Science Loop, Western NSW, Sth Australia (2017) Diary

1-4-2017 Saturday
We'd planned to leave last Tuesday but Cyclone Debbie and the resulting torrential rains convinced us to delay our departure for a few days. We drove 260ks west through Toowoomba and Dalby and arrived about 2.15pm at the small town of Warra (Qld) and the Warra Rest Area (free camping) for 1 night. We are camped right beside a small jail building built in 1904. The stopover is right on the Warrego Highway and not far from the Warra Hotel, convenient for a nice country pub dinner or so we thought, but the new owners are renovating and the kitchen was closed. We were saved by a food van right outside the pub, Azzas BBQ, which had a limited choice of 2 types of burgers, chicken wings and chips, but good enough for us today as we were both tired and I was happy not to prepare anything.

It's a nice spot for a stopover; there isn't much to the town but the Warra campground is inside the interesting Historical Park. The government owned coal mine was opened west of the town in 1914. The town prospered following its establishment but unfortunately, due to a rising water table causing serious flooding in the mine, it was closed in 1919. Warra is one of the oldest centres on the Darling Downs and was originally settled in the 1840s. An old railway station building is right beside the camping area, and houses the public toilets and the historical society. There was also a small old building called The Haystack School in operation from 1910 to 1968.

2-4-2017 Sunday
We drove westward for 82ks to the town of Miles (Qld) and the Miles Showgrounds for 1 night. Along the way we stopped and walked around the lovely well kept town of Chinchilla. Since Dalby we've been traveling in the region known as the Western Downs, which ends west of Miles. Miles was known as 'Dogwood Crossing' before it was changed in 1878 in honour of William Miles.

The first thing we noticed driving into the town was the impressive Miles Historical Village Museum which houses over thirty restored buildings filled with authentic memorabilia. When you walk the main street of the Village you can imagine what life was like over one hundred years ago. A huge shell display, world class lapidary display, and extensive War Museum ensuring the past is well preserved for future generations. Different buildings represented various businesses such as bakery, bank, garage, chemist, hospital, butcher, general store, post office and machinery shed, all full of authentic olden day memorabilia - unfortunately Dave and I can remember so many of them! As usual we spent nearly 3 hours looking through this place which is why we didn't really drive too far today.

3-4-2017 Monday
Leaving the showgrounds this morning we drove west for about 190ks to the town of Muckadilla (Qld) and the small Muckadilla Hotel for 1 night. On the way we took a 3k detour to Judds Lagoon, not far from the town of Yuleba, a free camping spot by the lagoon, swollen due to the recent rains. It was a nice quiet spot and is probably a place we'd stop normally but not today, as we hadn't gone quite far enough for the day. We passed through Roma and arrived early around 2pm. Our stopover at the hotel was on a surprisingly nice grassy area (probably also due to the recent rains) so we sat outside with a drink and nibblies and enjoyed the pleasant, sunny afternoon.

4-4-2017 Tuesday
After leaving our stopover we drove 226ks to the town of Charleville (Qld) and the Cobb and Co Caravan Park for 3 nights. Not far into our drive, on the highway in the middle of nowhere with no other vehicles around, we were stopped by 2 policemen for a breathalyser (luckily Dave passed). Further on we stopped at the town of Morven and checked out the Morven Historical Museum. It was small but had plenty of old memorabilia, again, stuff with which we were quite sadly, familiar. Out back was plenty old rusting farm machinery, and a kerosene tin hut. The Great Depression of 1929-32 was a time of extreme hardship for people in Australia. Unemployment tripled, people lost their homes and were forced to live in makeshift dwellings made from all sorts of discarded materials. One innovative idea was to erect dwellings using kerosene tins.

On the highway we stopped to take some photos of 5 large birds walking along the side of the road. They reminded us a bit of the bush stone curlew but were larger. Looking up our bird book when we got to our stopover, Dave found it was called the Australian Bustard. As we came into Charleville we made our way to the Tourist Information Office to get details on what to see before making our way to our caravan park.

5-4-2017 Wednesday
We had a fairly easy day today. We rode the scooter to the nearby Warrego River to do the riverwalk, a nice walking bitumen path that meanders alongside the river. There were lots of trees and beautiful ghost gums but we didn't see any uprooted ones after the recent strong rain and winds. We had a nice lunch at the RSL and then visited the Historic House, a museum housed in the building, built in 1889 for the then Qld National Bank. It is a lovely old building and is largely as was built, complete with marble fire places, ceramic door knobs, cedar doorways and classic high ceilings.

There was even a Furphy complete with cart, which we hadn't seen at the couple museums we've been to recently. There was plenty of old memorabilia and they had a bigger selection of phones/switchboards than we usually see at these places. One interesting item in the outside part was a 1929 Rail Ambulance, fitted out to travel on the railway tracks, invaluable in times of floods and cut roads. Dave was excited to see 2 Oppenheimer poles standing in the yard, the ones used in the construction of the Overland Telegraph back in the late 1800s. We took a walk around the town before going back to the park.

6-4-2017 Thursday
Another easy day. In the afternoon we went to the Bilby Centre located next to the railway station, for a presentation and viewing of some real life Bilbies. There were 3 adult Bilbies running around like they'd just been wound up, behind their low-lit, glassed, nocturnal enclosure. Foxes, feral cats and rabbits are introduced species that have had a significant impact upon our Bilbies. Prior to their introduction, Bilbies could be found over more than 3 quarters of Australia. Since their introduction, Bilbies exist in less than one quarter of the country, in areas where these predators have not yet reached.

In Qld the Currawinya Bilby Fence has been erected in the Currawinya National Park, designed as a predator-free haven for captive bred Bilbies to be released as an insurance against extinction and for future release back into the wild. The 25 square kilometre area inside the 29km fence line is large enough to support 400+ Bilbies and it is hoped, will be a "soft-release" facility to reintroduce Bilbies back onto Currawinya when the introduced predators are controlled. Two men, Peter McRae and Frank Manthey, nicknamed The Bilby Brothers, established the Save The Bilby Fund. Among other things, Peter designed and built the Currawinya Fence with teams of Conservation Volunteers. Frank, among other tasks, convinced the federal government in 2005 to recognise the Greater Bilby as an iconic species by declaring the second Sunday in September each year as National Bilby Day. To date the Bilby is the only Australian animal with its own national day!

At Easter instead of buying the chocolate bunnies, if we buy the chocolate bilbies with the endorsement that part of the cost will go to the Save The Bilbies Fund, we will be supporting the good work of The Bilby Brothers and helping save one of our endangered Aussie icons.

7-4-2017 Friday
We left the park and drove 200ks south to the town of Cunnamulla (Qld) and the Cunnamulla Tourist Park for 4 nights. 25ks after we left Charleville we stopped at Angellala Bridge where there was a serious explosion a couple years ago. A memorial to the accident has been set up, with information boards and photos. The road bridge has been repaired but the rail bridge, running parallel about 50 metres away and also destroyed, hasn't been repaired. It seems this rail segment built in 1897, went from Charleville to Wyandra, was 99ks, and maybe it wasn't really used much anymore(?) Following is an account of the incident:-

"A truck carrying 52 tonnes of ammonium nitrate rolled on the Mitchell Hwy the evening of Friday, September 5, 2014. The truck driver, a 33-year-old from Mackay, was fortuitously pulled from the overturned vehicle by passers-by before it exploded. Shockwaves from the blast were felt well beyond the crash scene, 30km from Charleville. The explosion injured eight people including four firefighters, one police officer and the two passers-by that helped the driver of the truck. The semi-trailer truck had been blown apart, as was a fire truck. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services crews from as far as Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley were called to assist at the scene. The Angellala bridge was reduced to mere fragments."

This place uses bore water too but it does have a slight sulphur or rotten egg smell to it. Hopefully that'll disappear from the drinking water after it has been allowed to sit for a bit.

8-4-2017 Saturday
Dave had to spend the morning repairing a water leak we had inside Casa, causing wet carpet. After lunch we rode the scooter a few blocks into the town centre to check out the large bronze statue of the Cunnamulla Fella. Commissioned in 2004 to personify the famous Slim Dusty's song, this statue is an icon of the town. There is even a festival of the same name held in August, with bush poetry, music and bull riding events. After that we dropped in to the Warrego Hotel for a drink and to use their wifi to pick up our mail and do other internet things.

Then we hopped on the scooter and drove 4ks to the Allan Tannock Weir, which is on the Warrego River. There was a guy fishing on the low side of the weir and pulling in fish which he just dropped on the ground where he was standing. I thought it would've been smarter to bring a bucket along to put them in but when Dave talked to him, we found the fish were carp, not a good eating fish, and they're a pest so he's not allowed to throw the back in (a bit like the red claw and Lake Somerset). He was just fishing to have a bit of fun. It was a shame for the fish to go to waste - they'd be good cat food at the very least.

Back at the park we watched as the kangaroos, Eastern Greys, come in to graze on the grass kept lush by the managers watering regularly - they can afford to do that using the artesian water. Some have joeys in their pouches, and look strange with just the legs poking out.

9-4-2017 Sunday
This morning we rode the scooter a few blocks to the Cunnamulla Fella Centre, housed in the original school building of the first secondary school in Western Queensland, built in 1885. The centre houses the art gallery, museum and visitor information service. There was quite an extensive number of displays and old memorabilia - it was quite good. On the way in we saw and heard many white corellas in a big tree - they were muttering to themselves, making quite a noise. Yesterday we saw about 200 of them foraging on the ground in an open field - it was a site you don't see every day.

In front of the centre is a big artesian bore metal piping that has been capped (turned off). Part of our entry fee included a short film about the Australian Artesian Basin and how bores were sunk down over the years to access this essential resource out in the outback. Apparently there are about 70 towns including cattle and sheep stations, dependant on bore water and would not survive if anything happened to this water source - something that is quite possible with more and more businesses tapping into it, as well as the danger of gas 'fracking' endangering the drinking quality. It is also thought that the Basin had a role in the formation of opals.

After that we went to the Warrego Hotel for a drink and light lunch and then had a walk around the town. It was quiet being Sunday with nothing open except the pubs. Located on the site where the Cobb & Co stockyards once stood is the Post Office, built in 1890 and the exterior remains relatively untouched. The post office played a pivotal role in the day-to-day communications in Outback townships. A white Memorial Fountain of art nouveau design and completed in 1919, is dedicated to the soldiers who lost their lives at Gallipoli in World War 1 and the more than 300 men and women who enlisted. The Cunnamulla Coach Stop Mural reflects a time when Cobb & Co coaches provided vital transportation services in the region.

10-4-2017 Monday Rest Day
We decided to stay the fourth day to rest and do jobs like washing, etc. Dave bought some worms and did some fishing at the Weir catching carp, where we rode to the other day. He had fun and caught 14 fish. I made scones as a treat - worth recording as we don't have them too often.

11-4-2017 Tuesday
We left the park this morning, did a little shopping in the town before driving 160ks west and then north to the small town of Yowah (Qld) and the Artesian Waters Caravan Park for 1 night. There were only about 3 campers but we were far apart and even though the ground was all dirt, it was quiet and pleasant. Yowah is opal country. It has opal fossicking for those so inclined, and also has hot artesian pools that anyone could use but we didn't.

On the way we stopped at the small town of Eulo. Driving in to the town our eyes were drawn to a large statue of a prehistoric creature. In 2011 the site of one of Australia's most highly concentrated accumulations of megafauna fossils was discovered near Eulo and included a large Diprotodon, nicknamed 'Kenny'. 'Kenny's' fossilised bones were used by palaeontologists and sculptors to help reconstruct a full sized, fleshed out bronze statue. 'Megafauna' were the giants of of their time, giant versions of what we see today, including giant reptiles, snakes, birds, and mammals. Diprotodon lived during the Pleistocene Epoch between 2.588 million and 30,000 years ago and is the largest Australian species of megafauna with males weighing as much as 2.8 tonnes. It is the largest known marsupial to roam the earth, and its modern day relatives are the wombat and koala. Like the wombat, Diprotodon carried its young in a backward facing pouch large enough to carry a human child.

