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A 15-day adventure by Jenny & Boydie Read more
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  • Wandaring Outback
    Day 10

    McLaren Vale

    July 23, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    A good night rest was had in preparation for another crack at one of the many SA's fine wine region, The McLaren Vale.

    Our tour guide, Darryl, selected a handful of favourites, our first stop, Thicker Than Water, the home of the official World's Best Shiraz, 'Squid Ink'. Jen and Darryl couldn't argue with that claim. Brett was more intrigued with the architecture of the reception/tasting facility and learning more about wine production.

    Next stop, Beresford Winery, a resort style location with wonderful views of the surrounding wineries that had a fancy restaurant, brewery, and distillery...all that one needs to survive, at one location no wine tasting here. It was wood-fired pizza and beer tasting. The Rusty Mongrel stout was the winner, with a quantity making it its way into our vehicle prior to departure.

    It was then off to Maxwell Winery. However, the tasting rooms were booked out, so we checked out the grounds, including a maze constructed by pencil pines. Jen won.

    One seems to spend a long time at each stop on these Winery tours, and time seems to pass quickly, but even for a non-wine drinker, it is a rather pleasant day out. It's time for a few more stops, so we went to Woodstock Winery. This is a winery created by a WWII Spitfire pilot, an Aussie who was one of Winston's 'so few'.

    Here, we were welcomed by a grunting emu. Google informed us that this sound is made by emu's during the mating season, however google did not disclose how to identify the male or female of the species, so we don't know which one of us it was eyeing off...lol.

    In the tasting room, we were greeted and looked after by a very pleasant, knowledgeable young lady who took us through quite a few samples of their product whilst filling us up with so much wine and Winery information.

    The wine was exceptional, and some product from here joined our beer collection. We spent so much time here we went beyond closing time, and thus, the end of our of McLaren Vale ended. Back to Darryl's for chit-chat, wine and bourbon, and ultimately bed    Read more

  • Wandaring Outback
    Day 11

    Port Noarlunga - Myponga

    July 24, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Sleeping in a little later each day now must be too comfortable. Today, we get to catch up with Jen's lifetime friend Jenny from Auckland, who has lived here in Adelaide for over 20 years now. An extended coffee at The Flour Coffee Shop allows for some reminiscing by all present before heading off to Becks Bakery for lunch, where we all chatted some more.

    After lunch and a sad hoorah to Jenny, we headed off to nearby Myponga, home of The Smiling Samoyed brewery which is situated on the banks of the Myponga Dam, a wildlife refuge and pine forest with a plethora of walking tracks. After sampling the brews, we took a couple of hours, taking in the serenity of the walking tracks amongst kangaroos, black swans, and other bird life. A very peaceful and beautiful part of the world indeed.

    We headed back to Port Noarlunga, only this time we had clear weather and caught the spectacular views of The Fleurieu Peninsular and the Gulf of St. Vincent and the setting sun.

    Back home to Darryl's, quiche, Rusty Mongrels, and wine for dinner and then relaxation. Cheers!    Read more

  • Wandaring Outback
    Day 12

    Adelaide - Mildura

    July 25, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    We woke up with a tinge of sadness the last morning at Darryl's as we have to make our way on the long journey home. Brett made the bold decision to sample some of Darryl's morning cook-up, the microwaved rolled oats with honey and dried cranberries. It was a thumbs up from Brett.

    Darryl led us out of town, and we headed for the hills, Adelaide Hills, that is, in particular, Aldgate, where his mother and father reside in a care facility. Brett was pretty excited because this couple played a fairly prominent role in his formative years. We were very happy to see both in good health. Brett calculated that the last time he saw Mr & Mrs Kennedy was over 45 yrs ago. The visit was very lovely, but too short, they were off to lunch.

    We decided to do the same, so we adjourned to the Stirling Hotel for our farewell luncheon. From here, we parted ways with Darryl, who headed home, whilst we headed kind of north east towards and then through Murray Bridge.

    From here, we took the road towards Loxton, the Riverland district of SA. Unfortunately, we were unaware that this is one long boring road with just as many travellers' facilities as the Birdsville Track. There were a number of 'towns' listed on our map, but they turned out to be mere former rail siding ghost towns. Luckily, we still had our emergency spare fuel, so after a roadside pit stop/tea break, we were able to get to Loxton to fill the tank.

