After the Riverlands 28/1/09

We returned to Adelaide on 14th January as our dear friends from Perth were visiting their relations in the Adelaide area and this allowed us to join them for a social get together and to do some daytrips around the area. This naturally meant a trip over Mt Osmond (the view of the city from the hills is rather hazy these days) and on to Hahndorf for lunch where we (men) gave a slender young girl a hard time over the mountainous plate of chips she put away (fortunately she had a sense of humour). We returned via Woodside as we could hear the chocolate factory calling us. During this trip, and the next week, we had to be alert to mad cyclists as it was the warm up week prior to the Tour Down Under cycling race.

Another trip took us to the Lobethal Market courtesy of our Navman who thought the scenic route taken by most tourists was too mundane, so it took us via every available dirt road in Adelaide Hills even though we had asked it to avoid them. We have now seen more of the Hills than most people. Navman also preferred to take us up Corkscrew Road, rather than down it, but the effect is very similar and much easier on the brakes.

Wednesday was zoo day as there were some kids attached to the group, but this was rather disappointing as so much of the zoo is under redevelopment that it was very limited with a lot closed off. Our previous trip to the zoo in 2000, was really enjoyable so maybe they will get back to that state. One of the big modifications is the Giant Panda enclosure. The other down side to the zoo is the parking bays that provide for 2 or 4 hour parking outside a venue that would normally be an all day outing. We had a 4 hour bay and decided that it was enough for us and left rather than feed the parking ticket machine.

The next day was Ashley only so we hit the Barossa Valley, dodging cyclists, to find some of the local adult attractions, but only sampled a few as Ashley achieved his goal (chocolate flavoured Port) very early. The rest of the day was reduced simply to a pleasant scenic tour with lunch in Tanunda and then on to Nuriootpa, Angaston, and Mt Pleasant.

Saturday morning was another group affair with Ann and her sister Dale, for breakfast at the Adelaide Central Markets for which we used the bus into town as parking would have been a nightmare. This involved a stroll through Victoria Square for a few more photos, but when we reached the top side of the Square we ground to a halt as the entire Adelaide police force charged out of the Tour Down Under holding bay (good time to rob a bank) and blocked off every road to allow the cavalcade of bike carrying cars to charge through town to the start point for that day.

We eventually found the Market, had a good feed and then walked to the Adelaide Oval to try and get tickets for the Australia Day Oz/RSA one day cricket match, only to find they sold out days ago. Not really too surprising, so we headed home with the knowledge that it would be televised in Adelaide due to the sell out and could watch in comfort instead of in the sun.

Sunday 25th (our last day with Ann, Angela and Ashley before they returned to Perth on 27th) was a trip to Victor Harbour for look around town, seafront market, a ride on the Ferris Wheel, lunch (specifically in that order), and then walked across to, and around, Granite Island. This naturally took its toll on the older company so we had a pitstop at the cafe and then reluctantly gave in to the younger generation (Angela) who wanted the excitement of a ride on the horse drawn tram back to the mainland.

We finished of the day by returning to Adelaide via Goolwa so that we could see, and drive over, the Hindmarsh bridge, and then through Strathalbyn and on to Mt Barker.

Monday, Australia Day we had lunch with the local Mormans. We met some lovely people in the caravan park who look after Foxy whenever we need them to. They invited us to a BBQ lunch which we really enjoyed and met some interesting people. In the afternoon we watched the pathetic Ausie display of cricket and were glad we hadn't paid to watch it. The tennis proved to be more interesting.

Yesterday, Tuesday was spent watching tennis as the temperature soared above 43 degrees C and today will be the same as we expect 44. We are now in hybernation in the airconditioning. We thought when we left the north west of WA that we had left the heat behind but it is following us. From tv reports we hear that these temperatures are records for Adelaide.

More Riverland 27/1/09

Berri is a reasonable size town and about a half hour drive from Kingston-On-Murray and require you to pass through the very small township of Glossop which is home to the Berri Estate Winery that has the largest production plant I have come across. Unfortunately owned by an American conglomerate known as Constellation Wines who are also agents for WA, Tasmanian and New Zealand wines.

I was very impressed to discover that the Glossop High School (surprised that such a small place had a high school) has a multimedia section that produces several of the road safety films that are seen on TV.



Apart from the natural beauty of Berri it is a very clean town and has a relatively large shopping centre compared to KOM and Barmera and is quite a bit closer than Renmark.





