Mountain Country

We stayed for five days in my favourite part of Victoria; the stunning and mountainous Alpine Shire.  This part of our journey was made even more enjoyable because we spent it staying with our good friends Jade and Adam.  In a house.  With sofa’s and TV’s and real beds and walls and a ceiling and everything! 

The weather was perfect and we spend our time here catching up, lazing by the pool, and visiting some of the surrounding gourmet attractions such as a local olive grower where we sampled olives, olive oil and olive jam (!). 

Ready to get some air...

One day we headed up to Lake Buffalo for a spot of waterskiing.  Things didn’t quite go to plan because on the first run (with the kids trailing behind in an inflatable tube, the speedboat’s engine began to quickly overheat.  We returned to shore where Adam and I looked knowledgably over the engine for some time before completely failing to fix it. We still managed to eke out a few more rides by giving the engine long cooling down periods in between, which did mean that Daniel got to show off his knee-boarding technique.  Later Jules was offered a tow from another boat and showed her natural athleticism by skiing an entire lap of the lake without a dramatic face-plant.  A shame really as it would have made for some humorous blog content.  Unfortunately, due to the boat problems, I wasn’t able to impress the judges with my skiing prowess, which was probably just as well. Didn’t want to show everyone up.

Natural finesse!

On another day we drove to a nearby trout farm where we had a go at catching our dinner.  It has to be the easiest meal we have ever caught because within half an hour, using nothing more sophisticated than a hook and line with a bamboo pole for a rod, the kids had snagged us six plump rainbow trout for the barbeque.  That’s my sort of fishing expedition.

Mmm. Dinner.

One of the downsides to spending time with great friends is that that time always passes very quickly and this visit was no exception.  Before we knew it, it was time to move on.  There was a bit of a grey mood in the car as we headed off.  We all agreed that we were sad to be saying goodbye and equally sad because it really did now feel like we were on our way home.  As if to mimic our mood, the sky turned dark and cloudy and it started to rain.

A mountain stream with rocks in it.

However, once we found ourselves winding our way up into the stunning high country of Kosciusko National Park, we soon cheered up.  We found ourselves a fantastic little camp spot by a mountain stream, got some food cooking over the campfire and reminded ourselves that the trip is not over just yet!

Wet Weather Playtime in Victoria

Having only planned an overnight stay in Mildura, we eventually left four nights later, and even then it was only to edge our way down through northern Victoria.  As you might have guessed, the weather was responsible for our slow progress.  Thankfully we have avoided being caught in any areas of major flooding, but we did get pretty wet! I won’t complain, because when set against the discomfort experienced by plenty in Victoria, and the more serious tragedies experienced in Queensland (and for that matter the even more catastrophic flood events in Brazil), getting a wee bit wet and having to change your holiday plans is a small inconvenience, but here is the story, anyway:

A Soggy Kid

In Mildura it started to rain.  The weather forecast was predicting bad weather all along our chosen route down to the Grampians, so we figured that we would wait out the rain (no sense in packing up and moving from one soggy campground to another soggy campground).  Then it started to rain even harder.  On our third night in Mildura, we had the heaviest rains we've experienced on the trip; even heavier than the Narrabeen storms of our first week (this time without the gale force winds thankfully), even heavier than the tropical storms in Darwin, and even heavier than the pre-wet season downpour that filled our trailer with its own indoor paddling pool at Windjana Gorge.  It rained constantly that night and the following day, which thoroughly tested the waterproofing on our canvas. We had a few minor leaks, but all in all it stood up well.  The bad weather gave us plenty of time for tea drinking and reading.  The kids were happy to play in the pool (I suspect it could have been slightly drier in there...) and so we managed to while away the hours.  

