Day Twenty Three - Sunday 12th April - Dimboola to Melbourne - A stick shed and several hundreds of kilometres....and home at last

Another cold foggy morning for us to pack up in, but first breakfast. So there I was, just about to enjoy my peanut butter toast, when a kookaburra flew in and sat on my plate gathering up my toast and flew away. I was astonished and he was very skilled as it all happened so fast!! He clearly didn't like Vegemite as he left that behind!

A couple of his friends joined him to devour my toast and a few magpies hung around to eat any crumbs. They're very brave and clearly have perfected their ability to steal food! After more toast (which I guarded closely!) we packed up and left, heading for home but with a couple of diversions along the way. The first was a visit to the Stick Shed in Murtoa. Last time Ewan and I were in the area we arrived too late to see it. So this time we arrived early. It truly is an amzing structure originally bulit in 1942 to store grain from the surrounding wheatfields as the markets had dried up because of the war. There were two other larger Stick sheds built in the arae but only this one remains.

It is a remarkable structure basically made of huge gum tree logs from the Otways and further afield, and galvanised iron roofing. It was built in only 4 months as the need for vastly increased grain storage was urgent. After the war, with increased storage on many properties, it became derelict. There was a move to pull it down, as the one next to it had been, but there was local interest in restoring it and many years of hard work and money has resulted in it being maintained almost in it's original state. The length of the tree logs holding it up is amazing and difficult to capture in a photo. From there it was a quick look at a silo in Murtoa and then one in Rupanyup.

It's looking a bit faded since the last time we saw it, but the portraits of two of the local sports players - a netballer and a footballer - remain just as beautiful. Based on real people you wonder where they are now. Then we raced down the highways, bypassing towns at a rapid rate, to get home in the mid-afternnoon. The end of such a wonderful trip , and the prospect of cleaning out the caravan, washing all of the clothes etc etc etc was saddening. I have a list of things we need to buy to make the caravan even more comfortable. Ewan has done an amazing job setting up solar panels and batteries and inverters (whatever they are!) so we had power even when we rough-camped so we had very little we needed. And we do have some wonderful memories and a better understanding of what it means to live in a country where distances are enormous and the desert is so challenging. Climate change will change the landscape even more so I'm glad to have seen it now. your satisfied correspondent Dianne

Day Twenty Two - Saturday 11th May – The Coorong to Horseshoe Bend Campground, Dimboola On the home run….

We woke up to see our lovely view had disappeared in a thick fog. Everything felt damp but not because of rain. Once we packed up and headed down the dirt road to Keith there was no lightening of the fog for many kilometres. Fog and signs warning about kangaroos is not a good combination, so we had to concentrate. I did spy a couple of kangaroos but fortunately they were headed away from the road. Then it was back on the Highway, with a noticeable change in the quality of the roads when we reached Victoria! The highway was quite bumpy and in need of some work. We did have a few drops of rain but not enough to worry us.

Once we crossed the border, we came to a small town called Kaniva. It had a beautifully painted silo, delightful wetlands walk and some outrageously painted sheep.

They even had an aviary with two magnificent red-tailed black cockatoos and some brightly-coloured regent parrots. Liz heard what she thought was me saying Hello! but it was a cockatoo who had clearly been domesticated. There was also a native animal enclosure with kangaroos, including an albino kangaroo, and some emus (I’m not so sure about enclosing the animals to be honest! Especially when you could see them in the wild nearby).

We were headed to Dimboola for the night and ended up at the Horseshoe Creek Campground. Some decades ago, when Lauren was small, we camped here, and we were completely rained out. My memory is that we decamped to the Dimboola Pub where the Grand Final was live on TV. I can’t remember who won but I didn’t care, we were out of the rain!! We’ve had no rain for the entire trip so we were confident that we wouldn’t have a repeat of that experience. The Campsites are right next to the Wimmera River so lots of magnificent old river gums lining the banks.

