I missed my granddaughter Sophia in the night. So this is a poem just for her.
Missing Sophia
Sweet baby girl I’m wide awake And thinking now of you I wonder at this moment, if you’re up..and Mummy too???
I’d love to see your pretty face And hold you as you doze To see those lovely dimples And that little snubby nose
To watch you gaze around the room To see your little smile And then to hold you as you sleep Just for a little while
Instead I’m lying in my bed Beside the old Ghan track But little girl, it won’t be long And grandma will be back.
We left camp just after 9. And had completed the road into Alice Springs by around 11.
As we came towards the city we could see a mass of white and wondered what it was. It turned out to be about 100 planes ( parked on the land at the airport due to COVID flight cuts) It was hard to get a good picture from the road
Crowded airport
Now our washing and shopping are done. We’ve consulted the windscreen experts, who advised that we have a number of windscreen chips, but it really isn’t worth replacing it right now considering the planned route, so we will expect more cracks and keep going as long as the driver can see ok.
We have topped up with fuel and the boys are off trying to find a UHF radio suitable for Al so that we can solve some of the communication issues. Water is topped up and we smell all clean.
Tomorrow we will be off across the Tanami so there will probably be no communication for a few days. We will post when we can.
Just for your amusement I thought you might enjoy the graphics on the loos in the caravan park here
Happy to be home after a great and varied trip. Cuttlefish at Point Lowly, near Whyalla Coffin Bay area for Orienteering learning and event. Rellie catch up at Cummins and then Coffins Relaxing at Coffins -crosswords, walking, sleeping in, sour dough, eating out in 3 spots, national park exploring. Blustery coastal drive to Streaky and then Ceduna. Googs Track 4WD made better by meeting Jenny ( Goog’s wife) and reading her book along the way Kingoonya (revitalised) Gawler Ranges edges Home via Wirrula and one last overnight with friends heading the opposite way. A bit over 2000km in 2 weeks
Still happy with our agile 4WD camper that packs up in a flash and supplies shelter in the rain. Also happy to know great people and to live in this amazing country.
Gilgandra Flora Reserve was our first stop today. It was a bit cool and windy but we had a nice wander. There was plenty of colour and a few birds making interesting calls.
We did identify a Spiny cheeked honey eater although we didn’t get a decent photo. Couldn’t figure out what the second bird was till we looked at the photo.
Friarbird
The last was a tree creeper of some description. Photos not very helpful. (one tail from below, and one blurry) he was buzzing around a tree trunk and wouldn’t sit still.
The local Rotary and Lions clubs both built shelters at this reserve but apparently the group who looked after it has disbanded and is no longer active. Was still a lovely way to start the day.
We took a deviation through the Warrumbungle NP to admire the amazing mountains and came upon a number of big noticeboards in a number of places with planets on them. These are part of a solar system drive apparently. Interesting info about each planet on the noticeboard.
We bypassed Tamworth and cut through a mountain pass instead, passing through bushy mountains with huge granite rocks.
Makes me a bit worried about what we face in the days to come.
We made it to our home for the week about 3 and the owner was here to welcome us. It is lovely and will keep us sheltered and warm. Lots of wood for the log fire is all ready to go.
Off to bed now as we have a big cold and wet day tomorrow.
We were on the road by 9 this morning and it didn’t take long for the lovely blue sky to fade to gray. By the time we were thinking about a morning tea stop it was very wet, so we just kept on driving. Finally we reached Forbes at about 1pm. A quick drive around town and we spotted a likely cafe, where we gratefully stopped for a wrap and cuppa before popping back in the car and heading on our way again. 370km done before lunch.
We were hoping at this point that we might get a bit past Dubbo tonight, making a shorter trip tomorrow so we are not so weary on Saturday.
The day wore on with drifts of rainy weather and moments of dryness but by 2:30 we had decided that yet another wet night was on the cards and, yet again, the swags could stay in the car and a motel would be used.
Trev made the call that he was happy to drive to Gilgandra and, after a bit of research, a call was made and hold was put on a motel room. The price has dropped each night. I thought the cost of living was supposed to be higher in NSW, but it’s not if you can judge by motel prices.
We stopped at Dubbo for fuel and Trev once again whispered the fuel tank into accepting 60 litres of diesel- enough to get us to Uralla (our destination) with some up our sleeve to spare.
By just before 4 we were pulling in to our motel which is a bit out of town. The highway is just a few 100 metres away so we can hear the semis as they go past, but they don’t sound as though they are going to drive through our walls.
The decor is pleasant with lovely dot-painting-patterned bed covers and a nice big window.
Since we didn’t really feel like hopping back in the car we opted to eat from the food we had on board using the microwave in the room to heat some pasta and sauce, and then having rice pudding and motel biscuits for dessert.