We viewed an old 2 cells prison building on display. We walked around the short stretch of shops and stopped in at the local opal shop which had many beautiful polished opals and opal products. Outside, for sale on tables in the open, were lots of roughly cut rocks with opal running through them. Dave particularly liked the look of one of these and bought it, and the guy told us it was Boulder Opal in ironstone rock but it had been mined in Eromanga. In the yard of the general store, was a bomb shelter. It was rusted curved corrugated iron, an igloo shape, about 8-10 metres long and 1 metre high. The ends were blocked off with mesh so we couldn't see inside but we assumed it led down into the ground as bomb shelters normally do - this was just such an unusual looking one.

12-4-2017 Wednesday
In the morning we packed up and drove a short distance around the corner to the Blue Bus Opal Stop, owned by a lady Dave had been talking to on his early morning walk. Her shop was made out of an old blue bus converted to the shop - quite quaint. The lady was very helpful and when we told her we were going to Kangaroo Island in South OZ, she said she came from there. She gave us some useful information about the area. She had a lot of nice jewellery and other polished opal products. Dave bought an early birthday present for me, some opal earrings.

After that we drove 193ks north to the town of Quilpie (Qld) and the Channel Country Caravan Park for 1 night. On the way we stopped at the Toompine Hotel for a drink and had a great chat to the people running the hotel. Afterwards we had some lunch in Casa before we set back off. We've been seeing a lot of emus lately, more than we saw on our other OZ trips. After we set up at the caravan park we put on our swimmers and hopped in the hot artesian spas right inside the park - it was nice. A sign said to spend no longer than 15 mins in the spa - not sure why but I assume it's something to do with the health effects of the water and maybe you can get too much of a good thing.

13-4-2017 Thursday
Before leaving town this morning we drove to the Tourist Information Centre to find out the things to see in Quilpie. They had a Quilpie Town History Museum attached to their office so we checked that out first. Then next door they had a Military Museum. A couple blocks down the side street was St Finbarr's Church, a small simple modern church but with an altar, a lectern and a baptismal font all adorned with beautiful opal panelling. Right next to the visitor centre was a 45 metre Park Mural, completed in 2003, depicting some of Quilpie shire's proud history. After that we had a nice pie for lunch from the local bakery before fuelling up Casa.

As we headed out of town we stopped at the small airport where the Amy Johnson Memorial stands. It's just a small tin shed with the external walls adorned with pictures of her, her plane ("Jason") and her story. Amy Johnson, Pioneer Airwoman, was born on 1st july 1903 in Hull, Yorkshire. In 1928 she became the first woman in Britain to be granted the Air Ministry's ground engineers licence along with gaining both her commercial and private pilot's licences as well as qualifying as a Navigator in 1929. In 1930 she decided to fly solo from England to Australia in an attempt to break Bert Hinkler's record of 16 days. Due to repairs and bad weather, the final leg of her 11,000 mile journey to Darwin was completed 19 and a half days after leaving Britain, so no record broken. Whilst in Australia, Amy landed in Quilpie before heading off on her final leg to Brisbane.

We then headed off, driving 108ks west to the town of Eromanga (Qld) and the Show/Rodeo Grounds for 3 nights over easter where the town is putting on a rodeo, to which we've been looking forward. The grounds were about 1-2ks out of the town and such flat open spaces, but with soooo many prickles (bindi like) - ouch! There were already some vehicles there with many horses and bulls for rodeo riding. There were also other horses, being well looked after with covers over their bodies as well as over their eyes, we presume, to keep the flies and other insects out. These they probably use for other events like camp drafting.

On the drive here we saw some more emus but one scene was especially wonderful. All of a sudden in the distance, we could see a line of emus starting to walk across the road in front of us with the first one already on the road. There were 12 of them and they were half grown. The bigger adult and another smaller adolescent hadn't caught up yet so weren't in the photo. I thought that's a really good parent who has reared and kept from danger, 13 chicks! (or I suppose, it could have been a school teacher with her class out on an excursion!?? well, they were in an orderly line....) Anyway, we hadn't seen such a large group of emus until now. The guy at the rodeo grounds here told Dave emus are in large numbers and a problem (thousands) out on his nearby property, competing with the stock for feed - lovely for us but not for the people who have to live with them, like the kangaroo problems.

A sign coming in to the township says "Eromanga - furthest town from the sea" hmmm - interesting.

Good Friday Easter
Well what a great experience for 2 city slickers! Yesterday we set up camp in the rodeo grounds away from other vehicles with horses, so we would be out of the way, and also away from the noisy generator which anyone can plug into. This morning there's been an influx of competitors in their horse vehicles and so far, just 2 other campers like us who've set up about 100 metres away (it's free to camp). Three horse vehicles have set up near us, alongside each other, but more forward than Casa so we're like in the back row. So far there's no-one actually right alongside of us, which gives us a better view of the place.

Beside their vehicles each group sets up their own corral for their horses, with fence pickets and electric tape. The group next to us has set up their corral right in front of us so we can look out and see a lovely view of 4 horses feeding on their big round bale of hay and doing their horseplay and fights. Looking on further past them is a whole lot of other vehicles and horse corrals who've also come in this morning - there's no marked out areas, you just set up wherever you want and first in, best dressed. It appears the people then set up camp inside the horse vehicles - would have to make sure there weren't any horse patties in there before they make their beds! It's been really terrific watching it all unfold this morning out our windows. We've never been surrounded by so many horses before, and parked amongst all the competitors and workers.

This afternoon we watched two event types. The first was the two handed cutting event where a rider has to cut (separate) one animal out of the half grown male herd of cattle and use horsemanship skills to get the animal to go wherever they want (the 'two handed' refers to using both hands on the reins). The second event was campdrafting where the rider cuts an animal from the herd and then guides it through a gate and around 2 markers in a figure 8 pattern - obviously a lot harder than they make it look. It certainly is dusty work and the dirt is mostly red. There are young kids here too, mostly riding around on their small sized motorbikes, practicing for their motorbike events tomorrow.

After the events were finished we went back, had our showers and went up to the canteen to buy dinner, which was pretty good. The proceeds are donated to the Flying Doctor Service so we were very happy to support it (to say nothing of the fact that I don't have to cook!).

15-4-2017 Saturday Easter Saturday
This morning I watched a 'Willy Willy' (small whirlpool dust storm like a mini tornado) travel/swirl around across in front of Casa, off to the side, across the middle of a car and campervan about 30 metres away, reform on the other side and continue around the corner of some trees. It was really interesting as I hadn't seen one that close before, only in the distance. Dave rode the scooter over to watch the motorbike gymkhana for a while. They were mostly kids and some of them were quite young.

About mid afternoon we walked over to watch the end of the Camp Draft and then to a different arena for the rodeo. There were bucking bulls and bucking horses and lots of fine bulldust everywhere! When the riders on horses inside the ring had to get control of the bucking horses after they'd tossed their riders, more often than not, their activity right next to the fences sprayed a big lot of dust all over the spectators. It was good fun especially as I was high up on the stands and was mostly out of the way but Dave unfortunately was down taking photos at the fence. After that we had our showers to wash all the dust off before heading to the canteen for a nice dinner.

16-4-2017 Sunday Easter Sunday
There was more campdrafting on today but we decided to leave this morning before all the loading of horses and exodus started. We left late morning and drove 1-2 ks to the town on Eromanga (Qld) and the Eromanga Caravan Park for 1 night. There's no supermarket, newsagent or post office here so I couldn't buy a Sunday paper (will put my whole week out as haven't got a tv guide). The caravan park manager said they have to drive to Quilpie to buy groceries, etc, about 108 km away!

After setting up we walked 3 long blocks to the local Royal Hotel and had a drink. The hotel is an original building dating from 1885 and was once a Cobb & Co Staging Post. Dave made the comment to the guy that it was surprising that it'd never burnt down like all the other old pubs we've come across on our travels, burning down at least once from the time they're built. This pub is mostly built of rock and brick so that's its saving grace. After our drink we got the key to the Eromanga Living History Centre next door. There was a short film to watch in there, covering many topics including oil exploration, early pastoral pioneers, opal mining and information regarding the dinosaur discoveries. We then viewed all the memorabilia, and detailed history of the town, the people, old buildings and events. One lady, born and bred here, was honoured for all her work and dedication to the small town. We realised that she and some of her family had sat at out table at the rodeo the other night for dinner, and we didn't know who she was at that time. I noticed she had been helping in the kitchen though, living up to her reputation.

On our walk back to the caravan park we passed a house with nice green grass, unlike most of the surrounding land, and noticed 3 small grey kangaroos inside the fence. We thought they'd probably jumped in there because there's nice luscious grass. Three guard dogs (1 medium and 2 small white ones) came out barking at us while they were wagging their tails, and were in the same yard as the kangaroos. After looking at them a bit we came to the realisation that they were probably rescue kangaroos - 1 was lying down with its eyes shut all the time like it was blind, 1 had half an ear missing like it'd been bitten off and the last one seemed like it didn't move very well. None of them shied away from us at all when we walked past.

When we got back to the caravan park we were talking to the young couple managing the place. We noticed in the back yard, their 2 young children about 5 and 2 yrs old, riding around on the ride-on mower! I asked if they do the mowing for them! (Just for the record the mower blades weren't lowered down)

17-4-2017 Monday Easter Monday
We left the caravan park this morning and fuelled up Casa nearby. We then drove about 3ks down the road and took a tour at the fenced 167ha reserve that is the Natural History Museum. At present the 1 year old museum is in its infancy, and doubles as the workshop with tonnes of plaster-jacketed dinosaur bones waiting for the laborious work that will reveal exactly what types of bones they are, and to which animal they belong. Then there's the jigsaw puzzle - seeing if any of the uncovered bone fragments can be matched to any other uncovered bone fragments that may've been found nearby or scattered further away. With many successful dinosaur digs already having been undertaken and more fossils being added every year, the museum is already so much more than its original find, known as Cooper.

Cooper provided a phenomenal starting point as it was the largest dinosaur found in Australia to date, in 2004, and the first titanosaur of its kind ever discovered. We watched as they demonstrated the work carried out on some of the plaster-jacketed bones. It was quite enjoyable and exciting to be within a couple feet of real dinosaur bones, from millions of years ago! To be honest, it was hard to tell the bones from rock or some of the large bone surfaces had the appearance of thin, flat, dried mud.

After leaving we drove 344ks south and then west to Nappa Merrie (cattle) Station (Qld) and the Burke and Wills - The Dig Tree camp site beside the Cooper Creek for 1 night. We were a bit unsure whether to go or not because we knew it involved at least 11ks of unsealed road to get to the camp site, because it shakes up Casa too much (and our things inside) and we get so much dust inside. Anyway we decided we shouldn't miss it. We were told the rest of the 180k road to get there was sealed but were a bit disappointed when we had to travel about 10ks of unsealed rocky road as it all hadn't quite been finished yet. I must say the sealed roads we have been on have been pretty good. On the drive here we passed the Jackson Oil Fields, the Naccowlah Oil Fields and the Ballera Gas Fields.

We arrived later than we'd hoped, but at least before the setting sun so could take some photos. Two of the carvings (blazes) have grown closed and only the camp number blaze remains visible today. In 1860-61, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south, to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250kms. The Royal society of Victoria selected Burke as the leader even though he had no skills in bushcraft and no experience in exploration. It seems it was Burke's leadership that was especially detrimental to the mission, resulting in a quite a few men resigning and others being fired, and some impractical and fatal decisions being made. Both Burke and Wills ended up dying in 1861.