    Things got more interesting after that as we headed to Berri, then a quick diversion to Glossop where, many years ago, Jen visited her good friend, Jenny, who used to reside there.

    Back through Berri, we passed the very sad Big Orange. A derelict tourist attraction. Then it was through Renmark, our target Mildura still well over 100km away. We snuggled behind a very mobile semi-trailer, using it as a potential wildlife buffer in the twilight to dark hours before making it to Mildura, on the Murray.

    We're staying at the Riverside Motel, which is nowhere near the river, ironically, but quite nice nonetheless.    Read more

  • Wandaring Outback
    Day 13

    Mildura - Trilby Station, Louth

    July 26, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    We're happy to report yet another comfortable night's rest. Mildura treated us to 3 degrees, quite nippy. We headed off to the great Murray River and checked out their Rowing Club, paddlesteamer, and riverside parkland. Absolutely beautiful.

    As we headed off on our journey home, we crossed the river straight into Buronga NSW through to Dareton, where we refuelled before tackling the Pooncarie Road. Just after leaving the town, we came across the sparkling blue Lake Fletcher, a salt water lake (only after significant rainfall), a couple of kilometres wide and long, but only centimetres deep, otherwise it's just a white salt plain.

    After this, it was just miles of vast, flat, treeless farmland to Pooncarie. Here we found a jewel of a cafe, the Old Wharf Cafe, right on the bank of the Darling River. Homemade scones, cream, and jam, coffee, and homemade sausage roll for morning tea. The Cafe was a display and sales point for predominantly local arts and crafts. The hosts were old school warm, and polite.

    We headed north from here to Menindee. we called into the Info Centre. Here, we learned more about the Burke & Wills Dig Tree. This is where one of his party left a good store of provisions, which he buried under a tree near the Diamantina (it was obviously prearranged that he would do so before leaving). When Burke & Wills collected it, they re-buried the box with a note informing indicatingvwhere they were heading to. Unfortunately, when the support party returned to the tree, they presumed that the earth was untouched, therefore assuming Burke & Wills perished. At this point, they hadn't yet perished, but it wasn't that long after. This whole story came about from the only survivor of the party that got to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He survived with the help of Aboriginals.

    We then set off to tour the lakes, which were full and stuffed with birdlife. First, the Pammamaroo Lake, home to the Broken Hill Speed Boat Club and a van park for private owned holiday, permanent and travellers for camping overnight or short term. There are a stack of boat storage sheds as well.

    Moving on to the main Menindee Lake, we accessed via a village called The Sunset Strip. This was a bit more up market with residential houses, some looked like holiday accommodation, some were lived in, it was quite huge, complete with a golf course and clubhouse-come-pub. This is the main lake, and it's huge.

    From here, we took the West Wilcannia Road to Wilcannia. The East Wilcannia Road was closed due to recent rain. The west road was fairly good. We saw an abundance of wildlife, kangaroos, goats, pigs, Eagles etc etc. This road followed the Darling River, and there was not much more on it than us and the wildlife, all the way to Wilcannia, where we stopped for afternoon tea. It was the 2nd time we'd been here, the last time was over 6 yrs ago, but nobody remembered us. What a disappointment. From here, we looked ahead and planned our overnight stop and organised it by telephone. Easy instructions, "about 70 km out of Tilpa, you'll see a white letterbox with red roof, that's Trilby Station. The driveway is 3 km long, and we'll leave a light on at the bunkhouse. Have a safe journey."...click!

    Confidently, we trudged off toward Tilpa. The road was getting rougher, the wildlife more prevalent. 120 km, light starting to fade, lots of roadkill and the 'roos getting braver and braver, we pushed on. Through Tilpa, we set the trip meter and began counting down the k's. Darker and darker, high beam eventually required, this attracted the 'roos, and now feral cats, to the roadway, we dodged, baulked and raced past so many animals who had a death wish, but all were avoided. Finally, at kilometre 70, the white letterbox with a red roof is seen on the right. A lone track off to the left we counted down the 3 k's. Through closed gates and falling a road in much better condition than the main road, we got to 8 k's and turned around, and went back to the main road. About 1 km further up the road from the letterbox, we found an identical one. We followed this track in, and you guessed it, right on 3 k's, we came across a bunkhouse with a light on yay!

