South Australia - Mar & Apr 2023

This trip was a long awaited tour down to South Australia to check out places we have had on our bucket list for ages - specifically Kangaroo Island and the Flinders Ranges.

Our originally planned route was going to take us down the Darling river in outback NSW, but the heavy rains the country has seen for the past few months has resulted in floods and closed a lot of dirt roads including those along the Darling so our route was changed to be (mostly) bitumen.

This is the story . . . . . 

12 March

We set off from home and headed for one of our favourite cheap spots for the night - the community camp in Yelarbon.

This place is cheap and provides power, water, hot showers and flushing toilets as well as a welcoming atmosphere.

The only negative is that the pub was closed!

This piece af art sits outside the front of the pub.

The painted silos are always worth a look. 

13 March

We drove off and aimed ourselves at Moree. I'd originally thought we'd stay there a night and indulge in the hot spa waters, but it wasn't really far enough to travel so, after refuelling, we continued on and Collarenabri was selected as our spot for the night - it's a free camp with toilets, hot showers and a dump point.

This spot was really pretty good although we had to contend with some torrential rain.

Lightning show in the evening was worth seeing though! 

14 March

Lightning Ridge! This has been a hoped for destination for a long time and we eventually made it.

The town is actually very tourist focussed and a little disappointing as a result, but we met up with some interesting people and stayed for a couple of nights and camped at the Club in the Scrub just a few klms out of town.

This club is a golf club with the most horrible course you've ever seen. All the greens are sand that has been soaked in old engine oil and the fairways are just scrub.

Hot days and nights there so we broke out the generator and ran the a/c.

The club house and the entrance to the bar.

A gigantic statue of an emu just outside of town.

Yep - Lightning Ridge! The above is one of the golf course "greens".

15 March 

We left Lightning Ridge and trundled off via Brewarrina and Bourke.

Gundabooka NP was our intended stop but it was 36 degrees and we just wouldn’t want to go walking in that sort of heat so it would have been a waste of time heading in there. Disappointing, but you can't argue with the weather!

We ended up stopping at a roadside rest area that was populated by lots of feral goats.

It was still hot so the generator helped us out again! 

Goats!

We stopped at Bourke to refill our water tanks (bit of a mistake - their water tastes crap) and buy some beer and wine,

The information centre has a "Back of Bourke" display but it's $20 a head to get in to see it so we skipped that one. 

Too hot to stay in a rest area so drove through to Wilcannia and the caravan park we stayed in (we wanted power to run the a/c as it was still damned hot) was on the banks of the Darling River and it was pretty good. 

We almost had the place to ourselves and it was peaceful and quiet.

The view of the van park from our spot on the river bank.

The river itself is a muddy looking thing, but the amount of fish life moving in it was amazing!

17 March 

We stayed on for a second night to use the laundry facilities (free, and with brand new machines) and we went for a wander around the town.

The town itself is not a throbbing metropolis, but it does have some nice old buildings from when it was the most important inland port in Australia. Paddle steamers used to cart things up and down this river and Wilcannia was an important hub.

The river has a lot of red gums along the banks. Dangerous things as they can drop branches (and they can be BIG branches) without warning or any obvious cause. 

The one in the pic above shows flood wrack from the last time the river flooded - about a month ago!

Hawks flying over the river.

There was a weir just upstream of the van park.

More river red gums

A pub turned into a gallery.

The old bridge, with its lifting mechanism to allow the paddle steamers under it) is right next to the new road bridge.

18 March 

We left Wilcannia feeling glad we had seen it, but not unhappy to move on to Broken Hill where we parked up next to the racecourse - yeah, it was well over 40 degrees and we wanted the a/c working again.

We took a walk around the town and spotted the most unusual Vietnam War memorial.

This is the main street through town and the pub on the left is where we had a beer! 

19 March

Today was a bucket list day and we took the 20 klm drive out to Silverton. I've wanted to see this place forever! 

Is it worth it? Well it's mostly deserted and only famous because of the movies that have used it as a location. It does have a sense of isolation that is pervading though.

We did, of course, grab a beer at the pub

The town has a few feral donkeys just wandering around. 

Then we went to the Mad Max Museum.

It was pretty disappointing. Just dusty old cars and photos. 

We moved on to the town museum and this, in contrast to the Mad Max disaster, was informative and interesting.

We took a drive north out of town to check out a lookout that allowed you to gaze out over hundreds of klms of just flat nothingness. It was great! 

