CEDUNA TO HOME

Saturday 19.11.2011:   20 - 25 degrees.  Cloud/sun.  We drove out of Ceduna  and across the top of the Eyre Peninsula passing lots of wheat properties, the road forever undulating then we passed through areas with lots of trees not too tall until we came to Kimba, we found the local sports ground and stayed there for the night along with another couple in a  caravan.

Harvest in progress

Harvest machinery on the move

Tribute to the farmer

The big Galah at Kimba

Sunday 20.11.2011:  13 - 23 degrees - Sun and clouds.  Drove to Port Augusta  with more undulating country and trees, then as we came closer to Iron Knob the country became very low scrub with the earth being a richer red, full of iron, a bit like Newman in W.A.  Went to the Wadlata Information Centre where we saw a very good display of how Australia, the Antartic, India and South America were once all joined together and over time they all split, Australia was tropical, then dried out, the animals that were around when all these changes took place, as well as when the Australian Aboriginal people came and when white man came to Australia and the explorers who explored different parts of S.A.. up the centre of Australia and west to W.A.  we ran out of time to see the whole exhibition, but have a pass to see the rest tomorrow morning.  Stayed at the Shoreline Van Park where we had a beautiful sunset with rich red colour reflected on the many clouds in the sky.

Port Augusta waterfront

Iron Knob near Port Augusta. The mountain is slowly disapearing as it is mined

 

Monday 21.11.2011:  17 - 30 degrees.   Cloudy then sunshine.  Drove through the Arid Parks Nature Reserve to Matthew Flinders Lookout on the western side of the Spencer Gulf, where the soil is red with low saltbush everywhere and the cliff is all red earth.   We looked east to the Flinders Ranges and west to Iron Knob, which was very flat with one rise which is Iron Knob and is being mined.

Flinders Ranges in the distance

Sunset at Port Augusta

Matthew Flinders came as far as the bridge below

Red Cliffs at top of Spencer Gulf

 

We traveled east to Crystal Brook 105 kilometers, there was lots of traffic, mining vehicles, road trains, trucks, cars caravans and motor homes, a bit of a rude shock after lots of open spaces and vehicles every now and then.  The only peaceful part of the trip was the fields of wheat, the paddocks rolled on and on and on.

There is a water pipeline from Morgan on the Murray River to Port Augusta

Wind Farm

Old Burra copper mine - once the biggest copper mine in the world

 

We drove another 75 kilometers to Burra where we stayed in the Showground, we met another motor homer from Queensland, it was lovely and peaceful after the traffic in the morning.

Tuesday 22.11.2011:  15 - 23 degrees.   Cloudy/light wind.  We drove into the town of Burra which is heritage listed and saw the lovely old buildings of churches, cottages, and miners cottages.  The stonework is beautiful all built by mostly Cornish and some Welsh people who were bought out to Australia to work in the Copper mine, which was the world’s largest in 1850.  We saw the open mine which is no longer being mined/

Drove on to Morgan on the Murray River which is a lovely spot with a lovely big area of green grass and large River Red Gums scattered here and there and a three tier wharf which is starting to fall apart on one end, and lots and lots of large river  boats.  Morgan was a very busy port with wool being bought down river in the paddle boats then loaded on the train at the wharf and sent to Adelaide and exported to England.

Morgan wharf in early times

Morgan wharf today

Morgan ferry to cross the Murray river

Anyone want a houseboat?

As we drove on towards Renmark we passed lots of vineyards, Renmark has lots of beautiful homes, it seemed more prosperous than the last time we passed through in 2005.  We stayed at the Riverfront Van Park and had a spot right at the front on the bend of the river, it was beautiful watching the birds, duck, river boats and people fishing, very relaxing after all the driving from WA.

Cliffs on the Murray at Waikeri

Renmark campsite

Wednesday 23.11.2011:  14 - 24 degrees.  Sun and cloud.  Caught up on the washing and relaxing, walked into the town along the river, checked out the Information Centre  then had lunch in the Renmark Hotel which was very nice. 

