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From Marree, the change in the landscape as you head south is substantial. The first change occurs on the horizon with the Flinders ranges coming into view. The land is still dry all around but at least it's no longer flat.
There are many ruins in this part of the world as buildings were abandoned after the old Ghan railway ceased operations and during periods of extended drought. A whole town has been abandoned at Farina. The shape and layout of the streets is still evident and many buildings are still standing. The town was originally settled in 1878 during a period of good rainfall but the rains didn't continue. A few residents hung on until the 1960's but the town is now completely abandoned.
Lyndhurst is the next town that is still alive. Lyndhurst has a roadhouse, a mechanic shop and a handful of houses (with people living in them). Lyndhurst is the junction of the road north to Marree and the road North East to the Strzelecki track and the town of Innamincka. Lyndhurst is also the end of the dirt roads and the start of the bitumen. I do enjoy driving on the dirt roads but it was also good to get on a nice smooth road.
The next sign of life is the coal mine at Leigh Creek. Not much further on is the town of Leigh Creek. The town is very much a planned town for the workers at the mine and has a population of around 700. The mine and town is owned by ETSA (Electricity Trust of South Australia). The coal, apparently, is railed down to Port Augusta for use in a large electricity station (500MW I believe). The caravan park is plain but with good amenities and is good value at $6 for an unpowered site!
A tandem bike, with a trailer attached, in the caravan park got my attention. The owners turned out to be a couple from the UK, whom had started their trip at Coffs harbour, and had already ridden down the East coast to Melbourne and across to Adelaide before arriving at Leigh creek. They had ambitions of riding up the Oodnadatta track then onto to Darwin. I admire their courage and willingness to have a go but I think I'll stick to my current form of transport.
The next day was cold with the (very cold) wind blowing from the north off the desert. This same wind turned out to be a great assistance to my progress south as the camper is really affected by the wind. It was therefore not long before I was in Hawker enjoying a Muggacino. Hawker is another former railway town on the old Ghan route. There are a few grand buildings from grander days still standing in the town but the town is fairly quiet these days.
Not far out of Peterborough, the land becomes much greener with green paddocks suddenly appearing. Peterborough is on the edge of the Goyder line which delineates the northern limit of land that is considered suitable for cropping. George Goyder was the SA Surveyor General whom in 1885 determined what land received enough rainfall to be suitable for farm cropping. This line has proved over time to be quite accurate as towns like Farina prove. Something like 80% of SA is north of Goyder's line and hence is too arid for cropping.
About 20 km before Peterborough is the tiny area of Black Rock. Black Rock consists of about 5 houses that was once another Ghan railway station. I have visited Black Rock a couple of times in the past and stayed with a family we knew there. My mother, brother and I caught the train up to Peterborough which, at the time, seemed like a huge journey. The distance from Peterborough to Adelaide is actually only about 250km but seemed to take all day on the train.
Black Rock seemed like the end of the earth back then but is actually much lusher than a little further north. The house I think we stayed at seems to be now owned by someone with something to hide as there are now high, corrugated iron fences with signs warning of dogs attached to the fence. On one of our visits I remember the first Star Wars movie had just been released (about 1977). I also remember the house we stayed at had some sort of manual telephone exchange in one of the rooms. When a loud bell rang in the house, someone had to go into the telephone exchange room where they had to manually move the correct wire, and plug this wire into the correct slot, so the caller could then be connected. I remember being equally impressed and amazed by the manual telephone exchange as I was by the special effects displayed in the Star Wars magazine my brother had. The extreme ends of technologies represented by the old exchange and Star Wars, was totally lost on me at the time. Dumb kid.
Peterborough is a former railway town that, at its height, had a large workforce but this workforce has now been scaled right back.The railway station building has all it's windows boarded up however, passengers do still use the platform if they chose travel to Peterborough on the Indian Pacific. The Indian Pacific still passes through Peterborough on its' way to either Adelaide or Perth. Some freight trains also travel through Peterborough but the rail traffic has dropped considerably from its height when it was said a 100 trains passed through the town in a day. Peterborough was one of the three stations that had broad, narrow and standard gauge rails leading into the town which sometimes required rail freight to be transferred from one gauge to another (hence the former large workforce).