Captain Daniel and First Mate Elliot
 at the helm of the PS Melbourne

During a dry spot, we took a paddle-steamer ride down the Murray, which was disappointing and fascinating at the same time – disappointing because the level of the water was so high that none of the locks and weirs were in use so I didn’t get to bore the children with my knowledge of these feats of engineers, fascinating because according to the captain of the boat, it was the first time in 17 years that they had not needed the weirs and fascinating to see the effect of the water level three and a half meters higher than usual.  We also managed, in another dry spell, to visit the nearby town of Wentworth, which is at the convergence of the Murray and Darling rivers.  What would normally be an impressive sight was made even more so by the huge volume of water pouring along both rivers.  Even to get to the viewing tower, it was necessary to wade through shin-deep water.

Wading to see the Murray and the Darling

After four nights in wet Mildura, it really was time to move on, so we mooched a few hundred km’s further down the Murray Valley to the city of Swan Hill.  We camped in a caravan park next to the river and what I suspect to be Swan Hill’s main tourist attraction, the historic Pioneer Settlement, which is collection of 50 or so buildings, equipment, coaches and cars from the 1800’s and early 1900’s which have been mover to this spot to showcase the life of early settlers to the area.  Jules got to indulge in her penchant for reading any and all manner of informational signs, the boys enjoyed the horse drawn carriage rides (we went back for seconds) and the ride in a restored 1925 Dodge that some would say was more comfortable than our Prado. Most of all the boys were fascinated by the blacksmith.  Anything that involved ferocious fire and bashing red hot metal with a hammer has got to be good in their book. So much so that Elliot has now put ‘blacksmith’ at the top of his list of future careers. 

My next 4WD

Though the weather had cleared up superbly by this time, the progress of the floodwaters around Victoria made it clear that our plans for the last few weeks of our journey would need to change.  Many towns around the Grampians were on major flood alert and the national park itself was closed until further notice. As the floodwaters spread it became clear that not only were we not heading south as planned, but that if we did not head quickly east, we wouldn’t be getting though towns along that route such as Echuca and Kerang.

So, we packed up and swiftly left down.  We filled up with fuel at Kerang, where a lot of others were doing the same. One local told us that in the last great floods the water had been a meter and a half up the door of the pub over the road.  It was almost impossible to imagine.  They were expecting worse this time.  As we passed through Echuca, the river was running high and plenty of locals were out to watch the spectacle.  (Thankfully, although Echuca did flood later that day, it was not as serious as had first been predicted). 

We stopped that night in Shepparton. Though I’m sure there is much about Shepparton that is “vibrant and progressive” as touted by the Official Vistors’ Guide (sadly, I have discovered the joys of tourist brochures far too late on this trip), we only stayed one night and so must have missed it.  I did like the more than 100 life-sized fibreglass cows, painted in all manner of weird and wonderful designs of “MoovingArt” which are to be found all around the city and celebrate the regions dairy heritage.

Howzat!

By his time, we had spent seven nights running in caravan parks and I felt in need of more natural surroundings a bit of solitude.  Given that so many of the regions national parks were closed and many areas were still subject to flood warnings, we struggled to pick our next destination, but we settled on a couple of nights in the Toombullup State Forrest. We’d never heard of it and perhaps not many others had either because we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves. Plenty of time to relax and the wide open space meant that the cricket set we have carted all around the country finally got a workout.  The area is also the site of a gun battle between Ned Kelly and his gang, and the Police.  Which meant it was time for another fascinating history lesson for the children...

Victoria bound

Rainbow and the Murray

We left the spectacular Flinders Ranges after only a couple of nights because we needed to get some minor repairs done on the car (split CV boot, driver side, for those who are keeping track), so we threaded our way south through a series of historic and charismatic villages and towns as suggested by the South Australian Tourism brochure we had picked up:

 Hawker - the top of the list of attractions here, according to South Australian Tourism is the visitors centre itself... but it was still a nice spot to stop for morning tea.