We left Silverton quite happy with our visit and headed back to Broken Hill.

There we drove up the spoil heap (all the rubbish dug out of the mine) and visited the Line of Lode memorial to the hundreds of miners killed there by mining accidents. It was quite moving. 

The view out over the town from the top.

The names on the memorial together with when and how they died.

It was close to dusk then so we drove out to the Desert Sculpture Park.

I know that I am a bit of a Philistine when it comes to art, but many of these sculptures were just rubbish.

Scratches on a rock.

I quite liked this horse's head though.

Sunset through the best sculpture there.

This is art????

20 March 

We left Broken Hill and headed towards the Adelaide Hills where we had decided to stay at Strathalbyn. 

We didn't make it there today and stayed a night at the small town of Booborowie where we camped at footy oval for the princely sum of $5 and enjoyed the great facilities - toilet and showers and a BBQ.

It had started raining so we didn't need the a/c tonight!

The footy oval. 

And sunset.

We drove through some deserted towns.

The pub at Olary was open, but (surprisingly!) we didn't stop for a beer.

It's pretty flat out there! 

21 March 

Strathalbyn is a gorgeous little town on the southern end of the Adelaide Hills and stayed at the caravan park (our only option) and booked in for four nights.

Beautiful drive here through lots of small but very pretty towns. I have to say that it is a stunning area.

Yep, that's a pub and yep, we stopped in for a beer.

This beautifully crafted statue is of a motorcycle racer (Michael Blake) from this town who lost his life racing at the Isle of Man TT in 1981

Karen and I were there on the Island watching the races that year! 

22 March

Today we decided to drive around the Hills and see what the place was like. The answer is gorgeous!

Amongst the other attractions are a number of craft breweries and lots of wineries so we were happy.

Yep - I enjoyed a tasting flight at the Prancing Pony

We visited Hahndorf too - this is the Angel of Hahndorf and it's a lovely sculpture.

The reverse side is below.

The trees were in autumn colours and they were lovely.

22 March

Today we did the drive into Adelaide to check out something on Karen's iPhone at the Apple store. They couldn't really help us but gave some advice.

On the way home we went through Hahndorf again (it's a lovely place) and did a tour of Hans Heysen's home and studio. Well worth doing. 

This is Rundle Mall - the heart of Adelaide's shopping area.

The next few pics are of Heysen's place.

Heysen's studio

Heysen's caravan - home built and small.

When we got back to Strathalbyn we took a walk around the park area in town - lovely!

This plate is on the war memorial and shows Australian Light Horsemen charging German troops with rifles and fixed bayonets.

A bit fanciful as this never happened. The charge at Beersheeba was against Turkish troops and they used hand held bayonets.

Still, it's a nice piece of art work.

24 March

We wanted to head a little further afield and decided to go to Murray Bridge.

What a disappointing town. Nothing wrong with it other than it is a working town, not particularly pretty and just rather boring. 

We took a walk along the river bank.

25 March

Well today we packed up and left Strathalbyn, but we loved it.

We headed off to Cape Jervis where we had booked into a van park that would store our van while we were on Kangaroo Island.

We took a drive down to the ferry terminal to check out where we needed to be when we travel over. 

Cape Jervis isn't exactly an exciting spot though.

26 March

We decided to revisit Victor Harbour. It's been thirty something years since we were there and we wanted to see how it had fared. 

It was much bigger, but the key things were unchanged - I forgot my camera so no photos.

We walked across to Granite Island and did the walk around it. No Fairy Penguins this time though. 

27 March

Leaving the van in storage we drove onto the ferry across to Kangaroo Island (KI) and took our first look at the place,

It's a beautiful as you'd expect.

Our first stop was at the Cape Willoughby Lighthouse where we purchased Nat Park passesanddid a tour of the lighthouse.

Most of the roads on KI are gravel, but are generally in good repair.

We made our way to the AirB'n'B we had booked at 383b Old Salt Lake Road.

A lovely little place although the driveway was a rutted and rocky 2 km drive!  The owner met us and was most welcoming. He told us a little about the area and introduced us to his goanna with advice on not leaving anything edible outside :) 

The area is littered with kangaroos - no surprise on Kangaroo Island!

28 March

Our first full day on KI and we decided to head across to Seal Bay. We'd paid for the parks pass at the lighthouse and that included a guided tour of this place.

You're not allowed to go on the sands (or anywhere near the "seals") without a Parks guide so it seemed the only thing to do.

