Transfer to Glenelg

Today was the day we shifted from Dutton Bay to what South Australians - at least those who live in Adelaide -  refer to as The Bay: Glenelg.

Following from comments earlier about how  the Port Lincoln area appears to have 'branded' (cough, cough vomit at that word) itself as the Seafood Coast we mused as to how Adelaide would brand its coastline.  Frances came up with Culture Coast, which is probably a good idea of something the glitterati of Adelaide would sign up for.  I preferred the Crow-eater Coast, although that  reference to South Australians has probably joined bonza and strewth as a non-word.

As I had discovered the previous day that it was only 700km between the two residences we had a fairly relaxed packing of the car and it was close to daylight as we drove away from Vandy's Shack at 7:15.No kangaroos were harmed during the drive to Port Lincoln where we hung a left and headed for Port Augusta.  I was able to spot these cultural artefacts on the edge of the town as we headed North.

Traffic was very light: on several occasions I noticed about 20kms between crossing with another car, and I don't recall overtaking car until close to Whyalla.  The country looked very dry and barren as we went up the road.  Just about every vestige of bush has been cleared and the sown crops haven't yet germinated despite fair recent rains.

This colourful  hillside didn't show up as well as I'd hoped, possibly due to the murky cloud.  The weather forecast was "mainly cloudy": for the first 3 hours it was about 99% cloudy!

I had hoped to spot a sculpture of an emu made from rusty barbed wire but alas I didn't notice  it on this leg.  So we navigated Port Augusta and turned South, running past the Lower Flinders Ranges.

 The road was a little busier than the stretch up from Port Lincoln.  We heard a story on ABC News about how truckies were fed up with caravans driving slowly and blocking up the areas where trucks can park for the required sleep breaks.

Then we came up behind a B-double doing less than 70kph.  Sure enough, in front of it was a large campervan (like a small Winnebago, although not that make) an in between them a sedan that wouldn't overtake even though a few chances appeared.  After about 4km of this we passed a sign saying "Overtaking lane 5km" and settled down for another ~5 minutes of annoyance.

As we approached the overtaking lane it looked as though the 'van was going to speed up, but it then dropped back to about 80kph.  As soon as it could the truck pulled out and passed the vermin, dropping back in quickly so we could also get by both of them. Frances looked at the van driver: oldish male, leaning across yakking to his passenger: no idea at all that there were a dozen other vehicles queued up behind him (some of whom probably had to wait another 10km to get past).

Whatever.  We rolled on down the road and hooked in to the metropolitan area, taking the North-South Expressway.  This was an elevated expressway for a few kilometres and then dropped down to the usual narrow, crowded South Road with a subterranean expressway-under-construction next to it.

That clip from Google Earth shows the stretch covering both Port and Torrens Rds where the intersections were effectively closed.  Work on the completed bit (4.8km) began in 2011 and it appears the sunken stretch currently being worked on is to be completed in 2018: the rest of the road, from the Torrens to Darlington appears to be unfunded yet.  So they have got a few minor issues (including massive chaos for years as every East-West road south of the River has to be overpassed; buying a whole lot of land and houses) to deal with.  My guess is this will not be completed before 2040.

Whatever.  We were fascinated in Port Lincoln to see the price of diesel jump 7 cents per litre between Tuesday and Saturday.  The 'new price' 155c/l was evident everywhere until we got to Henley Beach Rd where it suddenly dropped to 146c./l at a BP station and then went even lower at Liberty.  I'm sure that this is all kosher and fuel companies don't collude.

After a minor navigational snafu by me we got to our new accommodation and moved in.  We decided to go for a short walk around the area to stretch our legs.  An early observation, at the Sturt River (now a concrete drain) was that it was totally fenced off by SA Water.  They really do seem to be a very authoritarian organisation, even by the low standards of water companies.

Then down Tapley's Hill Rd which was very busy and noisy.  I noticed this place, which must be awaiting the due process to allow high rise to be developed.

 It must have been vacant for years to get the rainwater tank into that condition!

We decided not to go as far as Anzac Highway but swung back into the 'burb.  The noise from the road died away almost completely within a block.  It seemed a very pleasant area with a mixture of old houses (such as the one we're staying in), new houses on a standard block and places were a standard block had been subdivided.  This decorated stobie pole showed that there was a bit of interest in making the area attractive..

Getting back home we had tea and went to bed.

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Travels with Virgil

To get the subject out of the way first.  Frances has borrowed a talking book of the Aeneid from the library and gave it a whirl today as we drove along.  I am not a fan: I don't really like talking bools in general as this was very hard to follow with a lot of forced rhymes.  Perhaps it is because the translator (John Dryden) is from the 17th Century or perhaps it is my lack of knowledge.  We got through 4 'books' in about an hour and a half: only 8 more to go!