It's a big gum tree

Orroroo - where we stopped to see “The Big Gum Tree” which was, of course, a big gum tree, with a trunk 10 metres in circumference, and then we went on a significant detour to experience Magnetic Hill – “ a phenomenon that has to be seen to believed”.  Allegedly here, you can leave your car in neural at the bottom of the hill and it will roll upwards. Perhaps having a tonne of trailer behind us hindered our progress, but we didn’t move an inch uphill. You would have though that the trailer, being made of steel, might have helped, but it seems not.

Peterborough - actually, we accidentally drove right passed Peterborough which was a shame because according to South Australian Tourism it is one of only two places in the southern hemisphere where you can still see three different railway gauges (Broad, Standard and Narrow of course....)

Jamestown – “ a mecca for railway enthusiasts and ecotourists alike” (?!?)

...And finally into the picturesque town of Clare at the head of the Clare Valley wine region – Ahhhh.....

S.A. Tourism hyperbole aside, these towns are filled with marvellous old stone buildings and fascinating histories that make the drive well worth the effort.

We spent a couple of nights in Clare, getting the car fixed and enjoying some of the local produce.  I did feel a bit self conscious entering the civilised world of the Clare Valley with the car and trailer caked in Oodnadatta mud and dust, our clothes not fairing much better and with both kids badly in need of a haircut and doing passable impressions of Stig of the dump.  Didn’t stop us though.  We particularly liked the historic village of Mintaro, complete with a maze, beautiful stone buildings and, most importantly, a fantastic old pub - the intriguingly named Magpie and Stump.

The Murray.  Post rain, Pre Mozzies.

Next up we headed vaguely eastwards, with a plan to follow the Murray into Victoria.  We camped for two nights on the banks of the swollen river in the Murray River National Park.  I’m not really one for rivers. Mountains, oceans, desserts and big red lumps of rock are more my thing, but as we fished and watched the sun go down each evening, I could see why so many are captivated by this particular river.  Until it started to rain.  And then until the rain clouds moved away and the clouds of mosquitoes arrived...

When the mozzies finally had us beat, we headed even further east towards one of our final border crossings of the trip, into Victoria.  This time we were prepared and had not stocked up on piles of fruit and vegetables that we would have to either eat or dispose of at the quarantine stations at the state border (I remember on the morning that we crossed from WA into SA I was worried that the kids would turn a beta-carotene orange from all the raw carrots we made them eat on the way to the border...).  

So a couple of hurriedly scoffed bananas later we were in the Victorian town of Mildura and already seeing road signs for Sydney! (Albeit 1030km’s away).  We were having a bit of a problem with the brakes on the car, and in any case it was due for a service, so for the second time in three days, I took it into a garage and took out my credit card.   I suppose it was only right to have something fixed on the car in Victoria, as we have had had repairs done in every other state we’ve passed through!

No! Not Yet!!

Unfortunately, as I write this we are not spending our first night of the trip in Victoria at all because in our hurry to find a caravan park to drop of the trailer before rushing to the Toyota garage, we headed for the closest one, which happened to be  just across the river.  Without realising it, we have, of course, set up camp in New South Wales!  Three weeks too early!  

The Alice to The Flinders, the less boring way.

Ormiston Gorge

Instead of heading south-east back down the long and, let’s face it, pretty dull Stuart Highway for the 1200km’s from Alice Springs to Port Augusta, we decided to get  back on our ‘big lap’ after the detour into the red centre,  by a more meandering route. 

Lizard 1, Snake 0

First we headed west again into the West Macdonell Ranges.  We spent three days enjoying the stunning scenery, walking and swimming in the clear cool waters of the (yet again) gorgeous gorges. Ormiston Gorge and Ellery Creek Big Hole were our favourites for a dip.  On a hot and dusty walk to the less well known Redbank Gorge, we stumbled across a meter-long Perenti, Australia’s largest lizard, eating his lunch of what we think we identified as an Olive Python.  Now, there’s something you don’t see everyday...