There are some magnificent examples of SA stone buildings and houses to be found in Peterborough. The town hall and several pubs give you some idea of the size and importance the town once had. One private residence got my attention as it was quite grand for a private residence but at the same time, quite run down. The lady at the information centre told me the house has been owned by a crazy old woman with a large collection of cats for a very long time (what is it with crazy old women and cats?). The inside of the house is in very bad condition and apparently the house is on the verge of being condemned. Pity. A quick look in the real estate window showed you can get a 4 bedroom stone house in Peterborough for under $150K which, of course, is relatively cheap for Australia but I don't think I'll be moving in.
The drive south from Peterborough was through countryside that got greener and greener. The route I took was through what is known as the Riverlands area, probably because it was the land beside the Murray River. I was pleased to come across another "big" thing namely the Big Orange at Berri. I have been drinking Berri Orange juice for as long as I remember but I never knew Berri was the name of a town. There you go eh?
I drove a little further south and stayed at the town of Loxton on the banks of the Murray. The Loxton caravan park was the home of the "Big Pelican". The excitement of experiencing two "Big" things in one day was overwhelming so I had to have a large drink and retire early.
The next morning I discovered one of my tyres had gone flat. This was the tyre that got repaired in El Questro with a plug. I was able to put another plug in the tyre and reinflate it myself without to much of a delay.
I had decided to head down along the SA side of the border down to Bordertown, passing through Pinnaroo on the way. The town of Bordertown is interesting in that it is actually about 20km on the SA side of the border. At the Victorian border it was raining, windy and cold which I thought rather apt and typical for this part of the world. The signs at the border did shed some light on the town of Bordertown not being on the Border. There were some errors in the original surveys of the position of the border which wasn't resolved until 1911 by the High courts.
I had decided to stay another 100km along the Western Highway at Dimboola. My only reason for this was that I remembered seeing the movie "Dimboola" years ago and wanted to go there. This was the first Australian movie I can remember watching (apart from Picnic at Hanging rock which I thought was crap at the time). Dimboola was an interesting country town whose past seemed more interesting than the present. The towns' main landmark, the Dimboola hotel, was burnt out about 5 years ago, and still hasn't been rebuilt. Many of the other buildings are in poor repair or not in use but I still found it interesting. I dropped into the visitors centre and the bloke there had been living in the town for 20 odd years and was involved in the ongoing play, "Dimboola". He was most informative and passionate about his town so it was interesting to talk to him.
Further down the highway was the turn off for the Grampians (hence the mountains) and the town of Halls Gap. The Grampians is a popular mountain getaway for people in Melbourne due it's proximity to the city and its pleasant bushwalks and views. The road into Halls Gap was very windy, narrow but interesting. I took the turn off for the "Balconies" and did the short walk at the end of the road. Unfortunately it was misty and cloudy so the view wasn't the best but still not bad. I wanted to have a look at another lookout but the conditions got even worse so I was happy to drive on to Halls Gap and stuff my face full of scones, jam and cream followed by a cappuccino at a coffee shop in the town.
The night in Halls Gap was cold and wet. The lady at the caravan park said it was much colder a week ago but people always seem to say things like that. It was cold enough for me.
From the mountains, I took some back roads and went cross country down to the coast and the pleasant seaside town of Lorne. I was planning to stay for two nights at the caravan park, however the sign out the front said I could stay two nights and get the third free. (Ah "Free" my favourite word). It was still cold and wet in Lorne which must have been keeping the tourists away. When I was here 3 months ago, the place was full of people. Lorne is only about 140km or so to Melbourne so the place is also a popular and close get away for "Melbortions".
Lorne is protected from the prevailing Westerly weather and the surf at Lorne beach can be really good on its day but I wasn't there on one of those days. Small surf is not too much of a problem in this part of the world as there are numerous other surf spots close by to chose from. Cold weather and cold water however, is a problem, wherever you go. The bloke in the Surf shop assured me everyone wears wetsuit booties in winter in this part of the world. It sounded good to me and he managed to get me to part with a fifty (you have to be good to make me part with money).