We woke just before 5am and packed efficiently so were on the road by 5:30.  Still very dark.  Once we got too the Sturt Highway I started to relax about 'roo-risk although there were heaps of bunnies beside, and occasionally running across, the road.  We didn't see a single truck for the first 40 km.  The sun came up as we neared Renmark probably about 6:45.

The State border was crossed and the car inspected for fruit with no grief.  The lack of grief is because Frances handles that: there are checkpoints on three roads but not on the many other roads that enter SA so I think it is just a farce providing employment for people in economically challenged towns!We rumbled on, looking for an orange stall but found none.

After Renmark the road signage was interesting with a couple of necessary turns off the main drag surprising me.   To my great surprise we had quite a lot of drizzle on the stretch from Renmark to Burra: as most of this route is close to, if not beyond Goyders Line rain is not what is expected.  (The line marks the limit of arable land and is named after an early Surveyor - the road is also named after him.)  As we drew closer to the Hills quite a few kangaroos were standing in in the road, but we avoided them all.

As we got into the Hills a comfort stop as taken at Gulnare.  This was at the oval which had reasonable facilities but very little grass.  Not sure I'd fancy playing footy on that.

We popped out on Highway one and proceeded North.  The hills (lower Flinders Ranges) were quite impressive as was a very long train.  There were a few bits of roadworks (with limits of 40kph  but no work being done on a Sunday).

 After Port Germein views of the Gulf, and the Hills.

In the next image, note pipeline, which is I suspect carrying water from Morgan to Whyalla, and particularly the light in the sky which is at this stage about 20km away..

It isn't a UFO but part of the Sundrop vegetable farm.  This uses 23,000 mirrors to capture solar energy to heat or cool glass houses and to desalinate water from the Gulf.  One product is tomatoes for sale to/by Coles.  This is a much closer view.

In Port Augusta we crossed the tip of Spencer Gulf ...

... and shortly afterwards the Port Augusta Golf Course, graced with a family of emus.

This image of our fuel consumption display is interesting in showing the trip from Wentworth to Burra (flat line), crossing the ranges, spiky, and then another flat for the stretch from Crystal Brook to Port Augusta.  (It continued to flatline to Port Lincoln.)

Frances took over driving just North of Cowell so I am to blame for the next few images. In Southern Australia the dominant architectural feature of most small towns is the grain silos.  These are at Cowell.

Here is the oval at Arno Bay.  Contrast it with the one at Gulnare above.  I doubt if they will be visible but there was a huge flock of Galahs feeding on the oval - they may appear in the bottom right of the image.

The farms out here are pretty big: so are the tractors.

The roads aren't that big, but they are straight. As indeed they have been pretty much since Wagga: at one point East of Renmark I recorded 8.2km dead straight - very attractive in the dark with spotlights illuminating the guideposts for about 1.5 kilometres - then a slight bend followed by 10.6 km straight.  And so forth.

When I talk about the silos dominating the town, here are the ones at Tumby Bay, just before the 10km marker.

So we dodged Port Lincoln itself  and trundled up the West side of the Peninsula  few kilometres to our accommodation at Dutton Bay.  These Sooty Oystercatchers were about 20m from the house.

Here is a view across Dutton Bay.

This is the Northern tip of the little island just as evening comes in.  I estimated about 125 Little Pied Cormorants and 10 Black-faced Cormorants (and in the better light of morning found some Pied Cormorants also.

After 2 days of about 900km, even with Frances giving me a rest I was knackered and in bed by 8:15 (SA time - 30 minutes behind NSW).

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What is Went worth?

Quite a bit as it gives us a half-way (about 850km) break on our trip to Port Lincoln!

We got away at 6:30 which was pretty good as it meant we'd get to Wentworth in good time.  The weather was fine for driving as we set off, with cloud and wind but no rain.  Here is the situation near Jugiong.

Going along the Hume we noticed a car overtake us with no number plates, which seemed a good way of avoiding speed cameras and similar infringements on liberty.  A little further we found said car again with the driver discovering that the Plods do not approve of such strategies and were having a conversation, which I suspect could do very bad things for their average speed, bank balance and future driving plans.

 Autumn has arrived in Wagga as shown by the foliage!

