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| Come Drive With Us |
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| Good Crops This Year |
What can I tell you? Once again I am under the powerful spell of
South Australia. This is such a
beautiful state. Admittedly, the countryside
around Morgan is a little on the ordinary side with red soil, scrubby trees and
a littering of salt-bush. It does of
course, have its own stark sort of beauty.
The countryside as you approach the Clare Valley however, opens up into
an enormous Hans Heysen painting – truly, you could swear you had done the
proverbial Alice Through The Looking Glass and simply stepped into one of his
paintings.
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| Sun Drenched |
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| Crop Lines!? |
The vistas of distant blue
hills, massive and marbled old gums, sleepy sheep and cattle grazing on sun drenched hills and of wheat fields interspersed with rows of budding vines are just awe-inspiring. Due to our very
timely trip thru’ SA, the fields of wheat and hay range from deep emerald
green, limes, silvers golds and red. It is so incredibly beautiful I am just in constant wonder and awe. I must drive DD nuts with my constant exclamations and exaltations.
One exclamation was as a
result of a huge bucking bronco and rider suddenly appearing on a lonely corner in the tiny 'town' of Marrabel. The horse was it seems, a
brumby mare called Curio – a legend in the area, having bucked every rider off her back for 8 long years. She was
eventually ridden for 10 long seconds by the rider depicted in the 2 tonne cold pressed bronze statue. For the horse prone amongst you, don’t be too
upset for poor old Curio. She lived to
be 28 years old and was a proud mum several times during that time. Her memory is revered in this region.
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Curio - first successful 10 second rider Alan Woods
Curio was the feature horse at the rodeo from 1947 - this ride was in 1953 |
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| This does look uncomfortable - perhaps that's why she bucked everyone off! |
LUCKY AT LEASINGHAM
I don’t know if I mentioned
it, but it is still school holidays here in SA.
That fact combined with a long week-end this past Saturday and Sunday meant,
we found, that it was hard to find a little nook for Jezzy over that particular
3 day period. We were compelled to leave
Morgan as they were expecting an influx of folk, due we thought, to being right
on the Murray River. Surely the inland
country towns, without the benefit of rivers would be free and easy! Hmmm, it seems we were wrong on that
count. We did try a couple only to be
told in no uncertain terms that they would be filled to capacity over the long
week-end. We knew that we would be welcome
at a certain home in Clare, but really didn’t wish to impose ourselves on a
long weekend, thinking that our good friends would be involved with family and
bowls. What to do? Well after a bit of a ring around, we found a
delightful tiny little caravan park at Leasingham in the Clare Valley, just a few miles from Clare. What a
delightful little spot this turned out to be.
The place was called, I think, Leasingham Cabin Village and is on the
corner of Wakefield Road and Main North Road.
They only have a small number of powered sites, tiny but pretty
amenities and the cutest little laundry you are ever likely to find in a
CP. The park even boasted a Dump Point
(most important). We booked into this park for the long weekend. I think every
van other than ours boasted a very well behaved pooch and all the neighbours were
friendly as were the natives.
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| Spectacular Vineyards of The Clare Valley |
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| Ordered Beauty |
One of our objectives while
relatively close to Adelaide was for DD to catch up with his old mate
Harry. To this end, we took the scenic
route thru’ Gawler and down to Virginia where Harry lives. I was intending to stay away from this male
reunion but ended up taking the trip south with DD in order to see an otherwise
unseen area and to possibly do the skipper thing on the way back. As it turned out, I didn’t need to skipper as
DD was impeccably behaved and I did indeed enjoy the very scenic drive thru’
Gawler on the way down and thru’ Balaklava on the way back. Most importantly tho’, I am so pleased to
have met DD’s old friend.
Harry and DD used to be
work-mates and I had heard many stories about the antics and travels these two
blokes were involved in back in the good old days.
Harry is a dapper ‘mature’ gentleman, and yes he definitely is a
gentleman, of English birth. What a
delight. He lives in what would most
likely be described as a Retirement Village, amongst like-minded
individuals. His home was both
beautifully appointed and maintained. I was super-impressed by the state of the
home. Harry quite puts me to shame with
his house-work. The place was
immaculate.
Harry’s hospitality was
impeccable and he made us very welcome with cuppas which we enjoyed on his back
patio. I sat back and enjoyed the
friendly ambiance as the two men relived much of their past working life. It was lovely just sitting back and enjoying
the ambiance created by old friendship.
Leaving Harry’s delightful
home, we made our way back via Port Wakefield and Balaclava. The countryside around the Balaklava area was
quite beautiful displaying, like in the old song, 40 Shades of Green.