Thursday 24.11.2011:  15 - 23 degrees.   Sun and cloud.  Drove along the Sturt Highway and about 20 kilometers before we reached Mildura, we saw a very large rubber tyre with Dunlop written on the top which was like an arch to drive through, this is a border check point for people going into South Australia, we did not have to stop as there was a bin for us to place any fruit and vegetables in near Renmark.  As we approached Mildura we saw an amazing lot of vineyards, the homes were very nice, lots of new homes since we were last there in 2006.   Did the shopping and filled up the fridge and cupboards, the rain came down very heavy

.

Border quarantine checkpoint

Paddle steamer at Mildura - in the rain

We drove on  through Robinvale to Lake Benanee which is a Rest Stop beside a lake, which is a popular spot with the locals, the sign told us the water evaporated so quickly in the lake that it uses more water than is used by the people of South Australia from the Murray River.

Evening at Lake Benanee

Lake Benanee campsite

 

Friday 25.11.2011:  19 - 25 degrees.  Cloud and sun.  We walked down to the edge of  Lake Benanee before we left and the waters edge has a lot of sand along it, just like being at the beach, a nice place to camp, we will remember it, when we come this way again

Drove to Balranald, then on to Hay where we went to the Shear Outback visitor centre and had lunch.  Back in the Coaster we traveled on to Darlington Point and stayed in the Van Park by the River and caught up on the blog, woken up in the early hours by Year 12 students staying in the Van Park, not good, drunken and unruly teenagers.

Hay Plains - like the Nullabour

 

Saturday 26.11/2011:   18 - 24 degrees.    Sun/cloud.   Drove through Narrandera, Coolamon, Junee,  Gundagai  then up the Hume Highway to Jugiong where we stayed the night in the Showground.

Determining tomorrow's campsite

 

Sunday 27.11.2011:  19 - 24 degrees.   Rain/cloud/sun.   Drove up the Hume Highway through Yass, Goulburn, Marulan then stayed at Moss Vale Van Park overnight.

Monday 28.11.2011:  19 - 27 degrees.   Sun/cloud/humidity.   Drove through Fitzroy Falls, Kangaroo Valley and up and over the Cambawarra Mountain to Nowra which the bus did not enjoy, it was very steep and slowed the bus right down to second gear and belching black smoke.   After traveling around Australia it makes you realise how very hilly the east coast is compared to the rest of Australia which is mostly flat.    Stayed in Berry Showground for a week, ready for the Sydney Wanderers Christmas get together.

Lloyd and Di at Fitzroy Falls

 Tuesday 29.11.2011:   19 - 31 degrees.   Sun/cloud/humid.   Called in to see Kay and Trevor at Nowra and finally saw their really modern and nice home.

Wednesday 30/11/2011:  21 - 31 degrees.   Sun/cloud/rain/humidity.   Some of the Sydney Wanderers turned up, great to see them, walked up to the shops at lunch time and had a heavy downpour of rain, so we had lunch at the bakery until the rain stopped.

Thursday 31/11/2011 to Tuesday 5/122011:   We had a lovely time with all the Sydney Wanderers - 40 motor homes turned up, we enjoyed playing disc bowls on grass, the Christmas Dinner on the Friday night and the Christmas Carols and Salvation Army Band on the Saturday night.

On the Monday we caught up with my Aunt Iris at Culburra, then stayed with Margaret,  Phil and Michelle at Kiamma and visited Lloyd’s Aunt Mavis at Woonoona on Tuesday, it’s lovely to catch up and even better to be home.

View from Stanwell Tops



Hang Gkiders at Stanwell Tops

Lloyd goes into hospital Thusday 15^th Dec. to have a couple of skin cancers dealt with by the plastic surgeon and we hope to continue on with our trip in February traveling back to SA and then Vic.

This is the last post for this year so we wish you all a very Happy Christmas and may God bless you in the New Year.

Regards, Love, Cheers etc

Di and Lloyd

ACROSS THE NULLARBOR - NORSEMAN TO CEDUNA

Saturday 12.11.2011:   18 - 31 degrees - hot with wind from the west.   We left the Van Park at Norseman and headed to the golf course and played the two holes of the Nullabor Links, a par 4 and a par 5 hole which were  average size fairways but lots of long grass with burrs.  We met two other couples, one lot followed us up the fairway and the other two had just arrived, so we decided it was peak hour on the Nullarbor Links Golf Course. We didn’t do too good here but at least they were open fairways without too many obstacles‘.