For New Year’s eve we headed out of the far side of the MacDonnell ranges, around the Mereenie Loop road which is a dirt road ‘short cut’ to Kings Canyon.  We stayed at the only campsite there – in the Kings Canyon Resort – which did mean that we were able to celebrate the New Year with Dinner at the pub – a few cold beers and a pizza topped with crocodile, camel and kangaroo (and cheese and bbq sauce of course).  

Heading through the Lost City

One afternoon we walked to Kathleen Springs, which was something of a disappointment, but early the following morning we walked the 6km ‘Kings Canyon Rim’ Walk, which turned out to be one of the favourites of the trip, offering spectacular views of the Canyon, followed by the alien landscape of the ‘Lost City’ and a shady and revitalizing swimming hole in the ‘Garden of Eden’.  It was well appreciated as by this time, the temperature was touching the early forties Celsius...

Heading south east down the Stuart highway was pretty much unavoidable for the next few hundred kilometres, but we had hatched a plan to turn off the bitumen again at Marla, a roadhouse a few hundred kilometres north of Coober Pedy, to head down the 600km long Oodnadatta Track which traces close to the abandoned path of the “Old Ghan” railway. (As an aside, we spent a night at Marla Roadhouse, which is possible the worst roadhouse we have stayed at. Dirty and expensive.  Avoid it if you can.  Probably didn’t help that the temperature that night didn’t drop much below thirty degrees C and the muggy night of broken sleep made me even grumpier than usual!)

The first 200km’s of the Oodnadatta Track was in good condition and we had no real issues.  We stopped for lunch in the town of Oodnadatta (population approx 200) at the legendary Pink Roadhouse.  In stark contrast to the road house at Marla, this is probably the best we have ever been to.  Quirky and friendly.  We were asked if we were going to be ordering anything from the kitchen, and when we said; “ erm, no, we’ll probably just make ourselves a sandwich”, we were told to bring our lunch making stuff into the restaurant out of the heat.

After the storm

We camped that night in the bush at the end of a 4WD track  near the ruins of the Algebukina Bridge.  By now the temperature was above the mid forties and we were wondering how we were going to make it through the night without melting, when just as dark was closing in, it started to rain and within minutes the temperature dropped by about ten degrees.  The kids were whooping and dancing in the downpour like they had never seen rain before.  

That night it stopped raining, but we were treated to a spectacular lightening show, with flashes across the horizon every few seconds and the event continued for several hours!  When the storm changed direction again and headed our way we decided discretion was the better part of valour and retired to our lightening proof trailer...  All safe under the 15-ounce Dynaproof canvas, we slept well...

Out on the snow, sorry, salt

The track on the second day on the Oodnadatta was a bit rougher and a bit wetter, but still fun to drive.  We arrived in the second ‘town’ along the track – William Creek (population approx 12) and unhitched our trailer before making the bumpy 120km side trip out to the vast salt plains of Lake Eyre.  Lake Eyre has recently flooded, a once in a lifetime event, and when we were there we fancied that we could see water out in the distance...but it could equally have been a mirage. One effect of the recent flooding was obvious though. Instead of walking on hard, dry salt, we walked out through a few hundred metres of soggy white slush, mostly sinking past our ankles in the smelly black ooze that brewed below the surface.  It was like of walking through muddy, slushy snow. Hot muddy slushy snow.

Back at William Creek to retrieve our trailer, we couldn’t resist a beer in the famous William Creek Hotel, the walls of which are covered in all manner of paraphernalia; money, articles of clothing, drivers licences, business cards and scribbled notes all left by travellers along the track.  We camped that night at a great spot at a place called coward springs and cooled off in the artesian spa.  The following day we headed off the Oodnadatta track and into the Flinders Ranges. 

The Flinders Ranges

I’m not sure why, but we didn’t have particularly high expectations of the Flinders Ranges.  As it turns out, this national park has some of the most magnificent scenery we have seen so far.  We are already making plans to come back... in winter...