SOUTH AUSTRALIA, NEW SOUTH WALES 4 - 11 October

Saturday 4 October  CEDUNA

Had a restless night and not pleased to be woken and kept awake around 5am by cattle moving around in a truck.  Left Eucla just after 8, paying $1.989 for fuel.  On to Nundroo through treed undulating country , 40-140m elev.  Disappointed to find gate closed at Head of Bight for whale watching, 30 minutes later than advertised.  Didn't want to wait around, pay $12 each and see ?? whales.  David is sick of driving through country where we see little and have no activity.  So am I.

Nullabor coast South Australia

Today the country was undulating and treed until nearing Ceduna where flat sheep paddocks stretched towards the coastal sandhills.  We detoured to look at Fowlers Bay - only interesting to fishermen.  So it was 343 km to Ceduna where we scored the last powered site in a beachside caravan park, just in time to see the grand parade of the annual Oysterfest.  Fine and sunny weather, carnival atmosphere, walk to everything, even wireless internet here, what a contrast!  Wonderful sky displays - kites,  then an aerial acrobat pilot in a biplane who kept zooming up, up, then stalling the plane, spearing down to the sea and at the last moment with an awesome roar, cartwheeling a horizontal flight just above the water.  Apparently he is a local 50 year old who is also an Australian champion aerial acrobat.

David wants to stay another night and see him again tomorrow.  He is also keen to go to the Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound.  I want to look at the Murray and stay at Gluepot en route (a Birds Australia property).  We both want to get home ASAP, so I'm not sure how things will pan out.

Sunday 5 October  PORT AUGUSTA

Start of daylight saving so, after advancing our clocks 1hr 45m just 1 day ago, we now have to add another hour.  Bad night because of drunken aborigines yelling from beachfront and walking past our trailer.  CP gates were locked overnight and a man (security guard?) was patrolling at 12:30 am when we went to the toilet.  David wanted to view Skyblazers again but with daylight saving that meant waiting around for 30mins.  I got shirty and we left after 10 minutes wait.

Wheat country; few flowers; no birds.  Stopped briefly at Minippa, tempted by nearby rocks, but road to one looked suss and lost interest.  However, we enjoyed our walk near Mount Wudinna, South Australia’s largest exposed monolith, 211km from Ceduna. Like many of the bare granite hills in the district, it’s encompassed by low stone walls that catch and divert run-off water - these handmade channels were built by the early settlers and provided the only source of water for farms and the town for a number of years. Located 12km north-east of Wudinna, the reserve has walking trails, barbecue shelter, picnic and toilet facilities.

 

Mount Wudinna on the horizon

Stayed overnight at TopTourist caravan park Port Augusta, opposite shunting yard for trains.  David interested, watched the Ghan and a goods train for some time. Another lock-up caravan park, very bare as no water for gardens or lawns.

Monday 6 October  GLUEPOT

River red gum, 21m girth, near Waikerie

Lock 2 on Murray River, Taylorville

Big Bend on the Murray near Morgan's Wharf

Wrong info on internet led us to pass by road into Gluepot and travel 10km into Waikerie for key - not needed, so back on next ferry and finally got there, 64km from Waikerie, around 5pm.  I was exhausted and we had another 10km to the campsite.  However, the info centre and volunteer rangers were quite impressive, so we looked forward to some interesting walks tomorrow.

Gluepot Visitor Centre

Tuesday 7 October  GLUEPOT

Bright and bushy-tailed, we set forth to drive some 14km to the Broggy area walk, stopping en route to bird watch at the Froggy hide.  Saw my first yellow-plumed and brown-headed honeyeaters there, these proving to be the most common birds seen at all hides. 

Bird trough

Sand goanna

The Broggy walk through mallee and spinifex was easy and interesting, 5.5km, but spoilt for me halfway by difficulty in walking.  I felt dizzy and my walking became quite erratic and worrying as the end approached.  Back to camp for lunch, where I had problems walking down steps in trailer also.  Decided to spend afternoon visiting most of the remaining hides and not doing the planned walks.  Disappointing!!  I had great difficulty going to the toilet in the night.

common bronzewing galah Port Lincoln ringneck red-capped robin jacky winter

white-browed treecreeper striated pardalote red wattlebird yellow-plumed honeyeater

magpie-lark grey currawong brown-headed honeyeater  raven

Wednesday 8 October MILDURA

Anxious drive to Waikerie Hospital where a nice young medical student, Jeremy, put me through an exhaustive set of exercises to determine cause of my imbalance.  Checked blood pressure - 149/85- , temp normal, urine test ok.  No evidence to explain condition until he asked me to lie back so he could rotate my head to the right -ok- and then left = room spinning around.  He said that crystals inside ear may have shifted for some reason and simple exercises would fix that.  Then Dr Chris Pepulani came, asked me to walk - ok - then to walk one foot exactly lined in front of other.  Very difficult, very wobbly.  He decided it was an ear problem.  They couldn't see inside ear because of wax, so he sent me off to the Medical Centre next door for ear syringe.  Much needed, judging by output.  Suggested I wait to see how I felt, but we left after over 3 hours.