The guide was good - informative and friendly - and we got to see a lot of these animals.

Apparently "seals" is a catch-all name and while these animals were actually sea lions they still fall under the banner. 

These paths are all created by the sea lions as they bask on the drier sand and find shelters for the night.

Ahhh - a baby!

After we had seen enough of the sea lions we drove on to the Vivonne jetty and the store found there.

We had one of the famous Whiting burgers and while it was good it wasn't the earth shattering experience advertised. Especially as it was accompanied by crap coffee.

We took a little detour on our way back and somehow ended up at the KI Brewery. Heh heh heh

I enjoyed a tasting paddle and bought some cans of my favourites to take back home.

29 March

Today was the big drive to the Flinders Chase NP to see the Remarkable Rocks and other things,

The drive in was through the NP and it was basically just scrub. 

The fire that went through three years ago has left some dead limbs on trees that are above the top of the new growth, but it isn't very evident apart from that. 

The first thing we went to see was Admiral’s Arch.

It's a bit of a walk down to the sea past the fur seals but it's worth it. A natural arch of limestone with a view out to the ocean.

Of course, there's a lighthouse there too! 

We drove on a few klms to see where the lighthouse keepers lived and we could walk around the ruins of the buildings.

They would get all their food etc deliveries by boat and they rigged up a zip line that could be used to haul stuff up from the water's edge. The "slot" shown below is all that's left of it but it gives you an idea of how steep and hard it would have been.

A further few klms took us to the Remarkable Rocks and they are well named.

Just granite boulders that have been sculped by the wind and rain.

All this sightseeing knocks up a thirst so we called into the Vivonne store for a beer/wine but we didn't bother with the whiting burger again.

We diverted again and this time we took a look around the town of Kingscote which is nice enough, but still just a town.

Feeling peckish (no whiting burger you see) we called into the Lavender farm. Now we're not really bothered about lavender stuff (soap, candles etc) but they did serve us a huge scone to go with a KI beer and a wine. Yummy! 

30 March

Back in the car again and today we were heading to the north coast. We stopped off in Parndanna for a coffee before we reached Stokes Bay and the hidden beach.

To get to the beach you have to work your way through gaps in the giant rocks, but it is a beautiful spot.

The pics above show some of the path through the rocks. Much of it was a lot tighter.

A star fish! 

The beach - it would be even nicer on a sunny day. 

Lunch was some tasty Salt and pepper squid at the Rockpool café and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Having been to the Brewery we had to visit what was recommended as the best winery around - The Islander winery where tasted a few wines (lived the Islander rose 😁) and ended up buying a case. 

31 March

We're only here for a week so every day is a driving and exploring day. Today we drove to a Honey farm first and sampled some of their Ligurian honey as well as buying a few small things to take back as gifts.

One gift was for me - I bought a six pack of Honey Pale Ale and Honey Wheat Beer.

The weather wasn't great, light drizzle and generally miserable, so we headed for American River to have a look around and to get lunch at the Deck cafe that looks out over the small marina.

It was still rather miserable looking so after a drive around American River (it didn't take long, but it was a very pretty little place) we headed to Penneshaw. We'd only seen this place briefly as we drove away from the ferry and a longer look didn't enthrall us, but it's nice enough with some interesting buildings and a nice little Sculpture trail that we took a walk around enjoying the fact that the drizzle had stopped. 

The Trail has some cool sculptures (see pics below for a few of them) and they have left space here and there for more to be added.

It's recommended!

Gotta love a small suspension bridge :) 

This was the view from the top.

This sculpture was called "The Sea Eagle"

The Owl - they mounted it on the branch of a tree to make it look even more realistic.

This was well done and symbolises the meeting of two cultures

We followed the road uphill and it turned into a standard KI dirt road. They really are very well maintained. 

Kangaroo Island Spirits (KIS) was our next stop for a spot of gin tasting.

We bought a flight of gins and tasted each of them with and without a tonic mixer.

I think that we both preferred the Bombay Sapphire that we buy for home use, but it was still interesting.

1 April

We left KI happy to have seen it and content that it had been a great experience, but keen to continue the trip. We picked up the caravan from storage and decided to spend a few more days in the Adelaide Hills before going to the Yorke Peninsula and we checked into a lovely spot with a great view at Hill View Farm (Lenger Road Mount Torrens).

There are no facilities, but we're self sufficient and it's not a problem.

This first afternoon we took a bit of a drive around and called into the Mt Torrens pub and then later on the Birdwood pub.

