Perlubie Beach South Australia

Sunset - 7th May 2010

Sunrise

Abandoned Hut

Beautiful, isn't it. Free too...pity about the mice plague!

Coward Springs - The Ultimate Camping Experience

The buildings at Coward Springs have been constructed from reclaimed materials, mostly from the Old Ghan Railway.

A spectacular sunset after a spectacular day.

What a way to end the month.

A 'whoop' bird...this one's for you Willow.

It's a long way between towns out here! Two hundred and four kilometres between Marree and OOdnadatta to be exact. It's no exaggeration when I say that Coward Springs is an oasis.

Prue and Greg (owner managers) you have created heaven on earth.

What I thought was the piece de resistance; if you want a hot shower, you have to heat up your water by lighting a fire! Or failing that have a dip in the warm artesian bore on site.

The camp was spotless, fireplaces provided, you could collect your own timber along a five kilometre stretch of road before entering the park, fees are very reasonable, wetlands and Old Ghan Railway relics to explore.

Bring everything! No corner store out here.

Tomorrow, William Creek.

Bunyeroo Gorge Hike

Although obviously beautiful and interesting, personally I found this walk to be a lot of effort for the actual result.

But don't be put off - we were there after rain, much of the track was washed away and we crossed the dry creek bed at least fifty times! A hard walk because most of the time we were walking on boulders.

Lots of interesting things to look at.

After leaving Bunyeroo Gorge we drove to Brachina Gorge, I thought this was much more spectacular and you could drive thought it! Unfortunately - no photos, 'cause someone wasn't prepared to stop!

My Country

I love a sunburnt country

A land of sweeping plains

Of rugged mountain ranges

of droughts and flooding rains

I love her far horizons....

Core of my heart my country! Her pitiless blue sky......

Thank you Dorothea McKellar.

Are We There Yet?

Arrived Wilpena Pound Visitor Information Centre which is housed in Wilpena Pound Resort early on Tuesday afternoon.

I did feel very excited to be here but my expectations of the place were soon to be dashed.

Firstly...it turned out be more civilised than I expected.

The car park is large and well set out, with fuel bowsers just outside the entrance to the Info Centre.

Loved the buildings, all made of rammed earth so that they matched the colour of the landscape.

Inside we made enquiries regarding camping. We knew that we could do some camping in the national park. We'd bought a South Australian National Parks holiday pass but camping at the resort was not included in the pass. We were to find out that the closest camp ground included in the pass was well over twenty kilometres away! We'd also intended to stay at least two nights at Wilpena but this would not eventuate.

An unpowered site at Wilpena cost us twenty one dollars, this included showers, toilets and a very small laundry. Although there were lots of camp kitchens we could not use these as they were there for the bus tours. Not happy. But, you could have a camp fire if you brought along your own fire wood or bought it at the general store for fifteen dollars a bag which we reluctantly did that night because we didn't bring enough to have a decent fire.

Not sure what to do we booked in for one night to see how things panned out. If we decided to stay another night...we could pay fees the next day.

Although there is a general store available, items can be quite expensive. But I refused to buy carrots at fifty cents each when they obviously had been in the fridge for well over a week. A fellow camper said to me: they'd have to give me fifty cents to take it away!

The most heard comment would now become 'the best way to see (it) is to fly'. Some times one would even dare to say 'the ONLY way to see (it) is...'

These comments mostly came from 'customer service' providers.

'It' can be read as either Wilpena Pound or Lake Eyre.

By the time we arrived at Wilpena we must have been told at least a dozen times that there is no water in Lake Eyre, and even if there was water in it, that doesn't mean you will see it, and if you do see it, all you will see is MUD. One woman even told us that we should save ourselves the trouble and expense of driving all the way to Marree and just take a flight because it would be cheaper and less time consuming in the end.

Oh dear.

That night we booked ourselves onto the shuttle bus for a small fee that would take us to the start of the Wangarra Lookout walk. Catching the bus meant two kilometres less to walk (one way). Not much information was forthcoming about these walks or the surrounding area. We were given a map of the the Flinders Ranges which made an area of 2500 kilometres squared look the size of 2500 metres squared.

The weather was brilliant and we made the most of it, as did this little chuff bird. S/he was extremely friendly. It turned out the bird had a mis-shapen leg and learned that it could gain sympathy from humans in the park and not have to battle with the other chuffs in the flock. It got lots of attention from me...I just love chuffs. Watching them in a flock is quite interesting and they do seem to use the 'poor me' tactic even as a flock when feeding.