The Dig Tree (Coolabah tree) - there was a lot of information written on the official boards in the shelter at the entry gate, we had a few brochures as well and Col, the ranger, gave us information too. There seems to be a bit of confusion about some things, especially which was actually The Dig Tree. However, suffice to say the story behind it remains the same. One of the explorers, William Brahe and co, were leaving the main camp, B LXV, believing Burke, Wills and Gray weren't coming back but just in case, he put provisions in a camel trunk with a note and buried it 18 inches under the ground. He blazed the word "DIG" on a nearby tree. On the very evening of the day that Brahe left (9 hours later), Burke and co returned, did see the the blaze on the tree and did find the provisions. The blaze carved into the main tree, 'B' and Roman numerals, 'LXV', stood for Burke's Camp 65.

There is a second tree with carvings, known as The Face Tree. In 1898 a travelling stockman, an amateur wood carver, John Dick and his wife visited the site. He carved a likeness of Burke's face, along with Burke's initials, RO'HB, showing the date (21.11.98 - could be mistaken for only 19 yrs ago instead of 1898) along with his and his wife's initials. It has a boardwalk, and the more noticeable carvings mean it is often confused with the Dig Tree.

When we first arrived and got out of Casa, the flies were dreadful! They're the little bush flies that don't take no for an answer. We noticed a guy who was setting up camp further up from us, had a fly net over his head and face - we made sure we got ours out when we got back to Casa. When the sun went down the flies stopped thank goodness, but then the bugs and myriad of other insects started! They were driving us crazy inside Casa, being attracted to the lights of course. We have screens on the windows but the little things could walk around the ends of the screens. It was hot but in the end we had to use bug spray, shut the windows and use fans. We hadn't experienced it that bad before - we gathered it was because we were out in the real, dense, bush country.

18-4-2017 Tuesday
This morning the ranger, Col, came over to us and had a good chat. He was a real fountain of knowledge on the Burke and Wills subject. We went into the small shed near the entry gate to read all the information boards and gather brochures as we didn't have the time when we arrived yesterday.

After that we went on our way, not looking forward to driving back over the 24ks of rough, rocky unsealed road. All up we drove 224ks east to Noccundra Hotel (Qld) at the free Wilson River Camp for 1 night. When we arrived we fuelled up and stopped in for a couple drinks before going to our camp spot. Inside we chatted to the lovely owners and marvelled at their giant grey Great Dane called George. George was on the other side of the bar and without standing on hind legs, could put his large head on the bar and look at you - he was gorgeous!

The present hotel was built in 1882 (first one built 1860 and burned down) of sandstone, quarried from Mt Pool in New South Wales, and transported by Camel Train. It is contained within the pastoral holding of Nockatunga Station and was established to service the local stations, to ensure their stockmen did not wander further afield into town. Later it became a Cobb & Co stop and it is not unusual to have staff from the surrounding oil and gas gields staying in on site accommodations. The hotel is all that survives of the town today, and was listed by the National Trust in 1977. The Gidgee timber used in the verandah is too hard to put nails into, so the roof is wired together. Local legend will have you believe the very low door frames (similar to what we saw in England) were built to stop drunk stockmen from riding their horses into the bar, however, it is more likely they were built this way in a bid to control the temperature inside the building.

We were camped right beside the Wilson River. Dave took his fishing line and tried his luck but didn't catch anything. Thankfully even though we were in a bush setting again, the insects were not as bad as last night. We were however, camped about 300 metres from the hotel and toilet and shower block, so we had our showers and went straight to the hotel for dinner. Walking back later on it was pitch black so it was good I had my mobile to use the torch feature.

19-4-2017 Wednesday
Packed up and left camp this morning, driving 141ks east to the town of Thargomindah (Qld) (known as Thargo to the locals) and the Explorers Caravan Park for 2 nights. We were lucky enough to see 5 Wedgetail Eagles today (3 were together in a group), in the open plains feeding on some road kill. We stopped on the way into town to see the old Hydro Power Plant. Thargomindah was the first town in Australia, and third in the world (after London and Paris), to produce hydro-electric power for street lighting, and it was done here through the harnessing of bore water from the Great Artesian Basin. It was also the first town in Australia to have reticulated water. This method of street lighting was in operation until 1951, when diesel generators were installed. The town was connected to the Grid system in 1988. The Hydro Power Plant Display Shed is a replica of the original shed, which was built on the site.

Today the water flows at a temperature of 84 degrees Celsius, too hot for normal household use, and so is pumped down the road to Cooling Ponds before being further distributed. The water is cool enough out of the taps here in the park but does have that slight sulphur smell, unless you can leave the water open to the air for a little time, like in a bottle with the cap off. Before checking into the caravan park we stocked up on groceries at the local Foodworks shop.

20-4-2017 Thursday
We spent the morning doing maintenance, washing, vacuuming, and cleaning the dust off everything after the dusty days at the rodeo and unsealed roads to and from The Dig Tree. In the early afternoon we walked around the town. Thargomindah is an aboriginal word, which can be interpreted as either "Cloud of Dust" or "Echidna", depending on the chosen dialect.

The first stop was Leahy House which was built after 1885 when the deed of Grant was made to the Thargomindah Newspaper Company, which was owned by John and Patrick Leahy. It was sold to Sir Sidney Kidman, the cattle Baron, in 1912. The house is built of the original, locally made, mud brick and was continuously lived in until 1995, when the Bulloo Shire Council purchased the building. It was then leased to the Thargomindah Historical Society in Trust for the community. Inside were 4 rooms with old photos of the early settlement days and history information boards of the people who braved the harsh land to make a life out here. Next was the contemporary sculpture called "Conduit between above and below" which comprises a field of galvanized poles. These represent the 4,700 bores that provide the only reliable source of water throughout much of inland Australia. There are 52 poles in the work - a number chosen to represent the need for water all year round - wasn't really a work of art that resonated with us, although could see some merit in it.

The Post Office was opened in 1870 however, it was levelled to the ground by a storm in 1877. The present day Post Office still has the original exterior walls, which were constructed of the locally made mud brick. It is one of only four remaining buildings in the town, constructed by the old mud brick method. We walked up to the Cooling Ponds. We only saw 2 - one seemed to be full while the second one was mostly dry and had a whiteness to it - thought this could've been the salt as some artesian water seems to have varying salt content, and then I suppose it could've been sulphur. A public notice at the caravan park here sings the praises of the water's health properties, because of the sulphur, claiming effectiveness for arthritis and skin conditions.

It was mid afternoon so we stopped in at the Thargo Roadhouse for an early dinner - we were told they do a good meal plus usually a truckies' stop is expected to be decent, and they were. Then we started on our way back. Passing the well kept Memorial Park we noticed a poly water pipe coming up from the ground and connecting into the top hollow railing of the wire fence. At intervals along the top of the hollow metal railing we noticed taps welded into it, so hoses could be attached at a number of different points- this looked a really strange sight to us, and quite practical. Also strange was seeing in the front yards of 2 different houses, a calf and a sheep, just grazing, like a pet - we miss out on so much stuff in the city!

Bronze bust sculptures of Vincent Dowling and John Leahy sit outside the Bulloo Shire Administration Centre, to honour the memory of two intrepid pioneers, and signify the importance of the contribution that they made to the settlement and growth of Thargomindah and the Bulloo Shire. Lastly we walked along part of the Bulloo River Walk to Pelican Point, a favourite swimming hole and picnic spot for locals and visitors. Unfortunately we couldn't get too far as the concrete pathway was being redone and access was blocked off. If we had've been able to go further we would've seen the Cobb & Co Crossing. During the late 1880's, Thargomindah became the home for Cobb & Co Coaches, which serviced the distant settlements of Hungerford, Wompah, Oontoo, Kyabra and Toompine. The trip by Stage Coach to Cunnamulla, which was a distance of 150 miles, would take about 5-6 days, on a good road. The stone crossing was in use up until late 1929 when the the current bridge was built.

21-4-2017 Friday The End of The Natural Sciences Loop Road
We left the park this morning and drove 197ks east to the town of Cunnamulla (Qld) and the Cunnamulla Tourist Park for 1 night - we were here near the start of our Loop Road trip, exactly 2 weeks ago - it felt really nice to come back, like coming home. This afternoon a big kangaroo was grazing on the luscious grass alongside of us and having a drink from the container left under the tap by the managers - it was lovely, can't say that we see that very often.

On the way we stopped about 43ks out of Thargo at Lake Bindegolly but there didn't seem much to see. There wasn't much water at the rest area where we stopped. We didn't go up the bush camping side but didn't believe it'd be any different. There were a few cattle resting, funnily enough, near the rest area, but soon moved off when we came along. There was the remains of the old bridge piers and we saw a couple very colourful galahs, which seemed much pinker on their chest and throats than we remember. The information boards in the shelter detailed a lot of wildlife in the surrounds but we didn't see too many.

22-4-2017 Saturday
Left the park and drove 255kms south to the town of Bourke (NSW) and the Mitchell Caravan Park for 3 nights. We saw many emus and felt there was a lot more kangaroo road kill than we've seen on other highways. We stopped along the way to check out an old bridge called the North Bourke Bridge, now closed and superceded by the new bridge (the Gateway), running parallel nearby. The old bridge opened in August 1888 and was the first lift-up bridge in NSW and the first bridge crossing the Darling River. The lift-up was necessary to allow the cargo ships to sail through and up the river to the now historic wharf. Once at the edge of town we stopped in at the Visitors Information Centre for maps etc before going to the caravan park.

23-4-2017 Sunday
It was quite overcast this morning and cool so we took our spray jackets, but luckily it didn't rain. We drove the scooter to the old Wal Mitchell Wharf Precinct this morning (the current one is a replica of the original wharf). Bourke was the largest inland port on the Darling River. The first river boat arrived in 1859, however with the advancement of rail and motor transport, the use of paddle steamers declined. The last commercial river boat departed Bourke in 1931. At the wharf was the Crossley Engine - a fully restored 1923 vintage Crossley oil-fuelled stationary engine, was manufactured by the Crossley Brothers of Manchester England. It once provided electricity for Sydney at the Power House.

We walked around town to view all the old buildings some of which were:- Post Office 1888; Court House 1900; Post Office Hotel 1888; Old Towers Drug Co Building 1889; Lands Dept Building 1898 beautiful building with beautifully maintained rose gardens; Telegraph Hotel1876 (now the Riverside Motel). We went home for lunch and drove about 5 kms out of town to Kidmans Camp, a caravan park, where we caught a paddle boat, the PV Jandra, for a 2 hr trip on the Darling River. The paddle wheels weren't obvious like the ones we've seen in the Brisbane River, like at the back of the Kookaburra Queen. These ones were more underneath and had a lattice type wood at the sides.

The boat was built by a local farmer in 2000. We motored slowly down the river to the old wharf, where the trade boats traveled over a hundred years ago, turned around and returned to our departure point. During this time the tour guy gave us a running commentary about the history, the surrounds and his local knowledge quite entertaining. We drove under the North Bourke lift bridge and all along the river's edge, the banks were filled with trees and spectacularly exposed tree roots, the underlying soil slowly washed away with each flooding. It was hard to understand why some of these giant trees hadn't already fallen into the river. They looked like something out of Harry Potter or Lord of The Rings where the trees actually walk along on their roots. The river was slowly rising, a continuing result of Cyclone Debbie which surprised us - that the effects were still happening, and right down here. If the river rises above a certain level the paddle boat cannot continue to operate as it wouldn't fit under the electricity wires and the 2 bridges.

24-4-2017 Monday
We rode the scooter this morning to check out the Lock and Weir. Bourke Weir (3.93 metres high) was built in 1897 to ensure the town's water supply. The lock, nearly 60 metres long and 11 metres wide, was built to allow shipping to negotiate the weir; it is the only lock on the Darling River. In 1941 it became non-operational and was concreted into the weir. The pool backed up behind the weir (the "Weir Pool") is reported to be 45 or 47 kms long. The road turned from bitumen to corrugated dirt and so it was a slow ride there and back.

We were going to visit the Visitor Exhibition Centre that we paid for yesterday, but stopped at the bakery for lunch first. When we came out the scooter wouldn't start so Dave, after many tries, pushed it the 4 blocks back to the caravan park. That was tiring enough - it was lucky we didn't have that problem out at the weir as it was quite a few kms away.

