Swift SA Sojourn

After our fruit and vegie inspection at the SA border on the Sturt Highway, we travelled through Renmark, where the Sturt Highway reminded me of our Tassie Midland Highway with the number of stops for roadworks and bridge upgrades, and then made our way to Barmera - another community that has provided safe camping spots for fully self-contained vans for a minimal fee. Thank you Barmera. Steve had a lovely long run around the oval and then we made our way on foot towards Lake Bonney. As we walked down their main street, not only were we entertained by piped music but we were gobsmacked by the colour of the water as the sun set in the west. We missed the most glorious part of the sunset by the time we had walked through the shopping centre and around their AFL oval to the shore line, but it still was a beautiful sight! Staying there for a longer time, as well as exploring all the waterways we had seen between Renmark and Barmera, it will definitely be on the list for another time. Fortunately we had stayed at the RV park and not at the caravan park as we have been able to ascertain that the batteries have not been the problem - it has to be auto electrical, so we are going to make our way towards Port Augusta to see an auto electrician.

Leaving Barmera we drove to Waikeri to fill up the fuel and do our crossing of the Murray on the ferry. We could have gone another way, but we love the old punt crossings, although the very steep embankment on the other side was a time for me to say to the car, "Come on Old Girl" just as I always heard my dad say when the car struggled when I was little. We drove through dry saltbush country before entering the green oasis that surrounds one of my favourite towns, the historical Burra, where we had our picnic lunch.

On then through Peterborough before pulling in to the very full Orroroo Caravan Park. We got one of the two remaining spots at the far end, a position that we liked as it looked out over the rolling hills. Steve had another good run and I walked around the town admiring the architecture that is so distinctively South Australian. The setting sun enhanced that walk. The forecast for days had been for a massive rain band to pass through SA and it arrived with strong winds and dropped temperature in the middle of the night, and so we booked in for another day of restful, rain-spattering sounds on the van roof. Late morning saw us go for a walk to have a coffee at Maggie's Rendezvous, and how busy was this wonderful cafe, full of beautiful craft work and people lining up for tables. Some of these were tourists like ourselves filling in the wet day, but most were locals, which of itself tells us that it is a quality spot. There was a selection of gluten free goodies, and when I saw a GF quandong pie, I ordered one to go with my coffee! Yummo! But what surprised me, having tried to minimise the amount of sugar consumed for so long, was just how very sweet I found it.

After coffee we set off around the streets of Orroroo, with our umbrellas going up and down and sliding on the wet clay, but we had a wonderful time together. The best part was being stopped from going the way we had planned by the creek that had come up with the heavy rain overnight. How wonderful that rain must have sounded to the locals as they've endured the ravages of drought for so long. Steve had wanted to show me the red bridge that was part of the now defunct rail line between Orroroo and Carrieton, but the road that he'd run in the dust the evening before was now under water. However, we found a way to make it to the bridge by walking along the old rail easement. We were glad indeed that we'd stayed put for the day and had now seen what happens when a dumping of rain occurs. Steve rang the auto electrician in Port Augusta and we booked the van in for the next morning.

Leaving the peace and quiet of Orroroo we drove through rapidly greening undulating country to Wilmington and then through the beautiful Horrocks Pass across to the highway south of Port Augusta. For these Tasmanians, that pass reminded me of Sisters Hills but taller and closer together. There were low clouds playing listlessly in among the bald green hills, but the thing that most intrigued me was a narrow gorge that we passed as we drove down and around one of the sweeping bends. How I would have loved to have had somewhere to park to explore that gorge, but this old pass built through these hills is devoid of parking spots. The original stone walls on which the road was built can still be seen. Coming out of the pass we could see a very bright light on a tower, and about 20 kms later we found it was at the solar fed greenhouses for growing tomatoes. A couple of years ago I watched a documentary, probably on the ABC, about this tomato farm just out of Port Augusta. That high, bright, white light, reminded me very much of the Lord of the Rings and I am glad I wasn't driving as it kept drawing my eye towards it!

