Notional itinerary:-
| # | Date / Location 1 | # | Date / Location 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 Aug / Morisset, NSW | 12 | 3 Oct / Tumby Bay, SA |
| 2 | 19 Aug / Cassilis, NSW | 13 | 22 Oct / Whyalla, SA |
| 3 | 30 Aug / Forbes, NSW | 14 | 27 Oct / Quorn, SA |
| 4 | 3 Sep / Finley, NSW | 15 | 31 Oct / Rawnsley Park Stn, SA |
| 5 | 4 Sep /Bendigo, VIC | 16 | 6 Nov / Peterborough, SA |
| 6 | 8 Sep / Geelong, VIC | 17 | 10 Nov / Broken Hill, NSW |
| 7 | 11 Sep / Pt Campbell, VIC | 18 | 15 Nov / Cobar, NSW |
| 8 | 15 Sep / Mt Gambier, SA | 19 | 17 Nov / Gilgandra, NSW |
| 9 | 19 Sep / Keith, SA | 20 | 20 Nov / Cassilis, NSW |
| 10 | 22 Sep / Ironbank, SA | 21 | 22 Nov / Tea Gardens, NSW |
| 11 | 29 Sep / Port Augusta, SA | 22 | 2 Dec / Granville, NSW |
1—14—19 Aug—Morisset, NSW
We’ve stayed here in the showground before and explored the area, so not a lot of that this time around. Good thing, as the weather is not fantastic and the grounds are very muddy.
We’ve had a fuse in the truck blow—the one that feeds the “house” battery for the fridge, etc—a couple of days before we arrived here. It’s not your average vehicle fuse; it was a 60A large blade format and failed fairly spectacularly, melting the plastic inline fuse holder and cover to slag and producing a cloud of horrible-smelling smoke. Have used some of the quieter time to replace it, with a more robust “MIDI” type.
On Sunday 17 we headed to Granville for the day for Brad’s birthday and family time.
The day before we were leaving it rained a lot and on travel day we woke to heavy rain and lots of mud; another messy pack up.
2—19—30 Aug—Cassilis, NSW
Leaving Morisset we travelled north on the M1/Pacific Motorway and we turned left onto the Hunter Expressway and then left onto the Golden Highway toward Cassilis—pronounced (according to locals) as “CASS-ilis”, not “ca-SIL-is” (although naturally Google only understands the former!). We stopped at Merriwa Bakery and had pies and a pasty for lunch; delicious. Between Merriwa and Cassilis the truck flashed up the warning light for overheating, and we had to pull over three times to add coolant and water to keep us going; although that didn’t really help much as most seemed to go straight through onto the road.
Eventually we turned right off the Golden Highway onto Cassilis Rd and limped into the Cassilis Bowling Club campground and set up. It was a lovely spot to stop with the Munmurra River out our kitchen window. The river was a trickle when we first arrived, but after 30+mm of rain in 24 hours on the second/third day there it looked more like a raging torrent!
I had a poke around the engine on the following day and couldn’t find anything much other than pink coolant everywhere. We weren’t keen to start the motor to investigate further so called for the NRMA. They were really quick (he was just down the road on another job) and having seen similar before he suggested it was a seal on the coolant line needing a workshop to repair. As it’s still under warranty, we called Iveco and the Mudgee dealer sent out a tilt-tray to collect it take it back to them – 80+ km away.
I went into Mudgee with the towie and hired a car as the dealer reckoned it would be a few day at least, with a weekend in the middle.
So we’re up to Day 6 at only our second stop – with probably will be a few more days yet.
However, we can highly recommend the Cassilis Bowling Club campground – although it did get a bit muddy when we had 30+mm of rain in 24 hours. The pub has good food a couple of nights a week, Erika’s Café does an excellent breakfast Thursday and Friday and the Club has pretty good meals two nights also. All in all, quite impressive for a town of only between 100 and 200 people! And of course, everyone is fantastically “country” friendly.
We explored the area during our stay including a hike through the Goulburn River National Park to the The Drip, it was quite beautiful and peaceful. Merriwa is an historic town where they have painted silos, and it’s planet—Pluto—is the end of that leg of the Virtual Solar System drive. Gulgong is an historic town with a great bakery cafe and very narrow streets. Coolah is another small historic town where we visited the Info Centre, explored the Black Stump areas around the town and checked out their part of the Virtual Solar System drive—Neptune—along the Merriwa leg. It was also good to visit the bakery for coffee and lunch.