The photos below show the views from our site.

2 April

Today we went shopping to restock the van and pick up a few more special beers.

3 April

Some thirty odd years ago we took the kids to Adelaide and as part of that trip we called into the Big Rocking Horse where they climbed it and loved doing so.

Well this time it was our turn! 

Me at the top!

4 April

Three nights at Mt Torrens was enough so we headed on over to the Yorke Peninsula and checked into the van park at Wallaroo over on the west coast.

I checked into FB and soon after got a call from my old colleague at Fujitsu, Ross Wordley and his wife Jenny. They were camped just a few metres away! 

It was great to catch up with them again after about ten years.

Ross and Jenny

The view from a beach cafe there

The beach - crowded eh? 

5 April

Wallaroo was only a stopover on our way to the Innes National Park  (the furthest southern point of the peninsula) where we had booked a spot in the Pondalowie campground.

Easy to find, we set up and then took a look at the Pondalowie Boardwalk.

6 April

Rain seemed to be the order of the day so we headed off to drive around some of the more local points of interest although the journey was slowed be emus and kangaroos - the latter drinking rainwater from puddles on the road.

Stenhouse Bay jetty and headland walk was the first destination and we were happy to see the rain disappear leaving us with some sun.

Kangaroo on watch!

We drove down to the jetty and took a wander along it' Looks like a good fishing spot.

They used to mine gypsum here and this old train was used to cart it to the water for shipping.

The water everywhere around the island is so clear.

Cape Spencer lighthouse walk came next. A pleasant walk but not too exciting.

Then we moved on to the Inneston Historic Township and had a wander around.

They have restored some of the original buildings and they rent them out as holiday accommodation.

The day had been beautiful but we had rain in the late arvo and evening. 

7 April

It was time to head north to the Flinders Ranges, but being relaxed old retirees we decided to not do too many klms each day and we stopped at Crystal Brook - Lovely cheap campsite but expensive wine!

Not a crowded place as you can see.

This was the town centre - not exactly busy.

8 April

Today we completed the drive to the Flinders and to the camp site we had booked - Rawnsley Park Station. It's an old grazing property that has turned some land over to camping and it's a beauty. 

This is the view from our campsite. The hills are the southern edge of the Flinders Ranges themselves and are also the caldera for the old volcano that created it. 

9 April

Today was Easter Sunday and after a laundry morning we took a drive around the immediate area checking out Twidale Top, a quick visit into Wilpena Pound and then a look at Huck’s lookout.

Rawnsley Park has a restaurant onsite and we thought we'd check it out on our return to the Park. We called in for a couple of drinks and decided that the menu was just too pricey for us. 

A nice enough spot though. 

A beautiful pale ale.

A beautiful wife.

And a stunning porter.

10 April

A driving day today (as usual) and we explored a little more going up the eastern side of the Ranges and then cutting into them to check out some gorges. 

We returned  via the Moralana scenic drive which was nothing to what we had seen earlier, but still pretty in the late afternoon sunshine.

Bunyeroo gorge lead us into Brachina gorge. Geological marvels! 

We spotted a few of the rare yellow footed rock wallabies.

There's a photograph taken years ago of a tree that is now known, after the photographer, as the Cazneaux tree. 

I had to try to replicate it!

We also took a walk to Fern Tree Falls. They were dry, but it was a nice walk. 

11 April

We decided to take a drive to Hawker for water and anything else we might find of interest, but first we took a stroll up the hills to Alison’s saddle.

The views are shown below.

We filled our car's tank with water before going to a coffee shop which turned out to be pretty nice.

Rain dampened the evening though. 

12 April

Today was dry though so we set off again. This time we went to Arkaroo Rock which has some rather uninspiring aboriginal cave drawings before calling into Wilpena Pound again for an icecream. 

The walk up to the cave at Arkaroo Rock was steep and took us about an hour each way. Great views though!

The cave paintings - originally the indigenous people would have kept these paintings fresh by applying another layer of paint as they weathered and faded. The paintings are now "protected" and are just fading away. 

The rain stayed away and this evening we enjoyed a campfire. 

Nice 

13 April

We'd been driving on dirt roads for much of our touring here, but nothing at all difficult. So today we went for a 4WD track drive on the edges of the Station.

Some of the climbs and descents were enough to have Karen squealing a little and just holding her breath at other points.

It was fun! 

We had earlier decided that the Shearing Shed Restaurant was too expensive, but they did takeaway meals as well so we had some delicious Parmy takeout for dinner.