About an hour after we set up, it did rain, but not for long fortunately! Just enough to encourage Liz to put up the fly on her tent. She really hasn’t needed it elsewhere. We still had a large bag of firewood, so we now have a lovely campfire. Most places don’t allow you to roam around and scavenge firewood, so you have to buy bags. It can be quite expensive if you have them too frequently. But it is lovely to have one on our last night. Unfortunately, it is very cloudy, so the stars are covered up. One of our few neighbours has just asked if we could turn off our lights as the light was ruining his star-gazing. The bad news is that the amount of ambient light caused by our lights is not the problem: huge banks of clouds are obscuring the stars tonight. We turned the lights off to be cooperative of course, but it didn’t help at all. We’ll just be heading for home tomorrow so not very interesting. I’ll do a blog summarizing the trip when we’re home. But for now I have a glowing campfire to watch….. Your contented correspondent Dianne

Day Twenty-one - Friday 10th April - Clare to The Coorong/ Swan Hill Racing through the wine regions…..

We said our fond goodbyes, and Jude and Graeme headed for home. They may not have been so sad for us to go as Ewan is an early-riser (usually well before 7am) and once Liz gets up in need of immediate coffee, they make a lot of noise and wake up their fellow travellers. Jude was not impressed! (Apparently, they very much enjoyed a sleep-in without Ewan’s dulcet tones the next morning!). Meanwhile we headed south to The Coorong. The landscape was so different to the dry plains and towering mountains we had become accustomed to. And so green….the livestock we saw looked plump and well-fed compared to the emaciated animals we saw trying to survive further north.This time we passed through the Barossa without buying a single bottle of wine! We all had to drive at some point as we covered many kilometres. Liz and I are fine on the straight highways, but we are slower than Ewan when we reach the curves. As we reached to Coorong there were more salt pans and some were quite pink. It was lovely to see the water and the sand bars and the coastline.

We passed through Meningie checking out the Caravan Park as we went, but opted to free camp at the Pelican Campground on a tiny thin peninsula with water on both sides. A beautiful spot under the trees only metres from a long sandy beach. The views from our site were lovely.The only problem was that the toilets were a kilometre away, so we had to drive if there was an urgent call of nature! Although I say it was free camping, we still had to pay SAParks a few dollars to camp there. Initially we were the only occupants, but another two campsites were taken by nightfall: not that they were anywhere near us.

We wandered along the beach and watched the sunset before heading back to camp. No campfires allowed and the temperature dropped dramatically as night fell. After we all had as many layers as possible on, including beanies and gloves, we decided to decamp to the caravan. It was the first time that we had done that, although we did resist turning the heater on, so we weren’t complete sulks. Liz was intent on reading her Book Club book and Ewan and I streamed an SBS TV series so everyone was catered for. The sea mist started to roll in …… Your chilly but well-protected correspondent Dianne

Day Twenty - Thursday 9th May - Quorn to Clare Homeward Bound.....

We were off to a slow start partly because I had conflicting information about the opening times for the Flinders Gin Distillery. I was determined to buy some before we came home.....and preferably from the Distillery in Quorn. The funny story that goes with this purchase was that I had chatted to an 'older' woman at the Ochre Cliffs the previous day and somehow the conversation turned to gin. She told me she was the mother of the guy who set up the distillery in old stables in Quorn a couple of years ago so I was all set to go and buy some. The next morning when we went to the Distillery at 11am (after purchasing some ghastly 3D placemats for all of our grandchildren from the Tourist Information Centre and having some truly great coffee at a cafe called Scruffy Fellas) I said to the guy "I met your mother yesterday". He looked rather baffled and said 'I don't think so!" Then when I explained my meeting with this woman it turned out she was his stepmum and he exclaimed 'She's a witch! I can't stand her!" And proceeded to tell me how awful she is. I did have to point out to him that she was doing a good job promoting his gin to complete strangers. But it was funny: he even shook his head and said "My Dad really lucked out there"......

