Archive for the ‘South Australia’ Category

Flinders Ranges National Park – Last Day


10 Sep

Today was a quiet day spent mostly at the campsite. Thankfully the wind had all but gone, though the flies were back with a vengeance. Nathan spent most of the morning writing and drawing in his diary.

There was only one other couple camping at the campground, and Nathan and Toby have spent a lot of time with them over the last few days. Their names are John and Jan. it was John’s birthday today which really excited the kids. They rode up straight after breakfast and went for a walk with John. We had a packet cake mix in our food box which Toby had chosen at the supermarket at home, and I had thought we could cook it when we had a slow day at the campsite. It became John’s birthday cake and Toby made sure that it was cooked, iced and even had candles on it.

We did go for a drive in the afternoon to find some water and ended up back at the spot we went to yesterday. We walked a bit further upstream and found quite a deep water hole which excited Nathan in particular. Both kids ended up without any clothes on (except their hats) and went waist-deep into the water.

Back at the campsite Andrew and Nathan went for a walk to find a rock with fossils that changed the ancient timeline when it was discovered while Toby and I iced the cake. Then we all took the cake to John and Jan’s campsite and sang Happy Birthday to John. Then we had dinner and the kids were asleep early. This was the first day that Toby hadn’t had a sleep during the day, so he was exhausted.

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Flinders Ranges National Park


09 Sep

Today was windy. Very windy. Horribly windy. The only advantage of all the wind was that the flies were less that we have otherwise experienced.

We went to Wilpena again to do a load of washing at the caravan park there. While we were trying to dry the clothes in the dryer we had some lunch. Checking on the clothes found them still wet, so we gave up on the drier, bundled the clothes into the car and went for a drive down to look around south of Wilpena.

The scenery on the dirt road (Moralana Scenic Drive) that we took was possibly the most spectacular that we have seen. The dirt road joined the bitumen roads that run on the eastern and western sides of the National Park. We also saw a couple of small flocks of birds that looked like budgies. We were wondering if we would see budgies this trip, and it looks like we did.

In the way back into the National Park we stopped at a stream and the boys spent ages throwing stones into the water.

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Northern Flinders Ranges


08 Sep

Today we decided to head to Blinman and do the Copper Mine Tour. We knew that the tours ran at 10 am, midday and 2pm daily. The road to Blinman was bituman the entire way, so we ended up getting there at 9 am. When we found the office to book into the tour, we were told that we had filled the tour. They take a maximum of 10 people on each tour. It cost us $65 for a family ticket.

The tour was fantastic. The mine ran for 45 years and closed in 1907. The project to open the mine for tourism took 10 years to complete and there was lots of volunteer work and fundraising. It is now pretty much run by volunteers, though the tour guide was one who was paid. We had tickets on lanyards that we had to leave on the hook where we got helmets…this was the equivalent of miners ‘tag in’. We saw small copper seams which had been left by the miners, and we had old mining methods and how the mine worked explained to us. The boys were pretty happy to be wearing the helmets and playing with the lights on them. After the tour the tour guide helped the boys find a special stone each to take home. They ended up taking two each, one with Pyrite (manganese) deposits and the other with copper deposits. Before we left we went for a walk around the site, which we were able to do on our own.

We then took the road to Parachilna that went through Parachilna Gorge. It was a very pretty road, and we found a lovely spot for lunch on the edge of the (dry) river. Before we reached Parachilna the ranges had ended and we were back in the typical flat terrain of inner Australia. From there we drove to Leigh Creek. A bit further on was an open cut coal mine, but we couldn’t find a better view if it than from the main road. South of Leigh Creek we went to Aroona Dam which was a pretty spot, definitely a great picnic spot.

On the way back to the campsite we again stopped where there was a small stream of water flowing alongside and over the road. The kids spent ages paddling and throwing stones into the water. We also saw a dozen yellow footed rock wallabies on the way.

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Lunch spot

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Lunch spot

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Open cut coal mine

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Aroona Dam

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Yellow footed rock wallaby

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Yellow footed rock wallabies

Flinders Ranges – baking bread


07 Sep

We had a relaxed day today. After breakfast we had a wander down the river and once again Andrew found a very interesting rock. It consisted of a web of hollow tubes which were about 1.5 – 2 cm long.

I decided to try out making bread today. As with all the other days we have been in the Flinders Ranges, the temperature was around 30 degrees. I used a sachet of dried yeast, and because I had forgotten to look up a recipe before I left home I winged it. I figured I have made enough bread in the breadmaker to have at least a bit of an idea. So I put the yeast, 1 cup of warm water, 1/2 cup milk, 1 teaspoon of salt and about 1 tablespoon of honey into a bowl and left it covered in the car for half an hour. Then I added 3.5 cups of flour, and realising that I had forgotton to put in butter or oil, I put about 1 tablespoon-worth of butter in at this point. I mixed it all up and left it in the car covered again for about half an hour. It had risen a lot, so I kneaded it again and put it into two tins. We really wanted to drive to Wilpena again, so I left the mix in the tent which was cooler than the car.