 Round about Wagga we noticed a lot of cars coming towards us in pulses which seemed a bit curious.  An interesting roadside sign promised "Balls baits and bullets" in Narranderah.  On the outskirts of the town we discovered the reason for the pulses: roadworks, fixing up problems that only the Roads engineers were aware of, at the intersection of the Newell and Sturt Highways.  Only about 5 minutes of delay

Once out heading towards the Hay Plain we noticed lots of motorbikes, including many three-wheelers towing trailers, coming towards us.  This continued for the rest of the day.  (That got solved the next day somewhere near Renmark where a sign talked about Ulysses MC AGM.)

Out on the Plain we encountered, as tradition requires, droving.  It was a tad un-traditional in that all the stock were Aberdeen Angus rather than Herefords or mixed breeds.

For many years we had crossed the Plain with no sight of anything to do with cotton.  On both our last two traverses we have seen heaps.  Perhaps we were a little earlier this time but it seemed to be everywhere in vast acreages.  No wonder the farmers are in an uproar about restrictions on irrigators in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin.  This image is a paddock of bolls.

Some harvested rolls: we crossed with many trucks carting these off to ...?

This snap shows: a line of bales in a paddock; the brown stems left after picking,; and a small amount of the whit stuff that always seems to accumulate along the roadside in a cotton area.

We wondered if the cotton was responsible for the dearth of emus.  At one point we thought we might not see any for the trip but a few - perhaps 7 in total were spotted towards the end of the trip.  There were very few birds around except Ravens.  A few Black Kites and Kestrels, 1 Pied Butcherbird and a couple of Black-shouldered Kites.

In my view the Plain ends at Balranald.  On what we saw, so does prosperity.   While the houses still looked OK quite a few businesses in the town looked to be closed (permanently, not just on Saturday afternoon).  On the highway out the other side we encountered another lot of road works that delayed us again.  I know roads have to be maintained but no-one here seemed to be working except the driver of the pilot vehicle.  All the others seemed to be sitting around talking about obesity - or at least demonstrating it.

This also gave the caravans a chance to bunch up and make driving slow.  While this is a further tradition I had thought it had been dispensed with as on our recent trips vans moved along reasonably quickly.  Perhaps the Hume Highway is different to the North South roads such as the Newell?

Somewhere around this point a truck was kind enough to spit a rock at our windshield.  I didn't notice a new chip so carried on.

On getting close to Wentworth we called in at a fuel station in Dareton.  It had closed but as a friendly local explained (there were no instructions on the pumps) there was a terminal on the wall that allowed one to get fuel.  It merged that as is often the case in rural aral areas the advertised price for diesel was for the dirty stuff that trucks use and car diesel was about 2 cents a litre dearer.  Grrrr.  It then emerged (again no instructions) there wasn't a pay-for-fill option.  However you could put in an amount of $400 and they'd only take what you used, with the remaining amount staying as an open order for 7 days.  Trust us - sure wouldn't.  them we'll get fuel somewhere else, of need be in Renmark the next morning.

As it turned out we got fuel in Wentworth as a servo operated by a human.  After shifting minimal kit into our room at the Central Motel (which allowed the small dog in the room - HUGE  bouquet) we went for  walk around the riverbank.  This is the  Darling, which merges with the Murray nearby.

There seemed to be a lot of water in the Rivers:presumably there has been good rain from cyclones in the head waters of the Darling in Queensland.

A statue of John Egge an immigrant from China who seems to have been one of the biggest traders on the River.  Or, in a flood, the main street of Wentworth which he sailed his boat down!

A memento of the old days.  I'm not sure if this paddle steamer moves or is just there to look good!

Although we have been to Wentworth before I do like a good War Memorial.

After the early start and a longish drive an early and solid night sleep.

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Happy Census Day!

The chaos continues: I am so glad I am not involved other than as a respondent. I've just completed our form at Rocky (ie Rockhampton) and it was OK, but a few strange bits of design.

When we got up it was a very dewy morning and the humidity was evident in these clouds.

 What about the rat you ask?  It had cleaned out one of the traps without firing it.  Tonight I will try to set them very sensitively, and donate some more Ratsak to the cause.

The coconuts look a bit threatening.

The caravan park was a tad basic but having a resident flock of PWDs  is a bonus.

When we left I called in to thank them for allowing Tammie (despite signs to the contrary).  The two ladies on deck were very pleased that I took the time to do so.  Given their evident low occupancy rate they need to get every punter they can.

It was still humid and quite cool over night , so lots of dew on the camper.  Also attractive clouds over the mountains a bit South of Mackay.

The drive was strange as it seemed to take forever to get anywhere.  For the first 80 or so kms this was because of continual small settlements and/or roadworks.  After that the speed limit went up to 110 but it still seemed slow.  At one point a B-double came past us and had to cut in a bit, but no biggie.  We then followed it for about the next 100kms.  Still time went slowly - was it because we were going through sclerophyll woodland?