I bought a bottle of Quandong gin and one of Butterfly Pea Flower gin which is a beautiful purple colour. Jude and I bought some cans of lemon-Lime gin and quandong gin and tonic. Delicious! The Scruffy Fellas cafe was a hoot too. It was actually a barber shop and filled with beard care items. Both of the guys had long beards, one of them plaited. They'd come from Ballan in Victoria to live in Quorn and couldn't find a drinkable coffee anywhere in town so they set up Scruffy Fellas cafe. The coffee beans were roasted in Ballarat by a mate, and both Liz and Graeme bought some. Its always interesting to hear the stories about how people end up in remote towns. We wandered around town and admired some beautiful old buildings from better times. There were some interesting sculptures made from chicken wire commemorating those who served in past wars.

The rest of the day was spent heading for Clare, refreshed by pasties and coffee along the way. The landscape changed completely: the barren rocks and plains replaced by wheatfields and grain fields, and eventually towns lined with autumn-coloured trees and, of course, lots of gold and red-coloured vines. The enormous mountain ranges were replaced by more modest hills and green landscape.

I drove again and, of course, the minute I took over the straight road turned into a series of bends which I hated. Towing a caravan is quite a responsibility!! It doesn't matter what speed I'm doing it's the wrong speed according to Ewan, especially when I go too slow. It's a relief when he has a nap I can tell you! We booked into the Discovery Caravan Park on the outskirts of town. It was a very well-equipped Caravan Park; two pools, a huge inflatable jumping playground and some skate tracks. But no campfires allowed! After we set up our abodes the others walked to a nearby winery. Surprisingly, Ewan returned with only a dozen bottles of wine! Remarkable. The Distillery guy had recommended the Watervale Hotel for dinner. It was the last night we would all be together so we felt we should have a nice farewell dinner.And it lived up to his recommendation. They say they provide 'ethical epicurean experiences'. The produce comes from their own large farm and they certainly used every part of the produce. For example they served three kinds of pickled vegetables with the charcuterie plate, including pickled celery stalks. And those combined with home-made terrine, pate and proscuitto served with hunks of hot bread was a great start.The beetroot cigars and the duck sliders were fabulous. The mains were very much enjoyed: barramundi, steak, ragu pasta, a hamburger with more homemade pickles, all enhanced by some local wines. No room for dessert! A great night out. We would all gladly return! All of the travelling has worn us all out and it was too cold to sit outside without a campfire so it was straight off to bed earlyish. Your well-fed and well-travelled correspondent Dianne

Day Nineteen - Wednesday 8th April - Farina/ Leigh Creek to Quorn Problems solved so heading south

Miracles do happen! The much-needed tyre arrived on time at Copley and was fitted in no time at all. So Jude and Graeme did a quick trip to take in the wonders of Farina whilst Liz, Ewan and I went to inspect the Farina Cemetery.

It would be hard to find a more desolate bleak place for a Cemetery: a few kilometres out of town on a bare hillside with only rocks for company. But then I guess the residents wouldn't notice. The list of graves emphasised the challenges of living in such a remote place: many of the graves were for children and babies.It seemed that the Restoration Group had placed white crosses on many graves and delineated them with rocks, otherwise they would have been eroded away altogether. Those people with more ornate graves and metal fences really stood out on the bare landscape although the metal had also eroded. We headed towards Copley to meet Jude and Graeme for lunch. On the way we stopped for a quick look at a place very significant for First Nations people, not just locally but from far afield. The Ochre Cliffs have been providing First Nations people with coloured ochres for many thousands of years. The vibrant colours on these special cliffs were quite a contrast to the rocky mountains around. Yellow, red, orange, yellow and white ochre provided many choices. The ochres are used for ceremonies, decorating tools and baskets, and for medicinal purposes so they are important.

