Milang, Point Sturt, 28/11/19

Today was our day to drive around and have a look at the local area.

We started by heading for  Milang and having a look at the cute old rows of shacks on the shore of Lake Alexandrina and a walk along the jetty. Some pelicans and various gulls were there. On the jetty stands a very old hand crane which is probably the oldest of its type in SA.

We tried to find a cache at Pobbybonk point and then another on an old ruin on the way to Point Sturt and came up with nothing, but were more successful closer to the point, where we walked along the cliff through seedy grass to find one.

There was also an area where you could camp at the point but it’s very exposed to both sun and wind so not ideal. There is a more private and better sheltered spot along a track just a bit further back up the road

We drove on to Clayton Bay where we had a delicious lunch at the cafe ( recently taken over) as we looked out over the reserve to the water. We had to have a glass of Bremerton’s lovely Betty & Lu to quench the thirst. A couple of wattlebirds were having a lovely time at the cafe as well.

Then we doubled back past Finniss to Strathalbyn where we walked across the bridge, checked out the weir and some very old trees and lovely roses.

The Ken Blake memorial sculpture in Strath ( see photo) was pretty unique

We headed back to the campsite, and while Ray had a nap the rest of us headed for the Winehouse and did some tasting- bought some heartland Shiraz. I liked their cork signage.

Back to the campsite to sit , graze and chat, then cook tea and watch the other campers as they arrived and set up. Four French (??) guys who arrived in two four wheel drives kept us amused for quite a while. People watching is such fun.

The solar light is still working very well. This blow up cylinder reliably gives a good amount of light for no cost at all. It was a great present from our rellies.

Camping at Frank Potts Reserve, Langhorne Creek Day 1 – 27/11/19

Ray and Judi met us at our place and we headed up the freeway , turning off at Mt Barker and then out on the road past Wistow. We noted so many new houses going up in the Mt Barker area.. even since we passed through last ( which we think was in early September). We travelled down, and into Langhorne Creek, turning left at the pub and finding the Frank Potts Reserve, which is larger than we had anticipated. It is a grassy area about 300m long and 200 wide with lots of large gum trees and about 20 campsites marked with a post and number. We chose number 18, beside a large stump and concrete table, which proved useful for grazing , cooking and eating dinner later.

We put up the tent to stake our claim and left the Prado, taking just the Avery’s car to Bremerton winery ( about 1.5 km away). There we happily spent a good part of the afternoon, first tasting our way through a good variety of their 22 wine selection of excellent wines, and then grazing through a dip platter and ploughman’s platter before some dessert pizza ( Nutella and raspberries). They even have emergency nappy supplies in the toilets!

Back at the campsite we continued our grazing, followed by delicious salmon with salad.

We were all in bed by 1030 along with all of the people in caravans and vans down this end of the area. The Averys were trying out our tent and self inflating mattresses while we were in our swags.

Four Seasons Cleland walk

On Tuesday 26th November Beda led a walk from Crafers to Cleland , through to Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens and back again.

I haven’t walked a lot in this area, so some of the tracks were new to me. We enjoyed some lovely views over the city after a chilly start.

There is a new track from Mt lofty to Cleland being constructed, which will offer a walk on a less steep gradient.

By morning tea time the 14 of us in the group had already walked 6.2km and we stopped at the ruin near the Cleland gates (you can see the squiggle at the northern end of the map). 

Beda took us wandering amongst the Rhododendrons , which are really looking great at the moment. We also had the challenge of dodging sprinklers as we made our way along the paths and across the lawns.  

Lunch was in Mt Lofty Botanic gardens at about  the 10.5km mark after that lovely treat. 

We were a little surprised to find this on the gate….

Beda brought us back from there with a little steepish track work, but nothing that these guys couldn’t handle.

where we had a view of some extremely steep back yards. It gave a whole new meaning to “I’m just going down to the back yard for a while, Honey”

We were joined for afternoon tea at Crafers by Tom, Trevor, Verna and Andrew who were all unable to walk, but well enough to come on out for coffee (and possibly some food). 

Thanks Beda for another excellent walk.

Torrens Island Quarantine Station

We had the chance to take a free tour of the station today – I saw it offered in the middle of the night nearly a month ago on facebook and put down our names.

