It is always good to have an excuse to head off, and this was no exception.
I had agreed to attend a quilting camp just out of Melrose for the weekend, so we thought we would head off a little early and spend some time getting there and getting back.
We had offered to fill in for Meals on Wheels for Thursday, so we did that (a whole set of lovely new people we have never met before- some of them live just around the corner from us!) and then packed and headed off.
We had found that the 12v charging point was not working in cab the day before (since the reversing camera has been installed) and had ruled out a simple fuse issue so this remains a mystery, waiting for a solution at present. Trev’s new birthday present of an ultrai jump starter had arrived that morning and charged while we delivered so we could run the tyre dogs and navigator from that and charge the phones.
We arrived at Rodney’s ( via the Northern Expressway) in Owen in time for a cuppa before a meal at the pub and parked in his driveway overnight, happily camping there and using his facilities.
He was off on council business early on Friday but we made ourselves at home eating toast from home made bread for breakfast and taking the rest of the fresh loaf with us (with permission).
We took a less travelled back way across Robins Crossing, through Halbury, stopping for a short explore at a roadside reserve . You could happily stick the nose of the van in here and stop for a break.
We also took also quick look at the old stone goods shed in Holyleton – at the terminus of the old Port Wakefield to Hoyles Plains tramway line from 1870. Here we learnt that this was the first entirely agricultural line to be built in SA. The trucks were pulled from Port Wakefield by horse, and returned by gravity. Hoyleton also sports a quaint but tiny post office and unusual loo by the CFS shed.
We decided to try to meet with Geoff and Liz who are house sitting out of Clare and met at a bakery, sitting in the camper as we drank our tea/ coffee/ chocolate and ate buns. (eating area was not open due to COVID restrictions)
Some of the views of cut hay in rows on the hillside were breathtaking
We had been due at the camp at 2pm, but arrived at 3:30. We weren’t the only ones to arrive later than the appointed time, so it was all fine.
I had booked for a single room, knowing that my frozen shoulder usually makes sleep a challenge at the moment, and expecting uncomfortable beds. I had been allocated a room with 3 bunks and chose to sleep on the double at the bottom of one. My own bathroom and toilet made this a luxurious weekend indeed, and it got even better when I realised that it was a pretty good mattress as well.
The weather was pretty bad by now and Trevor headed off down towards Port Pirie via the Germein Gorge route. Sadly, when I started to do my work I quickly realised that my bag of cutters, cottons, pins etc was still in the van and he eventually received my message about this at the bottom of the Gorge about 40 minutes later. Being the excellent husband he is he then turned around and came all the way back to deliver them. (not happy Jan). His arrival at Port Pirie with the expected lasagna that we were contributing to meals was delayed by almost two hours and he had to suffer through way too much driving in terrible weather that night. Once again, I say sorry Trev.
Trevor spent the weekend with Peter and Belinda and the kids, watching sport, attending church (where Peter was preaching), working on the new kitchen project with Peter and generally catching up, and headed back across the range on Monday morning to pick me up.
I spent the weekend sewing away, listening to a lot of banter and advice from quilters, eating meals planned and made by someone else and doing a bit of a mystery jigsaw.
There were lots of inspiring quilts shown over the weekend.
A quilt for the camper was very nearly completed. This was completed the following day and presented to Trevor with my love. It is called “Sunburnt Country” and reflects the colors of the outback sky and land in blues, reds, browns and oranges. It reminded me of the Poem by Dorothea McKellar which starts “I love a sunburnt country”. This has no batting under the machine pieced top, but has a polar fleece backing. I’m hoping that it will be light enough for him to use and will take laundering easily.
We “bummeled” our way home from the camp via a number of stops (as we often do).
Our first stop was a visit to the Willowie Forest trails just a few more km north of Melrose. Here, there are three different walking trails, The Echidna Loop (1.7km), The Possum Loop (4.2km) and the Monitor Loop (6.5km). Since we had a long way to go, were feeling lazy and the weather looked like it might start to rain at any moment, we opted for the shortest of these. There is a lot of birdlife around here but we only were able to identify a mistletoe bird out of all of them. The trail was easy walking and pretty flat and we were back fairly quickly. Here we tried out Trev’s new jetboil for a quick boil of water for a much needed cup of tea together and sat at the table provided with a map to think about our route home.