For dinner it was fish and chips night (for $6) at the caravan park and it was quite nice, 2 positives as I didn't have to cook either. Everyone sits around the campfire and chats with others if they like or just enjoys the fire and eats their dinner. The young couple (Dan and Steph) who own the park do a different thing every night as a social thing for the guests. They became a Kui Parks member as Kui is aimed at the grey nomads and that is mostly the traveling public that they get through here (we are Kui members too). I can't believe they work all day and then run a meal thing at night for guests - they are pretty dedicated to their business and it's a nice place to stay.

25-4-2017 Tuesday Anzac Day
We left the park this morning with a little rain starting, and drove to the Visitor Centre to view the Back O' Bourke Exhibition Centre. It was very good consisting of 2 buildings connected by an external wooden walkway. Inside the history of Bourke was chronicled from its beginnings. Some included detailed exhibits of the pioneers carving their hard lives in the outback, the early wool industry and trade, the Afghan cameleers and their very efficient transporting camels, and the trade facilitated by the ships on the Darling River. Bourke has been graced by the likes of the famous poet Henry Lawson who ended up being disillusioned about the romance of the bush, but became the voice of the militant Shearer's' Union. It was easy to spend many hours reading all the information boards.

On leaving we fuelled up and continued on out of town to the cemetery, to view the final resting place of the 1991 Australian of The Year, Professor Fred Hollows 1929-1993. He was an eye surgeon known worldwide for his determination to restore the sight of people going needlessly blind. In the early 1970s Fred led an eye team which over a 3 year period, covered an astonishing 460 Aboriginal communities, examined 67,000 people, treated 27,000 cases of trachoma, and performed 1000 operations. Although a native of New Zealand, he chose Bourke as his last resting place. His early acquaintance with the area and his work among the Western and Aboriginal people caused him to form a deep affection for the area. We noticed that the graves in the cemetery seemed to be laid out in sections, around the edges - eg. one labeled 'Catholic', then 'Methodist', 'General', with the open middle area reserved for niches in a brick wall. The place was big enough with enough open space that we were able to drive Casa in and room enough to turn around. This proved handy seeing as it was a bit rainy.

After that we drove 162kms to the town of Cobar (NSW) and the Cobar Caravan Park for 3 nights. We stopped at the Visitors Centre on the way into town for a map and list of attractions. It was good that the rain held off until after we set up.

26-4-2017 Wednesday
Packed up Casa early this morning to get to the motorcycle service place in the hope that we could get Harley (scooter) checked out today. We were lucky because the lone service guy who was away last week and so had a lot of work lined up, checked it out for us. It started as soon as he turned the key the first time and Dave suspected that would happen, but still thought it'd be good to get it checked. The guy cleaned the spark plug but couldn't see anything else wrong with it without doing a full service, so we hope maybe that was the problem.

We went for breakfast while Harley was in the shop and did a little check around the town before we got a call to say it was ready. There was a very big Moreton Bay Fig Tree outside the Post Office. It had a little fence around it because the big roots were sitting up out of the ground and would be a walking hazard. Dave drove Harley and I drove Casa back to the park. We were going to go back out and finish our sightseeing around town but it got windy, overcast, cold and rainy so we decided to stay inside until it settled.

By mid afternoon it was it was good enough to go out so we rode the scooter up to the Heritage Centre to view the wonderful exhibits inside and out. Outside were many pieces of old rusted farming and mining equipment. There was also a big hole in the ground, the remains of a now non-operational open cut mine. Inside upstairs were exhibits on the pastoral history, copper mining and an Aboriginal exhibit. We only had time to see two thirds of the place so will come back tomorrow to finish. A short way away was the RSL where we went for a nice Chinese dinner.

27-4-2017 Thursday
It was very cold overnight and this morning (compared to what we've been used to recently) so we had a late start. It was quite windy but at least it was sunny and not raining. We had a late leisurely breakfast, washed up and and then scootered back to the Heritage Centre to finish viewing the exhibits we didn't see yesterday. One interesting item outside, was a hollowed out cut off piece of tree trunk, quite big around, with a roof built over it and a door cut into it, with a leather strap for a hinge. Inside was a shelf half way up. On checking with the lady in the centre, she said it was a Drover's Pantry also known as a Bimble Box (don't know why) - nature's precursor to the meat safe.

Then we drove a couple kms to the Fort Bourke Lookout which looked out over the Open Cut Gold Mine. It was certainly deep down but there didn't seem to be a lot going on. There's a few mines around Cobar. Next we drove to the railway station which was deserted but it appeared the tracks were still in use. A walk around town on the heritage walk we saw St Laurence O'Toole's Catholic Church and the Convent, and several 'houses of historic value' - some of these houses were quite interesting but some were quite ordinary (probably early miner's cottages).

28-4-2017 Friday
This morning we fuelled up and then drove 260kms west to the town of Wilcannia (NSW) and the Victory Caravan Park for 1 night. We saw plenty of feral goats today along the highway. The park is beside the Darling River and after we set up we got our fishing rods and threw a line in. We caught 3 carp which are an introduced species and a threat to our rivers. We left them on the bank for the birds or other predators.

Wilcannia reputedly means "a gap in the bank where the flood waters escape" in the Barkindji language of the local Aborigines.

29-4-2017 Saturday
We left the park and drove a short distance to the main part of Wilcannia to do the heritage walk. We crossed the Wilcannia Lift Bridge, similar to the one in Bourke, which allowed the tall trading ships to pass through on the Darling River. As with other towns many of the old 1800s buildings were built out with lovely sandstone including the Post Office, Police Station, Court House, old Bank Building (now the Shire Chambers), and the Athenaeum Pioneer Museum. In the1890s Wilcannia was Australia's third-largest inland port town and known as the "Queen City of the West".

The thriving town had 13 hotels and a diverse population of 3000 made up of English, Irish, Scottish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, Afghans, and the Australian-born sons and daughters of early settlers and convicts. From 1859 the river was plied by paddle steamers, which travelled as far up as Bourke. There certainly aren't as many people living here today - the place seems very quiet. As we walked around in the pleasant sunshine (the nights have been cool), we noticed many red-tailed black cockatoos and the air filled with their distinctive squawks. We haven't seen so many in one place before.

After our walk we drove 200kms west to the town of Broken Hill (NSW) and the Lake View Caravan Park for 3 nights. There are two caravan parks in town and the first one we went to were all booked out for tonight. - luckily this one had vacancies.

30-4-2017 Sunday
We rode Harley to spend the day sightseeing the town of Broken Hill. First we rode up to the Miners' Memorial, a tribute to the 800 or more miners who lost their lives working along the Line of Lode (which is the mineral deposit being mined at the time), since mining started here back in the mid 1800s. The memorial looks down on the town from high up where mining had been once active. There were old retired pieces of mining equipment placed around the area.

We drove back down to town and started the Heritage Walk. There were old beautiful buildings, and some made of sandstone including the Post Office 1892; Trades Hall1898; Kidman Building1888; Court House 1889; Tattersall House 1892; and the Town Hall Facade only 1891 - you could see there was nothing behind it. Halfway round we stopped for a nice lunch at the Astra Hotel 1891. Some buildings were no longer there, but the spot marked for historical value. I noted that were 14 hotels and clubs listed on the heritage walk but not all of them are operational.

Some of the streets are named in keeping with the mining theme e.g. Sulphide St, Chloride St, Uranium, Cobalt, Iodide, Oxide, etc. The film "Wake In Fright" with Chips Rafferty was filmed in Broken Hill and Silverton in 1970, and the Palace Hotel featured in the film "Priscilla Queen of the Desert".

1-5-2017 Monday
About mid-morning we rode Harley a couple kms down the road to the disused mineshaft, the Browne Shaft and Lookout. The big headframe and other structures were still intact with big pieces of black rock (probably iron ore) forming the boundaries of the compound. After that we rode to the library to avail of the free wifi and then had a nice lunch at a restaurant called Al Frescos.

Our next stop was the nearby Broken Hill Heritage City Railway and Historical Museum Complex. It was very good, quite extensive. Some of the displays were a Hospital Museum (including an old iron lung, a resuscitator for the treatment of poliomyelitis); a Minerals Exhibit (with some large impressive specimens); and an American imported Dodge Rail Car that'd been converted to rail use to inspect the line, deliver wages to rail gangs and rescue stranded tourists and local pastoralists during times of heavy rains. There were many pieces of railway related equipment (some old phones etc) dotted around outside the complex and four different types of restored locomotives. We were able to walk inside and see the old style timber and padded seats, and the dining car and kitchen.

Inside there was a lot of other railway memorabilia in glass cabinets, uniforms and equipment. There was a copy of an interesting and unusual newspaper article that caught my attention, about an attack on a picnic train on New Years Day in 1915. There were 1200 people, families, in open ore trucks travelling to Silverton for a picnic when they were fired upon by 2 Turks killing 4 and wounding 7. The town's people quickly responded, hunting and killing them. The article didn't mention the motivation for the attack but it was probably safe to assume that it was in response to the attack at that time, on the Turks in Gallipoli in WWI. They were in traditional dress and were flying the Turkish flag off their ice-cream cart (assuming this was their business), which was also destroyed by the townfolk. Makes the interment in Australian camps of Germans, Italians, etc, during WWII sound more reasonable.

3-5-2017 Wednesday
It was really cold this morning in Peterborough, apparently it got down to 5 degrees C. About 8.30am it'd climbed to 8 degrees C outside, and inside Casa, it was 10. We had breakfast and waited until it warmed up a bit more before venturing out sightseeing. We drove Harley to the Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre which was very good. We had an hour guided tour by a very knowledgeable volunteer. The Centre was one of the main sites for railway maintenance and repairs and was also a major rail-transport hub where the Transcontinental and the Ghan trains passed through. In its heyday up to 100 trains were travelling through Peterborough each day and over 1000 people being employed. The museum is a 'hands on museum' where people can sit in the historic carriages, enter the drivers' cabins of the various locomotives and get close to all the other exhibits.

In the early 1920s Peterborough, previously called Petersburg, became the crossroads of the continent, with the Transcontinental coming through from Sydney to Perth (1917) and The Ghan from Adelaide to Alice Springs (1929). By 1925 Peterborough developed from a small country town to a major regional centre with a population of close to 4,000 people, of which 1,300 worked in the South Australian Railways: Peterborough Division. It was the largest railway depot outside Adelaide, with its own huge workshops, a 23 Bay Roundhouse, and a 3 gauge turntable. With the closure of the railways in the early 1990s the town's population dropped dramatically and now sits at around 1,900. The town now relies more on tourism for its survival.

We had a late lunch and drink at the Federal Hotel before doing the heritage walk around the town. There were the lovely buildings of the Town Hall (1927). In the foyer is a 2x3 metre Federation Quilt, beautifully displayed in a custom built cabinet and which took approximately 2000 hours to make. It was completed in 2001 to commemorate 100 years of progress in Peterborough and its surroundings. A lovely lady stopped to talk to us about the area. She was a born and bred Peterborough local and a member of their historical society, so was very helpful with much local information.

Next door was the YMCA building which is used now as a museum. Downstairs there is a unique display of Meldonfield Miniatures - the original Petersburg Railway station, rebuilt from the original salvaged stone, bricks and wood. Another miniature set, Cobb & Co coaches with miniature people, was in a locked room which we didn't get to see as we hadn't prearranged it. Upstairs the Historic Group has painstakingly brought the "singles men's" rooms back to original condition and in each of the rooms are housed artifacts associated with the history of the town and the surrounding region.

In the street is a statue of a dog, called Bob The Railway Dog. Bob was a delightful little character that was loved by all the railway workers and at every opportunity was found riding the trains of South Australia in the late 1800s, and thus became known as Bob the Railway Dog. He loved the engine whistle and the rattle of the wheels and took possession of his seat on the coal tender of any train. He travelled hundreds of thousands of miles this way.

We bought a small heater from the hardware store on the way home so won't be cold tomorrow morning!

