie (having lost most of her fur) was really feeling it.  So I dashed to my lovely camp at Wirrabara where I could sit in front of a roaring fire every night at the pub or have a fire in my firepit back at camp.  Four days later, I thought I probably should leave ... sigh!

The Spalding Hotel - for sale

My chair and fire at the Wirrabara Pub (not for sale)

Have I ever told you that I'd like to live in Burra?  As I drove there, I was amazed at the transformation from last time ... it was SO green.  Not that they've had a lot of rain (as I was told countless times) but all the crops have germinated.  The bald hills around Burra looked like the default wallpaper of Microsoft Windows XP.  Having already seen the sights of Burra, I went out to the Redbanks Conservation Park, evidently one of Australia's richest megafauna sites.  The information boards would have been fascinating if they had been (a) there or (b) legible.  I think they need to do a bit of work!

Now known as "The Midnight Oil House" - see what I mean about green?

The red banks were quite impressive

How's that for camouflage!  You should have seen me jump sideways!

Beautiful deep pools dotted along the gorge, attracting emus, kangaroos and lots of birds

I assume these are relics of the mining era ... however, it looks like something (mega) now lives in them

After spending a bit of time mooning over the real estate ads in Burra, I needed to move on.  Not very far, I'll admit.  Just to the Clare Valley and a lovely park in Auburn.  It was still cold and also damp.  What to do?  The pub, of course, where there was a fire and a rather nice meal with an even nicer glass of wine.  So nice, that I tracked down the winery, visited the next day, joined their wine club and bought a case of wine.  Oh, and a 5 litre container of port ... come on! It was only $30!

The pub in Auburn ... for sale ($1.525 million)

Then it was off to the Riverlands and my favourite free/donation camp across the river from Mannum.  I was lucky enough to snaffle the best site there, right on the water's edge.  It was very peaceful and Maggie enjoyed the freedom of camping, while I enjoyed some rather big fires (it was even colder here).  

I like ferries.  I drove over every one that I found and delighted in the Google Maps image of Van Morrison swimming across the river.

Aah! The Murray

My good deed of the day was rescuing this dusky woodswallow from a vicious flock of noisy miners.

I know, I know.  Gorgeous!

My view from the van, looking across to Mannum

There are a lot of places to stay in the Riverlands and quite a few free camps, although these are starting to all have a small cost.  According to the locals, this is due to the increased number of homeless people who can take over the free camps.  Whereas a $10 fee stops this.  I understand the aesthetics of keeping campgrounds clean, tidy and available to travellers ... but where are the homeless to go?  I have met so many people on this trip who have no place in any community.  Don't we have some responsibility to provide a safe place for them to live?

I decided to go to Cadell.  Now, there's not much in Cadell apart from a camp at the recreation ground and a community club ... BUT the club does meals on a Wednesday and Friday.  When was I there?  Wednesday!  OMG!  It was a hoot!  And the food!  Dennis, who had been a cook in the army for 28 years, had stuffed mushrooms, made cauliflower cheese (the secret is to cook the cauliflower in the milk that you use for the bechamel sauce), cooked dauphine potatoes as well as about 6 scrummy salads.  I had a beautiful steak, ate WAY TOO MUCH, got introduced to quite a few single men (according to Dennis, Cadell has a 7:3 ratio of single to married men ... no idea why) and agreed to go and visit Dennis the next day.  That's when I found out he was a serious metal worker with beautiful sculptures ... that he gives to charities to sell so that they can raise money.  I like Dennis!

Dennis and his pet galah, Shithead, who could swear better than anyone I've ever come across.  

Loved this reclining kangaroo

Scary panther

Dennis is working on the yabbie and a boat ... "we need a bit of a tourist attraction" he said.  "I reckon I can make yabbies to put all around town".