It’s Friday, Day 11 of our trip and we’ve travelled to Mudgee to pick-up the repaired truck at last, it only took eight days to finish it.
3—30 Aug—3 Sep—Forbes, NSW
Leaving Cassilis at 1035 hrs we travelled along Cassilis Rd and turned right onto the Golden Highway to Cobbs Rd Dubbo and then turned left onto Erskine St/Newell Highway and travelled on to Forbes Showground; we stayed for four nights. It was very windy as we drove and it took about four and a half hours with a few stops along the way. The showground was quite easy to find with a helpful supervisor and it is quite well set up and even includes a laundry. All the sights are grassed and well maintained, it’s beautiful.
We checked out a lot of the sights around town and drove about 10 km out of town to follow the Sculptures along the Lachlan River, we sat in the bird hides and watched the wildlife on Forbes Lake. We drove and walked around town finding the murals and small sculptures in parks and on the streets. We really enjoyed our time in Forbes.
4—3—4 Sep—Finley, NSW
Leaving Forbes we continued on the Newell Highway through to Finley Showground for the night and we decided to stay hitched ready to leave as we’ve stayed here before and explored the area, it’s just a lay over and we were on our way again. It was a long day with five and a half hours driving with a couple of stops.
Once we had found a spot to stop a man from the show society came across and said the ground is supposed to be closed and when Dean told him that the Facebook page said it was open for camping until tomorrow he was ok for us to stay. There were lots of trucks parked around further all getting set up for the Finley Annual Show on Saturday.
5—4—8 Sep—Bendigo, VIC
Leaving Finley we travelled on the Newell Highway and then onto the Northern Highway to Elmore and then we turned onto the Midland Highway heading to Epsom (just a little way out of Bendigo), where we stayed at the Golden Nugget Tourist Park for three nights.
While in town we had quite a bit of shopping to do. We also needed to sort out a battery issue; after needing to be jump started at Forbes, Finley and Bendigo so we had the battery replaced, it all works great again. We visited Super Cheap Auto, Woolworths, Spotlight, Anaconda, a Chemist and Jaycar. We decided early in our stay that we would be back here to do the tourist thing as this trip we were both feeling our age so we stopped.
6—8—11 Sep—Geelong, VIC
On Monday as we left Bendigo we continued on the Midland Highway through Ravenswood and then onto Daylesford Rd at Daylesford and then turned onto Geelong Rd through to Geelong and travelled through town to the showground. It was very windy as we set up and this meant we didn’t put the awnings out at first. We stayed for three nights, all set up on a lovely grassed area. Dean was quite impressed with position of the van as the kitchen window overlooked the train track. After a long day of travel and finalising shopping we decided to venture out and ate at the Kardinia Cafe, a delicious meal.
On Tuesday we travelled to Torquay and visited the Information Centre where we collected info about The Great Ocean Road and started exploring this amazing piece of Australian history. The road was built by the hands of more than 3,000 ex-servicemen who returned from WW1 and it took 13 years, 8 hours a day-in treacherous conditions, to complete.
As we travelled along the road we drove past and stopped to photographed Torquay Town Beach, Danger Point, Torquay Surf Beach and Bells Beach. We ventured off track a bit to visit The Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery where we enjoyed a delicious ice-cream and looked at the amazing chocolates and saw them being made. Back on the road, camera ready, we travelled to Anglesea’s Loveridge Lookout and as we left we had to drive down a long undulating road to the ocean. It was then on to Aireys Inlet and past Urquharts Bluff. We stopped at Split Point Lighthouse/Eagle Rock for our lunch of home made sandwiches and walked up quite a long hill to the lighthouse. Continuing on, we stopped at the Memorial Arch for photos and information about the builders. As we continued driving along the road to Lorne Reen took photos from the truck window of the cliffs and surf.
As we headed back to Geelong we travelled through the Ottway Ranges to Deans Marsh—an amazing drive—and then on to Winchelsea where the landscape of rural lands were a beautiful expansive panorama. We turned onto the Princes Highway and headed back to the showground.