4-5-2017 Thursday
We left the park this morning and stopped in the town (of Peterborough) to see a few things we missed so far. We visited the Motorcycle Museum which was inside part of an old church. It was filled with many bikes, mostly European, some old and some more modern, and there were some bicycles with small engines attached. They had a few other collections as well including kerosene lamps, bottles, radios, and sewing machines. There was also a general collection of a lot of other old things, like a wheelchair and large bellows like a blacksmith would use.

Inside the newsagency, in a separate room, was a large mural that spanned around the tops of 3 of the room's 4 walls. It was called The Burg - images telling the story of old Petersburg (before it was renamed Peterborough), painted by a local artist called Des Parker. Walking around there are some beautiful old churches and houses built out of sandstone, some with real character.

We then drove 108kms to the town of Burra (SA) and the Burra Caravan Park for 4 nights. We stopped to have lunch at the lovely town of Jamestown, by a lake with trees and many ducks, a couple different types, resting on the bank. We'd seen a sign with a duck on it as we came into town, just like you see on the highway of a kangaroo or cattle or sheep, a warning sign of their possible presence. A couple of them raced over to greet us, obviously being used to being fed by the locals. There was a large white male who came quite close to me but was disappointed when he saw I had nothing to give him. He later walked over the pedestrian swing bridge to the other side as maybe he didn't want to wet his feathers by swimming over(?) On the drive we enjoyed the lovely scenery of extensive open farming land or sheep/cattle fields. We passed a big line of wind turbines, slowly turning. They were there for a long time on our drive, and I got the feeling that maybe we were driving in a big circle(?), but maybe there were different 'farms' (or whatever they're called) of them.

5-5-2017 Friday
Did the much needed washing and jobs and then in the early afternoon we walked to the nearby town centre of Burra. Across the road from the caravan park was the Unicorn Brewery that operated between 1873 and 1902. Further up the road were the Paxton Square Cottages, three blocks of cottages in a U shape, 33 cottages in all, that were built about 1849 by the South Australian Mining Association, probably to encourage families to vacate excavated homes in the banks of the Burra Creek. Completely renovated and today owned by the Regional Council of Goyder, these historically unique cottages are now popular as affordable holiday accommodation.

We bought a Cornish pastie for a late lunch and they were as good as the ones we got in England 5 years ago - took us back. There were some lovely old buildings around including the Town Hall and churches. We went to St Mary's Church Hall where the Sth Australian Branch of the Australasian Telephone Collectors Society (one of the clubs of which Dave is a member) were setting up their displays for the weekend. We chatted to them for a while and checked out their wonderful displays. One of the guys who worked for the PMG and was an ex-President of the club told us the story of his dog, Taffy, a Cairn Terrier. In the early days he trained Taffy to pull cables, attached to his specially made coat, through the ceiling and wall spaces of buildings, thus saving a lot of time - wouldn't be allowed today with all the rules.

History of Burra - In 1845 copper was discovered at Burra. Cornish miners, Welsh and German smelters, Irish teamsters, English labourers and Spanish muleteers lived in villages with names of various derivation: Kooringa (Aboriginal), Redruth and Copperhouse (Cornish), Aberdeen (Scottish), Llwchr (Welsh), and Hampton (English). Some say that Burra Burra was the name given to the creek by Afghan coolie shepherds. The word is Hindustani and means 'Great Great'. Nowhere in Australia is there a town with so much mining heritage available, with a wealth of pump houses, engine houses, winding houses, chimneys, vent shafts, storehouses and miners' cottages.

In the caravan park the owners have a pet Major Mitchell parrot called Elsie. She sits in a cage near the amenities through the day and they take her inside for the night. They brought her up from a baby so she doesn't try to fly away and follows the man around. We've seen many different parrots on our travels but hadn't seen one of these.

6-5-2017 Saturday
Dave went out early to check out the 'whole of town garage sale' that was starting at 8 am but didn't see anything that interested him. Later we went out for an early lunch at the tea room where we bought the Cornish pastie yesterday and while we were sitting there 2 people from our club in Qld, happened to wander in to the same shop to have lunch. After spending a bit of time with them we went to the Visitor Centre to rent a Passport Key to do the Heritage Passport Trail - a key that unlocks the doors to 9 different historical places around Burra.

We wandered up to the school oval to see the Whyalla Vintage and Classic Car Club display, some beautiful old lovingly restored vehicles. Then we visited 3 of the Passport Key places nearby. The first was the Brewery Cellars of the Unicorn Brewery across the road. We walked around here yesterday but today we were able to go down into the actual cellars, tunnels dug out underground to brewing and storage. The brewery closed in 1902 and in 1911 most of the buildings were demolished for the stone for other buildings. Next was Malowen Lowarth Cottage, one of the Paxton Square miners' cottages we viewed yesterday from the outside. It was a 4 room cottage furnished in the style of an 1850-60 period mine captain's residence, and a garden planted with herbs and flowers of the period, and outhouse (toilet) in the back corner.

The last visit for today was a little way up the street, to the Miners' Dugouts - where the miners dug their homes into the banks of Burra Creek, because with early rapid development of the Burra Burra Mine there was a shortage of housing. In 1851 about 1800 people out of a total population of 4400 lived in nearly 600 dugouts along the Burra Creek and tributaries. We couldn't go inside any of the 4 we saw but we could see in. Apparently some were just one big room but others had several rooms, and the entries were shored up with stone for strength and looks. The cottages were built to encourage them to leave their dugouts which probably weren't healthy or safe, however they seemed to still be standing today.

After that we went back to the caravan park and rested up before going to a nice dinner at the Burra Hotel, with the telephone club members.

7-5-2017 Sunday
I walked into the town and did some shopping before meeting up with Dave for a light early lunch. Then we rode the scooter and continued the Heritage Trail sites. We visited the Burra Mine Site (1870) - contains extensive remains of the mining operations; the Powder Magazine (1847) - used to store gunpowder used in blasting at the mine; an Old Burra Railway Station (1883) - beautifully well kept structure, originally known as the Aberdeen Station, passenger rail services to Burra from Adelaide, discontinued in 1985 and the line closed in 1998; the Police Lock Up and Stables (1870) first gaol in South Australia erected outside Adelaide, closed as a gaol in 1894 with prisoners transferred to Gladstone Gaol, renovated and reopened as a Girls' Reformatory in 1897 and finally closed in 1922.

In the evening we went to dinner at the Commercial Hotel. While we were there some of the telephone club people came in for dinner too before making their long drive home.

8-5-2017 Monday
We checked out of the park this morning and bought a Cornish Pastie for breakfast in town, before visiting the last 2 stops on our Heritage Trail. We made a short walk to the Market Square Museum which was originally the residence and shop of Andrew Wade, tailor. It was opened as a museum in1966 and is furnished in the period of 1880 to 1920. After that we drove a few kms to The Bon Accord Mine Museum which was very good. This site is on land originally purchased in 1846 by speculators from Aberdeen, Scotland and named the Bon Accord Mine. Mining operations were abandoned in 1849, but recommenced in 1858 when mine offices, blacksmith's forge, carpenter's shop and manager's residence were erected. No economic orebody was discovered and mining ceased in 1862. In 1908, pumping equipment was erected on the main shaft and supplied Burra's water until 1966 when replaced by the Morgan-Whyalla pipeline.

Then we drove 119kms north-west to the town of Port Pirie (SA) and the Rangeview Caravan Park for 1 night. We enjoyed the lovely drive through open farming and sheep country. We saw today and in previous days, many newly born lambs which I thought didn't happen until the spring, September. Maybe I've just assumed that because at home we get 'Spring Lamb' in the supermarket in September (?)

9-5-2017 Tuesday
This morning we drove 240kms north-east to the magnificent natural ampitheatre of Wilpena Pound (SA) and the Wilpena Pound Campground for 4 nights. It is located in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park and holds spiritual significance for the local Aboriginal people. Ikara is an Aboriginal word for 'meeting place'. Wilpena is also an Aboriginal word meaning 'cupped hand' because of the shape, depressed in the middle with the raised jagged edges around the outside, looking like the tips of fingers. Apparently the early settlers called this large ampitheatre the Pound because it was just like an 'enclosure', its towering red ramparts measuring 8kms by 17kms across the centre (oval shape). Looking at the bumper sticker we thought it had the appearance of a large caldera.

Before we left Port Pirie we drove 6kms to the town's centre to check it out. It was a nice place and we would've liked to have spent more time there, especially as there was a museum in a lovely old railway building, but we didn't have time today as we had a long drive ahead of us. The town is a sea port and we walked to the wharf where there were huge white silos. There were still some beautiful buildings, hotels, and others that have survived from the 1800s.

As we got closer to the Ranges we stopped at 2 lookouts that showed some beautiful views of the Flinders Ranges. They were the Arkaba Lookout and the Rawsnley Lookout. We noticed there were plenty different types of kangaroos as we entered the ranges.

After we set up we noticed some Apostle birds frenzily walking around at the front of Casa. We've come across these birds before - they're called Apostle birds because they seem to go around in groups of about 12. They make unusual grumbling, low screeching noises as they scramble around in search of food. What they were after was all the bugs that had been crushed against the front of the vehicle on our long drive, like grasshopper type ones. I had pulled one off the front earlier, and thought it was quite a largish insect - a really juicy morsel for these birds. They were doing a short fly up from the ground to pick them off the grill. They must look forward to every afternoon, when the new cars come in with their groceries squashed on the front.

10-5-2017 Wednesday
This morning after a late breakfast we decided to do the Easy Walk, to the Hill's Homestead. It was a 7.2km round trip including a walk up to Wangara Lookout, the lower part. The upper part was up another 200 metres but it looked a bit more of a climb so we gave it a miss. It was a lovely walk on a path through so many different bushes, plants and large trees. Some of these large trees were just burnt out shells, obviously from some fire but not recently. Periodically we saw bird boxes nailed to trees. On the front of one of these boxes we saw bees, maybe native ones, hovering around the 3 thin, white, vertical slices of honeycomb they'd produced. I hadn't seen this before and it was quite interesting.

At the homestead there was a nice looking 2 room stone house (couldn't be viewed inside) that was built in the early 1900s, replacing a timber hut built in the late 1880s. It apparently had been renovated from ruin in 1995. Interpretive signage tells the story of the daughter of the first pioneer family to live here from the 1850s. It seems they found one way into the Pound through Sliding Rock Gorge, and ran stock of sheep and cattle in there (no need to build fences), as well as grew good quality wheat. It was a hard life, and after drought and then a flood that washed away the road that took years to build to transport the wheat, this pioneering family gave up working this area.

Not far from the homestead was a large rock with 2 Aborigines beautifully carved into it, and on the back is printed an Aboriginal dreamtime story. On the way back we saw 2 emus feeding right beside the walking path. We were able to walk fairly close to them to take photos (within about 20 metres) - must be used to all the tourists.

One thing I noticed last night that I'm really grateful for, is there weren't millions of bugs and insects flying around, attracted to the lights and finding their way inside and bugging the hell out of us! We noticed this problem at the Dig Tree recently, and previously on other trips when we've camped in the national parks, so it was a pleasant surprise.

11-5-2017 Thursday
We took a 1 hour flight this morning in a 6 seater Cessna plane. It was a 1981 model and we thought it looked a lot younger than that - it was in very good conditon. There is no vehicle access in the Pound so flight is the only way to see it properly, and the only way unless you're prepared to climb the high peaks, which were too difficult or strenuous for us. The young lady pilot took us over the Pound and pointed out all the Gorges and various names of the individual formations - including the Elder Range, St Mary Peak, Great Wall of China formation, Brachina Gorge, and Edeowie Gorge. The views were absolutely spectacular, picture post card views. Even though there was a bit of cloud above, it was higher than we were going to fly.

St Mary Peak is the highest peak in the Ikara Flinders Ranges, offering 360 degree vies of the ranges, salt lakes and surrounding plains. It is 1171 metres above sea level and the walk to it is categorised as 'Strenuous', with the final hour to Tanderra Saddle being steep, stony, exposed, difficult and can be dangerous. As with climbing Uluru (Ayer's Rock), the traditional owners ask that you respect their wishes and do not climb to the peak as it has great significance to the Aboriginal people.

