Family holiday for 6 months around Australia. Switching off for a while to remind ourselves of why we are doing what we do. Enjoying time with our little family that we have created. Creating some great memories and taking some awesome photographs as well.
At last a sunny morning to wake up to. Not much to pack away from the night before and off we go. a severe headwind has us held at 60-70kms on our journey and this is really bad for fuel consumption. Very frustrating driving indeed. We lock a town called Snowtown into our GPS and push forward. Every 5 kms or so the GPS wants us to take an unsealed road but we don't follow its advice and drive straight ahead on the bitumen surface hoping we will end up on the A1 main road, and slowly but surely we were right in our judgement. Snowtown is just around the corner for us. We pass a very tiny town called Lochiel which is located by the Bumbunga lake. At this present moment Bumbunga lake is a dries up salt flat for as far as the eye can see. Quite blinding the sun bouncing of it but awesome to see by the side of the road we are travelling on. I notice a loch Ness monster that someone has created for when the lake is wet and it would look cool if there was any water. It still looks pretty funky even in the sand so we stop to take a shot. The wind nearly blowing us of our feet all four of us wonder out in the middle of the salt bed. ( see photos and video)
Bumbunga Lake
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This will be printed when we get home
Mum & the girls fight the windy conditions
Fake Loch Ness Monster
There is one extra cool photo begging me to snap so i capture it and will be a print for sure. Old fence posts running off into the salt sand. Something from a postcard style of thing. Once back in the car we bypass Snowtown because our fuel is still holding and press on for Crystal Brook. I try to keep as little fuel in the tank at this stage because of the headwind and i am trying to minimise the weight of our rig. Crystal Brook is not what the name suggests. Most of these out of the way towns are only famous for some early explorers and hold very little unless you like early architecture or buildings, but when you've seen a couple of late 1800's building you feel like you've seen them all. Time for a little shopping in the local supermarket and its time to start thinking about where we will be spending the night.
Crystal Brook township
Crystal Brook pub
Port Pirie soon appears and we pull up right by the main inlet for some lunch. the girls feed some seagulls while Heather bakes an apple buy that we bought earlier at Hahndorf. Coffee and apple pie for lunch. mmmmm... We cannot seem to find a camp site that is for big rigs but one appears on the map search up another 25kms further ahead. Its called the Baroota Rodeo camping grounds. I call the phone number attached as it says "permit required" I chat with the previous owner of this site and he tells us that it has been closed for 6 months due to renovations, "but" he owns the land opposite and has just bulldozed it to make some space for travellers that keep turning up at the closed camping grounds. At $5 a night we take the plunge and drive there. he meets us at the gate and shows us around his new venture. Nothing but dust and dirt but off the main road which is always better than near it. we are the first van he has let in because he only pushed over the bush a day or so ago. Firewood everywhere and this place is as warm as toast compared with earlier grounds we've been staying at. The Flinders Ranges are just a couple of kms away and sit in the background for us. Beautiful to watch the sun set on these great Mountain ranges.
Flinders Rangers
Baroota Rodeo camping ground view
The setting sun behind the trees
I build a big fire and we settle down for a night stop. We soon see another van trying to get into the Rodeo camping ground and so i flag them down and offer the new dusty spot to them. they love the idea of $5 per night and in they come. Nice to have some company too. There names are John & Helen and they are on their maiden voyage in their new van as well. campfire chats went on most of the evening and it was a nice little town of our own created. Its funny how the most crappy looking things can soon become well remembered times for us all. Tomorrow we will land at Port Augusta to set up for the long dry dusty journey up through the middle of Australia. Cooper Pedy, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek will soon be in our sights.
The moon rises as we sit by the fire
Long exposure photo of the road trains passing in the night
In the morning we had a visitor. Can you spot him?
Morning Visitor if you click the 'you tube' logo the video will play larger
Up early once again and its pancakes for breaky to lighten the mood because we are not at a very attractive site when compared to only a few days ago. We drive off in the morning sunshine which is lovely and warm and soon settle in for the drive. The girls are watching a movie and the roads in SA are fantastic. Victoria has the worst roads we have faced on our trip so far. Bumpety bump and boing boing is very frustrating and the towing is difficult to get right and a cruise speed hard to maintain when like this. the new roads make us feel alot better about travelling and i even used the cruise control for the first time. We travel alongside some freight trains which is entertaining for us all and at talmost the same speed. Murray Bridge soon arrives in our sights and the town is huge with all the businesses that you would expect.
Arrive at Murray Bridge
Mia loves feeding any animal she finds.
The Murray Bridge
The girls on an old steam train
Cheeky monkeys
All Aboard!
The wheels are bigger than Mia
Mum & Lily stop for a shot
Little Red Caboose
My little sweetheart amongst the pink Flowers
For our lunch break and coffee we head to the river side reserve and the jkids play on the swings while me and heather work out where to stay for the night.