We were gone about 2 hours. We had a shower at the caravan park, collected a bit more water and filled up with diesel. Back at the camper, my bread had over risen. I decided to try cooking one of the loaves, while I punched down and reshaped the other and left it to rise. By the time the first loaf was cooked the second was ready to put into the Weber. The first loaf was a bit coarse but yummy, and the second one was great! How amazing to have fresh bread with your dinner while camping!

Nathan had a bit of a stack on his bike this afternoon and he now has a very sore and swollen top lip and some other scrapes. The people he was visiting helped him, which was really lovely of them.

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Nathan writing in his diary

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The rock Andrew found

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Bread rising in the car

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Bread cooked

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View from our campsite

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We had a small campfire and toasted marshmellows tonight

Flinders Ranges National Park – Driving Tour


06 Sep

We went on a scenic drive today. We drove along the Geological Trail to Bunyeroo Valley Scenic Drive. It was a drive packed full of spectacular scenery. We stopped for a look around each of the campgrounds we went past. All are lovely, but we are happy with where we are currently camped as well.

The Twin Gums lookout was pretty, but probably the least spectacular of all the lookouts we visited. Soon after that lookout we stopped to have a splash in a stream of water flowing beside the road. There were tadpoles and lots of algae. The kids picked up a stick each and fished for algae.

There were three lookouts soon afterwards. They all provided spectacular views of the surrounding hills and valleys. We stopped at Yanyanna Hut which is a shelter for overnight hikers. We continued along the scenic drive until we hit bitumen and then drove down to Wilpena where we bought bread, milk and ham (I’m not sure what Toby will eat for lunch when we run out of ham, he is a creature of habit and only eats ham sandwiches for lunch at the moment). There was mobile phone coverage at Wilpena, so I frantically uploaded photographs and we updated Nathan’s blog before we left.

Our next stop was was 12km down a dirt track to a Sacred Canyon Heritage Site. By this time Toby had fallen asleep, so Andrew and Nathan went for a walk to see the ancient etchings. When Toby woke up we walked up the track to meet up with them and see the etchings on the rocks.

Then we headed back to the main road, stopped at Hucks Lookout and just a bit further up took the 2 km detour to Stokes Hill where there was a magnificent 360 degree view of the surrounding hills. I saw a man making a phone call up there, so checked and found I had mobile coverage, and quickly updated my blog with photographs and posted it.

We stopped to get 10 litres of water from a tap on a tank at Oraparinna. The map we had showed that water was available here. We are trying our best to be careful with our water and are currently using less than 10 litres (I’d estimate an average of 8 litres) a day for washing and cooking, with drinking water being additional. We could reduce this a little more if absolutely necessary, but given that limited water is available we are using just a little more than necessary to make life a bit more comfortable.

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Twin Gums Lookout

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Razorback Lookout

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Bunyeroo Valley Lookout

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Yanyanna Hut

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Sacred Valley walk

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Peterborough to Flinders Ranges National Park


04 Sep

It was another beautiful morning with a pretty sunrise. We packed up the camper, more slowly than other mornings, and afterwards we had a shower before heading back to Peterborough. We had to hand back the keys for our campsite and grab a couple of items from the supermarket that we had forgotten yesterday. Then it was off on the last leg of our journey to the Flinders Ranges.

We topped up the car with Diesel at Hawker. The road ran beside several mountain ranges on our right side which were very picturesque, though I found them difficult to adequately photograph them. We finally turned off the bitumen road and took a well formed, though corrugated, dirt road into the Flinders Ranges.

Once we got to the Flinders Ranges National Park the road crossed a creek several times and the road was very rocky at those points. some of the crossings also had a bit of water in them, but nothing too deep. We had a look at all the campsites that we went past, but we ended up camped at the Trezona campsite. It is a bit busy at the moment, with over 100 15-year-old girls on a school camp, but they will leave on Friday. Nathan is having fun making friends with them all.

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Sunrise

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Peterborough


03 Sep

We had a relaxing morning at our campsite. Breakfast was cooked on the campfire, and Nathan updated his diary and blog. The kids rode around, played in the dirt and had a hit on the pole tennis. We drove into town after lunch, did a load of washing, grabbed a few things at the supermarket, got some ice and then went to Steamtown where we bought the tour and the lights show.

The tour was great. They had a roundhouse with different engines and carriages that we could look through. The guide told us lots of interesting history about the trains and the general workings of a train town. There were steam engines, Diesel engines, passenger carriages from various times, a maternal and child health carriage, carriages with beds (one had the kids’ bed virtually in the ceiling of the train which the kids thought would have been a great place to sleep) and a very fancy, spacious carriage complete with piano! After the tour we wandered around an area which you could explore without a guide. Nathan was pretty impressed with a train carriage that had a zigzag hallway with tiny compartments for one person.