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| Amazing Contrasts |
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| Sleeping Beauty |
OLD FRIENDS AT OCHRE RIDGE
Monday morning arrived and
we hitched up at a lovely leisurely pace and trundled along Main North Road the
whole 15 or so kilometres to our mates’ home in Clare. We met Zan and Peter in Melrose earlier this
year when we were just starting out on our 2013
journey. It was kismet at first
glance. We have Zed and Jezabelle, they
have Jethro and Elly Mae. Obviously a
marriage made in heaven. These lovely
folk practically insisted that we stay with them on our way thru’. We had it in mind to stay in Clare and simply
visit, but they wouldn’t hear of this.
We pulled into the front driveway of their wonderful country home late Monday morning and
all sanity ceased from the moment we saw Pete in his front yard, obsequiously
bowing and touching his forelock as we dragged Jezzy into the appointed spot.
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| Site of Ancient Fire Ritual |
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| Views Forever |
I have to say that as
Caravan Parks go, the Ochre Ridge CP is the best we have ever stayed in. We were not allowed to lift a finger nor
provide a bite. Zan and Peter completely
spoiled us and we loved it. The home is
on top of a largish hill, from where you can see for proverbial miles and
miles. As the weather looked promising,
they planned a bonfire for Monday evening.
As foretold, the flames drew neighbours from near and far and a
rip-roaring time was had by all as we sat around the primitive flames
performing the age old rite of fire worship.
This ancient practice was, as is the custom, performed with the aid of
abundant fermented grape juice, both the red and white variety. I believe at some time, these juices were
supplanted by the deep ruby red of port-wine.
A most fitting homage to spring and the harvest of the vines! Of course all this grape juice was
accompanied by a veritable BBQ feast of juicy steaks and tasty snaggers and all
the trimmings.
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| Statuary Modeled on Zan |
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| Modeled on Peter? |
Remarkably Tuesday morning
saw us all hale and hearty and ready for whatever. Zan is a super accomplished cook and
absolutely surpassed herself on Tuesday evening presenting an enormous succulent
port roast with lashings of the best crackling we have ever tasted. The conversations around the dining table
were varied and absorbing. Between the
four of us we share a variety of political bents and it was wonderful to be
able to discuss, albeit quite excitedly, without any vitriol, our varying
perspectives.
Before dinner, Peter and DD
went off to visit a neighbour who has a decided passion for powerful, fast and
super-everything motor-cars. DD was
blown away, not only by the number of highly powered shiny vehicles in the
garages, but the absolute spic and span condition of everything in and around
that extensive garage! Even the white
German Sheppard dog was immaculate. Even
a non petrol head like my bloke had to be impressed with this vehicular
display.
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| Power Plus |
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| What a difference 50 odd years can make. |
Sadly our short stay finished all too soon and Wednesday morning we bid farewell to Zan, Peter and their lovely 3 silver poodles and headed off to Melrose where we first met this delightful couple.
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| Gardens at the Ochre Ridge CP |
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| Elly Mae, Jezzy and Zed all at the Ochre Ridge CP |
MELTING AT MELROSE
We were fortunate to be
only travelling some 150 or so kilometres yesterday as the winds were ferocious
and generally almost in our face. In
addition to the severe winds it was hot!
I do mean hot! The temps were up
around the 37 mark and it was, despite the winds, quite humid. We pushed our way thru’ to arrive in Melrose
early afternoon. We have only really
semi-unpacked as we will be off from here first thing tomorrow morning.
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| What Can I Say? |
We feel that we now have the bit
between our teeth and are looking forward to crossing the Nullarbor and
reaching good old WA again. Our current
plan is roughly along the lines of, Penong at the beginning of the Nullarbor
tomorrow afternoon and Eucla the following day.
We may stay a couple of days in Eucla depending on the prevailing winds –
just because we spent Christmas there and have a fondness for the place. From Eucla we should reach somewhere like
Fraser Range and then a jump to Southern Cross.
From there we will head in a north-westerly direction arriving in our
beloved Kalbarri somewhere around Saturday week. There we will sit for at least 2 – 3 weeks. Boy, am I looking forward to that! We see some amazing scenery, meet wonderful
people and have amazing experiences, but after pretty much 10 months of being
constantly on the move, I am really looking forward to “just settin’ a spell
you all”. Sorry, it’s the Elly Mae
influence!!
Well, that it for me this
time. I will see if I can find some ‘road-trip’
style photos to show you. DD has asked
me to mention that if you click on any of the photos, they enlarge and simplify
the viewing procedure. I should mention here that DD’s leg is all better now
and he is in much better humour!
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| Amazing |
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Mt Remarkable Sitting Guard over Melrose
Take care of yourselves, cherish old friendships and marvel in the new ones. Stephanie. |