It has a bridge rather than a ferry to cross the river which houses a mural by the indiginous locals under its
main structure.











Loxton is a smaller town and boosts a heratige museum park, a section of river with and island in it, and a town jetty that looks like it has seen much better days and higher river levels.






It also has a ferry for river crossings.





These Ferries are cable operated so the cable is pulled tight between the ferry and the bank it is approaching and lays the cable on the river bed behind it, so speed boats and skiers need to pass behind the ferry, not in front, or pay the consequences

The Riverlands of South Australia

It was good that Barry wrote on the blog. I have been trying to get him to have a go for a while as I thought it might give him something to do. Once he knew how to log on he was away.

As Barry said we spent Christmas and New Year with some people we met in Albany in WA. Lovely people who originate from Geraldton so they knew quite a few people that we knew.

We shared the cooking for Christmas dinner and had a cold meat and salad meal in the mid afternoon. The day was quiet but the weather was nice. Not too hot but lovely and sunny. We didn't do much but sit around and chat but it was very pleasant.

The caravan park at Kingston-On-Murray was very nice but the water is pumped straight out of the River Murray and tasted awful. There was almost no pressure so we had to keep filling up our tanks and using them to shower and wash etc. Barry added a couple of filters to get rid of the mud and we bought water for drinking. We found some quite cheap water in Woolworths.

Kingston-On-Murray is one of those small peaceful little towns where I could live quite happily. Adelaide is 220 kms away to the west and the next large town is Mildura to the east across the NSW border. The Murray River twists and turns all over the place and is dotted with little towns. The first one you come to when you leave Adelaide (where the first lock is) is Blanchtown. We didn't see much of this town but we got photos of the locks from the bridge where we stopped for lunch on our way to KOM.

We took a drive to Waikerie which we discovered was the place where we got lost on the way back from Melbourne with the new caravan a few years ago. We took three trip around the town before we found the correct way out on that occasion and when we did eventually get out we carried on down a road that took us directly to a ferry which Barry was a bit worried that the caravan and the car would not fit on. He was also concerned because he could not see an easy way for us to turn around. As it turned out we got on no worries.

On this trip we discovered that there are no bridges across the Murray in this area. Waikerie has a ferry, as does Cadell and Morgan. None of these ferries cost anything to cross and we have spoken to people who drive from one to the other just for the experience of crossing on them. We crossed the Murray at Cadell (which was where we crossed with the new van) and drove on to Morgan which is very small just for some photos. We then drove back to Kingston on the other side of the river passing Overland Corner which has a really old pub and is obviously something of a landmark in this region, back around past Barmara and home to KOM. A lovely day out as the views are spectacular of the River Murray.

There are eight locks on the Murray between Blanchtown and the border with Victoria. This is almost the border with NSW also but there is a bit of a kink and the NSW border is about 12 kms away. This keeps the river and a lot of the wetlands full but interestingly has caused some problems with the ecology of the area. There are lots of dead trees in the river which has been caused because the river has not been allowed to dry out. These river gums are able to survive with there roots wet for about 18 months but if the river does not dry out (which it would normally do like most rivers in Australia) they drown. Another problem is that the water in the wetlands is very shallow and the evaporation rate is huge. These wetlands would also normally dry out during the summer. The Murray has 3 introduced fish species that are damaging the river very badly. The worst being the European Carp which can grow to over a metre long. These fish are bottom feeders and are permanently stirring up the mud on the bottom of the river so that a river that you used to be able to see the bottom of even when fairly deep is now permanently murky and choking the native fish. The Murray River Cod is protected and there are very strict fishing controls regarding them. Because South Australia is still in the middle of a very severe drought they are experimenting with damming off some of the wetlands and allowing them to dry out. They are hoping this will kill off a lot of the European carp as well as reducing the evaporation is these shallow areas. This of course makes some of the areas look pretty ordinary but I can see the value in what they are trying to do. Most of the agriculture seems to be wine grapes but there is still a lot of other fruit grown in the region. Lots of stone fruit and citrus of various types. There were also quite a lot of nut orchards around. The farmers in South Australia are struggling as they are only allowed to take 15% of their water allowance. This means that in some cases they have had to make some choices and it is not uncommon to see whole fields of dead vines. Barmara in particular seems to be struggling with lots of businesses closed and a large number of houses for sale. The locals have hope though. They claim that there will be a flood this year. 1 the pelicans have built their nests higher in the trees than they usually do and 2 the red gums are flowering abundantly which is a sign of good rains. Lets hope they are right. As Barry said in his post we went to Renmark a few times and we went to Berri several times (this was the closest place to shop with a Woolworths and Coles as well as Big W and Target Country. There were several fruit stalls on the way into Berri with some exceptional stone fruit and nuts. We stocked up before Christmas.

