Reset search
Enroute to AdelaideEnroute to Adelaide
SatelliteEdit route

Enroute to Adelaide

October 2023
It’s not the UK and it’s certainly not Iceland, Israel or Italy…. Read more
  • 9footprints
  • 1countries
  • 9days
  • 98photos
  • 5videos
  • 1.3kkilometers
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • TravelerEnroute to Adelaide
    3
    Day 1

    Milawa Magic

    October 7, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Just a little blog for a little local trip

    Whenever Loss and I head away, we get into trouble for sending spam photos on the family WhatsApp group.
    So to avoid the wrath of the kiddies, I am producing this little blog- so they can look at if if they want, or ignore it totally if they choose.
    If others have any interest in it, feel free to join us on this short trip through Victoria and South Australia….

    Having been invited to Jonny Walters and and Phoebe Luke’s wedding in Adelaide next weekend, I jumped at the opportunity to make a bit of a trip of it rather than just flying direct to Adelaide and back. It was the perfect opportunity to tick off a destination that had been planned for 2020 (The Grampians) - but of course COVID lockdowns put paid to that. In addition, a little leapfrogging across Victoria enroute via some other previously unvisited places and in no time at all a one week itinerary materialised fairly readily.

    This morning we packed and drove to Bankstown airport, loaded VH-MWD with all the usual stuff (including the skillet, Nespresso Coffee machine and the 2 scooters that had proven so successful on our Cape York trip last year).

    We took off at about 10.45am, climbed through a little cloud to 10,000 feet for our 2.15 hour flight to Milawa, Victoria - specifically to the Brown Brothers Winery Private airstrip.
    The weather was excellent and allowed for some photos of places of interest such as a very full Lake George, Canberra, The Snowy Mountains range with just a little snow on the peaks, Blowering Dam (site of the world water speed record by Ken Warby), Talbingo (childhood home of the famous author Miles Franklin) and the impressive Tumut 3 Power station.
    The weather was gorgeous on arrival at Milawa and after a low pass to check out the condition of the strip we landed and within a minute or two we were parked just 50m from our lunch appointment venue at the Brown Brothers Restaurant.
    We strolled across to the restaurant, enjoyed a magnificent degustation lunch and then did a little wine tasting at the cellar door.
    Mid afternoon we walked back to the aircraft to unpack and get the escooters out to find that a wedding photography session was in progress. The bride and groom wanted some photos in front of the aircraft (!) so we cleared away our assorted bags etc so that we didn’t ‘photo bomb’ their wedding snaps.
    We scootered downtown to the Milawa Motel, checked in and then went for a bit of an exploratory ride around town. Of interest is that ‘Milawa Mustard’ now operates from what used to be the courthouse where Ned Kelly was once tried for stealing a horse.

    After a large, late lunch we are not really feeling the need for much dinner - it’s just as well Loss didn’t pack a Lamb Roast this time!    Read more

  • TravelerEnroute to Adelaide
    111
    Day 2

    Bendigo Gold

    October 8, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    The sharp snap of the beak and the beat of the wings millimetres from my right ear shouldn’t have been such a surprise at this time of year - but the magpie that swooped from behind and took aim at me as we scootered to the Milawa Cheese Factory / Coffee shop for a morning coffee in glorious sunshine gave me quite a start. I was pleased I was wearing the bike helmet!

    We had spied the Cheese Factory yesterday afternoon and decided it was worth a visit. Both the coffee and cheeses were very good, although 9.15am is a little early in the day for the palate to be sampling smelly, blue cheese.

    We returned to the motel, packed up and headed the short distance back to the airfield. The plane was duly packed and the preflight preparations were completed, including a procedure not normally required at Bankstown - checking to make sure the runway was clear of wedding parties and photographers. . .