With happy tummies we have dropped into bed early to read and blog.
Having travelled almost 600 km today we are left with another 350 km or so to get us to our airbnb tomorrow.
There is a local flora reserve nearby which sounds interesting, so if the weather is ok in the morning we might take the time for a little orchid hunting a few km down the track before we start travelling in earnest.
We were on the road by 9:30 having already seen a sacred kingfisher up close. It had flown into a nearby motel room and stunned itself and been found by the cleaner who showed us as we were leaving our room.
We were happily on the road about 30 km from Hay when the Prado suddenly lost power and Trev pulled in as the motor cut out. Both our phones were showing no signal so it was unfortunate timing for this.
Luckily we found a Good Samaritan farmer who, despite his difficult morning already, pulled over and helped us out by offering his high Ute bed for Trev to stand on to ring for roadside assistance with the weak 3G he then was able to use. He then towed us 200m down the road to a roadside stop where we waited for the NRMA. Thank heavens for the RAA and their brother organisations in other states. Our farmer friend (Tom) even rang the NRMA guy himself as well (he knew him) to help the process along.
Unfortunately he had just taken another call so 4 hours were spent waiting in cold and rainy weather. Luckily we had a thermos of hot water and food on board so we were ok.
When the NRMA guy arrived it was in a tow truck and he basically immediately dragged the Prado on to the truck and gave us all a lift into Hay. (He could have taken 6 passengers in his truck!)
A bit more time looking at the vehicle in Hay and they decided it was a problem with fuel between the two tanks. The theory is that if we can keep our top tank with fuel in it we should be able to keep on going and get the problem properly solved and fixed once we get home.
Filling is now a challenge. Trev took about 20 min to put in 80 litres after we left the repair shop!
We decided to stay in a motel in Hay and found a room no worries.
We had a bit of a walk, read some historical info, admired the sculptures and old Cobb and Co Coach and the mural showing the paddle steamer Pevensey. (It was the Pevensey rest area we spent our time in today)
The positive was that some of our QLD relatives (Ruth, Charlie, Cooper and Maddy) were also staying in Hay tonight, so we all ended up having a lovely catch up over dinner at the RSL Club along with a good meal. (Thanks to Sue Diment for letting us know)
It’s lucky we were not pushing urgently for a long distance today. As long as we have no further troubles we should still make it in time for our booked accommodation on Friday and the first race on Saturday.
We are on our way again. Once more we have our travels designed to fit with the Australian Champs for Orienteering -this time being held near Armidale NSW and starting this coming Saturday 28th with Middle distance champs.
We have a 4 day road trip ahead of us, starting with a tyre check and pump at the local servo as we drive out of town via the southeastern freeway.
We had a long stretch of roadworks after we turned off towards Pinnaroo and that continued to almost Geranium, restricting us to very slow travel at times.
We decided that we would stop for lunch at Geranium and stopped briefly to look at the site of the old Geranium Bore ( reason for this settlement) before we pulled in beside the old oval to eat the last of our fruit and have a cuppa. The bowling greens looked healthy enough but they’ve planted trees inside the oval fence, giving away the fact that they don’t play footy on this oval any more.
Geranium Oval
We pulled back on to the main road in time to see a double decker bus go past towing a van behind. A huge awning was fixed to the passenger side. It could comfortably offer space for a family adventure.
Not much later we called a brief halt again to look at the silo art in Lameroo. The Eastern silo has a lovely bit of artwork depicting a farmer on a chilly morning ( my interpretation). It’s the 6th silo painted by a fellow called Sam (Smug) Bates from Glasgow. It’s very realistic artwork.
There are plans to paint the western silo with work reflecting the place of women in agriculture.
Eastern silo Lameroo
We took a brief detour in Pinnaroo to see the wooden sculpture of a golfer which stands on the lawns by the golf club. Pretty impressive.
At Walpeup we took photos of yet another silo (this time a war memorial theme)
before heading on to the memorial hall. Here the library van was in town for the afternoon at the back of the hall so I was luckily able to ask the ladies to let me in to the hall to see the tapestry I had read about . This was explained to me by one of the ladies who helped to make it over a period of 3 years. It is an amazing effort
They also have a banner on display there which was made to welcome home the WWI servicemen and signed by them all. This was found under the stage in the hall some years back.
With predictions of rain tonight we opted to book a motel room and found one available in Balranald. (seems it was pretty much the last free one in town)
We went out for a walk to spot some frogs on their frog trail and to stretch the legs, but with an inaccurate map (possibly some years old) and with light rapidly failing we only found some of those shown on the map.
