Issue 6 Nov 2017
Brodie’s next 15,000 klm
On th e road again
This issue’s trip
Adelaide Bota
anical Gardens
P
Port Adelaide
ort Adelaide appealed to us, beaches and heritage was promised by a brochure I picked up, so an hour later we were eating fish and chips on the sea side. Being in the gulf there was no surf and the tide went a long way out but even overcast and cool it was still very pleasant. Despite the 16 degree temp there were quite a few people paddling in the sea .... but not us!. A lot of the buildings and houses were very impressive, Port A d e l a i d e a n d Semaphore must have been established very early in SA history by some very rich merchants. There was the promise of some very good “boys” type museums, Aviation, Railway and Maritime, sadly they weren’t “couples” type but maybe next time
Adelaide City Being our last day in Adelaide we decided to check out the city, the easiest way being by bus. Fortunately the bus stop was about 200 metres away and we got a very friendly driver. He wouldn’t take any payment and explained our Seniors cards would give us free travel after 9am, they didn’t accept it they only accept SA ones but we still got a discount. He dropped us at the Oban interchange (more on next page) and we were whisked into the city in no time, I had already discovered there are two free bus loops around the city and seeing one of the buses we jumped on and enjoyed a guided tour (almost) of the city. We checked out the markets and Rundle Mall, In Rundle Mall there was a huge queue right in the middle of the mall, thinking I was missing out I quickly joined it but after a few minutes I realised it was for the new Apple I thing and I was out that queue really quick! While Jan was off getting her Myers and David Jones fix I wandered into JB hifi and found the special trip I had made to get new props for my Mavic was wasted as Jb’s had heaps of them. We then joined the free outer loop, North Adelaide is just filled with beautiful stone cottages and mansions, where there was a modern house you wonder what had been knocked down to build it. The interesting thing about this bus, because it was free it was the regular transport for all sorts of weird/interesting people .... we saw the same guy, all in white, including white sunglasses three times, unfortunately there was also a few grubs taking advantage and spoiled it with language and attitude. Like many big cities live feed of the bus times was available so with it and google maps we always knew where we were or where we were going
Little guide wheels
Oban bus system
Adelaide has a Oban bus system that also follows the river, it is like a railway for buses, they drive on to a concrete railway and little wheels pop out from the side of the bus to keep it located on the tracks and then pop back in when on normal roads .. very impressive. We rode along side the Oban, as well as underneath it and on it! as we wended our way to the city.
Rapi
id Bay SA Maccas for breakfast and then a scenic drive down the Fleurieu Peninsula. The Fiat satnav wanted to take us down the motorway, so we switched that off and kept to the coastline. There was some really spectacular cliffs dropping down to beaches intermixed with some quaint country villages a really great drive. We had been told to check out Rapid Bay, it was amazing and had a low cost campground but with a 30 knot onshore gale it was not for us, if only the wind would drop. A quick drive through of Victor Harbour, we had been here before, and found it was as busy as ever so we decided we would stay on Hindmarsh island right in the Murray river delta. It seems very few had heard of the caravan park as there were only 3 other vans there and a lot of permanent’s shacks but it was cheap
Views along the Fleurieu Peninsula
The Mouth o
First stop after leaving the park was to the mouth of the Murray, When you think that nearly every inland river in eastern Australia drains into the Murray river and exits into the sea through this narrow mouth, which needs continual dredging to keep it open it is amazing how much water is taken by irrigators. I had thought the winds had dropped but when I had the drone about 300 metres away taking this photo the wind ipped it on its side, the drone can handle up to 60kph and the gusts were well above that, so I landed it immediatly. We spent some time at the Goolwa markets,and decided if we come back this way we will spend a few days in this very pretty town.
of the Murray
After leaving Goolwa we head towards Murraybridge, just prior to it was Monarto Zoo, one of the largest free range zoo’s in Australia. Using our Seniors cards the admission was $25 each. It was a 2.5klm drive from the ticket booth to the visitor centre where we about 30 of us hopped on a bus for about an hour trip through the dierent regions, they had a good collection of African animals, mostly endangered ones as the zoo is heavily involved in conservation. We were told we were only visiting about 20% of the park area, the rest was given over to breeding programs.
The Fi We found Murraybridge a fairly large town with being Sunday most things closed so we decide to prees on. The next town we decided on was Keith (obviously) .On the way we passed through Coonalpyn, the first SA town we had found that had adopted silo art. Small wheat towns in the Wimmera region of Vic. decide to “pretty “ up the huge wheat silos and also attract tourists . We had planned to travel to the Wimmera area to see them and was suprised to find this one.
irst of the Silo Art
See!! It is About ME!!
Keith to Mt Gambier The park at Keith was well set up but fairly quiet, we spent some time chatting to a pommie couple that were on the last leg of their world trip and then battened down as the wind and the cold set in. Sunshine greeted us the next morning but still cold with a chance of rain. We headed south and the scenery changed from scrub to vineyards and finally forestry. We checked out the cave system at Naracoorte, it was quite interesting but we only viewed one cave as it was fairly expensive to do the lot. Evidently there were fossils found in the extensive cave system but they were an added cost and according to wikicamps they were only models on display.. The park we had decided on was right at the entrance to Mt Gambier and although a good rating on wikicamp didn’t quite live up to it. Driving towards the Blue Lake I saw a Maccas .. breakfast sorted. The Blue Lake is a volcanic crater filled with water and each November changes from grey to blue for about 6 months .It was blue when we viewed it but so were we, it was about 10 degrees and still bloody blowing!
Mt Gambier
After an early wake up ... Jan has to change her morning habits! ... we had breakfast at Maccas (suprise!) and then viewed the Blue Lake again .. still cold! The Cave garden was right in the middle of town and was basically a sinkhole that had been landscaped by the council, unfortunately some of the locals had added their touch with a few shopping trolleys. The Umpherston was far bigger than the Caves Garden and beautiful landscaped, I would have liked to have own the drone over it, as normal cameras don’t do it justice but the wind was just too strong and gusty. Being too cold and windy we headed for Horsham in Victoria as a base to view the silo trail. We toyed with the idea at staying at Dimboola, but without an invite to the wedding (aussie joke) we chose a very nice park in Horsham, not before viewing the spectacular Pink Lake just outside Dimboola.
Caves Garden
Blue Lake
Umpherston Sinkhole
The Pin
nk Lake
The Pink Lake gets its unique colour from microscopic algae that releases a pigment that reects the pink colour through the salt. This lake was used at one stage for commercial salt production, the white rimm is salt.
Wimmera S Rupan We spent the day driving the Wimmera Silo trail. The local community organises to have their silo’s painted and this attracts tourists, well we were there. Hopefully bringing dollars to the local area.
Silo Trail nyup
Sheep
phills
Bri
im
Roseberry
L
Unfortunately the sun and the pos
Lascelles
sition on the sides made photography fairly diďŹƒcult
Patchew
wollock
This was a fairly long day and as you would expect we kept bumping into the same people, there was even one couple with a drone like mine. Other things of interest was the town of Minyip, which featured as Coopers Crossing in the TV show “Flying Doctors” it was along time ago but some of the buildings looked familiar. The other strange place was a coffee shop in a butcher shop..Ah the smell of coffee and chopped up meat in the morning