    40 minutes after takeoff we landed at Bendigo, noting the greenness of the rich farmlands we flew over on the way. After refuelling and parking the plane, we shouldered our loads and scootered off to our motel in downtown Bendigo.
    Being Sunday in a regional setting, many eating venues aren’t open, so Loss fired up the skillet and coffee machine in the motel room and a delicious lunch magically appeared in no time.
    It was now time to head off to Bendigo’s No. 1 attraction - an underground mine tour of the ‘Central Deborah’ gold mine. Descending 61m below the surface we were taken on the tour by a ‘real’ miner who had worked as a FIFO miner in Western Australia for a number of years.
    It was surprising to learn that Bendigo has produced approximately 3 times more gold than Ballarat, but the tourist attraction of Sovereign Hill gives the impression that Ballarat is the main gold producing town of Victoria. The tour was interesting and authentic.

    After the tour, we checked out a few other places around this prosperous town before dinner at a Thai restaurant followed by streaming the Riverwood meeting from earlier today.

    We had hoped to catch up with Phil and Jenny White who live in Bendigo but alas - when we contacted them yesterday, they told us they were down in Melbourne this weekend.    Read more

  • TravelerEnroute to Adelaide
    Day 3

    The ‘gift’ of a scenic ‘wrinkle in time’

    October 9, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Just a few weeks ago I had been in deep conversation with Stephen Hughes (or rather he was telling me about) Black Holes; and how time lengthens / shortens as you approach the edge of one of one of these cosmological phenomena - so that there is a specific point where 2 Peter 3:8 becomes a literal reality and ‘a day can be as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day’.
    This morning I thought for a moment - perhaps through some quirk of quantum physics - that such an ‘horizon’ event had taken place, possibly caused by the rapid movements of Albo through this part of Victoria recently promoting the ‘Yes’ campaign, coupled with the power vacuum created in the wake of Dan Andrews’ departure - that a ‘wrinkle in time’ had occurred , because just 2 minutes after takeoff from Bendigo this morning, I looked out the window and I was certain we were passing over Nepal or Tibet!
    I turned to Loriene beside me and asked if she could explain what we were seeing; we were both lost for words, for down there just off the right wingtip was a very, very large Buddhist building with the morning sun glinting off its golden facades. I cast my eyes further afield - was that Maryborough or Namche Bazzar over there? If the latter, then Everest Base camp can’t be far away . . .
    I scanned the horizon carefully but could see no sign of the Himalaya ranges. On closer inspection of this unexpected apparition just below us, we noted that it was indeed nestled among eucalyptus trees with merino sheep contentedly grazing nearby in the paddocks.
    Hmmm.
    It suddenly dawned on me that we were actually in regional Victoria and that the incongruous structure below us was none other than Bendigo’s ‘Great Stupa of Universal Compassion’ on the western outskirts of town - the largest Buddhist stupa in the Western World. It’s the same size and design as the Great Stupa of Guyanese in Tibet, but it is very spatially disorienting for some unsuspecting tourists from north of the border!

    We breathed a sigh of relief, snapped a few photos and continued westward for 40 minutes towards Stawell which was our destination for this morning’s flight.
    On approach to Stawell we noted the largest wind turbine collection that we had ever seen, stretching out in all directions; yet none of the turbine blades were moving and on arrival at Stawell there wasn’t a breath of wind, leaving us wondering if they’d picked the right location for their very expensive, renewable energy infrastructure 😳

    While Loss unpacked the aircraft and secured it with tie downs etc, I scootered into Stawell to collect the hire car and returned just in time to find all jobs completed with bags arranged neatly at the perimeter gate.
    In the fishing vernacular of Loss’ late father regarding such situations? - ‘she’s a keeper!’
    The Holden Commodore provided by the rental car operator (which curiously also was simultaneously both a vehicle wrecker and RACV service provider - I guess dependant on the state of your vehicle breakdown) - would have also been met with approval by Loss’ dad.
    We motored into Stawell, bought some groceries and paid a visit to Stawell’s most famous attraction - Central Park where Australia’s oldest and most lucrative running race is held - the Stawell Gift.
    The lady at the Museum was very knowledgeable about the history of this race which was first run in 1878 and was designed originally to keep the gold miners in town over Easter so as to spend their money locally.
    We then proceeded to Hall’s Gap and called in to the Information Centre to obtain a bit of local knowledge about the Grampians. Having then checked in to our accomodation just up the road we then spent the afternoon touring the northern section of the Grampians, taking in some splendid views and walking around 14km on various hikes and tracks. It is a spectacularly beautiful part of God’s creation.