We strolled back to the motel room and microwaved last night’s leftovers for a quick and easy tea before settling down to watch the news like the old retired people we are.
Tomorrow we head towards Parkes, but I’m guessing we won’t make it that far.
There was no rush this morning so we took it easy and checked out at a bit after 9. Most of the other guests were gone by then.
We drove back into the Horsham city centre to the “Naughty Fox” cafe and found ourselves breakfast before heading on our way.
As we headed towards the Grampians we came to the edges of the burnt bush from the Summer bushfires.
Our first stop was at Dadswell Bridge, where we took a tourist shot for the kids of Trev standing in front of the giant koala. He still looks as strange as ever. The koala is lucky to still be unburnt.
We stopped at the park with a lake in the centre of Maryborough to eat lunch, and watched the pacific black ducks enjoying the water while we ate and admired the reflections and colours of changing leaves
From here it wasn’t too bad a hop on to Castlemaine.
We took a while to find a significant tree that I had heard about and was keen to show the walkers tomorrow. Thanks Alison for the tip.
We had time to unpack and get our bearings at the Caravan Park before the first Happy Hour at 5:30.
All the walkers are keen and ready to get going , with 2/3rds choosing the longer of the 2 walks tomorrow.
The morning was taken up with a windscreen replacement for the Prado, some packing and some time with Sophia, including a playground visit where swings, climbing and balancing took priority.
We are heading for Castlemaine to help lead a walking camp.
We finally pulled out of the driveway just after noon but still had to put a massive amount of fuel in the tank before heading out via the freeway.
It’s always a bit of a shock to pay all this at once for fuel even if you can save $6 by using the app.
We learnt that this road sign means there is an emergency break in the median strip coming up as we drove along. (Thanks Google)
Our first stop was lunch at Tailem Bend where we ate outside the bakery after saying hi to the orangatun and listened to the cockies worrying to each other in the big gum trees nearby.
Then another hour or so down the road (a short way before Keith) we stopped at Kelvin Powrie reserve for a cuppa from our new cups and a brief walk. Very dry. No orchids seen.
Then on to Horsham for the night. We were glad not to be driving into the setting sun. Lots of farmers out ploughing up dust. A few fires (burning off?). I guess they are hoping for opening rains soon. The reflection of sunset was pretty but subtle
As we drove I booked us a motel room in Horsham. We booked in to our basic but clean room and headed out to dinner at the Exchange Hotel.
Then an early night. Trev put earplugs in. The trucks are noisy along the road here, but at least they are not braking or accelerating at this point.
We tried to stay out of the way as our friends readied themselves for work and school and then enjoyed an unhurried breakfast and reboiled the thermos before heading off.
The gas bottles were filled and a replacement lighter found (I crushed the last one in a mishap) and we were on our way.
We passed Sundrop where the wind generators were hardly moving against a bright blue sky, but the large solar array was probably pumping out the power on this lovely clear day. Hopefully all those beautiful veggies are growing away happily.
We detoured to see the McClellan lookout on the outskirts of Port Augusta. This is on the spot where Matthew Flinders apparently camped on March 10, 1802 while exploring the area.
The view to the other side of Spencer Gulf across the mangroves is quite beautiful.
It was too early for lunch so we meandered around the edge of the city, discovering the location of the hospital (also overlooking the gulf) and some of what are probably original houses.
The edges of the highway were still pretty green as we headed towards Whyalla and the saltbush a stunning blue in the later part of that stretch.
We let our technology tell us that the best bakery lunch was at Casa la Pan (house of bread). We didn’t try the bread but the pepper steak pies and chocolate donuts were pretty good. We took them away to the wetlands and sat in the shade of a shelter while we teased the seagulls and brewed a cuppa from the thermos.
A short walk showed us that the new (to us anyway) cafe at the wetlands (called “ Sumthin’ Tastee”) does certainly appear to serve tasty food, and that little black cormorants, pied stilts and hoary headed grebes appear to enjoy the wetlands.
Since we hadn’t done it before and we had some time up our sleeve we dropped in to Lucky Bay to see where the ferry goes from (to Wallaroo). Currently it runs daily either way, with an extra later Monday service. Here the sea was green with sandbars either side of the channel. A large grain ship was in when we visited. The wind was strong with a very strong beach smell. A nice row of shacks curved around the little bay and the beach sloped gently out into deeper water.
Only 13 more km on Cowell awaited us. First stop was the Commercial Hotel where we, as the first to arrive, paid money and picked up keys for the units we had booked. We also made a reservation for the evening meal.
Then we headed off down the street to find our digs for the night. We enjoyed a relaxing cuppa, had the air conditioning cooling the units down, and were nicely showered by the time most of our companions arrived. Five of us headed off to the pub for a tasty meal ( curry night) and Trevor and I had a bit of an amble around Cowell.