Having found G.P. Auto Electrical, we left the van and went for a walk. Two things stand out from that walk. One was the Railway station through which the east/west rail runs and we were amazed that a very, very long goods train from Perth raced through while we were there. And how long was that train! It kept coming and coming. I began a video when the engines and front carriages were out of sight and even then it took over 1 minute 30 seconds to pass. We were intrigued with the freight being loaded one container on top of another! The other standout of the walk was the wonderful art and craft gallery situated in the platform building. If you are in Port Augusta, do yourself a favour and visit this amazing gallery. We learned that one of the textile artists is a 96 year old lady who no long dyes her own fabrics but still make stunning quilts! I was admiring a quilt made in the colours of the Aussie bush when I was told this amazing fact.

The van was fixed! It was not the batteries, but the drifter [the device that showed us the batteries were running out]! Being computerised, it needed to be reset when we had our auto electrican check before leaving! It's now reset and we possibly could have got away with our old batteries, but at least we should be set with the new ones we had installed in Mildura for the next five years. We cannot recommend highly enough the work done by G.P. Auto Electrics! We were one of three caravanning couples there and they worked quickly to get us all back on the road!

We hot-footed it out of PortAugusta, and only later on that day thought about the shops we were going to visit! However, a couple of the things can wait until Perth and the rest we got in Whyalla where we stopped for the night. The Weerona Football Club has built an RV camping spot on their grounds and the caretaker comes around each evening for the $10 per night fee. Not only did we spend more money in Whyalla than anywhere else [there was a sale on running shoes] but we also had the Thursday evening 3 course meal at the clubrooms for $20! I really didn't think that I'd be able to get gluten free, but they cater for the likes of me with Healthy Choice pre-packaged meals from which I could choose and the GF sticky date puddings and Bulla icecream all in the freezer ready for the likes of me, and they make homemade soup that is gluten free. The size of the chicken parmiagana that Steve had had to be seen to be believed. I didn't choose from the salad bar as my meal was plenty big enough.

After another peaceful night we headed to Cleve where we planned to do the Yeldulknie Weir Trail parkrun on Saturday. The Cleve Showground committee provide a safe RV area with access to a clean toilet and shower block, as well as safe water. The shower is two $1 coins in the box for 5 minutes but both Steve and I turned off our showers before they ran out - it was a very log 5 minutes! By walking the course on Friday afternoon we discovered that it was not a rail trail with its gradual gradient, but a purpose built trail between town and the Weir. We had read rolling hills, but as we are used to our 5km course being dead flat, this was definitely different and we began to compare it to Hobart parkrun's hilly terrain! Early on Saturday we walked the kilometre to the start, met the friendly vollies, talked with the locals and then ran [Steve] or walked, took phone snaps and had a little jog occasionally [Val] the course. There were 26 participants and a number of vollies at this new country parkrun. Usually there are more but the footballers had all had to go away for the game that day. Not only was Steve the first participant home but I was also in the   finishers for the first time ever. So good to see a parkrun where people have really understood that walking is just as important at parkrun as running. We really enjoyed this group. At parkrun we were told about the walk around the weir and so that afternoon we drove out to the near empty weir, looked at the photos from the years the weir had flooded and took a lovely walk around what would be the water line if it was not for the drought. We had decided to stay for a second night and in the morning we walked to the Lutheran church to join that congregation in worship.

After church we hooked up the van, drove to Lock where we had lunch in the warm sun in their park and continued to drive through heavy rain showers up to the Eyre Highway and along to Wirrulla where we spent the night.

On Monday morning we drove the last ninety kilometres into Ceduna and booked into the caravan park on the waterfront, did the washing [and got it dry again before the next lot of rain, did some shopping and Steve went for his long run and I had a walk exploring in the late afternoon and enjoyed watching the sun set over the water.

Tuesday saw us driving all day to within 120km of the WA border. No wind was a blessing, but we had numerous showers and saw lots of water lying around. In the late afternoon the falling rain across the Nullabor looked like bridal veils with the sun shining through. At each stop we had a walk for about ten minutes to keep the legs stretched. We even had two coffees - one at Penong and one at Nullabor Roadhouse. Late in the afternoon we were very excited to see an Australian Bustard on the road and Steve was able to stop and get some shots of this large bird and its mate, a first sighting for us. We spent the night camped off the highway and because we were to cross the WA border in the morning I cooked up a storm to use up all our fruit and vegetables rather than have them confiscated. Early on Wednesday morning we travelled those last 120 kms to the border enjoying the sunshine, still no wind, the view of the Great Australian Bight and three more Australian Bustards off in the scrub as we passed.

South Australia, we will be back to see you properly and to do you justice.