On to Mildura, Vic.  Found a good Big4 park next to shopping centre, with space to easily park car and trailer and just $66 for ensuite cabin - wireless internet @ $10 hour expensive.

Thursday 9 October  GOOLGOWI

Felt better in morning - able to walk quite well.  Morning tea at Balranald beside the Murrumbidgee - very pleasant, the water opaque milky-green and the red gums very tall and plentiful.  Watched a sacred kingfisher repeatedly skim into the water.  Inquiry centre lady spoke of farming problems in the area because of drought and how water allocation is made.  If you have too many assets, you get no water and have to sell same assets (stock) to live.

Murrumbidgee River at Hay

On to Hay, not as big as Mildura but  still a sizeable town.  Checked on Hay Wetlands at Inquiry Centre - no longer exist because of drought.  Lunch at Sandy Beach on the Murrumbidgee, besieged by noisy miners, very aggressive.  Area is split into swimming beach and water-ski zones.

Stayed night at caravan park, just $17, but quiet and grassy.  Hung a load of washing at 4pm and it was dry by 5:30, no wind but no humidity and sunny.  David made bread, I cooked a cake, we went for a walk before dinner.  Tidy town, most homes with well-tended gardens, green lawns, roses blooming. 

Friday 10 October  GILGANDRA

Surprised by size of Forbes.  Shopped at busy IGA which had the worst selection of veges ever - very tired greens, limp lettuce @ $3.98, soft cheap potatoes.  Bananas @ $1.99 only bargain.  Couldn't find Inquiry Centre.  Parkes was so close to Forbes that we whizzed through and I didn't notice what it was like.

Stopped at Peak Hill CP which looked OK but D thought it was too early and we should go to Dubbo.  At Dubbo there were no cabin vacancies at 2 parks - went to Inquiry Centre where they plied us with info, but we decided to try Gilgandra CP, 64km north.  Glad we did, despite rainy conditions en route.  Spacious Rotary caravan park - even has a bird list for the park.  David drove about 590 km today, mostly in good overcast dry conditions.

Saturday 11 October  BRISBANE
Home, having travelled since 2 June!  

WESTERN AUSTRALIA Stirling National Park to Eucla 29 September - 3 October

Monday 29 September STIRLING RANGE NATIONAL PARK
Quote from WA Dept of Parks and Wildlife:
Stirling Range National Park encloses the only major mountain range within the southern half of Western Australia. The rugged peaks, which rise to more than 1000 metres above sea level, feature stark cliff faces, sheltered gullies, magnificent views and a rich diversity of unique and colourful wildflowers.  The park is one of the world’s most important areas for flora with 1500 species, many of which grow nowhere else, packed within its boundaries.

Good weather -  20°, clear, fine (rained overnight).  Many plantation trees in the area courtesy of  Timbercorp.

Mt Hassell

Beaufortia schaueri

Boronia

Conospermum coerulescens subsp dorrienii

Beaufortia decussata

Darwinia leijostyla  Mountain bell

Drosera

Eucalyptus

Lambertia ericifolia

Petrophile longifolia

 Sphenotoma dracophylloides

Templetonia retusa Cocky's tongue

Racehorse goanna

wood duck ? goshawk whistling kite common bronzewing Port Lincoln ringneck laughing kookaburra house swift

Australian pipit scarlet robin golden whistler willie wagtail grey fantail inland thornbill

red wattlebird New Holland honeyeater Western spinebill grey currawong magpie raven

Tuesday 30 September ESPERANCE

Left Porongurup around 8am, very early for us.  Planned to get to Ravensthorpe, 273km away, but had the time and inclination so passed through and reached Esperance by 3:30.  En route, we stopped off at Ongerup, attracted by signs about mallee fowl and wildflowers.  The wildflower display was at a community venue and consisted of cut flowers with labels. Although many of the flowers were looking weary, it was still an interesting display and helpful for identifying some we had photographed elsewhere.

Plants – Lechenaultia formosa, Pimelea sulphurea, Eucalyptus presissiana yellow, Lambertia inermis, Acacia binata Mt T.  Synaphea petiolaris yellow spray Isopogon formosus, Petrophile longifolia, Drosera menziesii.

 The town was very neat and had a good little museum.  We used the internet there.