Then she took us beyond the Pound and pointed out the stations and towns including Rawnsley Park Station, Arkaba Station, and towns Parachilna, Blinman. She also pointed out Lake Torrens in the distance, showing a whiteness which she said meant there was some water in it - they'd had some rain recently. The pilot said there were differing theories on how the Pound was formed including meteor, volcanic and geological eruption - no one really knows.

We came back at lunchtime and just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. In the middle of the afternoon, three grey/black kangaroo/wallaby type animals came grazing around the vans. They, like the 2 emus yesterday, didn't seem too worried about us, obviously used to people.

12-5-2017 Friday Rest Day
Slow day today so sleep in late, make scones (not a common thing) and just enjoy the beauty and tranquility of being in the middle of the Flinders Ranges. It's nice to hear the crows cawing, other birds twittering and the Apostle birds' daily fussing on the ground and around the van for food, while overhead another plane takes people on a scenic flight.

13-5-2017 Saturday
We left the campground and drove 121kms south-west to the town of Quorn (SA) and the Quorn Caravan Park for 2 nights. I was reminded about the vegetarian substitute for meat - quorn. It was a nice uneventful drive.

14-5-2017 Sunday Mother's Day
This morning we walked to the nearby railway station for our pre-booked scenic ride on the Pichi Richi Railway. It seems this is the only train service that now runs along here. 100 years ago, in 1917, the first train to cross the Australian continent passed through Quorn, on its way from Sydney to Perth, and it was called the Trans-Australian Railway. Today it is called the Indian Pacific and a different route is used and so doesn't go through Quorn anymore.

Getting on the train was from the ground, no platform, and was up 3 quite steeps steps - not suitable for wheelchairs or prams. Our ride was about 45 mins each way with our destination at Woolshed Flat for an hour, where we could get refreshments and snacks. It was a beautiful sunny day as the train wound its way slowly with a clickety clack, through the lovely country, grassy and plenty of trees, and sheep grazing in the distance. We passed through some hills that would've taken a lot of work to cut through, dense rock. At the top we watched as the drive engine manoeuvred the 7 carriages onto a side track and and then moved around to the other end of the carriages for the ride home. There was a country music festival in town yesterday and last night, and because it was Mothers' Day, some of them played on the train, in the individual carriages for us - it was quite good.

All profits from the ticket sales help the Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society and operating museum, formed in 1973, to maintain this historic outback railway run by volunteers. The society operates heritage steam and diesel trains on the restored 39 kilometre section of track between Quorn and Port Augusta in South Australia. It is the oldest remaining section of track of the former narrow gauge Ghan and is now the only operational section of the Central Australia Railway.

Pichi Richi is the name of the pass through which the railway travels, and is also the name of the former township located in the pass, after which the society is named. The name Pichi Richi is believed to come from the region being a traditional centre in the production of pituri, a mixture of leaves and ash chewed as a stimulant by Australian Aborigines.

Troops trains to Darwin poured through Quorn during WWII. Arriving tired and hungry, troops were grateful for a hot meal, served with love and at all hours by the local CWA (Country Womens Association). While they were fed Army MPs stationed themselves outside the town's four pubs to make sure none of them dared sneak a quick pint!

Dave was told that our driver today was an 81 year old man who had actually restored the locomotive pulling the carriages, and it took him about 10 years. The service isn't a daily one, mostly weekends, but does some occasional week days.

When we got back at just after 1.30pm we raced over to the busy Transcontinental Hotel for a Mothers' Day lunch - no cooking tonight!

15-5-2017 Monday
Leaving the caravan park this morning, we drove 108kms south to the town of Port Germein (SA) and the Port Germein Caravan Park for 2 nights. The park is located on the esplanade, directly opposite the water so thought this would be a nice place to stay. On the way we took a detour to Port Augusta to do a big grocery shop and fuel up. It's a nice place and we stayed here back in 2013 (link to 2013) when we did our 'round OZ trip. After doing all our shopping we drove to the nearby boat ramp and parked to have our lunch with a nice view of the water.

Not long after leaving Port Augusta, we passed a complex where a large vertical white structure caught our eye, alongside 4 large greenhouses. It was a solar system using a large bank of mirrors on the ground, reflecting the sunlight up to the white structure, the energy then being used for the greenhouses. I bought some tomatoes today that stated they were grown at the nearby Sundrop farm. Below is an explanation from the internet.

Sundrop system
The primary inputs to a greenhouse are heat, electricity, water, and nutrients. The Sundrop System is a collection of technologies which, when used in combination, reduce the need for finite resources in these inputs versus conventional greenhouse production. In Sundrop Farms’ first facilities in South Australia, these technologies include concentrated solar power, thermal desalination, and steam-driven electricity generation. This is the first combined heat, power, and water system powered by solar energy for greenhouse production.

A bit further on down the road, we saw a lot of camels grazing not far from the road. We felt they were probably on a private property. It's the first time this trip that we saw any camels - we know there are about 2 million feral camels in Australia.

16-5-2017 Tuesday
It got quite windy overnight and was overcast this morning, but no rain. After breakfast we went for a walk around the town. Across the road is the long Port Germein Jetty. In 1883 it was extended by 400 feet to measure 5,469 feet (1,680 metres), making it reputedly, the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. The length was necessary because the tide goes out a long way due to the shallow graduation of the sea bed. The jetty was built to provide a safe port on the mid-northern coast of South Australia to export grain to Europe. A small locomotive engine was used to haul heavy loads on rails out to waiting ships.

There was a lot of seaweed built up, a couple of feet deep, washed up near the corner of the jetty. Today the jetty is famous for crabbing, fishing, dolphin and whale watching, photography and walking. This town is popular for its crabbing. Our caravan park is always full of crabbers during the peak season (at the moment it is the season end so we didn't have to book our spot). There is even a separate crab cooking hut so the day's catch can be cooked up immediately.

Nearby is the unusual (we'd never seen one before) rare Maritime Illuminated Clock-Faced Tide Gauge c1800. It was originally located near the entrance to the Port Pirie shipping channel at Cockle Spit. A series of levers and pulleys, on the outside of the stand, rose and fell with the tide. A chain and wheel mechanism inside the main structure directed the 'clock's' hand to the appropriate channel depth measurement and the clock face was back-lit by oil or gas lamps, enabling it to be visible at night and in poor weather. It was invaluable to ships navigating the channels and shoals into Port Germein.

We walked around the main street which wasn't very long and saw some interesting houses. Dave spoke to one guy who had a tall tractor like contraption (Jinker) in his front yard which he'd built. We'd seen a photo of one on the internet. They use them to put their boats in the water off the sandy ramp and along the long stretch of sand at low tide. Our last stop before going back to the park was a drink at the Port Germein Hotel.

17-5-2017 Wednesday
It was still a bit overcast this morning when we left the park, and drove 248kms south and then east to the town of Tanunda (SA) and the Discovery Park Barossa Valley Caravan Park for 2 nights. On the way, we passed through Lochiel where there is the "Pink Lake", but it seemed to be nowhere near as pink as it was in 2013 (link to 2013). It was very windy last night, so much so, that we had to get up at 12.45am and fight the wind to roll in our awning, otherwise it would've been damaged.

Tanunda is the place of the historical Chateau Tanunda Winery, of which most people have heard. I can still remember the jingle "No wonder, no wonder, it's Chateau Tanunda". There are many other wineries and interesting places here and we plan to explore tomorrow. On the drive in we saw the rows and rows of grapevine plants, growing the next crop of wine-making grapes. We went to the Information Centre first to get all the info we needed before booking into the park.

18-5-2017 Thursday
It was a bit overcast today but didn't rain too much so we rode the scooter to see some sites. The first was the village of Bethany which was the first village established in the Barossa Valley. It was settled in 1842 by 28 families under the care of Pastor GD Fritzsche, who emigrated from Prussia (now Germany). Most farmlets had access to water from the Tanunda Creek which flowed through their properties. The farmers grew cereal crops, vegetables and fruit and gradually introduced cattle and horses. Life was hard in the early years of settlement with a number of deaths, especially children, due to disease and poor living conditons.

There was Schulz Farm Shed (Private) which was an excellent example of slab sided, thatch-roofed implements shed. The slabs would have been cut from mature trees - they were big thick pieces, irregular looking as cut from different trees, and many had the rounded outside of the trunk. The timber was hand split with an axe, maul and wedges - a rare and nearly lost bush craft. There was the very old, two roomed farm house, Thiele House which is now used as a farm shed by the present owner. Nearly all the houses outside all of the towns we drove through today, had the neat long narrow strips of the grape plants adjacent to the dwellings.

Bethany Reserve is a nice open recreation area with a good shelter and cooking facilities for families, school and church groups. Next to the toilet block was a really interesting big old, nobbled tree that appeared to be in an 'H' shape, possibly due to some fire damage at some stage long ago. Walking down along the road we passed some trees - pomegranate, fig and quince which was in a private yard. We tasted the fruit of the fig, which was nice, and the pomegranate, both tart and sweet at the same time.

A bit further up the road we drove into what used to be Schrapel Quarry, but is now the site of Schrapel Family Winery or Bethany Wines. Many houses, several schools and 2 churches, along with the Chateau Tanunda Winery, were built from stone quarried here. There was a big stone wall with interesting and different sized stones in it (assumably from the quarry) but before we could get a photo, a big truck drove in a parked right next to it. We then rode up to Mengler Hill Lookout which gave good views out over the towns. Just below the lookout is Sculpture Park, where you can walk around and view the different types of sculptures (not the types that interested us).

Then we drove to world wide famous Yalumba Winery, the oldest family-owned winery in Australia. It was a nicely presented place with beautiful trees blanketing the ground with their autumn yellow, brown and red leaves. We had a good walk around, even walking into an area around the back where we shouldn't have been, as there weren't any 'no go' signs along the way we walked. A nice young man let us know that the area was a working area and not open to the public. Yalumba is one of only 4 wineries in the world with their own dedicated cooperage, where you can see artisan coopers at work, crafting wine barrels. The guy assembling wood and metal rings into a wine barrel is called a 'Cooper'. There were information panels inside there and we could watch the guys actually making the barrels - interesting. After that we drove through the towns of Angaston and Nuriootpa, until we reached Tanunda and had lunch at the Tanunda Hotel.

After lunch we visited the Barossa Museum a few doors down. This beautiful old building was the Post and Telegraph office and Postmaster's residence c1866, and faced demolition in the late 1960's. The Barossa Valley Archives and Historical Trust was able to prevent it from demolition, purchased it and set it up as a museum in 1972. You walk through and pay at the bicycle business in the front. We both agreed that this was a wonderful museum, very extensive. In a number of rooms, upstairs and down, there was distinctive collection of artifacts, which reflect the social, economic and domestic life of the Barossa settlers and their descendants. It was pleasant walking along the well kept main street of Tanunda - a feel good place.

19-5-2017 Friday
On checking out of the park this morning we drove to the nearby Chateau Tanunda Winery. We just walked around outside and took photos. The main building is beautiful and the gardens, lawn and trees surrounding the main building are very well kept. There were ornamental olive trees in wooden pots and citrus trees here at Tanunda as well as Yalumba yesterday. There was even a croquet lawn which we were unclear if it's for the employees or customers. There are many wineries in the Barossa, around 75, including the more well known ones, Wolf Blass, Penfolds, Peter Lehmann and Jacob's Creek, in addition to the ones we've visited. This was quite sobering, so to speak, that there were that many in South Australia alone. What a wonderful playground for a real wine connoisseur!

