Look out South Australia, here we come

I know it has been awhile since I last sent an update, so I will warn you that with pics, this will be lengthy. So grab a chunk of time and a nice bevie and come  along for a ride.


At 5:40 AM, Jan 29th, we headed off on our much anticipated road holiday. Ruby the super Avan was packed. And I mean packed, Deb was worried about the weight factor.But come on, 3 women going on a 4 to 5 week holiday? What can you expect? (A broken axle, says Deb!)


Deb took us safely thru the Melbourne traffic, over the West Gate Bridge and beyond. After holding her breath all thru the city, Deb needed a rest stop. We pulled over at a handy dandy road side McDonald's to fill up on coffee and carbs. 


Then it was off again to our first stop which was Ararat, Victoria. We were raising our eyebrows as we pulled into the caravan park. This area is very dry and our site was mostly dirt with a bit of scrubby grass. After watching Wendy and Deb set up(I am the photographer, and wait till the tricky work is done, then I bring from the car what we will need inside). We went for a drive around the town, and took a look at an old house Deb used to own. Was back to the Avan for a much needed snooze, we all woke up dripping because of the heat.

While here we had a midnight visitor, lucky for us he was polite and did not invade our space too much. Just the same, I was not impressed. You will see him in the top of this photo. And he was long gone when we got back home. And no, we have not found him yet!

The next day(Jan 30th) we went for a drive to the Grampians Mt Range. These Mt's are nothing like ours in Canada. They are smooth and much shorter and way, way older than ours. The Rockies still have their jagged peaks and are so big. So much time and erosion have molded these to remarkable smoothness. We stopped in a town called Hall's Gap, where I took some impressive pics of kangaroos feeding in the middle of town. We also went to the Brambuck Aboriginal Center. What an amazing history lesson that was. The aboriginals of Australian pre date the Egyptian and Roman civilizations. They go back 1800 generations!! The rest of the Australians are two to 3 generations.


This area of the Grampians had a huge bush fire go thru about 3 years ago. It is amazing to see how well the vegetation is growing back. They are still repairing the roads in areas, and we were unable to go to some of the look outs I remember from a past visit.


After our history lesson, we drove on to Baroka Lookout, high up in the Mt's. I have been here before and was delighted to be back. After posing for the requested  tourist shots and ogling the views, we headed back to Ararat for our last night.

After packing up in the morn we were off to Boardertown over the boarder of Victoria into state of South Australia(from now on it will be referred to as SA). Our main mission in Boardertown was to find Deb's ancestors. We were thrilled to find her Grannie Carson's grave. And we hit pay dirt at the local library. Grannie Carson had 13 kids, was widowed, and moved to the town to set up a private clinic to birth babies. After bringing 1153 babies into the ares, she retired at 73 and died at 75. Deb was thrilled when a gentleman, after finding out what she was researching, gave her a book of the history of the area and the families who lived there.


I also took tons of pics of the white Kangaroos that live here. They are not albino, but are born to the great grey kangaroos. A grey mom can have white babies and a white can have grey ones. The white do not have the pink eyes that albinos have. And they were so cute. Being a hot afternoon the whole kanga gang was sleepy and not at all concerned with the Canadian with the clicking camera.

Boardertown was beautiful and I took heaps of photos of the ancient gum trees and river gums in the area. Of course when the very good looking owner of the caravan park told us he loves Canadians, well, that in itself made it a nice place to visit!

We were sad to leave the Boardertown area, but much looking forward to our next stop which was Mannum. On the beautiful Murray River sits the town of Mannum. We were delighted with our caravan site when we got to the park. For $28.00(divided by 3) a night, we had a million dollar view. The Murray River is at it's highest in over 10 years. The camp grounds have lost it's tent camping sites to the high water. We were just across a small track to a small stretch of grass and the mighty Murray. What a treat, the trees and grasses are all green and healthy. The bird life was amazing. We also got to enjoy watching the ferry go from one side of the river to the other. This ferry goes 24/7 and takes big trucks, cars, passengers etc. The ferries run on a cable pulley system and was fascinating to watch. Lucky for us, it was not too noisy.

Mannum. But, we decided we were glad to leave when the weekend crew arrived. This entailed motor boats, screaming kids and loud music from the tenting gang. When we were awoken by hundreds of yelling Galahs( a small parrot type that is grey with a beautiful pink chest) at 5AM, we decided maybe Mannum was trying to tell us something.






And the road was calling us, so off we drove, pulling comfie Ruby behind us.


The tours next stop was Burra, SA. What can I say? Burra is an incredibly historic town with a very interesting past. Plus, we arrived in Burra Sat afternoon around 1:30PM. Guess what? Small towns in SA close shop at noon on Sat!! No open grocery store! Oh, well, it was out to supper that night at the town pub. And actually. the food was very good. We also spent time, until the wee hours talking and laughing with other campers at the caravan site. Was so fun to get to know and hear other's travelling stories. As well we got some useful tips on where to go and what to see in the places we will be travelling to.

Pictured above are the 5 day old chicks that greeted us as we set up camp. Sad to say but when we left there were only 5 left from the original brood of 8. They kept us amused as we ate outside and were our entertainment.


Getting up Sun morn was not hard. We had things to see and do. Deb remembered visiting the area on school trips as a girl, so we had certain places to visit. The number one being the old copper mines. We did the tour and found great interest in the relics and stories attached. The whole town is very beautiful with stunning old buildings. The town of Burra is a heritage site. The buildings have mostly been restored and the government is working on the rest. Here in SA, the buildings are built of stone, mostly Mt Gamber stone, or brick or cement. Not many wooden buildings, even the telephone and power poles are metal and cement. Too many termites. We have also come across an incredible amount of ants. All shapes and colors.


We also encountered an incredible dust storm while viewing the old mine. Had a great laugh, with dust in our eyes and teeth.

Deb also told us about how the miners lived in dug out holes in the river bank. This was the late 1800s.  Had to see that, and it was heart breaking. Out of 400 kids, only a 150 lived past the raw sewage and floods that plagued them. Of course the government has had to make these dwellings safer for the public and Deb remembers them as being much more sad when she saw them as a school kid.

Well, that takes us to the 6th of Feb when we set out for Port Pirie and Deb's reunion with her father. I will leave that until the next post, other wise this may never be sent!


So, until next time. Happy trails to you. We certainly are having them!


Cheers   Bon