In the Clare Valley of South Australia not far the small village of Mintaro, think appealing stone buildings, autumnal vineyards of gnarly vines, long lunches and complex rieslings, is this handsome Georgian style mansion. It was built in 1879 by a sheep farmer. A 21 year old sheep farmer, Edmund Bowman. For the movie buffs Martindale Hall featured in the movie ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ in 1976. Continue reading Martindale Hall
Call it what you will. Princes, Pacific, Bruce, Eyre, Bass, Stuart, Great Northern, Savannah Way, but Highway One which encompasses many state highways is 14,500 kms long. It is the longest national highway in the world and known to most as ‘The Big Lap’. In comparison the Trans Siberian Highway is 11,000kms long. From deserts to snow capped mountains, from dry savannah to lush rainforests, from bustling cities to remote outback roadhouses, from multi lane highway to dirt road this is a road that has everything including a lot of roadkill. Source Wikipedia Image By Evad37Original author of GIS data:© … Continue reading Highway One
Every night I wake up to go to the loo and I wonder where the hell we are. In fact I refuse to go back to bed until I actually work out where we are. Between that and the neck exercises sitting on the loo is quite busy. The next thing I know it’s morning and I go through the whole thing again. Cunnamulla? No. Quilpie? No. Burra? No wrong trip. Oh shit I know it’s Cairns…isn’t it? Continue reading Where the heck are we?
In the Fort O’Hare camp ground at Dartmoor, Vic I wander down to the Glenelg River to take a few photos and sit on the wooden landing. Another camper sits beside me and we start chatting about this and that. It turns out that we went to high school together. Small world yet again. Continue reading If we went to school together can you put your hand up?
We arrive at Robe Lakeside Tourist Park in Robe, SA to find that we have donated yet another water filter to our last caravan park. I do hope someone thanks us on WikiCamps it was a good one. We chose … Continue reading Robe Lakeside Tourist Park
Autumn 2018 We find the best coffee of this whole trip made by a passionate and caring female barista. The city is gearing up for the Fringe Festival and kids are on their knees chalk drawing on the footpaths while … Continue reading An all too brief stop in Mt Gambier
We ask our caravan park neighbour in a South Australian park where he got his beaut ladder from, “In Officeworks, Nowra (NSW)” he says. Which gets me to thinking, my shirt is from Balranald, my jumper from Tamworth, my Jeans from Melbourne, my hat from Yeppoon. That’s hardly Paris, Rome or New York now is it? But wait…didn’t I buy this necklace in Florence?…phew. Continue reading Wearing your travels is like collecting stamps
Autumn 2015 When we arrived in Exmouth we wondered why the town looked so modern but it was only established in the 1960’s with the arrival of US naval operations yet its history goes back much further. The Vlamingh Head lighthouse was built in 1912. It was named after Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh who along with so many Dutch navigators visited this coast back in 1697. There were military bases in the area in World War Two. Qantas later used Learmonth Air Base as a fuel stop on its Ceylon route to London in 1945. In 1953 oil was … Continue reading A long history but the town came last
At Hay, NSW, we plop ourselves in the warm morning sun and have a cuppa. Then Woody tells us that the fridge won’t start (on gas). We drive into town, buy a new bottle of gas and have a delicious … Continue reading Frigid!
May 2018 We hadn’t intended to visit Griffith, NSW, but a problem with our fridge forced us to seek out a technician. And thus fridge repaired we find ourselves checking into the Griffith Boat Club on a fine autumn afternoon. … Continue reading Griffith Boat Club
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