After that we drove to the Seppeltsfield Estate Winery which also had beautiful grounds. We went on a tour - normally they're supposed to have at least 4 people to do the tour but they did it for just the 2 of us anyway. The lady guide was very good and at the end we had wine and port tasting. The business was started by German Joseph Seppelt in 1851 and carried on for 5 generations before it was sold off to the current owner. In these early times Seppelt also also had fruits trees and produced, sold and exported liquers, vinegar, jam, diced fruit peel for cakes, cordials, and even bacon from the pigs they kept on site. A story the guide told us was how one time the grape waste products of the wine-making were fed to the pigs and they had some very drunk pigs! But apparently the bacon from them tasted pretty good! All these non-wine products had been discontinued.

The winery must've gone down hill a bit previously because the tourism booklet we got for the Barossa says "This magnificent estate has been revived in recent years and is now truly a jewel in the Barossa's crown, with fine dining, art and design, spectacular grounds and the longest continual collection of fortified wines in the world". Along the 10kms very palm tree lined Seppeltsfield Road was located the Seppelts Mausoleum which currently holds the remains of something like 36 members of the family.

We then drove 86kms south-west to the seaside town of Brighton (SA), a suburb of Adelaide, and the Brighton Caravan Park for 2 nights. The park is right on the water and has lovely green grass over most of their sites - it'd be impossible to get in here in the holidays without booking.

20-5-2017 Saturday Rest Day
An easy day today. Beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed looking at the water, walking along the esplanade and having a nice lunch at the Seacliff Hotel.

21-5-2017 Sunday
Left the park and drove 92kms south to Cape Jervis (SA) and the Cape Jervis Caravan Park for 1 night. We are now on the Fleurieu Peninsula. This park is about 3kms away from the ferry to Kangaroo Island where we're going tomorrow. We drove through some nice small towns on the way. One town had a micro brewery (although there was nothing to see of the brewing side of it) and sold craft beers, and it was called The Smiling Samoyed Brewery. It appeared to only be open Fri to Sun and had live music on Sunday afternoon. Meals are available and it looked like it would be a nice place to spend the afternoon. True to its name, lying in the middle of the doorway, was a medium sized white Samoyed, but I'm not sure if it was smiling or not(?)

Our stopover is a nice place with nice green grass on our sites and we can see Kangaroo Island over the water. It's nice and quiet except for the many white corellas which, when they're not on the ground eating, are flying around and around, backward and forward, chattering loudly and incessantly.

22-5-2017 Monday Kangaroo Island
It was windy and rained early this morning but thankfully, it wasn't heavy. We were booked on the 9am Sealink Ferry and had to be there at 8.30am. We were up early and left the park at 8am with only 3kms to drive. When we got there we had to go in and get our boarding passes. Thought we'd have time to go back to Casa and make a quick breakfast but while we were buying a coffee, they said could drivers get into their vehicles and be ready to board it was only about 8.15am - lucky I hadn't started to do breakfast. The ferry left early, before 9am so maybe all the booked passengers were aboard, and the seas were a little rough but not too bad for the barge size. Dave had to back Casa onto the barge as there's only one end of the barge that opens to drive on, and off. We were the only big vehicle. Cars towing caravans also have to back on. Smaller vehicles could drive on because they could drive right around inside and be facing the right direction to drive off.

We crossed the stretch of water called the Backstairs Passage and docked at the town called Penneshaw. The trip took about 45 minutes and unloading was swift and efficient. There was no quarantine checks at all, only signs about what you couldn't bring in, especially honey and potatoes unless they are washed and not in the original packaging. We drove to the nearby visitor information centre to talk about permits as about a third of the island is national parks. Then we drove about 35kms south-west, across a narrow neck of land joining 2 pieces of the island, and then back up north-west and then north-east, in a sideways U shape to the town of Kingscote.

On the way into Kingscote we stopped at the Island Beehive, a visitor centre, cafe and honey production factory which was opened in 2005. Kangaroo Island has been a Ligurian Bee Sanctuary since 1885. The honey is organically certified and the factory produces other beehive health products including propolis, pollen and royal jelly. I did a 20 minute tour and was told how the bees go about their business in the colony, the hive collections and shown the equipment used to extract the honey from the honeycomb. There were many boxes full of the honeycomb on frames, stacked on top of one another waiting to be processed. The honeycomb wax is melted and made into products like beeswax candles. Nothing seems to be wasted and the bees are carefully removed before the honeycomb comes in for processing.

We drove through the main centre of town, parked on the esplanade before walking around a bit. There was a loading facility of some sort stretched out in the water, and there were some pelicans, on a platform, hunkered down with their beaks in their feathers, to avoid the strong winds. Apparently at 5pm each day there is pelican feeding here, so I supposed they know they just have to wait for it. We then drove a bit further on and stopped at the Reeves Point Historical Site, the site of the first European Settlement in South Australia in 1836. While we were standing there reading the info, an elderly lady pulled up in her car and started talking to us, recognising us as tourists. She must've been starved for company as she spoke to us for some time, regaling us with many stories of the island and her own personal family and friends histories.

In early afternoon we drove to the Brownlow (KISA) (suburb of Kingscote) and the Kingscote Caravan Park for 1 night. There is a lavender farm on the island but has closed for the winter. A lot of the roads on the island are unsealed so we will be avoiding them in the motorhome.

23-5-2017 Tuesday
This morning we left the park and drove about 68kms south-west to Vivonne Bay (KISA) and the Vivonne Bay Campground for 1 night. The campground was at the end of 2kms of dirt road which was a bit more corrugated than we would've liked but luckily the camping conditions were good.

On the way we stopped at the Raptor Domain and stayed for a 1 hour Birds Of Prey show. It is a privately owned business and also does separate shows on reptiles and venomous creatures. They also take in injured animals and rehabilitate them. The 2 lady speakers controlled the different birds, getting them to do different things, whilst telling us all about them, and giving them little treats. The birds included a Hobby Falcon, a Tawny Frog Mouth, 2 Kookaburras (brothers), a white Owl called Casper and a Wedge-tailed Eagle. The guide got Casper to hop across and sit on our laps for photos and at the end, she rewarded him with what she said was a 'coconut jelly bean' which turned out to be a dead mouse. He swallowed it down very quickly. There was a Bush Stone Curlew which was supposed to be part of the show but something scared it and it wouldn't come out further than a couple of metres passed the door.

About 8kms further down the road toward the beach was Seal Bay where you can take a guided tour down on to the beach and see the lion seals lying on the beach, or do an unguided tour, where you stay on a boardwalk and view the seals from there. We did the unguided boardwalk and saw several seal mothers and pups close to the boardwalk, who have left the beach and moved further in amongst the vegetation to get out of the wind to sleep. We even saw up close under the boardwalk, one young pup suckling while the mother just slept. It was a patchy rainy day and we were able to view them without too much trouble. From the boardwalk we could see a skeleton of a juvenile humpback whale that washed up nearby, after a winter storm in 1984.

24-5-2017 Wednesday
Left the campground this morning and drove 42kms west to Flinders Chase National Park (KISA) and the Rocky River Campground for 2 nights. We didn't have power but there were decent toilets and showers. The campground is 300 metres from the Nat Park Visitor Centre and is run by them. We got all the information we needed from the visitor centre, including our park permit and booking a camping site, and then went exploring.

We drove 16kms south to the attractions which were all in the National Park and for which the permit was needed. The first stop was the Remarkable Rocks, and remarkable they certainly were! They were amazing large sculptured granite boulders, some covered with orange lichen so they looked on fire, located right next to the ocean and crashing waves. More than 500 million years ago, a huge geological upheaval caused the melting of rock far below the earth's surface. The molten rock (magma) was buoyant and began to rise, moving upward through the overlying rock. 10kms below the earth's surface the molten mass slowly began to cool. Slow cooling at great depths forms granite.

Over time weathering, erosion, heating, cooling, salt water and fracturing have resulted in these isolated blocks being formed on the granite dome. The shapes are just so interesting with relatively smooth surfaces. It was fun imagining what the different shapes looked like. Apparently some scenes from a movie called 'December Boys' with the main Harry Potter actor, Daniel Radcliffe, were filmed here. The rough granite surface made it very easy to walk up and around the huge pieces. The easy walking on the surface could give you a false sense of how far you could safely go down towards the water. There were little signs on the rock, marking the limits to where you were allowed to walk. In 2003 a visitor chose to ignore the signs and ventured to the water's edge. He was washed into the sea. Two men also from the tour, tried to rescue him, and were washed into the sea by an unexpected large wave. These two men died while the first man was rescued after being washed back onto the rocks, sustaining serious injuries - chilling.

Next was Weir's Cove where provisions from boats were hauled 90 metres up a cliff, to be stored in a nearby building. In 1907 the construction of a jetty and flying fox made the work a little easier. Even visitors were winched up the cliff! These 3 months' worth of provisions were kept in 3 separate rooms in the building for the individual families who lived and worked a short drive away, at the lighthouse. This side of the cliff was more sheltered so was best for the job.

Further down the road was the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse, a magnificent structure, with construction started in 1907 and the light first lit in 1909. The original fuel for the light was kerosene. The light was automated and de-staffed when converted to acetylene gas, in 1957. Conversion to electricity occurred in 1974. There were 3 classic lighthouse keepers' cottages close by, built in 1907, are heritage listed (as is the lighthouse) and are now rental accommodation.

Next we drove to another carpark and walked a long boardwalk and down quite a few stairs to Admiral's Arch, and Casuarinas' Seal Sanctuary. Admiral's Arch is a big arched rock window, looking out to the ocean. The arch is decorated with rock lacework hanging down, that has been formed through erosion, weathering, wind, and salt spray. By the late 1880s, fur seals and sea lions had been hunted almost to extinction and the last colony on Kangaroo Island was living here on the secluded Casuarina Islets. Wild weather, strong winds and treacherous seas made this a natural sanctuary but determined sealers were still a threat so fur seals needed protection.

By 1900 the Outer Casuarina Islet was declared a closed area and in 1955 the Inner Casuarina Islet was also declared a sanctuary. New Zealand fur seals come ashore to rest between feeding trips at sea and for pupping, mating, and moulting. We could see the seals lying all over the rocks resting, feeding and sleeping. The waves were crashing over the rocks close by but there was an enclosed natural rock pool which the young seals used as a safe learning area to hone their swimming and diving skills.

After that we drove back to the camping ground and set up for the night. The sites are all private, surrounded by trees and thick vegetation, including some pretty thorny plants that draw blood, as I found out. It got fairly cool overnight and we couldn't use our electrical heater - have to tough it out for 2 nights.

25-5-2017 Thursday
We slept late after our big day yesterday, had breakfast and then did the easy Platypus Waterholes walk about midday. It was a 4kms round trip which took us about 3 hours by the time we looked and photographed a lot of the interesting vegetation and wildlife along the way. We visited 2 of the 5 available waterholes where a platypus may have been sighted doing its foraging, but after waiting a while and not sighting any, we started our trip back. It rained on and off during the day. We saw plenty Cape Barron Geese, with their big grey bodies, unusual yellow patch on the beak, the red legs and black feet, as if they're wearing those short rubber boots. We also saw the Kangaroo Island kangaroo which is smaller and much darker than the mainland one, and has longer fur. We saw a few birds but didn't spot any koalas or blonde spined echidnas which are introduced species to the island.

After our walk Dave went back to Casa and I checked out the displays in the Visitor Centre and did some souvenir shopping. After that I left the centre to go back to the camp site - unfortunately I went in the opposite direction, getting lost for a little bit and having to go back to the centre to check the direction I should've taken. In my defence, there are 2 ways in and out, through the car park because of entering a national park, and all vehicles have to drive through the car park and stop to get a permit before going to the sites we visited yesterday,16kms away. When they are finished they have to drive back through this car park to be on their way back out of the national park. So I got disorientated, this bush all looks the same and I ended up walking about half an hour more than I needed to, which I didn't really need today with the long walk we already did! Anyway a rum and coke will help me forget....