We needed to be at the boat ramp at Garden Island by 9.30am. We made it there with time to spare. We drove from there in a bus with our group so that we could get through the security block as you enter the island. Andrew Winkler showed us around.

If you were unlucky enough to be on a boat with a “foul Bill” (some illness found) on arrival in Adelaide you were brought here by the ship’s boat until you had made it through the quarantine period. Most of the people here were at risk of carrying smallpox, but there were others with TB and other diseases.

The quarantine station was first established in 1879.

This building is the office where the people were signed in – ladies one side, men the other.

You had to be interviewed through a little window, and then had to change into a whole new set of (disinfected) clothes after you had bathed.

There was a line up for innoculations and then off to your housing – in first, second or third class housing. Families could stay together, but single men had dormitories in one spot and women in another (behind a fence) .The dormitories are now gone, but one of the original wooden houses (able to be put up in one day without nails and prefab, straight from US) is still there along with many of the newer ones built in the 1950s. This old building was shut up and left as it was for many years before it was given some attention. I’d hate to sleep in one of these beds which have deteriorated so much over the years.

The newer houses are nothing special either

The old isolation ward is completely gone , but the morgue still stands eerily (with table in place) . There was a pretty good sized brown snake guarding this one.

And a walk to the cemetery which is isolated and apart in the neighboring conservation park. There are at least 12 graves here but no gravestones.

We walked back to check out the old chimney

and the boiler house, which was used for a while by a youth group and still has a climbing wall in place!

and the disinfecting block (where all the immigrants’ belongings were disinfected in one way or another. There is an amazing impressive autoclave in here.

The old jetty was badly affected by storms in the last few years , and you can no longer walk in the steps of these unfortunate people.

The quarantine station was last used for humans in 1979, but the area continued to be used for animals for some time after that (into the 1990s) and for egg hatching even longer than that.

I can only be grateful that we have moved onward and no longer have places like this.

We are Trevor and Erica

We just want to record our adventures together – whether they are a walk in the local park, an exciting crossword solution, or an overseas holiday.

We are keen to share all this with our friends and to have a record for ourselves.

We’ve had a blog for a few years now, but we couldn’t work on it offline, so we’ve decided to swap across to here. If you want to see old posts (before 24th November 2019) go to luvapuzzle.blogspot.com.au

One of us is usually the one taking photos (not being in them) – so this is a rare photo both in the same frame – with our niece Katharine between us.

25/10/19 Bordertown to home

We made the last few hours of driving without incident and pulled in to our own driveway a month after we had left.

In that time we had

  • Travelled 3546km
  • competed in 7 orienteering events
  • caught up with 18 relatives
  • visited with 11 friends
  • completed 2 jigsaws
  • visited an unknown number of national parks and beautiful places

What a wonderful adventure. Being able to do this was a confirmation once again, that retirement is a wonderful thing, and that choosing to do this while we are still young enough to enjoy it is a good decision.

24/10/19 Langi Ghiran Reservoir, Grampians and back to Bordertown.

We travelled further than we intended today – partly due to the terribly hot weather, and the weather warning for the night.

After packing up camp, and watching a couple of walking groups assemble and start walking, our first venture was to take the track up past the back of our campsite and see the reservoir. It was worth the drive – the track definitely needed some clearance to get there, but there was a lovely picnic spot up by the reservoir , and some great views on the way back down.

Parks appear to have taken down their map of the park, so I found this one, but the perspective is a bit strange. My apologies in advance. At least you can see where the reservoir is. Having driven in via the Kartuk Rd the day previously, we decided to take the Langi Ghiran Track out. It was well worth the trip in here. We could easily do some of the walks available in here and camp for a couple of nights.

We drove on through Ararat and around to Halls Gap, where we stopped for morning tea and visited the Parks Centre. We picked up a driving map of the Grampians and clarified the camping situation. As you can see on the map below, there are hashed areas and non-hashed areas. “Dispersed” camping is allowed in the non- hashed areas.- This means you can camp anywhere you like without camping fees and booking a site.

We decided to drive some of the Grampians that we haven’t seen before , with the idea that we might stop and camp somewhere. We headed south out of town, past the Lake, and followed as close to the eastern edge of the park as we could, stopping at Kalymna falls for lunch. We decided not to walk the hot track to the falls, but sat and enjoyed watching a little lizard as he rock hopped in the quiet pool at the picnic stop.