The next day I drove up and down the road looking at the surf. I seemed to be able to find something wrong with every spot but I knew the real problem was that I didn't want to get cold and wet. This was a reasonable concern to have considering it was a cold rainy day. I ended up finding a break (near Spout creek) where there was some other people surfing and where I forced myself to get out in the water. I can report that the boots worked well at keeping my feet warm however my hands and face were aching with the cold. I think the air temperature was about 12 degrees and the newspaper said the water temperature was 14 degrees. Believe me, it was cold. I managed to stand up a couple of times but didn't stay out for very long. I don't regret doing it simply for the fact I know I would be annoyed at myself if I didn't go.
That night I washed out my wetsuit and booties and hung them out on the nearby clothes line to dry. Someone else must have needed my ($400) wetsuit and brand new booties more than me as the next morning they had disappeared. After looking around the caravan park and not seeing any sign of the wetsuit, I reported the crime to the park managers and then to the police. I don't hold out much hope on ever seeing the wetsuit again and this really put a sour note on my stay in Lorne. All I can hope for is the mongrel thief whom stole my gear gets taken by a shark.
After this drama, I was late getting away and arrived quite late into Werribee caravan park and my final stopping point before catching the ferry in Melbourne. Werribee is only about 40km from Melbourne so is a handy point to stay before heading into the big smoke. I also took the opportunity to catch up with P. again.
There was one final car drama prior to catching the ferry. I was just feeling happy about finding my way into Port Melbourne without getting lost or to stressed when I thought I could hear a "tinkling" noise as I drove along. I had planned to find a backstreet near Station pier and find a free spot to park which I successfully ended up doing. When I got out of the car I discovered the source of the "tinkling" was one of my camper lashings had broken. The eyebolt on the driver's side rear lashing had broken and the lashing was dragging along the road. I was very lucky not to lose the lashing and even more fortunate to have bought a spare eyebolt in Kununurra. I was able to quickly replace the eyebolt, reattach the lashing and avoid the catastrophe of the slide-on sliding off. It was very strange though for the eyebolt to break on a smooth road?
The trip across Bass Strait was quite rough with the ferry doing some pitching and rolling after we had left the relatively sheltered waters of Port Phillip Bay. I have to admit I wasn't particularly enjoying the movement of the ship. This was especially so after someone started making loud retching noises a few chairs away from me which was shortly followed by a splashing noise, which was shortly followed by a vile smell wafting around me. I inserted my earplugs at this time and hunkered down even further into my sleeping bag to avoid the stink. I was glad I hadn't really spoken to anybody onboard and told them what my normal occupation was as I may have been I bit embarrassed when I started feeling a bit queasy.
The ferry's arrival in Devonport was right on time despite the foul weather. It was a clear day but very cold. The cold was highlighted by the radio news announcing the main highway between Launceston and Hobart (the Midlands highway) was closed due to snow and ice. I decided to take the scenic route back to Launceston via Frankford and Exeter and was able to observe all the puddles on the side of the road were frozen and a heavy frost covering the paddocks. Welcome home!
Before going home I drove down to my folk's house at Deviot and had a coffee with them. It's certainly a pleasant part of the world at Deviot and is an enormous contrast to the harsh dry, flat country in northern SA. Yet with modern transport (I don't mean my Hilux), that part of the world is so quick to access.
It was after lunch when I rolled into my little cul-de-sac in Launceston. It's always a relief when coming home to see the house still standing. There's also always that peculiar feeling of things being different and familiar at the same time.
So after 16 weeks of driving around, it was all over. It's back to "reality" whatever that is. I know I have many bills to pay which means that unpleasant pastime that I don't like to think about i.e. going back to work. Maybe when I've paid the bills off and I have a bit of reserve cash again, the camper and I will once again head north?
I hope you all have enjoyed my ramblings and the pictures. I haven't found the task a chore and in fact has helped me record and make sense of it all. I recommend it!
Cheers everybody!
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