We all enjoyed more pasties and pies for lunch before heading for the Caravan Park at Quorn a couple of hundred kilometres away. I had to drive as Ewan was looking weary. The decision was that it was better if I drove (carefully!) rather than risk Ewan falling asleep! I was not happy as I hadn't driven towing a caravan before, and I don't use cruise control so not good and definitely not fun at all. Although the roads are very straight and there is hardly any traffic, I still don't like it. Despite my reluctance to drive we arrived at Quorn safely and found the caravan Park. It was a bit like Fort Knox: a boom gate only able to be accessed by a code, amenities which require a different code, barbed wire on the external fences and lighting on the external fences which remained on all night! We couldn't quite work out what terrible events they were defending themselves from, but it was a very clean and well-kept spot for one night. At sunset we wandered across the Railway lines to view some silo art with a difference. Every night all sorts of animations, travelogues, films and art are projected on to two tall silos in the middle of town. It was very entertaining sitting in our camping chairs watching the very big screen ie silos, until the cold set in. We watched part of a clever collage presentation about the local CWA members providing refreshments to trains full of soldiers headed to Darwin, before being shipped out to New Guinea and other warfronts. Some days they had 50 trains per day passing through. Then we learned all about the Pitchi Ritchi Railway which was completely derelict until the tracks and trains were restored by keen locals and volunteers. After many years of hard work it's first steam train travelled from Quorn to Summit in 1974. And it's still a going concern. There's a few grandchildren who would enjoy a trip I'm sure. Unfortunately my camera found it a bit challenging to photograph the silos in action!

It's a bit unclear whether Quorn is pronounced Q-warn or Corn. We're still not sure as we hear both! Back to Fort Knox for a raging campfire, a chat with a fellow traveller and chipotle chicken for dinner. your contented and well-fed correspondent Dianne

Day Eighteen - Tuesday 7th April – Arkaroola to Farina/Leigh Creek Highlights and Lowlights

Today it was one of those days when there are highlights and low lights…… We packed up and said farewell to our fellow travellers, some of whom we had got to know reasonably well. The Arkaroola Campground powered sites are popular so there had been a lot of comings and goings over the four nights we were there. Liz had been eyeing off some very cute compact pod-shaped vans, one of them very retro, called Cool Beans. The owners were very happy to show them off although she didn’t get a look in one of them as the guy’s wife was still asleep inside! After some confusion about our actual departure, we left not long after 9.00am which was very good for us. There was no point trying to clean the red dust out of every nook and cranny as we were in for more than a hundred kilometres of rough roads. Although classified as Major Unsealed Road we had 140 kms to get to Copley, our next stop. The landscape and roads were aligned as they both changed constantly: for the roads it meant sections of corrugations, small rocks, gravel, big rocks, dips for dry creek beds and ENDLESS dust. The landscape alternated between flat desolate plains with no animals and no trees, to dry creek beds lined with lofty ancient river gums to rocky escarpments of every colour. I jumped out of the car to take photos of a family of emus with babies, but they weren’t interested in being stars, so they headed for the bush. We did see some goats and quite a few sheep in and out of their fences near one isolated Station. We finally arrived in Copley intact…..or so we thought! Our destination was the Copley Bush Bakery and Quandong Café, which had great pies and pasties, but no bread. As Ewan approached the front door a guy, who was sitting enjoying his lunch outside, said that the two shock absorbers on one side of our van were hanging down. Not good news…..but the roads were so rough we hadn’t noticed! Then Graeme had a closer look at his car and discovered he had a puncture. His lovely Touareg was not equipped with a full size tyre but a half tyre ( limp-home tyre) and a compressor to blow it up. TIP: Before we came, I read the notes for Arkaroola and they said: We are on 130kms of unsealed road in every direction. You will absolutely need a full-sized tyre…..or words to that effect. Graeme did attempt to get a full-size wheel but VW had none in Australia! Very weird. A lot of our fellow travellers had experienced the joys of punctures at some point, and some even carried two spare tyres! The mechanic’s comment on Graeme’s Pirelli tyres was that they were 'rubbish on a good day’. Copley consists of a pub, a bakery, public toilets (phew!) and a mechanic and garage.