    As usual, we fitted in more than we really should have and got back through the door at about 7.30pm. Loss has just cooked up an amazing meal, most of the produce (potato, sweet potato, corn, asparagus, broccoli, carrots and cream cheese to accompany the Stawell purchased meat and mushrooms) having been unwittingly transported in the plane from Sydney 😳
    Having lightened our load of all that produce, I expect the runway takeoff roll on our next leg to Parafield on Thursday to be considerably shortened!    Read more

  • TravelerEnroute to Adelaide
    1
    Day 4

    Grampians Gambolling

    October 10, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Unfortunately, the alarm didn’t go off at 5am this morning.

    I was sure I had set it, but having told Loss last night that we needed to accept Steve’s challenge of a clamber up the Elephant Hide for sunrise, I suspect she may have turned the alarm off after I went to sleep.
    So we woke up at the crack of 9 instead and opened the curtains to find a mob of emus grazing outside our window.

    After a slow start, the day picked up pace with a pretty solid walk up ( the watch is registering 93 flights of stairs) to the signature lookout of the Grampians - ‘The Pinnacle’ with a diversion via ‘The Grand Canyon’ on the way.

    Again, the weather proved to be perfect and the climb was enjoyable, although steeper than what we had suspected. However, once the lookout was reached we were rewarded with exceptional views and a sense of awe.

    After returning to the car, we drove on a little further to ‘The Sundial’ carpark, stopped for some late lunch in the picnic area then continued on to the ‘Lakeview lookout’ which was 90% as spectacular as the Pinnacle but requiring only about 10% of the exertion.

    We circled to the south by car, walking in to the ‘Silverband Falls’ which were really lovely - the experience made all the more enjoyable by the fact that we had it to ourselves. Finally, we completed the circuit of this part of the Grampians by driving down the hill to Lake Bellfield and then back into Halls Gap for some groceries for dinner. It soon became apparent that we should have done our grocery shopping much earlier in the day, as the only meat options left on the shelves were sausages or mince patties.
    As a result, the mince patties are now being converted into a Spaghetti Bolognaise sauce . . .    Read more

  • TravelerEnroute to Adelaide
    Day 5

    2 Mountains, 2 Waterfalls, 2 Reptiles

    October 11, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Today we checked out of Halls Gap on yet another perfect day and started heading for the southern Grampians. Our first destination was Mount William - the highest peak in the Grampians.
    We had been told by the friendly lady at the Information Centre at Halls Creek that the climb from the carpark to the summit was on a sealed road, so we took advantage of the escooters for this and managed to use them to great effect, passing several seasoned bush walkers who eyed us off with what appeared to be a mixture in equal measures of envy and distain.
    The view from the summit was again fantastic, the pilot in me noting that there was an Airservices aviation VHF repeater station located here through which I would be probably communicating tomorrow.
    The escooters managed to turn what would have been a 2 hour round trip into around 45 minutes, despite the fact that the steeper sections on the way up required pushing rather than riding the devices.
    After giving the brakes on the scooters a thorough workout on the way back down to the car, we then headed towards Dunkeld at the southern tip of the Grampians range and made a quick call to the Information Centre for some more local knowledge. An excellent cafe was found just across the road for a late morning coffee to fortify us for the climb ahead and then we proceeded back to the carpark to tackle our second summit for the morning - Mount Sturgeon which commmands wonderful views over Dunkeld and beyond.
    The young lady at the Information centre was hardly an ambassador for bushwalking and mountain climbing.
    “ I’ve read that the Mt Sturgeon Climb is worthwhile?” I asked.
    This question was followed by a slight pause….’ Yeah, the view from the top is good . . . But when I’ve done it, it just seems to go on and on and on … and then when you eventually get to the top, all I could think was…now I’ve just got to walk all the way back down again . . ‘
    With such n inspirational testimony we decided it simply had to be climbed. And it was definitely worthwhile.
    On entering the track, we observed (and used) a special boot washing station with accompanying signage explaining that by doing so we would be protecting the local flora and fauna. However, it would seem that the local fauna didn’t play by the same rules as they seemed to have no interest in protecting us. A few steps up the track after the boot washing station we encountered an aggressive bobtail lizard, and on the way down we surprised a juvenile ‘wriggling stick’ in the middle of the path. We managed to escaped unscathed from both encounters and made it safely back to the car.
    The 3 hours the ‘information lady’ claimed it took her to do the walk was done in 2 hours 20 minutes (with 15 of those minutes spent enjoying the view from the top) - so I’m guessing bushwalking is just not her thing.
    We then checked in to our BnB at Dunkeld, Loss magicked up some lunch again (it was now nearly 3pm) and then we set off for a drive west of the town of Hamilton to take in two waterfalls. These were really quite good - the Nigretta and Wannon Falls - and then we took a leisurely drive back to Dunkeld to prepare for our dinner booking at 8pm at the ‘2 hatted’ Royal Mail hotel.
    Fortunately for the wallet, the premium restaurant experience was fully booked so we settled for the less financially damaging but very enjoyable alacarte restaurant.    Read more