I'm not quite sure why I went to Karoonda.  Perhaps it was the lure of the silo art or just that I'd never been there before.  But Karoonda had a certain charm about it.  The silo art was lovely and then at night, there was a light show.  For August, this was a display of the works of 31 artists from South Australia (actually they were SALA ... South Australian Living Artists ... bad luck if you were dead!).  I asked the tourist info lady when the show started.  As soon as it gets dark, was the answer.  NOT!  I waited in the freezing cold for nearly an hour, the only living person on the streets of Karoonda.  It was good but I left after about 15 artists.  Sorry.

The Karoonda Shuffle

I have never seen one of these before ... a pizza vending machine!  24/7  Your pizza ready in two and a half minutes.

And on to Murrayville

This shop front in Murrayville had a metal cladding, made to look like bricks!

Murrayville hotel 

Parilla Hotel ... for sale 

Spring water ... 😂😂😂

Parilla Weather Rock ... you have to laugh!

Leaving silos and pubs for sale, I went to one of my all-time favourite campsites at Lake Walpeup and chilled out for three days.  But ... I try so hard to suppress it but every so often the teacher in me pops out and lets loose!  It really gets me cross when you have a brilliant campsite like this, toilets and showers, toilet paper provided, and all they ask is for a small donation.  Actually, according to Alice, the 92 year-old woman who came to look after the place, all she expects is a bit of loose change.  And when loud, rude, pushy couples with little kids ... who use all the hot water and toilet paper ... and yell at one another over the serenity ... have the audacity to try to leave without putting in a donation ... well, all I can say is that they deserved it!  Hopefully they have learnt their lesson!

Silo Art ... in the beginning, it was charming ... and different ... and interesting.  Sadly, I think it's become overdone.  Although, every so often there'll be one that I think "My! That's great!".

Lameroo - a symbolic representation of unwavering spirit and hope.  Hmmmmm.

Karoonda - I really liked this one

Waikerie - a tick from me

Also Waikerie - but a different artist, Jimmy Dvate

Eudunda - sorry but I REALLY didn't like this one

So now I'm in Mildura, heading to Broken Hill and then the Mundi Mundi Bash.  I've cleaned the van, washed the dog, shopped for food and now I'm ready to rock'n'roll.  Yay!

Goodbye WA ... I'm Bound for South Australia

Hmmm.  A lot has been happening and, at the same time, not much has happened.  After that cryptic comment it's time to tell you all about the adventures of the past few weeks.  I seem to have traveled huge distances for not much ... so let's start with Sandstone.  This is a lovely little place with some rather beautiful rocks, a closed pub, a lovely little cafe, a caravan park and not much else.  If you want to buy the pub, it's only a million dollars ... dreaming! said the lady from the cafe.

London Bridge - a pretty cool rock formation

I walked around a beautiful Aboriginal rock art site near Mount Magnet, called the Granites.  There were lots of walking paths and impressive sculptured rocks.

Driving along, Google Maps would say "look, you're passing a lake" and I would peer out at the clay and salt pans, dry and cracked in the sun ...

... with an occasional giggle at the artwork. 

I headed east to Leinster.  This is a mining town.  BHP.  I saw more hi vis here than anywhere else since the only reason to be in Leinster is to be mining, living in one of the 700 houses or 700 single quarters.  Dongas everywhere!  Back in 1897 they mined gold but now they mine nickel.  I was impressed by the olympic-sized swimming pool, the 24 hour squash courts and the pub that opens at 6:30am for the miners coming off shift!  (A week after I was in Leinster, I heard that BHP was shutting down their nickel mines in Leinster, Kalgoorlie and Norseman.  That's a lot of people out of work and a town that will now have little reason for existing.)

A little bit down the road, near Leonora, I visited the Gwalia mine and ghost town.  Actually, I thought it was a bit rough calling it a ghost town since people still live there.  Gold was discovered there in 1896 and soon there was a mine called Sons of Gwalia operating (cool name, huh!).  Herbert Hoover (he who became a president of the US of A) was a manager there for a short time ... long enough to build himself a swanky house and try to break the miners union by importing cheap Italian labour.

The old corrugated tin and hession houses have been lovingly restored - it's quite fascinating walking around the precinct.

