Is it the state we love or is it the Fritz?

Like so many other Victorians we tend to leave SA until last because, well, it’s so close. And yet we both really love SA. So much so that we can feel our shoulders relax when we cross the border. What I’m trying to say is that we’ve still got so much to see over there. We haven’t been to the Yorke Peninsula, and we’ll never tire of exploring Adelaide. The wineries, the beaches, The Murray, the history. History? Yep, South Australia is positively littered with the bones of Woody’s ancestors who arrived with the first 10,000 colonists.

A little history

Now, for the ancestors. One caravanning must for the offroad folks is the Birdsville Track from Marree in SA and up to Birdsville in Queensland. The Birdsville Track is not on our bucket list. Woody swore off dirt roads and corrugations after we crossed the Nullarbor in a Mini Moke in 1975. Hundreds of kilometres of dust and dirt with the new bitumen road closed off beside us. They were probably waiting for a dignitary to cut a ribbon. But back to the Birdsville Track region. One of Woody’s ancestors was a mounted policeman in both Farina and Hergott Springs (Marree) back in the 1880’s. While stationed at Farina he and another officer were charged with the tasked of locating two criminals who were trying to escape to Queensland. Their horses died from exhaustion but after travelling more than 500kms, and some of that on foot, they caught the absconders in Maree. Woody’s relative then made the return journey on foot beside a pack camel with the two offenders handcuffed to him each night*. That’s what you call true grit.

The Mighty Murray

The Murray River cuts an arc through the southeast of South Australia on its final stretch to the ocean. At 2508 Kms it is the third longest navigable river in the world**, the Murray rises in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales and is home to a plethora of wildlife. Is it any wonder that the mere sight of it causes us caravanners to whisper “aah the mighty Murray”.

And the Fritz

Whenever we cross into South Australia, we can’t wait to get to a supermarket to grab a bung of Fritz. The Victorian version of Strasbourg sausage is a fatty coarse grind luncheon sausage, wrapped in plastic and known locally as Straz. In other states it’s known as Devon. The South Australian version is very fine, wrapped in a traditional brown skin and quite bulbous (bung). Try walking through an airport with one of those protruding from your wheelie bag.

*www.farinarestoration.com and www.sapolicehistory.org/mounted.html

**www.environment.sa.gov.au/

**goodliving/posts/2017/03/river-murray-facts