  • TravelerEnroute to Adelaide
    Day 6

    Climate Change

    October 12, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    It was one of those unusual times where it was safer, faster and more predictable to fly under the clouds in Visual conditions than to file an Instrument Flight Plan and fly through/ above the clouds.
    We awoke to rain, cold and cloudy skies - the first ‘less than perfect’ weather we’ve had since leaving Sydney - so we would have to literally take a ‘rain check’ on the planned scenic flight around the Grampians enroute to Adelaide. The weather was forecast to improve sufficiently by our planned departure time so we drove back to Stawell via Ararat, refuelled and returned the car, scootered back to the airport in the icy conditions and flew at 2,500’ under the cloud base enroute to Parafield.

    Our progress was impeded by a stiff headwind (35 knots= 65kmh) but this was significantly less than the 90 knots (167kmh) headwind reported by a QantasLink pilot at 12,000’. If we’d chosen to cruise at that level we would have looked down to see farm tractors and school buses on the roads below overtaking us.

    We arrived at Parafield uneventfully and on opening the cabin doors we had to hold onto loose items to stop them blowing away in the cold, southwesterly gale. Aircraft refuelled and secured, friendly airport security guys driving past saw the vast quantities of luggage piling up around Loss’s feet as we prepared to walk to the exit gate.
    They doubled back and called out to her ‘Here, let us give you a lift with all that luggage - we’ll take it through the vehicle access gate as you’ll never fit through the revolving turnstile gate’
    Although it seemed like only standard amounts of luggage to Loss, nevertheless we gratefully accepted their offer and moments later Peter Tretola arrived in the Landcruiser with trailer and roof pod ready to swallow the luggage and drive us back to their home.
    While Loss settled us in and unpacked, Peter and I went on a solid walk along ‘Second Creek’ for some exercise, returning in time to head out to Adelaide airport to pick up Dan Tretola, armed with only the vaguest instructions that ‘Dan’s flight was arriving at about 6pm’. Arriving right at 6, I spent an enjoyable hour in the Arrivals hall FaceTiming Darcy in Perth, greeting other familiar faces who had arrived on flights from Sydney - but no sign of Dan. Eventually the message was relayed that Dan had already been picked up by his brother and they were on their way for a run.

    So, back to Barr-Smith street empty handed - but on the bright side, the coffee that I bought out of boredom at the airport while I was waiting for Dan was actually quite good!    Read more

