SAFARI 2016

This day in 3 weeks time we will be on the road north. Preparations have begun, bed made, food planned, stitching and drawing gear packed & Kindle loaded with books to read. EC is clean and in tip top condition ready for another big trip.
The Textile Exhibition 'Pop Up Five' which I am involved in is still running with 4 days left over the last weekend of May.
 We plan to be away until the middle of August, after which we hope the main winter chills will have blown away. Hope I have time to keep these regular blogs posted. I will try but there is so much to do after we find a camp spot each evening.

August 11th,

We said farewell to our last camp spot at 8.30 am. The busy Murray Valley Highway was quite noisy during the night but our sleep was OK.

Our trip home was uneventful with a stop in Shepparton for Food Shopping and lunch. John enjoyed his favourite, a foccacia from the Food Mall.

We were soon back on the Hume Highway with many vehicles. The last avenue of trees we drove through was along the Snow Road. High eucalypts gave us no problems, unlike the low  and spreading mulgas of the inland tracks.

'Kyamba' welcomed us with our lovely Leucoxylon in bloom. Cynthia had been this morning and put a bunch of these bright flowers on my table as well as a welcoming container of soup for dinner this evening. Very soon I had a 'Welcome Home' phone call from Anneshka. Yes, we are pleased to be home after being away for 8 weeks. EC is really quite small inside so we are both appreciating much more room to live in. Having said that, the rig provides us with many comforts while on Safari. We have seen some lovely new places and added some new experiences to our list of pleasures....My favourite day was driving through the wild flowers to Mt Augusta. Success in identifying quite a large number of new mallee eucalypts was good fun and challenging.

Avenue of eucalypts along the Snow Road from Glenrowan to Oxley

Leucoxylon in bloom at 'Kyamba', Milawa.

August 10th

We left Loxton early this morning after a quiet night. The road south through Pinaroo and Ouyon and on to Nyah on the Murray River was largely lined with beautiful Eucalypt mallee trees...I just love the shape of them with their many trunks. The broad green acres of wheat was an enjoyable change as well, after the grey of the Nullarbor. We stopped in Ouyon especially to buy a Vanilla Slice..very decadent..particularly for me!

We made the final change of time to our watches now we are back in Victoria. The main thing I have noticed for the first time for 2 months is the chill air of winter with some sharp showers coming from the south west. We even got caught in one as we walked, this evening, along the edge of Lake Boga where we are camped. It is a clean and fresh park looking over Lake Boga, but with the traffic of the Murray Valley Highway noisily going by. Lake Boga is close to our Mystic Park Vineyard so we are familiar with this area.

Our trip today was 399 km. Tomorrow will be the very last leg of Safari 2015. We expect to arrive at Milawa mid afternoon.

Pelicans on Lake Boga, Victoria

Wattle in the park area around Lake Boga, Victoria

August 9th

Water pipes from the Murray River

We left Port Augusta later than planned but the morning shower was a treat.

Fancy striking traffic lights so soon, just as we are leaving this Port on Spencer Gulf. All the Wood Wardi trees are displaying their beautiful yellow blooms as we drive along the water's edge. Wood Wardi trees are a tall weeping eucalypt.

We travelled south along the gulf, admiring Mt Remarkable along the way, then turned east with only a short distance to Burra which was cold as usual! We enjoyed a short break with a walk a long the street.

Mt Remarkable

The undulating country was brilliant green with wheat crops and yellow with the occasional canola crop. The farmers of this area are experiencing a great season.

We have followed two water pipes again. One is carrying water (maybe in the larger pipe) to Port Augusta from the Murray River at Morgan. I wonder whether the second and smaller pipe goes to Coober Pedy.

Tonight we are camped on the Murray River at Loxton. The River Red Gums are huge and there are quite a lot of birds about especially some very vocal cockatoos.

We are quite tired after travelling 470 km yesterday and 406 km today. With luck we will camp in the Murray River Forest at Nyah in Victoria tomorrow night.

Camp on Murray at Loxton

August 8th

Having said our final farewells to Beth and John we left our foreshore camp at 8.45 am with Iron Knob and Port Augusta in our sites. Actually we have had a very smooth run with much more confidence in our tyres. We decided to come on to Port Augusta and camp in the BIG 4 Camping Park. The attraction of another hot shower from Murray River water swayed our decision.