On Wednesday we woke to light showers and lots of cloud, so much that the satellite TV would not work. We ventured out to do some shopping and worked at packing up in preparation for leaving tomorrow. We reflected on our stay and decided that the showground was a good spot to stop.
7—11—15 Sep—Pt Campbell, VIC
We woke to rain on Thursday and got ready to leave Geelong, we turned left onto Breakwater Rd and then left onto Settlement Rd/High St/Colac Rd onto the M1 for 1 km and then onto Anglesea Rd and turned right onto the Great Ocean and then all the way to Port Campbell where we stayed at the Port Campbell Recreation Reserve campground.
As we travelled along Reen again took photos of the coastal views, the Great Ottway National Park drive and the farm landscapes. There were so many different scenes as we travelled and the road wound up, down and around hills, we went from 15m on the coast to around 700m through the national park.
Once we had finished setting up camp in the bushy reserve we headed into town to the Visitor Information Centre and collected more brochures. We spoke with a very helpful young lady about local sights.
On Tuesday we headed off early to visit the Great Ocean Rd sights starting with the 12 Apostles, which we could only see around 6 or 7 as some have broken and others are hidden behind bigger ones. I had a mishap with losing my phone which caused sightseeing to go on hold for a few hours until someone handed my phone back. The only thing missing was some money; all OK and thank you Lord for your work in this. With sightseeing happening again we visited Loch Ard Gorge; some amazing cliffs and coastline. We visited the local takeaway shop for dinner and took photos of the sunset from the foreshore.
On Saturday we ventured out to see the Bay of Islands and the Bay of Martyrs; absolutely beautiful scenery. Then on to the Grotto and then London Bridge (which broke in 2005), the rock formations are great and really interesting. We then headed into the hills and local farms on the Food Artisans Trail where we had lunch at the Schulz Organic Creamery & Cafe which was delicious, next on the trail we sampled the wares at Timboon Fine Ice Cream and then tasted cheeses at the Apostle Whey Cheese and also had coffee. After all this food we were quite overfed so it was time to head home.
Our time in Port Campbell was really great and we also enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the camp site. For lunch on our last day there we headed into town to support a local cafe, the Grassroots Deli Cafe, where our meals were delicious.
8—15—19 Sep—Mt Gambier, SA
We were on our way again and travelled on the The Great Ocean Rd heading toward Allensford and turned onto the A1/Princes Highway to Warrnambool. Just out of Tyrendarra we turned onto Mount Clay Rd and travelled on a beautiful, scenic, well maintained country road. We re-joined the A1/Princes Highway at Heywood which took us all the way across the border into Mt Gambier. We arrived at the showground at 1335 hr according to us but had forgotten that we had lost 30 minutes, so had to change some clocks. It had been a hard day’s driving with the strong winds blowing across the roads and pushing against us.
Once we were all set up in the high winds; we went looking for lunch, fuel, Ad Blu and a gas bottle refill (don’t want cold showers). With all this done we settled down for the evening.
It was overcast and still windy as we woke to attempt some sight seeing. We drove up to the Blue Lake—it is supposedly the youngest volcano in Australia—it was was quite pretty and then around to Centenary Tower (closed, no flag out) and then off to a tour of Engelbrecht Cave. This includes lots of steps down to a platform where you go to the East and West caves, continuing down to about 29 metres. It was all quite fascinating and had lots of history.
On Thursday we drove down the road to check out Umpherston Sinkhole, it is situated in a park on the main highway. It is beautiful and green and has been transformed into a tiered garden and picnic area for people to enjoy, including lots of steps.
9—19—22 Sep—Keith, SA
As we set off for the day we travelled on the A1/Prices Highway and turned right onto the Riddoch Highway to head to Keith showground and it was very windy for the whole trip. After we had set up we went driving around town, a very small country town. We found a bakery open and it was across the road from the hotel where we had dinner. It was great to see how busy it was with lots of the locals dining.
We ventured out on Saturday morning and after visiting the park with a Land Rover up a pole and getting photos of the CFS (equivalent to RFS in NSW) mural we visited the Morning Loaf bakery for coffee and cake. On Sunday we visited the hotel again for pizza for lunch and then drove to the Mount Monster lookout. We had a short hike up the mountain and as it was very overcast the view wasn’t very clear. It was still quite beautiful to lookout and see the fields of green ( lucerne) and yellow (canola). The Keith area is the largest producer of lucerne seed in South Australia and also produces about 80% of Australia’s lucerne.