Our next quick stop was at a pullover spot about 10km south of Melrose on the road to Murraytown (the B82 or Horrocks Highway). We checked out this spot (apparently called Doughboy Reserve) at the junction of Wild Dog Creek and Pine Creek. (turn off near the junction with Wild Dog Creek Rd and the Horrocks Highway). Here there are a number of tracks which travel around a wide , flat, tree scattered area with a number of excellent looking camping spots well off of the main road. A definite possibility for a lunch spot or possibly even an overnight camping spot on the way north. Coords are -32.896710,138.237732. You can really pick the trees on the satellite view of the map.
We stopped at the Stone Hut Bakery for pies for lunch before heading onwards to Bundaleer forest, where we had a brief break in the picnic area (boiling the zipboil again) and inspected the almost completed community centre which had transformed the area since we were last in this place. Next time we might be able to stop for a fancy gourmet lunch and read all about the area. Apparently this was the first working forest in Australia! We didn’t take the time to walk here this time.
We kept to the back roads as much as possible as we headed for the Bundaleer reservoir, where we took advantage of the fact the SA water are slowly opening up the reservoirs for recreation. This is one that has already been opened, so we went through the gate and took a short stroll. It’s not the most exciting place to walk, but we did marvel at the place and wonder about how it was made in the first place. According to the SA Government Heritage survey:
“The Bundaleer Reservoir is a water supply scheme built to provide water to the settled districts north of the Yorke Peninsula. The system includes the main earth walled reservoir in a valley 5km north of the junction of Bundaleer Creek with the Broughton River. Described as ‘one of the seven engineering wonders of Australia’, the construction of this vast scheme commenced in 1898 and was completed in 1902 at a cost of £483,600 during which time 500 men were employed. The scheme also provided employment during the 1890s Depression. It was constructed by an earth bank being built across the creek. Channels totalling over 30km were constructed which fed into the Reservoir by gravity. The reservoir still functions although it is supplemented by piped River Murray water from Morgan to Whyalla.”
There is now a good flushing toilet and a tap at the parking spot (no doubt to encourage people to not toilet in the reservoir area) and it is also a flat, gravelled area which would work well for parking overnight, although it is a pretty stark area despite the view of the reservoir.
We had glimpsed a view of an aquaduct as we drove towards the reservoir, so we then went looking for that, and found it not far away off of Wheal Sarah Road. The Heysen trail goes past here and we were able to walk right to the edge of the aquaduct at water level on the Northern side and to see the great concrete channel that drains into it.
We decided to take some more back roads and investigate the small forest section shown on our RAA map of the area as Leighton Forest.
On the way we took the road that crosses the Frome river and did our first proper river crossing in the hilux. There is a nice little track in along the southern side of the river here which might be a nice out of the way place to bush camp.
From the crossing we followed the aptly named, and very scenic Broughton River Road,
following the course of the Broughton River to the spot which they say is the meeting of the various rivers in this area. We stopped to read about how Eyre discovered this spot and returned to it later.
It turns out there is a gas pumping station at Leighton Forest, nestled in a small patch of native forest. We did a small triangle of drive through this forested area and then headed out on to the Barrier Highway very briefly (slightly south of Burra) before turning on to the Farrell Flat Road. We skirted Farrell Flat and travelled down through Watervale to Auburn, where we found the local recreation ground , and a spare space around by the deserted western riding club and popped the top to enjoy a snack and another cup of tea.
By now we had decided that we would head home tonight. It as just a matter of making sure the driver had a good break and relax and giving the traffic time to settle a little before we headed into the final leg of the journey.
We arrived home at about 7:30pm in light rain, unpacked the essentials, had various leftovers for our tea and fell into bed for a decent sleep. We decided to wait and see what time we woke up to decide whether we were going walking at Black Hill the next morning.
Luvapuzzle 