Mannum Swans Unfortunately there are no free stay camp grounds here so it is decided to go another 24kms to a place called Mannum. This is where the first ever Murray river paddle boats where made and launched. there is no drinking water but what a lovely little river side camp spot. It overlooks the vllage on the other side of the river which is quite nice indeed. Two ferrys run 24 hrs a day at this town and there are 10 other ferrys that cross the Murray at their towns all along this popular Australian river. We go for a crossing with the ferry and a look around the town. An ice cream shop is not in town and so its ice cream on a stick for the girls. Some shopping is done and we cross the ferry again to go back to camp. earlier that day i had thrown my Yabbie trap into the rive just to see what might crawl in and to my surprise a fresh water yabbie was caught. Aha! Bait! there might just be some fissh in the murray wiorth Catching. Me and Lily dug up some worms and sat by the river that afternoon with a line in. We did get a nibble or two which is a good sign that with the right bait i might just be able to snare a yellow Belly or better still the prized murray cod. These things can grow up to 1.8 meters but i am not getting my hopes up with my fish catching record so far.
Me and Lily fishing for Dinner
We also had some cheeky swans visit us and almost walked into the door of the caravan. (see video)
Bold Swans
Mia gets close
Mannum Swans video
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I went out one night and shot some images of the Buildings in Ballarat. The gold era certainly put some money into town planning and the terrific architecture was testament to that.
Today we pack up our mobile home and head closer to the Great Ocean Rd. About and hour and a half drive sees us at a little place called Sale.
Sale Catholic Church - Very Impressive
We pull by the River that runs all the way from Lake wellington in lakes Entrance to have a bite to eat and throw in a fishing line during lunch. A picturesque little park by the water was a lovely break. No fish were caught though. We head off again to our destination Yarrum and the roads are bumpy as ever.
We reach Yarrum by mid afternoon and there is not a caravan park in site. With no Internet connection at all OR phone coverage we stop for a play in the local park which was totally cool with little mushrooms everywhere for the girls to play with and wooden play castles as well.
I walked up to get some info from the "information center" but this is no Information centre. It is just a post office/art gallery with some pamphlets on the local area and not much at that. We feel kinda stranded with no where to stay. So we both made an executive decision to head to the coastal area nearby called Port Albert. We hear the fish and chips here are the best around and if we are going to be stranded it may as well be with a full belly of yummy fish & Chips.
14 kms further and WOW! what a gorgeous little bay with fishing boats and jetty's everywhere. And Not many people at all. There are no van parks and so we check our maps to find there is a FREE overnight stay area right next to the waters edge for 6 RV's (recreational vehicles). I had to take some video to show where we are staying.. a look out the door is directly 20 feet away from perfection. I throw out a fishing line and watch it from the lounge in the van.. hahaha what a life...
View from our door. Port Albert
We have to 12 volt power here tonight but we have over 20 channels of TV and full amenities thanks to the hard work of my mate Kevin and the 12 volt system checks that he did for us..
Then comes the storm.
We wondered down the street and the girls rode their bikes to the fish and chip shop.
Anchorage type posts line the footpaths.
We sat by the waters edge and watched a far away storm over the ocean brewing. There were 2 storms that night. One over the ocean and one from the west which was headed our way. We made it just in time to shower and settle. a gust of strong wind and POW! Check the short video for this intense view from the van door..
hard to believe that this little paradise could change to this. hell of a good fun 30 minutes though. Then it was all over and we settled back to a night of TV and cuddles in the warm van.
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View from the jetty to our van
Hire boats available
Night shot of the Boats before the storm came
Lightening Shots just after the storm had past. See it in the distance
Up early once again and its pancakes for breakfast to lighten the mood because we are not at a very attractive site when compared to only a few days ago. We drive off in the morning sunshine which is lovely and warm and soon settle in for the drive. The girls are watching a movie and the roads in SA are fantastic. Victoria has the worst roads we have faced on our trip so far. Bumpety bump and boing boing is very frustrating and the towing is difficult to get right and a cruise speed hard to maintain when like this. the new roads make us feel alot better about travelling and i even used the cruise control for the first time. We travel alongside some freight trains which is entertaining for us all and at almost the same speed but then something else comes along. (see video).
Big Boys Toys
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Murray Bridge soon arrives in our sights and the town is huge with all the businesses that you would expect. For our lunch break and coffee we head to the river side reserve and the kids play on the swings while me and heather work out where to stay for the night.
Murray bridge arrival
Murray Bridge, bridge
Our Rig
A Snappy little brown duck
Puffing Billy without steam
Those are big wheels
Lily's wheel shot
Little red caboose
A Shy Lily in pink flowers
No Camping
Unfortunately there are no free stay camp grounds here so it is decided to go another 24kms to a place called Mannum. this is where the first ever Murray river paddle boats where made and launched. there is no drinking water but what a lovely little river side camp spot. it overlooks the village on the other side of the river which is quite nice indeed. Two ferry's run 24 hrs a day at this town and there are 10 other ferry's that cross the Murray at their towns all along this popular Australian river.
Noisy Neighbours
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View to the hills behind us.
View from our camp- Mannum By night
Early morning surprise
We go for a crossing with the ferry and a look around the town. An ice cream shop is not in town and so its ice cream on a stick for the girls. Some shopping is done and we cross the ferry again to go back to camp. earlier that day i had thrown my Yabbie trap into the river just to see what might crawl in and to my surprise a fresh water yabbie was caught. Aha! Bait! there might just be some fish in the Murray worth Catching. Me and Lily dug up some worms and sat by the river that afternoon with a line in. We did get a nibble or two which is a good sign that with the right bait i might just be able to snare a yellow Belly or better still the prized Murray cod. These things can grow up to 1.8 meters but i am not getting my hopes up with my fish catching record so far. Dinner time and settle in for the night.
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