We really enjoyed our time in Keith, the whole feel of the town was great with the people being so friendly and it had a pleasant calmness about it.
10—22—29 Sep—Ironbank, SA
We travelled along the Dukes Highway/A8 then at Tailem Bend we joined the Princes Highway/A1/M1/ South Eastern Freeway which we travelled on until we took a left exit to Stirling then travelled up through the Adelaide hills (very winding and with tight bends) to the Shiloh Hills Park at Ironbank. While we travelled we noticed that there was very little wind and the trip was so much better/easier.
It was great to be able to set up camp in a beautiful bush area, high up on the mountain (400m) with views of a pond and gullies from the front door, it was so inviting. This was the first camp for a while we were able to put the awnings out for most of our time that we were there.
For dinner we travelled 20 minutes into Aberfoyle Park to Karen (Dean’s cousin) & Phil and spent the evening with them, it was great to catch up with them after, we think, around 27 years. It was great to share with them and get along as if it hadn’t been that long. We also went out for dinner to Hub Tandoor on Wednesday with them.
On Thursday on the drive to Karen & Phil’s we stopped at a small lookout to get photos of the Happy Valley Reservoir (474 m) and then drove down to the reservoir (154 m) and took more photos. Karen had contacted lots of cousins for a family get together for dinner and it was great to share the evening there with 14 of us sharing stories and photos. We also had some terrific sunset photos from their back yard which also looks over the reservoir.
On Friday we travelled to Hahndorf, an historic village in the Adelaide hills showing it’s German heritage. We walked along the road taking in the scene, we had morning tea at the German Inn and we met Uncle Ross (Dean’s uncle) and Chrissie at the The Old Mill for lunch and a catch up; it was great to see them again. After lunch we visited Gavin (Dean’s cousin) & Sarah’s home at Kanmantoo (between Mount Barker and Murray Bridge). We thoroughly enjoyed all the views over the fields and valley’s. We had a great day and we were quite exhausted from the busy day.
On Sunday we attended Grace Life Community Church at O’Hallaran Hill with Phil & Karen and got to meet some of their friends. For lunch Karen had arranged for all her kids and families who live in Adelaide, to come and meet us. We had a great time together catching up and even managed to get photos.
11—29 Sep—3 Oct—Port Augusta, SA
After a fantastic week of catching up with extended family it was time to move onto the next town. We headed out through the mountains, through Stirling and left onto the M1, which took us on the eastern ring road around to join South Rd/M2 north west of Adelaide. This lead us back onto Highway 1 and all the way to Port Augusta. For the whole trip we were running into a hot and gusty headwind which made the trip very tiring and on arrival it was 35⁰C, the hottest day yet as we drove to the Discovery Park to set up.
As we drove through Lake Bumbunga we noticed all the pink lakes so we stopped to get photos and the towns people had added a Nessy monster (very cute) or 2.
We headed out early on Tuesday morning to the JM Deli & Bakery for morning tea and then on to check out the Water Tower Lookout; it was a little hazy. We visited the Australian Arid Lands Botanical Gardens hoping for colour but it was very dry and no colour so we drove to the Red Cliff Lookout and looked over the town and Dean liked seeing the train leaving Port Augusta.
The Information Centre was at the Wadlata Outback Centre which was well set up with brochures and info and a metal mural of ‘Ships in the Desert’ (camel & South Australia). We then drove to the Mural on the Hill and took lots of photos of the continuous mural which went around a corner of the All Saints Catholic Church (Dean is working at making it a long line of all the photos). We couldn’t leave without visiting the Pichi Richi Railway centre which had wall murals and lots of interesting items on display.
On Thursday it was a lovely sunny day with a cool breeze blowing and we drove 45 minutes to Quorn to go on the Pichi Richi steam train ride up through the Flinders Ranges. We stopped for lunch at Woolshed Flats station and enjoyed a sausage roll and scones with jam and cream; very delicious. We thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the scenery and how the volunteers made it seem like a train ride back in the good old days.
Footnotes:
- all future dates are our best guess but are flexible/variable until we actually get there! Be patient…
- commentary relating to this second column is in Part 2 (a separate post)