It also surprisingly has it's own Botanic Garden filled with local indigenous plants struggling to surviuve in the rocky soil and right next to the Highway. But the highlight for us was the mechanic. He does a roaring business thanks to the rough roads. He managed to find bolts to fit our shock absorbers. When Ewan asked what he owed him he calculated that the bolts costs $1.50 each and his time was $30 but $30 would be fine, so Ewan paid him $40. He had an amazing ability to do three jobs at once with that very dry country humour. Graeme’s tyre was stuffed - a technical term used by the mechanic. It had a spilt in the tread of the tyres caused by a sharp stone. The mechanic organised a replacement tyre to be delivered the next day and fitted the temporary half-tyre so they could drive down the highway to Leigh Creek on the Highway.The moral of the story is to come with a full-sized pumped-up tyre as chances are you will need it! Ewan has a long history with Leigh Creek. It was his first civil engineering job after Uni and he spent about 6 months living in very basic conditions with the miners who were extracting coal from the mine. He was there for a project on attempting to stop the water leaking from the Aroona Dam which wasn’t completely successful. It’s now a local tourist spot with swimming, fishing etc. The town of Leigh Creek where he stayed was relocated 13 kms south as it had been built on a coal seam. We could see the piles of overburden and coal which created their own low mountain range. He kept telling us that there is nothing to see in Copley: only a pub where his parents stayed when they visited him in 1975. Similarly, he was not too optimistic about Leigh Creek. We were just looking forward to the supermarket to stock up on some essentials. It’s a nice town but dying as so many country towns are. The mine closed in 2015 so the population is decreasing. However, it had a primary school, sports facilities, an Outback Resort, shops, service station, a Bar and Grill and a Post Office (which sold stamps and thongs which was fortunate as an animal had chewed mine!).

We were keen to see Farina, a ghost town, a few kilometres north so Liz , Ewan and I left them booking onto the Leigh Creek Campground. All the maps showed more gravel road so that seemed a wise decision on a half-tyre. Liz and Ewan and I headed north expecting the sealed road to run out but it didn’t, so the maps were out-of-date. On the way we saw a group of birds eating a kangaroo carcass, but as we got closer they rose into the air and two of them were beautiful wedge-tailed eagles. So stunning. Since then we have seen more eagles eating roadkill but they usually soar into the air as we approach. The last two kms were sand gravel road to get into Farina. The Campground is lots of separated sites protected by bush: so different to windy Arkaroola. It seemed strange that they claimed to have showers in the middle of nowhere so we went to check them out and discovered that there was water so that was a good start. But if you wanted a hot shower you had to light a fire under a cauldron filled with rocks and pipes, wait 30 minutes and voila! Hot water! Mind you the sign said not to boil the water which was a bit mystifying as it’s hard to know when to stop a fire quickly once it gets started, or when the water was boiling. (We used the shower in the caravan the next morning! It seemed a little less complicated!). The birds are amazing and woke us up this morning.

Farina is fascinating as it is basically a ghost town. For years in the 1800s and early 1900s it was a thriving country town but once the railroad was extended to Maree it started to lose its purpose. But in its heyday it had a school, community hall, bakeries, post office, bush nursing hospital ( the doctor was the only doctor between Farina and Darwin!), and of course two pubs Livestock and minerals were transported to go south. There were camel trains too, but their soft pads had to be covered in leather shoes as the ground was so rocky. Once the train line was extended to Maree the Oodnadatta and Strzelecki tracks, which the drovers used, could go to Maree and the livestock loaded there. The town gradually declined and finally the Postmistress closed the PO and left in 1950. The landscape is completely desolate: flat plains, minimal vegetation and distant mountains.

A Restoration Group was formed in the early 2000s to stabilize and restore the many stone buildings. Volunteers arrive from May to July to operate a new bakery and rebuild.

Jude has friends who are regular volunteers here and it would be a great community effort to be involved in. Unfortunately the bakery doesn’t operate until the end of May!! But while Liz peered in the windows of the bakery suddenly her phone sprung into action. If she moved from the corner of the bakery she lost connectivity so it was very specific. Very funny! As you can see in the photos the buildings were made from local stone blocks and have weathered well over many years. The bleakness of the landscape, the isolation and heat in summer and the endless red dust must have made life intolerable at times. Although it sounded as if it was a close community. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and settled in front of a raging campfire before taking ourselves off to bed after an eventful day

Your relieved and relaxed correspondent Dianne .