We tried, without joy, to figure out which house it was we stayed in years before on a trip to the West Coast. Mostly I remembered the quandong tree next to the driveway. Then we cut through the caravan park to the small mangrove walk, boat ramp and to the new marina.
Mangrove walk
We saw this last year and it seemed nearly complete with little use, but sadly now it still looks that way, with the new cafe building out there on the point still looking unfinished and still “ for lease”. I am now forming the opinion that Cowell made an attempt but failed to pick a strategy to bring and support businesses in a dwindling community.
We managed to leave home slightly earlier than I had hoped after a very full couple of days
The previous day was a mad bustle of preparation activity as we pushed to have all the home and camp prep jobs completed before a small overnight visitor arrived and continued the jobs once she was in bed.
We still needed to fill gas bottles, but we know a great place to do this in Port Pirie so planned for that.
Since we are planning to catch our dinner each night the pressure was off the fridge a bit, allowing for us to bring along more fruit than usual.
We exited the city via the northern expressway and on to Port Wakefield road, then diverted to Two Wells for less expensive fuel. We used the OTR app there and ended up with diesel at $1.83.5c/litre. We needed 104 litres to fill the 140 litre tank. That should get us a fair way.
We took the back roads through Mallala, Balaklava, Mount Templeton on the Black Range Road before turning onto Salk Lake road and then Bumbunga Rd, tracking behind the lakes and entering the main highway again just before Snowtown.
From there it was the main road to Port Pirie and our dear friends.
Bumbunga Rd
A visit here is never long enough but we made the best of it before popping the camper, setting up the bed for the trip and settling down on a fairly warm night. Nice to have no mozzies visiting in the camper but there were a couple of very noisy frogs just outside by the fishpond. They sang duets till the sun came up then they handed over to the magpies.
Hello to all of our friends and relations receiving this edition of the yearly epistle. We hope that it finds you happy, wherever you are and whatever you are up to.
This is our attempt to update you all on what has been going on in our lives over the last year so here goes:
The most important thing that happened was that Thom, Laura and James welcomed Philip into their family in August. He is a placid little fellow and brings great delight to all of us. We look forward to watching this third little grandchild grow. James and his big cousin Sophia (both now 2 years old) continue to bring joy to our lives as we watch them learn and grow. We love watching their characters growing and shaping and the time we spend with them is treasured. We enjoy our times visiting the kids or having them visit us. We know that we are lucky to have them both so close.
Thom and Laura have continued to settle into their home at Coromandel Valley, where the garden is slowly becoming what they want and they can take a delightful walk along the creek to the bakery or Daddy’s work (part time at Coromandel Valley Uniting Church). Next year Thom and Laura will both work part time and share the home parenting time.
Ben, Jasmine and Sophia have settled in to their Linden Park house and have made amazing changes to the garden and surrounds. It is hard to remember now that it was once Great Grandpa’s house. Sophia attends an early learning centre two days a week and Mummy works three days at Pedare School. Ben is doing well with ANZ and the quality of his work was recently publicly recognized by the organisation making us very proud.
Erica’s family – from Left Ben with Sophia, Kate (Erica’s niece) and brother Andrew , Thom with Philip, Great Grandpa Tom (Erica’s Dad) , sister Sue and Erica with James.
Both Trevor’s Mum and Erica’s Dad continue to enjoy relatively good health, which we are thankful for.
We continue to bushwalk and orienteer regularly (Trevor more than Erica) and stay very involved in both. Trevor writes a report after each walk and publishes in on the web for others to view. (https://walkingwith4seasons.wordpress.com/)
We’ve had a few trips away in SA for fishing with our bushwalking friends (Coffin Bay NP, Yorke Peninsula and Streaky Bay) this year and also a couple for Orienteering (Flinders Ranges and near Burra) but the big trips were further afield. We took off to Morocco, Spain and Portugal for a month on a Bunnik tour with our friends Ray and Judi (tiring but excellent) and returned to have quick cuddles before heading for WA. There we met our Danish friends Kirsten and Bo, who competed in the Australian Orienteering Championships with us before returning to SA with us and joining us in a mad tour of Adelaide and the Flinders Ranges. It was fun to act as hosts and tour guides and to see the place through a visitor’s eyes. It was also good to spend time with these dear friends that we see so rarely. We are thankful to bodies which allow us to enjoy all of these activities.
As we head into the busy Christmas season our thoughts turn to those we care for, both near and far, and we wish you all the very best for the rest of the year and for the one to come. If you are heading our way please let us know. We treasure time with friends and family when we have it.
Luvapuzzle 