  • TravelerEnroute to Adelaide
    Day 7

    Wedding

    October 13, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    A cool and cloudy day dawned in Adelaide and with no particular schedule this morning, a brisk walk up to Burnside village for a few grocery essentials was made after breakfast with a view to being back to the Tretolas in time for Naomi Penn to visit.
    Naomi and her late husband Gary have been friends of ours for many years since they moved to Australia from South Africa with their 3 young children in the late 1990’s. They came to Sydney for a week at that time with a view to possibly living there but eventually settled on Adelaide as their Australian home.
    We had stayed in touch with them ever since and apart from our connection through the Christadelphian community, Gary was also a private pilot which gave us an extra level of camaraderie.
    Just before Gary fell ill in 2022 with gliobastoma (brain cancer) Gary had excitedly rung me to tell me that he had just resumed his refresher pilot training (as he had let his licence lapse) and he was thinking of buying a used light aircraft to do some cross country trips and renew his aviation passion.
    Just a few weeks after this call Gary fell ill and received his diagnosis and sadly Gary succumbed to this disease while Loriene and I were in the UK earlier this year.
    We spent a lovely hour or so with Naomi this morning reminiscing with lots of laughs and a few tears and I was very touched to receive as a gift from Naomi Gary’s almost brand new aviation headsets that he had purchased when he resumed his flying last year.
    These headsets will now have pride of place in VH-MWD and will be a lovely reminder of Gary each time they are used.
    Grace then whipped up some lunch for us and it was time to get ready to go to Phoebe and Jonny’s wedding - the central purpose of this trip . . .
    The wedding was beautiful in every way, we caught up with lots of people we knew and made some new acquaintances as well. It was a wonderful occasion and the weather was very kind to them for their outdoor ceremony.    Read more

  • TravelerEnroute to Adelaide
    2
    Day 8

    Out and about in Adelaide

    October 14, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Last night was a little shorter than ideal, after a big day yesterday.
    We headed off to Geoff and Jenny Henstock’s house this morning for a 10am morning tea and catchup.
    Mark Vincent (who has been staying with them) was just about to leave for some other activities for the day before flying back to the UK tonight to take up the role of Editor, commencing Monday! We had last met Mark in 2016 when he was a speaker at the Sydney Conference and it was nice to spend a few minutes chatting with him before he left.
    Geoff has been receiving very significant chemotherapy and radiotherapy for a recently diagnosed oesophageal malignancy. He has been pretty miserable with side effects from this treatment over the past few weeks but is now feeling much improved and was in fine form this morning. Geoff and I go back to high school days in Sydney and we have been close friends ever since. It was great to see them again and I even received a personally signed copy of Geoff’s newly released book entitled ‘Palestine: Mythical Yet Real’ - the release of which amazingly coincided exactly with Hamas’ invasion of Israel a week ago.

    We returned back home to the Tretola’s for a bite of lunch with Dan and Beth before then heading off to the Adelaide Hills looking at potential wedding venues for next year’s big event. After sussing out 2 lovely venues, we then headed back into the city to meet Michael and Verity Edgecombe for dinner at the Peppers hotel. A lovely evening was had, including an unexpected visit from Nathan and Caroline Luke who called in for dessert.

    Another big day has concluded - our last here before our planned flight home tomorrow morning.    Read more

  • TravelerEnroute to Adelaide
    Day 9

    Home for birthdays

    October 15, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Normally we would have stayed until after lunch and then headed home, however today required an early departure as it was our granddaughter Luella’s 9th birthday today.
    Hugo’s 7th birthday was a few days ago and we were already in serious trouble for having missed that, so we simply had to be home for combined celebrations this afternoon.
    Adelaide turned on another drizzly, cool morning which I was more than happy about, because with that southwesterly airstream that was creating such conditions, there was a ripping tailwind at altitude to help us on our way back to Sydney.
    We said our farewells to the Tretolas and Beth picked us up at 8am to drive us to Parafield.
    MWD was the only aircraft parked in the designated General Aviation area when we had left it on Thursday and today it was still the solitary aircraft there.
    The drizzle had cleared just enough for us to pack and prep the plane without getting wet. Our timing was perfect because as soon as we hopped in and shut the doors the drizzle started up again.
    Not a single aircraft movement had taken place since we arrived this morning and indeed we may have been the only aircraft movement the controller had managed all morning.
    We took off into the clouds, complied with the necessary tracking requirements through Adelaide airspace and then we were cleared to turn east and climb to 11,000 feet.
    The promised tailwind was there in spades and was about 40 knots for most of the trip. The air was silky smooth at our cruising altitude and we were on the ground at Bankstown (warm and sunny) exactly 3.5hr after takeoff - the quickest trip we have ever made between these two cities.
    The plane was hangared, the car packed and we were off to the birthday party in excellent time.
    And so concludes our little trip.
    We have been blessed with safety during all our travels and all the boxes were ticked; the flights were great, the scenic places visited were beautiful and the wedding and fellowship shared in Adelaide were wonderful.    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English