Eventually we got to Rockhampton.  It was huge.  Lots of flashing lights resolved to cops (1) escorting this massive load (2) - no idea what it was.

After dropping the camper off we went back to Rockie to look round the Kershaw Gardens.  Generally good, with this palm clad pool the highlight.

They have solved the problem of how many trees by painting a number on them!

On the way back out to the camp we took a look at Shanessy Park.  Another huge aggregation of Plumed Whistling Ducks (this time I guessed 2000).

Back at the camp a moggie was evident.  Physical warfare didn't happen, but neither looked likely to back down until I intervened on Tammy's side.

I like this night shot of Frances preparing an excellent tea.

Here is the entrance to the camp at night.

I'd gone to the gate to photograph the passing trucks, but they were too fast.  They were also continual through the night, as were the coal trains (ie trains carrying coal, not carrying miners as per Hugh Masakela's song) across the highway.  Each train took ~70 seconds to pass so my guess is they were about 1km long.  Despite this continual racket we slept quite well.

Update: in daylight a few of the trains were gereal freight and others passenger carriers.

• Bird of the day: Little Lorikeet pulls down the prize as most everything more interesting has already been used.  Nope: Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo got the nod.    Flock is (again) Plumed Whistling Duck at Shanessy Park
• Vegetation of the day:   Palms at Kershaw Gardens
• Memorable moment:  It was actually many moments following a truck for about 60km!
• Comment of the day: "Someone just refused."  The poor Census Collector at our campground.  She is damn lucky in the circumstances that anyone has cooperated.
• Pie of the day: Non existent.
• Troppo moment of the day. Misinterpreting the signs to the Rockhampton VIC  and doing an exploration as a result.  This meets both definitions of troppo: bloody stupid and becoming angry!

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Not looking back yet

I will start with a quiz:  if males = Guns what are females?  Answer at the end of this post.  (alternatives welcomed in the comments section!)

Frances asked if I had put a photo of the cottage on the blog yet.  I have now.

 After checking the car Ratsak situation (some eaten in the front - good that should fix it) we went for our final stroll on MatherRd.  The weather wasn't good, after raining most of the night.

 But it wasn't as bad as we found two hours later as we headed towards Millaa Millaa.  An unpleasant drive in showers on a hilly, twisty road.

Once we got to the bottom of the escarpment the weather improved.  It was cane country, what could be referred to as MMSBC  (miles and miles of sugar bloody cane). Trains were very evident.

 So was smoke or steam from the mills in every town.

 This was the closest we came to seeing a Cassowary.

 As we proceeded along we came to the Hinchinbrook lookout it was very impressive.

At Ingham I went for a look at the Tyto Wetlands  They were excellent and delivered Wandering Whistling Ducks (Bird of the Day) and

 .... Comb-crested Jacana.

They were also graced by an Italian Festival; with the worst Italian ballads since the crap our teacher offered us in language school in Sienna.  Ingham has the wetlands as a big plus and the festival and the fish and chip shop (see comments under pies) as BIG minuses.

On down the road towards Townsville.  We spent quite a bit of time close to Townsville due to the worst bunch of road (non) works we've come across so far on the trip.  These rocks on the way out of town were the highlight.

As we got close to Alva Beach Frances noticed a flock of about 20 Black Kites on some recently cut cane fields.  Of course by the time I'd stoppedthere was only one  left on the ground.

 A few kms later she spotted a group of Bustards.   Well done that Woman: well done those birds for hanging around while I did a uie and got back to them.

 On the beach at Alva kites were being surfed.  Note the one in the background out in the ocean.

Here is the estuary.

 Our first coconut palm with nuts.

 A Little Egret gave some ID issues but were resolved by deciding it was a juvenile.

 This dog gave Tammy a look but stuck with the quad.  See also comment of the day.

• Bird of the day: Wandering Whistling Ducks at Tyto Wetlands.  The flock was contested between the Black kites on the ground at Alva and the Crimson Finches at Tyto.  Size matters so the Kites win.
• Vegetation of the day:   Coconut tree at Alva Beach
• Memorable moment: Frances spottingthe Bustards wins, but the Hinchinbrook Lookout gets a walk on the carpet.
• Comment of the day: "He wouldn't hurt her." by the owners of a dog that charged Tammy with gums bared.  When bioth held and introduced he snarled again: I think they were optimistic.
• Pie of the day:.  No pie, but Frances suggested fish and chips at Ingham.  There about 10 folk in the shop and one staffer debating each bit of fish.  At least a 30 minute wait.  Pass. 0/10.
• Troppo moment of the day. The dog on a quad

Answer to Quiz: Roses, of course.
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