We followed the large pipe line carrying this water. It ran alongside the road for much of the day. Ceduna and Port Augusta are both such a long way to take water. It comes from Morgan, on the Murray River, in South Australia. I keep thinking that some of it probably fell at Milawa!

Water pipe in the bush near the road.

The Eyre Highway is very pretty with many large mallee trees in the bush. This bush is very similar to the Mallee scenery in Victoria when we drive through wheat lands. The crops all look green and even, so rains must have fallen at the right time. Canola crops are bright yellow with their spectacular blooms

Today we met several wide loads transporting machinery westward..maybe to mining areas. Two trucks were carrying front end loader buckets. They took up much of the road. They had a Police escort speaking over Channel 40 asking oncoming traffic to stop at the side of the road and 'give way' to them.

The weather has been quite warm again with 20 deg. I think we are in for a shock of cold when we return to NE Victoria

Mallee trees on the Eyre Highway

Water pipe runs near the Eyre Highway

Tonight we plan a meal of King George Whiting locally caught around Ceduna. John is going to cook it in the very clean 'camp kitchen'

August 7th,

At last I have been able to post the blogs I have been writing during the 14 days we had in remote country. We have been thankful to have a satellite phone to be in contact with John A. He and John found it easy to send emails to each other. They did have a phone call on one occasion but found messages quite reliable.

We left our camp before 8.00 am with 170 km to travel to Ceduna. Because of a problem 'out of balance' tyre we could only travel at 70 km per hour. We arrived at the Quarantine check point just prior to  10.30 am.  Immediately we went to the Bridgestone Tyre garage. We were booked in for the afternoon, but luckily, the workshop guys were free and started on EC right away. They worked solidly for 2 hours. Two tyres were patched, balancing beads were put into the 'troublemaker' tyre, which was swapped to the rear instead of under where I sit and we were away with 2 spares which would get us mobile in an emergency...all for $140.

It was time for an easy afternoon. Lunch in a cafe instead of my sandwiches was a change. Then we visited the Fish Co-op and purchased 5 packets of local fish..already frozen. Supermarket shopping was needed to get us through the next 4 days as we return to Milawa.

Lastly, dinner at the Foreshore Hotel looking over the Bay. This was a great way to complete a successful trip with John & Beth. We have really had good fun together with lots to talk about.

Sunset over the Bay at Ceduna

August 6^th

A beautiful red sunrise after the spectacular sunset.

I feel it is a special experience being able to follow a wandering track about the Nullarbor Plains. I loose my direction often and need to check our GPS tracker to see which way we are headed and to check on the track which comes out about 80 km from Ooldea. Yes, Daisy Bates lived here in a tent for about 30 years and wore a  cream dress most of her life. She helped the aborigines. What a strange life for a single lady.

 We lunched near the Transcontinental rail line. Just as I was about to cross it I noticed a truck travelling toward me. Yes a truck on the rails, going very slowly but with metal wheels to guide it on the rails. It was being used by workmen who were repairing the line.

Rosie Dock near the rail line at Ooldea

The grey appearance of the plains has a few trees near to track this morning also clumps of green vegetation. They must be growing in damp areas as most of the plains look dry. We saw a dusting of white daisies in many places..just like a dusting of snow. Rabbit warrens are evident but no sign of rabbits now. Historically they were in plague proportions out here.

Eventually we came to a bitumen road, then more very rough gravel and then onto a bitumen mining road, and eventually to the Eyre Highway. What an achievement, to travel safely all this way without a spare tyre. We were glad we had the support of Beth & John while we were travelling such remote and rocky roads.  At last we are on the way east and on bitumen and nearer to towns for assistance if necessary. 

Shortly before Colona, where we met the Eyre Highway, John was chatting on the radio to a road train driver. He was transporting mineral sands to the port at Ceduna. They were then taken to Geraldton for processing, However he found out that the truck had 62 tyres on it...a lot of tyres to repair!

We stopped west of Ceduna, not far from Colona, in the eucalypts by the road and made a warm campfire which will probably be our last camp fire together for Safari 2015.( I expect the huge log to burn until morning!)

 Tomorrow we hope to have tyres patched in Ceduna so we will have a spare to travel home with.

John & John put a log on the campfire