We then traveled along the Eyre Highway from Norseman traveling east, where there was a very large dry salt lake on our left, there were trees on either side of the road which varied in height up to 30’.  We traveled to Fraser Range Station where we played the Sheep’s Back par 3 hole and stayed the night.



Nullarbor Links hole by hole description



Tin Camels at entrance to Norseman



Fraser Range




Par 3 - rock and long grass




Fraser range camp



Sunday 13.11.2011:  18 - 33 degrees - Hot and sunny with westerly winds, which helped our fuel consumption as they were pushing us.  We left Fraser Range Sheep Station and traveled to Balladonia Roadhouse where we played the Skylab Par 3 through scrub, then back in the Coaster to Caiguna Roadhouse where we played 90 Mile Straight Par 4 through trees.  The scenery as we drove was long grass about 30 to 45cm high with green scrubs dotted everywhere, the road seemed to rise up and down no more than 2 or 3 meters.  We stayed at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse overnight.

Balladonia -Fairway?



Caiguna





At least the greens were OK - synthetic grass and fast!



Western end of the 90 mile straight

From here the highway travels 90 miles - 146.6 Km in a straight line - the longest piece of straight road in Australia

Monday 14.11.2011:  19 - 33 degrees - hot with wind from the south east.  We started our day by playing the Eagles Nest Par 4 at Cocklebiddy.

As we drove east the scenery was the same as yesterday except the road was  dropping down from 100 meters above sea level, to Madura Roadhouse where the road dropped down to the Roe Plains 45 meters above sea level.   We played the Brumby’s Run Par 3, this was the worst hole so far with large trees across the fairway and lots of bushes waiting to hide your ball, a very hard par 3. 

We drove across the Roe Plains to Mundrabilla Road House, we saw:-

Ÿ        lots of Harley Davidson Bikers coming towards us with headlights on, they are traveling to a Rally in Margaret River

Ÿ        lots of flocks of budgerigars flying and swooping back and forth across the road

Ÿ       About 20 kilometers of dead budgerigars on the road probably sucked into the road trains as they go so fast

Ÿ       A boot tree

Ÿ       A ribbon tree

Ÿ       Mirages

Emergency Airstrips on the highway for the Flying Doctor

At Mundrabilla we played the Watering Hole Par 4,



Get in there!



Approaching Eucla from West



Then back in the Coaster to go to Eucla where we played the Nullarbor Nymph Par 4, this was a big improvement as it was on the Eucla Golf Course (only the one hole) where they had actually cut the tufts of grass. The fairway was littered with spent shotgun cartridges and remains of clay targets used by the local shooting club. We booked into Eucla Van Park to recover from all our golfing and driving.

Tuesday 15.11.2011:  19 - 27 degrees.  Sun/cloud/wind /wind/ wind. After breakfast we drove down to the ruins of the old Eucla Telegraph Station from where the original overland telegraph line went to Darwin. The ruins are again being gradually covered in sand blown from the enormous sand dunes nearby. There is much more sand  now than when were last here .



Looking west over Roe Plains from Eucla lookout



We drove 12 kilometers east  to Border Village this is the border between Western Australia and South Australia, where people going into W.A. have their car checked for fruit, vegetables, honey and plants. 

We found the Big Roo and played the par 3 hole  Border Kangaroo 160 meters, the fairway was like a narrow gravel road through trees  beside the highway and the green was the usual synthetic grass with a yellow flag.

Not too far from Ecula we stopped at the scenic access points on the Bunda Cliffs and found they had fenced off walkways to keep people away from the edge of the 90 meters cliffs, another tourist told us about a guy who got out of his car to look at the view and watched his car and caravan role over the cliff as he had not put the parking brake on. This happened prior to the fences being put up. The views are stupendous with the various layers of limestone clearly visible, it being a very windy day the seas were quite rough.