Still pricey, but a nice treat.

14 April

We took in another couple of gorges, Glass gorge and Parachilna gorge, on our way to have a nice lunch at the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna.

The pub is a great example of bush pubs, but inside it was just beautiful and well up to the standard of the best eateries in any city.

We loved it and we loved the feral animal menu with goat, kangaroo, emu, wild boar, camel and a few other things listed. We both chose the goat and it was delicious. 

Drinkies outside before we went in to eat.

Great South Australian  pub architecture. 

15 April

We had to leave Rawnsley Park and it was raining as it had been all night.

The road out had been turned into a slippery, slimy, boggy, muddy mess and the drive out took a fair bit of concentration to avoid us slipping off the edge of the road, but we got out OK.

We were heading to the Melrose Showgrounds (Mt Remarkable) for the night, but before we reached there we stopped at Quorn to grab a coffee and breathe a sigh of relief about the drive out of the Park.

A nice little town with a famous Pichi Richi railway.

We reached Melrose quite early and after we set up at the Showgrounds we took a walk around the lovely little town. It's really pretty, but the cherry on the top was Jacka’s Brewery which served some beautiful beers in some old brewery buildings.

We loved it! 

I had a dark porter while Karen stayed with her Chardonnay and we enjoyed the warmth of the brewery cellar.

16 April

Heading home and we decided to take a slightly different route travelling via a bit of Victoria. 

The change getting into Victoria was stark. The rest areas in SA had been adequate without being as good as those in the west of NSW, but those in Victoria were rubbish. No, toilets, too close to the road and worst of all, no bins so there was trash just blowing around the places. 

We just didn't want to stop at any of them, so we stopped at the Bushman’s Rest CP on the shores of Lake Cullulleraine. It was nice enough and we went for a walk along the shores of the lake, but apart from the water there wasn't much of anything in the area to get excited about. 

We'd previously driven through a town called Laura (our daughter's name) so when we drove through Jamestown (our son's name) we had to stop and take a look at this very pleasant little town.

Wheatfields as far as you can see and straight roads.

17 April

We drove on through Victoria and paused to do some shopping in Mildura before crossing the River Murray to move into NSW.

The scenery did change somewhat from the endless wheat fields and Mildura was a nice, decent sized, town too.

 We continued on across the Hay Plain until we reached Hay where we planned to stop for the night at a freecamp on the Murrumbidgee River called Sandy Point.

What a change from the awful facilities in Victoria! This place offered shaded camping, toilets, showers, BBQs and a beautiful walk along the river bank.

18 April

Sticking to the quieter country roads, we weren't in a hurry, we found another fantastic little free camp in a small town called Burcher. Power and water were provided free of charge as was a clean and useful campers kitchen plus toilets and showers in beautiful condition. 

There was a box to accept donations towards its upkeep and we happily obliged.

We took a walk around the village and had a couple of drinks in the pub to put some money back into the local economy. 

At some time in the past there had been a rail line that terminated here.

This thing was constructed using an old British two stroke engine and gearbox and was used to check track condition and perform light repairs,

The town of Burcher - a lovely, welcoming place.

19 April

Leaving Burcher we stopped in Gulgong at the showgrounds for a night. Wikicamps had this place as offering toilets and water and was right next to a river. 

We;; the toilets were there and we found a spot overlooking the river and that was very pretty, but none of the taps dotted around the place were pumping water so that was a bit of a disappointment, but not a big problem as we carry water anyway.

I found one tap, next to the toilet block, that did have water, but when I tasted it I thought it seemed a bit "off" so we left it alone. 

I was right to do so as I am pretty sure that this was the source of my infection with bacterial gastro enteritis.

20 April

We left Gulgong and called into Bendermere where we enjoyed a $5 community camp. Water and power and toilets/showers etc all provided and we were right on the edge of a large open area.

NSW truly has a lot of great places! 

21 April

The gastro was starting to make itself felt by the time we stopped at Ebor on the Waterfall Way so we booked ourselves in to the camp at the back of the pub. Power and water provided with access to the toilets and showers for the pub.

We stayed there for a couple of nights which were only made bearable by Karen zipping off to a local pharmacy to pick up some anti-dialorrhea tablets. These would bung me up for a few hours and allow me to get out and walk a bit, but the return of the toilet dash and the miserable rainy weather meant that we abandonned our plans to travel the Waterfall Way and we just headed home.