26-5-2017 Friday
This morning we left the campsite and national park and drove 67kms north and then eastward, to Parndana (KISA) and the Parndana Hotel (with camping out the back) for 1 night. About 5kms before Parndana we took a turn north for 16kms to Stokes Bay, a lovely beach area. The local cafe on the beach had a sign on the door, closed on the 14th May for the winter. There were lots of seabirds perched on the many rocks stretching out into the water - large and small rocks that were all nicely rounded, not the sharp and oddly shaped ones we're used to seeing. There were some other very large rocks nearby, not so rounded, but quite marked with depressions from weathering. There was a sign pointing to a different beach, on a path through these big rocks, that at times was quite narrow and low between them. Coming out the other side though, was quite beautiful, with more high cliff-type rock. We could see that the tide was coming in and that we'd get out feet wet at the entrance if we waited too long, so we made out way back.

On arriving at the Parndana Hotel we booked in to a site and had a nice lunch at the hotel before setting up. We noticed outside in the garden there were about 4 different types of banksia trees with lovely coloured banksia flowers on them. There was a community hall right next door and an RSL building with a nice military monument, and a museum (not open today). There was also a electric car charging station, that we'd never seen before. Electric cars can apparently be hired at the island's airport, and we had seen signs pointing to these stations on our drives but hadn't seen the actual charging station. You use your credit card to pay for it.

27-5-2017 Saturday
We left the camp spot at the hotel this morning and drove 78kms eastward back to the town of Penneshaw (KISA) and the Penneshaw Caravan Park for 1 night (close to the ferry terminal as we leave tomorrow). It was about 11.30am so we set up in te park and then went for a walk down on the beach where there is a penguin rookery right next to the ferry terminal. Then we walked around the town before before popping into the Penneshaw Hotel for a nice lunch. Their logo is a picture of the old copper Australian penny with the kangaroo on it, and the words 'KANGAROO ISLAND' around the top curve of the coin instead of 'AUSTRALIA', and 'THE PENNY' around the bottom curve instead of just 'PENNY'. Of course THE PENNY is the nickname for the hotel - "let's go down to the Penne for a drink". I thought that was quite clever.

After lunch we walked about a kilometre to the Penneshaw Maritime and Folk Museum (only open 2-5pm). It was quite a nice little museum located in an old school building built back in 1922 (but was on the same site as an older Hog Bay school building built in 1869). The museum detailed the discovery of the place by Matthew Flinders and the Frenchman Nicolas Baudin. Another display showed all the ships (with the years) that have been wrecked on the rocks all around the island - there were many. There was plenty of nautical displays and another room detailed the times when the building was a school.

28-5-2017 Sunday Ferry back to the Mainland
We were on the 10.30 ferry this morning and were just next door to it, so we didn't have the early start we had when we came over last Monday. It was still showering on and off. It was a good crossing and after leaving the ferry we drove 66kms east to what seems like a lovely seaside town of Victor Harbour (SA) and the Victor Harbour Beachfront Holiday Park for 2 nights.

The drive included a lot of winding roads but it was worth it for all the beautiful scenery. There was a lot of rolling green hills covered with sheep and cattle. As we've seen quite a few times on our trip, there were many sheep with newly born lambs, often twins - really nice. It'd been showery most of the day and after we set up and Dave had thankfully put the awning out, it rained quite a bit.

29-5-2017 Monday
This morning it was still showery and miserable but I had to do a little washing and hang it under Casa's awning for the day. Around lunch time we rode the scooter, Harley, a few kms to the esplanade, much emptier today. When we drove through the same spot yesterday it was very busy with cars, people and activities at the Sunday markets. We happened to notice there was a 2pm departure of the Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tramway so we hopped on. It is a lovely olden day single tram pulled on rails by a Clydesdale Draught horse, about 1km across a causeway to Granite Island.

It takes about 15 minutes to go across and then they unhook the horse and take him around the other end of the tram for the journey back. You can get off and walk around the island and catch the next tram back, or walk back. We didn't bother to do any exploring as it was unpredictable showery weather. There is also a penguin rookery on the island if you wanted to attend a showing at dusk.

30-5-2017 Tuesday
We left the park this morning and drove 366kms east to the town of Walpeup (Vic) and the Walpeup Wayside Stop for 1 night. It's a cheap stopover for $10 per night with power and $3 each for a shower, and it was quite a pleasant one, with a nice grassy area to park on. We crossed the border from Sth Australia into Victoria today and there was no quarantine check done, the same as we've experienced before when going out of Sth Australia - seems there's only a check going back into SA. There was a lot of winding road and on the way we passed a spot where a truck had rolled over on its side, on one of the many bends which had signs advising slower speeds.

31-5-2017 Wednesday
Leaving our stopover this morning we drove 334kms east to the town of Hay (NSW) and the Big 4 Holiday Park for 1 night. We crossed the border from Victoria into New South Wales today which meant we also crossed the Murray River at Toolybuc, the river is the border. We're on our way to Sydney, expecting to be there by the weekend, before heading home. On the way we saw white stuff that looked like cotton balls, on both sides of the roadway for quite a few kilometres, leaving us wondering why it was there. Finally we saw some cotton fields, plants with all white tops, and then we saw a harvested field with the cotton rolled up in large rolls just like they roll hay.

1-6-2017 Thursday
It got down to 4 degrees C last night so left the heater on all night for the first time. We're glad we're heading toward home. We left the park this morning and stopped in at the town centre to do some shopping. Then we did the heritage walk around the town. Of particular interest due to the building's beauty were the Presentation Convent built in 1900, now privately owned, the Courthouse built in 1892, and the Post Office, erected in 1881.

We then drove 348kms east to the town of Gundagai (NSW) and the Gundagai Tourist Park for 1 night. We'll visit the dog on the tuckerbox tomorrow. We arrived close to 5pm, a bit later than we normally like, and it was getting cold already. We quickly set up and had our showers before locking ourselves inside for the evening. We weren't far on our drive when a truck passed us coming from the other direction, and threw some stones up from the newly surfaced road. It put a couple small chips in our windscreen and a larger 'line' crack that travels a little further with each day we travel.

2-6-2017 Friday
It got to minus degrees last night (ok as we had our heater that ran all night), there was frost on the grass and the water in the outside taps above the ground, froze. Luckily, a little later before left, we were able to fill up our fresh water tank as we badly needed it. We left the park and drove a short distance to the town and did the heritage walk. Gundagai town was first established on the low plains called the Murrumbidgee River flats, a short way from the current town, and the Aborigines tried to tell people not to set up there, and for good reason. This area regularly flooded and the town was flooded in 1852.

A couple of Aborigines, in their canoes, helped save many people, and a lady in the street told us their memory was being celebrated in a festival to be held here soon. We have heard repeatedly, in different areas, that the Aboriginal people were not aggressive and tended to help the newcomers, even though the land they'd lived on for 40,000 years or so, was being infiltrated by new people, white people. They only retaliated when attacked. By the time the next major flood occurred in 1983, the town had been moved to higher ground. On our heritage walk we saw the Prince Alfred Bridge, a 921 metres wooden bridge, now disused and in disrepair, and it spanned high up over the low plains so flooding wasn't a problem again. A new bridge called the Sheahan Bridge, was built in 1977 and was 1144 metres long, the second longest bridge in New South Wales.

Inside the Visitor Information Centre was Rusconi's Masterpiece. It was created by the dexterous hands of the late Frank Rusconi and represents 28 years of work by this master craftsman. Mr Rusconi was born in Australia last century and started work on the Masterpiece in 1910, finishing many hours later in 1938. Consisting of 20,948 pieces of Australian marble, each and every piece lovingly hand cut and polished. It looked like a grand house or temple, and was a truly exquisite work of art! Different coloured pieces of marble were used for different parts of the structure.

Outside the Visitor Information Centre were four statues, metal figures of Dad and Dave, Mum and Mabel. These characters were created by Steele Rudd and became household words throughout Australia with the broadcast of the popular radio serial "Dad and Dave". The links to Gundagai were solidly forged when Jack O'Hagan's "Road to Gundagai"" was used as the theme for the famous radio rental. We drove to the famous "Dog on Tuckerbox" statue, which is located on the highway out of town, 5 miles from Gundagai (or 7kms in the new money).

After that we drove 334kms north-east to a free overnight rest area on the highway, 17kms south-west of the town of Mittagong (NSW), called Gordon VC Rest Area for 1 night. The caravan park we had planned to go to, was full up and it was getting dark so we settled for this rest area. Of course there was no power and so we had no heater, and it was very cold. At 8.30pm it was 2.5 degrees C outside, and at 11pm it was 2 degrees C outside and 8.1 degrees C inside.

3-6-2017 Saturday
At 5am there was a loud frantic banging on the door. Dave was up and working on the computer, but I was still asleep. It was the police. There'd been an accident, a rollover, on the highway just outside of where our rest area was and they wanted our rest area empty so a helicopter could land to evacuate the injured man. There was a caravan and another 3 smaller vehicles that'd stopped here for the night. We had to quickly pack up and just move about 100 metres away. Dave said he'd heard a chopper hovering overhead for quite a few minutes before the police banged on the door. As we drove out we saw the ambulance there waiting. We were allowed to go back in when it was all over, but it took about 1 and a half hours before that happened.

It was really cold, our temperature gauges showing it was minus 2 degrees C outside and 4 degrees C inside! Not the time for us to be without electricity and have no heater! I had planned to go back to bed but by 7am it was a bit late for that. Apparently the story was that the seriously injured was a man about 70 years old, who'd possibly fallen asleep at the wheel, apparently without wearing his seat belt and rolled over. We almost never drive at night or during the dark hours if we can help it at all.

We drove 126kms north-east towards Sydney, and then north-west to a phone club member's place at a town called Winmallee right next to the Blue Mountains. This member was holding something for Dave. We got there about 11.30am, had a lovely lunch with them and another couple, the man in the second couple was also a phone club member. The lady of the house was also a collector, of perfume bottles. She had about 5 glass cabinets full of them, some common ones that I recognised, some very unique, some rare and oh so interesting. I first noticed the very large beautiful bottles full of different coloured liquid on top of some furniture, and asked what they were, and it went from there. She showed me all the cabinets and many unusual bottles - I didn't realise there was so much history relating to perfume bottles.

We left about 4pm and drove 157kms east then north to the town of Mannering Park (NSW) in the Lake Macquarie Region and the Big 4 Tourist Park for 1 night. At 10.30pm it was 18 degrees C - no need for a heater, just when we have power!

4-6-2017 Sunday
We left the caravan park, fuelled up nearby and drove 216kms north to the town of Taree (NSW) and the Taree Showgrounds for 1 night. When we were about 35kms south of Taree we had a tyre blow out and luckily Dave was able to stop without incident, and there was room on the side of the road. We were on the Pacific Highway, 110km speed limit, so it was a bit hairy with cars and trucks passing at this speed. The particular tyre was the very back one on the driver's side (Casa has 6 tyres), so the side facing the traffic. For a couple of days we'd noticed a vibration and Dave thought it was something to do with the tyres but couldn't see anything wrong, so would take it easy and get it checked out when we got home.

The whole tread layer had unraveled, come partially loose and was flapping as the wheel went round and made a terrible banging noise - it was very scary. The flapping tread had also broken the fibreglass mudguard/sideskirt above the tyre so it was waving about. It also broke the plastic pipes that lead from and to the fresh water tank, so all our water leaked out. In the UK, it is mandatory to carry a red reflective roadside warning triangle in a M/H for use on roadside breakdowns, so naturally we had one and placed it on the roadside to warn oncoming drivers - we had never used it before, and in fact had never had a puncture in the M/H before. We called NRMA roadside assistance and the fellow arrived about an hour later. We felt we could've done the job but we probably would've struggled so thought it best to get NRMA out, especially as we pay for it. One passing driver stopped and asked if we were ok which was nice. We felt lucky that it happened during the day and not in the dark or the rain, and all the damage can be repaired.

5-6-2017 Monday
Drove 326kms north along Pacific Highway to the town of Grafton (NSW) and the Grafton Showgrounds for 1 night. It was an uneventful drive today and night except for a noisy and visual show put on by (possibly) a thousand Rainbow Lorikeets, for which we are thankful!

6-6-2017 Tuesday
We left the showgrounds and drove 324kms north to HOME!