The actual treeless plain starts just east of Ecula and extends to about 20K east of Nullabor roadhouse



Western end of treeless plain



The next stop was Nullarbor Roadhouse where we played the Wombat Hole par 5 - 520 meters, we were told to watch out for the brown snakes and the crows as they like taking your golf balls, they suggested spraying your ball with aero guard or something smelly that will make the crow drop the ball..  We stood on the tee looking down the fairway there were no trees, the grass clumps had been cut on the fairway, the rough was long grass and salt bush, the ordinary flies were in their hundreds , the march flies were biting, and the wind in your face was like a southerly buster, the joys of golfing.



Flat horizon all round



We stayed at Nullarbor Roadhouse overnight to recover from the wind and flies, being out of the wind and having a cuppa was bliss.

Thursday 16.11.2011:  19 - 32 degrees.  Cloud/sun.  Leaving Nullarbor the countryside is very flat with low scrub and grass tufts, we drove to Head of the Bight, the eastern end of the Nullarbor, this is where people can view the Southern Right Whales and their calves between May and October, we missed out by a couple of weeks, but we still went and had a look, the view is spectacular, the cliffs here are 80 meters high and 200 odd kilometers long  looking west and looking east the cliffs drop down to sand hills which are blowing inland at 11 meters a year.  Once again there are boardwalks with rails either side and viewing platforms.  The Visitors Centre is very well put together and we stayed and had coffee and scones with jam and cream, the centre is run by grey nomads. 

 As we continued on towards Nundroo Roadhouse the road started to become undulated with low trees, we found the Nundroo Wombat Hole Par 5 - 520 meters where the tufts of grass had been mown and we hit off up a hill then down to the synthetic grass green with the yellow flag, no wombats only flies.

We continued on with the scenery changing to large wheat properties even bill boards and a tree with a big green bear in it.  We found the Penong Windmills Golf Course and played only the first hole which is part of the Nullabor links, a par 4 - 260 meters with an open mown fairway at first with a few trees either side near the hole, the wind was nowhere near as bad as yesterday.  We stayed at the Penong Van Park.



Lloyd found that the trees had golf ball magnets in them



Thursday 17.11.2011:   17 - 37 degrees.  Sunny.  Woke late to find everyone else either packed and leaving or almost ready to leave, we were still on W.A. time with no daylight saving-an hour behind local time.   I put a load of washing on and pegged it out and then had breakfast, we collected the washing on the way out and it was bone dry.   Traveling along the Eyre Highway we had strong north westerly winds pushing us along, which is better for the fuel economy, we passed  through lots of wheat and grain properties, even telegraph poles, civilisation again.  Went through the S.A. border quarantine check where the inspector came in and inspected our fridge with all the containers where we had cooked up whatever we couldn’t take in to SA raw, then drove to the Ceduna Foreshores Van Park and checked in, the temperature was 37 degrees, too hot to do anything, forget playing the last two holes of golf at Ceduna today, airconditioned comfort won and a good rest.

Friday 18.11.2011:  31 - 37 degrees.  Cloud/sun, extremely strong westerly wind, southerly change late in the day.  We packed up and went to the Golf Club to play the last two holes of the Nullabor links, we were the only ones there, there was so much wind blowing each time we hit the ball, it was blown off course quite a bit, even  though you thought you had allowed for the wind, and the greens were black oiled sand, not a good way to finish.



Oiled sand "greens" we use a rake to smooth a run to the hole



We took our cards to Ceduna Visitors Information Centre and handed them in to get our Nullarbor Golf Links Certificate.  We did some shopping, then drove to the lighthouse and had lunch with the Coaster open getting any sea breeze there was to get to cool us down, we were overlooking the jetty where the big road trains were off loading, grains, gypsum, salt and fish for export., we then went back to the van park to put the air con on and rest.  A southerly came through later in the day, lovely refreshing relief.

Ceduna port

Playing the Nullabor Links course was a bit of fun but also frustrating, the ground generally was so hard that we couldn’t put a tee in the ground and had to use drink and wine bottle tops as tees and should your ball hit a rock (of which there were many) the ball could go anywhere. However we finished with more golf balls than we started with so I suppose that was a bonus. It does break up the monotony of the drive and we have heard that the road toll has dropped in the two years the course has been open.

Accross the drive from Norseman to Ceduna there are some interesting roadsigns, some of which we remembered to take photos of.

We will head off East tomorrow towards Port Augusta and stay off road somewhere for the night.