Wallabies were plentiful at the camp site. Feeding and approaching is not allowed yet that night I was hassled by a wallaby! I swear he just came up to me in the dark as we were relaxing after dinner and started frisking me for food. As much as I tried, he wouldn't leave me alone until he'd cleaned the ground around me of any tiny crumbs which we might have dropped. The wallaby even ate a piece of plastic he found on the ground, what could I do to stop him?

Eventually, when he realised I wasn't going to feed him he moved on to the next unsuspecting group of campers about sixty metres away.

The next day he turned up again, for lunch with a group on a bus tour!

Above you can see how nicely the buildings blend into the landscape. It's amazing too how the walls radiate warmth back into the space inside the building. I noticed this especially, the next morning when using the ablution block.

Despite the name of park, that is Wilpena Pound Resort, we actually stayed in the Caravan Park & Camping Ground. The resort section was neatly packed away out of sight...maybe next time?

Murray Bridge South Australia

We arrived at Murray Bridge (yes this is the name of a town) the afternoon of Thursday 22nd April after driving through the Coorong National Park, Meningie and Tailem Bend.

We had intended to stay at the national park but found that was closed due to baiting in the area. We were a bit disappointed, well, quite a lot disappointed but I suppose this just highlighted the need to prepare ahead and check out park closures in advance.

On our way into Murray Bridge we checked out a caravan park a bit out of town but didn't like the look of it and moved on.

Quite a lot of the banks of the river are eroded and pose a danger of collapsing, so it wasn't uncommon to see safety fences erected here and there.

As a child the Murray River featured heavily in our social studies lessons in primary school so it was of special interest to me to get to see this river. Nothing could have prepared me for the magnitude of the Murray. It's not called the Mighty Murray for nothing.

It appeared that the young people in Murray Bridge are well catered for.

A brightly coloured mosaic seat in the park along the Murray River.

A marker gives you some idea of what can happen to the Murray in time of flood.

The caravan park we stayed in was 'on the banks' of the Murray River. By this time we were beginning to understand that 'on the banks' of any river be it the Murray, the Barwon or the Snowy didn't mean that you could actually see the river, or if you could see it...that didn't mean that you had access.

Thursday night was extremely warm and I didn't get much sleep. Initially I thought that the trains were running all night but later, as we did a quick tour of the town, realised that a certain factory operates through the night and it was this what kept me awake. As usual, Honey Pie heard nothing.

We were up and packed pretty early the next morning and by the time we'd done our tour of the town, the sky was overcast.

Next stop Adelaide.

Naracoorte Caves NP - Blanche Cave

Did a tour of Blanche Cave and the Bat Cave on Tuesday 20th April.

The Bat Cave is viewed via infra red camera, and not actually entered.

This way the endangered Bent Wing Bats are observed without disturbing their habitat.

What did I learn from viewing these bats? Bats are not blind at all!

This is a sink hole more or less left in its natural state, unlike the Unphertson Sink Hole in Mount Gambier.

Some ivy grows over the sink hole, but not removed for heritage value. Apparently, locals in past decades retreated to the caves to keep cool in the summer months and some of the exotic plants remain to retain some of this history.

The park has a kiosk that serves some yummy food at reasonable prices. On the day we toured the caves we had lunch at the kiosk, I had pumpkin soup with cheese scones for $5.50 and Andrew had an egg and bacon wrap for around seven dollars. On Wednesday, we also had lunch there before we moved on to our next destination.

This time we both had Warrigal Pie. I think we paid around $6.50 each for this. It was the most delicious pie made with a rice base topped with a savoury custard and steamed Warrigal greens all prepared in the kiosk kitchen. It was fine cuisine at very reasonable price and a pleasant surprise.

Sunset - Naracoorte Caves National Park, South Australia

We arrived at the campsite on Monday 19th April. Yes, it rained that night but what a spectacular sunset preceeded the rain.
Unfortunatley, even though the park had a camp kitchen, it was not available to campers, only to those staying in the cabins.
We had a powered site and access to an uncovered barbeque.

This is were we met Bruce and Robyn, fellow campers on a two year trip around Australia, and where the Portuguese Millipede came into its own. While parts of the country were inundated by locusts, the Limestone Coast was being inundated by the millipedes...it wasa fight between you and the millipedes to see who could overtake the shower recess first, after you had very carefully mopped the floor...felt like throwing up each time!