After Steamtown we took the kids to a playground and had a counter meal at one of the pubs before heading back to Steamtown for the lights show. It was essentially a movie about the history of trains in the district, and how they related to other South Australian and Australian railways. The whole rail gauge issue, in hindsight, seemed like such a waste of time and effort, having to move people, stock and goods between trains where the rail gauge changed. Nathan found it really interesting, Toby didn’t want to but he fell asleep. I thought it was really well done.

While we were having the tour of Steamtown Andrew fell down some steps and hurt himself. We are hoping that there is no serious damage, but his arm/elbow is pretty sore at the moment. Our good camera, though, is now out of action, as it hit the steps quite hard when Andrew fell.

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Breakfast

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A grasshopper-like bug

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Loo with a view, toilet at our campsite

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Snacktime

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Roundhouse and turntable

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Zigzag hallway in a carriage

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Interesting bug in the light on our tent

Morgan to Peterborough


02 Sep

We thought about spending two nights at our campsite in the Morgan Conservation Reserve, but in the end we decided to push on. Our destination is the Flinders Ranges, but it really was a lovely spot we had.

We drove to Burra and went to the town and copper mine lookouts, had some lunch and kept going to Peterborough. This town has a steam place that Toby has been looking forward to, and the tourist information centre was in an old train carriage. That was pretty exciting for the kids, but it got even better when Andrew pointed them in the direction of an old steam engine they could play in.

We decided to stay a couple of nights at a property about 15 km out of Peterborough called Willangi. We paid at the tourist information centre, though the lady who served us didn’t seem to know a great deal about it and actually asked why we wanted to go there (according to her there was nothing there and lots of creepy crawlies). As far as we were concerned, the local caravan park wasn’t our style and there seemed to be no decent free camping places nearby.

So we followed our map out to the property and followed the signs on the property to the shed campsite, which is the one we were told to use as the others weren’t currently in use. We met Neil at the shed and he moved the mob of sheep that were in the paddock somewhere else, but even so we were disappointed that there was little shade and loads of fresh sheep poo around. Still, we’d paid so we started setting up the camper when a lady drove up to tell us that she had just received her message that we had come for two nights and they usually put campers for multiple nights in a different camp. It had more shade, no sheep poo and a dry creek bed for the kids to play in. We decided to pack the camper back up and move, and it certainly was a much nicer site. They supplied some wood so that we could have a fire, which we made use of and cooked our dinner on it and also had the obligatory marshmellows afterwards. We looked at the stars and listened to the wind in the trees, Andrew took some photos of the stars, and we went to bed. Ahhhh, the peace and quiet of no mobile coverage.

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Playground in Morgan

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Old open cut copper mine at Burra

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From the open cut mine lookout

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Yet another steam train to play in, at Peterborough

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The human Venus fly traps

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Trouble for one

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Dinner

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Campsite

Hattah-Kulkyne National Park to Morgan


01 Sep

Birds identified: mallee ringneck, sulphur-crested cockatoo

Nathan, who was so very excited about it being Father’s Day, told Andrew (in fact they were the first words Nathan spoke when he woke up) that he could choose whether he drove or not today because it was Father’s Day. Andrew prefers driving, so I couldn’t see it being any different to any other day in that respect. We had breakfast and packed up the trailer, making sure there was enough time to open the Father’s Day presents. Nathan had bought a couple of items at the Father’s Day stall at school which he had put a lot of thought into.

On the way out of the National Park we saw a beautiful Mallee Ringneck and also a few sulphur-crested cockatoos. When we got to Red Cliffs we had a wander around the monthly market and had a sausage each from a sausage sizzle and bought some more bread, milk, frozen vegetables and a few items of fruit. We knew we couldn’t take fruit and vegetables into South Australia, so we didn’t bring much of either. However, it occurred to us today that we could take frozen veggies and since our car-fridge is currently in freezer-mode we bought some frozen veggies to eat until we could find some fresh veggies in SA to purchase. It worked out that we needn’t have worried as there were plenty of opportunities to purchase fresh fruit and veggies across the border.

We crossed the border into South Australia and about 5 km further on was the quarantine station. Toby scoffed a banana during those 5 km. We stopped in Renmark to eat lunch and the kids enjoyed a splash in a fountain. Nathan said the water was cold, but it was lovely on a 31 degree day!

After lunch we drove on to Morgan and found a lovely spot to camp in the Morgan Conservation Reserve. We had thought that we could have a swim in the River Murray, but it was pretty cold and only Andrew was brave enough to completely submerge. And at night we were serenaded by frogs…it sounded like there was a lot of them.

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Fountain in Renmark

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Campsite

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