The Top Tourist CP at E. is very good with a special area for camper-trailers - all grass or pegged down shadecloth.  A big park, it is dotted with amenity blocks and we were opposite one, almost like having your own ensuite.

Wednesday 1 October  ESPERANCE

Lovely fine day so booked ourselves on a half day cruise to Woody Island on Mackenzie's MV Sea Breeze 11.  The Mackenzie clan is headed by Don, 93 yo, who started as a sheep farmer, ferrying sheep across to Woody Is because the soil had trace elements lacking in the mainland soil.  When the island became a nature reserve, he applied for a small area to run as a tourist resort.   Since 1998 his family's interests have extended to running the tourist company, a diesel catamaran ferry, 2 tugboats, the pilot boat, visitor centre and camping ground at Woody Island.

We were given info about Esperance as a port on the way out.  One wharf is for loading grain; another for BHP nickel from a project near Ravensthorpe started 18 months ago; a third is for iron ore.  To enable the nickel transportation, the harbour channel was deepened to 19m for Cape class ships, making it the deepest harbour on the southern shore of Australia.

The ferry stopped at several rocky islands or mainland points to check out the local wildlife.  We saw 2 sea lions, 6 NZ fur seals, Cape Barren geese (a family of 5 and later a pair).  The captain identified dark sea birds for me - fleshfooted shearwaters.  I also saw black-faced cormorants, similar to Little Pied but bigger with black beaks.

After morning tea on Woody Island, most of the 90 passengers followed Don's grand-daughter up a steep path to the top of the island.  There she gave a talk on the history of the island and her family.  I tried bird-watching but only saw silvereyes, NH honeyeaters and welcome swallows.

Can you find the lizard?

Looking back to Esperance

Back at the harbour, a guy in wetsuit was swimming with a sea lion as we disembarked, very entertaining especially for the kids (school holidays).

Sea lion and man having fun

Wetland snails

Wetlands on Woody Island

Large fungus

Jetty on Woody Island

In the afternoon, we drove to Kepwari wetlands, a Ramsar site, and I walked the 3.2km one way track/boardwalk.  David nobly cut short his walk to get the car to the other end, thus missing the best sights - m and f blue-billed ducks, yellow spoonbills at nests and a big rookery of straw-necked ibis.  I was pleased to see plenty of Little wattlebirds for the first time since living in Melbourne.

Cape Barren goose flesh-footed shearwater black-faced cormorant straw-necked ibis yellow spoonbill white-faced heron Eurasian coot blue-billed duck

silver gull Pacific gull white-breasted sea eagle feral pigeon common bronzewing grey fantail willie wagtail welcome swallow

little wattlebird yellow-throated miner New Holland honeyeater magpie-lark magpie raven silvereye

 

Thursday 2 October  CAIGUNA

David drove 569 km today from Esperance to Caiguna and without complaint!!  He never had the sun in a bad position for driving and we had a tail wind part of the time, but the lack of interest in any destination spurred us along.  We intended to camp at Fraser Range, 300km away but arrived there around lunchtime and could not imagine what we'd do for the rest of the day.  60km west of Esperance  So on to Balladonia, where David was tempted to stay, but it was only 2pm ...

So what's it like, driving through the Nullabor and ending after the longest straight stretch in Australia (90 miles or 146.6 km) at Caiguna? Not as boring as I expected, but when you can see clearly in all directions, there is no temptation to walk anywhere.  We did like the gimlet trees (Eucalyptus salubris) with their smooth, waxy greenish bark but saw no flowers or wildlife.  The road was good and traffic light.  Balladonia roadhouse was very busy with a busload of oldies and plenty of fuel customers.  Their historical museum was of some interest (and free) with a chunk from Skylab, pastoral history and some naturalist info.  Fuel was $1.989 L for unleaded.  Caiguna is smaller and less busy but the CP has sensible surface of clean gravel, drive-through powered sites and clean amenities.  $25 a night - fuel $1.93.

 

Friday 3 October  NULLABOR ROADHOUSE

Stopped at Madura Pass, 179km from Caiguna.

Eucla consisted of a hotel/motel and CP, but we drove 4km down a dirt road to the old telegraph station.  Worth the detour, if only to walk over sand dunes and see a line of dunes closer to the sea with sand spray flying from crested tops as they marched inland.  The original town was established in 1877 as a manual repeater station for the overland telegraph.  The remainder of that town is now under the sand, after a plague of rabbits ate most of the dune vegetation which then caused large sand drifts to encroach on the town site.

Roadhouse caravan park looked similar to Caiguna but noisier.  Only $22 plus $1 coin-operated showers (good).  Fine and very windy around tea-time, so I 'baked' potatoes and pumpkin in frypan.  Not very appetising.

 We ended our Western Australian adventures when we entered South Australia after leaving Eucla.