    Sandra, our host on this riverside (Darling River) bank, farmstead showed us around the rural resort, and we settled in quickly. Tomorrow in daylight, we'll check out the self-guided tour of the 'resort'..    Read more

  • Wandaring Outback
    Day 14

    Louth - Home ( a mission)

    July 27, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    We had a nice evening in the warm bunkhouse, and we had the place to ourselves. We were pondering our plans to get back by a reasonable time on Friday (today is Wednesday). As it was just over 1100km to home we made a tentative plan to make it to Tenterfield, stay the night there, then get up early Friday and grab Wanda before the cat hotel closed (she had to out that day - or else!).

    We set off at 8.39am and decided to drive around the Trilby Station (this property is 127,621 acres overall) camp-site. There were quite a few camp sites, many with residents, both riverside (Darling) and a very nice Billabong. It's a great setup.

    After this self-guided tour, we headed off. It was 25km to Louth, not a great deal there except for a memorial column built with much precision in keeping some sort of time, similar to a sun dial. So we kept heading east with nothing but flat grazing land with many fat cattle and sheep, as well as thousands of wild goats, our first roadkill feral cat, wild pigs, emus, but no 'roos. It was like this all the way through to Bourke. Here, we found an oasis of a cafe near the Old Wharf on the Darling River. We discovered that just east of Bourke is where the Darling starts. Fascinatingly, there are four rivers junctioning quite close to one another here, the Culgoa (which feeds from the north), the Barwon (which feeds from the east), and the Bogan (from the south). That all goes into the Darling, which goes into the Murray at Wentworth. Hence, we drove the Darling River.

    A lovely cuppa and shared muffin, Jen took over the driving, and we continued east. Through Brewarrina, then onto Walgett, across much the same landscape. At Walgett, we grabbed 2 salad rolls and 2 ginger beers for lunch and drove out of town to eat. After lunch, it was Brett's turn to drive through the same type of landscape. It was along here that we spotted our first wild horse, yay! Collarenebri was next, nothing there, so we forged on to Moree.

    Must comment on the towns between Bourke and Moree. They are pretty much ghost towns, not many people about, and businesses were only visually differentiated from either operational or non operation by their window and door covering. Operational - lockable steel grills. Non operational - secured timber boards, usually covered in graffiti. It is very sad and speaks volumes of the behavioural issues going on in these places.

    Between Walgett and Moree, we got behind a Honda CRV who was going well, so we sat behind him right into Moree. A fuel stop here, a window wash, check of the tyre pressure, re-stocked Jen's sour worm supply. We pushed on.

    On to Warialda, where we decided to deviate in a northerly direction to Coolatai, then a right turn towards Ashford. It was a shorter route, never before undertaken, to our destination, Tenterfield. The sun was setting quickly now, and it was 'Skippy alert' time - slow the pace. A nature break, driver change, on we went. Through Ashford, on to Bonshaw. Many little 'roos spotted, none threatened us, luckily.

    At Bonshaw, we turned right onto the Bruxner Way (formerly known as Highway) towards Tenterfield. By the time we hit Tenterfield, it was 7.30pm. A team decision was made to push for home. Both of us are wide awake, having had dinner on the run, google- assist revealed just 3 hours to go, we went for it.

    Just after leaving the town limits en route to Casino, we found ourselves behind the very same Honda CRV we were following between Walgett and Moree. We might have saved distance, but not time. It was a very good run through to Casino, only 2 'roos, and they were spotted together, about 20 k's out of Casino. No roadkill.

    From Casino to Lismore to home, all smooth sailing, pulling up at a reasonably decent hour 10.40pm.

    We unpacked most of our personal stuff, did some sorting, and left the rest on the truck for tomorrow.

    All in all, we covered 5,565 km in 14 days. We got to see some wonderful things and could have spent so much more time seeing a lot more. We figured that if we were to see most things at each location (outside of Adelaide, of course), then we'd probably be just leaving Charleville by now.

    The truck performed magnificently. We probably should've camped a bit more, but no regrets. It's amazing what we learned, saw, and did by doing a fly-by-seat-of-your-pants (don't know why we just didn't say "kind of unplanned") holiday.

    Cheers!    Read more

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