This, would you believe, was a State built and owned hotel.  The theory was that the State Government would control the sale of alcohol and stop the sly grog trade.

The Sons of Gwalia mine still exists today, only now it operates as an open-cut mine.

So on to Menzies.  I had planned to do some free camping around here and first went to Niagra Dam.  This is a lovely area near Kookynie (another gold rush ghost town) with some lovely walks and a huge camping area.  We were having a very nice time walking, swimming (Maggie, not me) and relaxing when Maggie's first disaster happened ... explosive diarrhoea!  Evidently the water in the dam is full of awful bacteria and I had missed the sign warning of illness, meningitis and death!  Bummer!  So I moved camp and went to Lake Ballard.

Kookynie Hotel ... also for sale and a bargain at $500,000

The overflow barrier at Niagra Dam

Niagra Dam - full of nasties!

Lake Ballard is a huge salt lake which, due to the recent rains, had turned into a huge mud lake, impossible to walk on.  This was a pity since it is also the site of the "largest art gallery in the world" which is just a way of saying there are 51 sculptures scattered around the 10 square kilometres of the lake.  Antony Gormly (evidently a world-renowned artist) created the metal figures, each representing a local resident of Menzies.  I would be seriously pissed off if I was one of them since they all looked the same ... men with skinny pointy penises and women with saggy pointy breasts.  Not flattering at all!

I spent a delightful afternoon exploring the Menzies cemetery, which is home to some very unusual tin graves and headstones.  There had been a lot of research on who had been interred in the cemetery and the stories were heart-breaking: children dying after days or weeks, prospectors dying of thirst, many victims of the outbreaks of typhoid.

Row of markers, mainly typhoid victims, whose graves have not been located

If you're interested (and it is fascinating), his story can be found at https://outbackgraves.org/burial-records/person/5338

And now we get to Maggie's second disaster ... we were relaxing after a walk when I look in the van and there's Maggie, drooling all over the place and wheezing like she couldn't breathe.  Aaaahhh!  Oh no, I thought, it's a bait!  Where's the nearest vet?  Kalgoorlie!  So I quickly packed up, drove 150km to Kalgoorlie with me in a panic and Maggie drooling and crying (I might have been crying a bit, too).  To cut a traumatic and awful story short, it wasn't a bait ... she had inhaled a bitey thing which had bitten her in her throat.  An antihistimine or two later and she was fine.  I had a VERY LARGE whiskey!

Kalgoorlie is a cool place!  I was blown away with the beautiful buildings and the interesting museums.  I walked around and around, taking photos of all the hotels (and there are a lot!) and the beautiful old facades of buildings.  And I got my revenge on Maggie, sending her off to a groomer who didn't quite get the instruction "just a wash and a comb" and instead removed half of her hair.  Maggie is quite cold these days!  

So then it was time to cross the Nullabor again.  This time I wanted to take it quite slow, do a few nights camping on the cliffs and really savour the experience.  This was not to be!  No, you're wrong if you think it was time for Maggie's third disaster ... this time it was all down to me.  I got an ear infection!  I blame the non-existant whale shark of Ningaloo since I got some water in my ear when snorkling.  What to do?  Back to Kalgoorlie or on to Ceduna?  So Ceduna it was ... one doctor and one hospital later, two lots of drops and a course of antibiotics ... I'm sure I'll mend.  So much for relaxing travel!  So here I am in South Australia ...

Can you see this amazing rainbow effect?  Unfortunately I missed when it started off and was really bright ... just a sheet of colour.  Evidently it's called a circumhorizon or firebow.

Having missed out my camping time on the Bight, I went camping at Tcharkulda rock near Minnipa.  I was tucked away behind a shed to get out of the wind and enjoyed walking around and having a fire.  My ear, however, wasn't much better so I've moved on to get more antibiotics and to try and find somewhere where I can wait out the wind, rain and frost that is coming my way.

It sort of looks like a horse!?

Maggie at the base of Pildappa Rock, South Australia's version of Wave Rock