We continued on our way via Mafeking Rd, Jimmy Rd and Serra Rd and made our way to the Moora Moora Reservoir, where we stopped to admire the potential campsites and to watch the water in the small spillway. This would have been a great place to launch the kayak for a bit of a paddle on this very warm day.

We decided not to camp as it was so hot, and followed on the Glenelg River Road to Paddy Castle – a rocky outcrop. We took the time to climb here and were rewarded with great views both ways from the top.

We headed on out via the Lodge Rd, joining up with Asses Ears road and eventually out on to the Henty Highway.

Afternoon tea was at Horsham. It was so hot that we found a spot by the lake to sit , but decided to hop back in he car and leave the engine running while we drank our cup of tea, rather than frying in the sizzling sun.

By now, we had decided that maybe Bordertown was a good place to stop for the night, so we threw ourselves once again on the generosity of relatives, and called Sue and Paul Diment, to see if there was a chance of catching up and possibly staying at their place overnight. Sure enough, we were welcomed with open arms, fed a stunning BBQ tea and offered lovely comfy beds to sleep in , instead of using our swags on the back lawn.

… But I am getting ahead of myself … We still needed to drive there, and came past the Edge of the Grampians and Mt Arapiles, stopping to check out the Jane Duff Park, where there is some excellent camping available , well back from the road (another one to remember)

We took the back road from Frances into Bordertown (noticing that there is camping available at Frances Oval too)and arrived at Paul and Sue’s place just before Paul got home from work.

23/10/19 Organ Pipes and Mt Langi Ghiran

We left the Foster’s place at 1130 after a very relaxed morning. They had recommended that we visit the Organ Pipes National Park. We dropped Kate off at school and continued on to the North. We turned in to the park just opposite the Calder Park Raceway.

Towering above peaceful Jacksons Creek, the impressive basalt columns that resemble organ pipes were formed about a million years ago . You walk down to the river from the car park and can walk along the quiet stream and look for platypus while wondering at the majestic rock features.

We took the Organ Pipes track down to the creek, followed along to the right along the river for a little while, and then doubled back to the left river trail to see the rosette rock (fenced off due to erosion)

Rosetta Stone

and the tesselated pavement.

Tesselated Pavement

From there we came steeply up the hill (not a track marked on the map above , but you can see it on the Strava map below. ) to the parking area. Thanks once again to the maps.me app, which showed us where we could go.

With the temperature over 30 degrees we were plenty warm enough at the end of the walk and in need of a good drink. We used the handy pump to do that.

We stopped here in the shade and had a quick lunch and relaxed before heading on our way via Digger’s Rest.

We stopped on the outskirts of Bacchus Marsh to shop and then headed west on the M8.

We located the Mt Langi Ghiran campground in good time . This is a lovely spot with quiet grassy areas, long drop toilets, caches to search for (and not find) and a number of picnic tables scattered throughout the picnic area. We pulled up next to one of these and made it our own for the night. Kookaburras chorused in the huge old gum trees.

One nearby tenter put on a generator and watched a movie, but it was quiet fairly early.

We were still comfortable in our T shirts at 7pm and enjoying a quiet drink after our dinner. It wasn’t too long before we slipped into the swags and closed our eyes.

22/10/19 Liz, Costco and Sleepless in Seattle

Our friend Liz , from the Vienna to Budapest tour, was first on our list for today. We met at a local garden centre, which also has a stunning café.

Liz kindly took one of us together as well – a bit of a rare thing.

Liz belongs to a very large walking group (Maroondah walking group https://www.mbwc.org.au/) who do lots of interesting trips together and maybe one day we will get to do a walk with them when we are over there and visiting her?? Liz will be coming to SA in the new year and we hope to have her stay with us before she heads over to KI to do the coastal walk there with her group.

Liz also is part of the Australian Homestay Network https://www.homestaynetwork.org/, which gives her interesting visitors and helps to supplement the income.

Erica and Denise went shopping at Costco (an experience in itself) and we finally had that BBQ together before settling in to watch most of Sleepless in Seattle. It was a bit late, so the last bit had to be forfeited in the place of sleep.

It was great to just veg out with Gary and Denise and enjoy a bottle of red or two and catch up.

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