On one trip to Berri we carried on across the river to Loxton. Both Berri and Loxton are very pretty towns with large areas of roses growing in public places. This is particularly true of Loxton which was looking amazing when we were there. Renmark lays claim to the National Rose Garden which was looking very ordinary when we went there. So much so that we chose not to pay to go in to the garden. The drive back from Loxton to KOM showed some clear views of where they are trying to dam off some of the wetlands. Before I saw what looked like a levy bank I had remarked to Barry that the whole are looked dreadfully dry compared to the areas where the river is running.

We have taken heaps of photos but I haven't got around to downloading mine yet so there are none added here. We spent 25 days in the riverlands and we loved it there. On days when we did not drive anywhere we still walked along the river with Foxy and watched the houseboats and water skiing on the Murray. We talked to the locals about their problems with water and they told us what it was like to live there. We stopped on the way through the caravan park and talked to fellow travellers as we do everywhere we go. We have met some really interesting people and fortunately no awful ones.

We sadly left Kingston-On-Murray on 14 January to return to Adelaide to see Ann and Ashley who were flying over from Perth to stay with family here. More of this in the next blog which Barry or I will try to do in the not to distant future. As Barry says we leave it too long and we can't remember what we have done.

Continuation from 10th December 2008

We have had problems with our wireless card and were unable to obtain the Internet for a while but are now back in business. Unfortunately if you don't keep these things upto date it is hard to remember what you did a month or more ago, and sometimes what you did yesterday. We played a few games of golf on the cheap days (tightarse Tuesday) up until the course was overrun with school kids.

We took a boat trip from the harbour down the river almost to the sea and back so that we got to see the power station twice and the back end of a Collins class submarine. There were two in the dry dock, but only one visible, which we assumed were in for maintenance but we were informed by another passengern that they are there because the Navy is unable to find volunteers to crew them. It's good to have such valuable assets sitting idle, but I can understand it as I'm not impressed with flopping around on the surface, never mind below it for extended periods.

We drove into Adelaide at night to see the Christmas lights but it didn't amount to much so we settled for our usual look around the local homes for christmas lights, with limited success. The regular lighting along the river was more impressive, but we did discover the Tree in Victoria Square was lit up several days after we went to see it.

We changed our plans to spend christmas in Tailem Bend as the couple we befriended in Albany took a sneak peek at the caravan park there and decided it was not up to the required standard, so we met in Kingston-on-Murray in the Riverlands. We parked next to each other but in opposite directions so that our awnings almost met to give us a huge shady area in which to have our traditional Christmas dinner. Yes, Merry did cook a turkey in the caravan. Apart from the caravan park, the town (using the word very loosely) had a general store come post office and a dozen houses, but was conveniently close to Banrock Station winery. The caravan park had its own waterfront and jetty, as did the town with rather expensive houseboats for hire ($1200 a day) but sleep 10 people. Unfortunately I couldn't find another eight girls to come with us and share the cost.

Kingston-on-Murray is close to Barmera which looks out over Lake Bonney where Donald Cambell broke the world speed record on water, but the water level is a bit low now. The small town is very pretty, as are all of the riverland towns with wide median strips lined with trees or roses. Barmera also has a dental clinic that can attend to your needs almost instantly and do extractions without trying to talk you into root canal treatment and gold crowns, and therefore saving your bank balance for better things.

We visited Renmark (the biggest of the riverland towns) on a few occassions. On one trip without me, Merry managed to have an Anaconda snake try to strangle her and covered her with crap similar to toothpaste, but smelling like the real deal.

Another trip was for shopping and sigthseeing and the third occassion was for a trip up the Murray on the steam driven paddle steamer Industry.

On the way to Renmark we passed through the small town of Monash which is home to the best free kids playground we have come across, and being big kids we spent quite a while in the large wooden fence maze, but didn't mess with the twin leaning towers which have rope bridges between, and from them, or the swings,etc.