Perth - Adelaide - Oodnadatta Track

It was lovely seeing our gorgeous granddaughters again, it was a shame the weather was so miserable, the whole two weeks we were home it was cold & wet. We did get to take Millana & Ruby out a couple of times and they enjoyed it as much as we did. We caught up with some friends but generally we just hung around and shared our time with family.





Back in Adelaide we stayed 2 nights at our Daughter Erin's place and re-stocked with provisions and got the van ready and headed off to the Flinders Ranges. We had not been through these parts before and we enjoyed it a lot. We paid the $8 park admission fee and choose to camp out in the bush for a further $10 per night, as expensive as some Caravan Parks but the scenery was worth it, we did some lovely walks and i explored some caves, the views were spectacular from atop some of the hills. We spent 3 nights in the Flinders and could easily have stayed longer, we will definately come back and stay a couple of weeks.

But not but not being sure of how long we would be on the Oodnadatta Track and having booked an airflight from Alice to Adelaide so Vickie could fly back for her eye treatment we left the Flinders and headed onto the 'Oody', From reading reports from other Bushtracker owners i had a rough idea of what to expect in regards to the track conditions, before leaving Maree i lowered the tyre pressures on the van and the truck by 10psi.

Compared to many other tracks we have driven i would class the Oodnadatta as good, from Maree to William Creek it was a well graded dirt road with a small amount of rock in places, from William Creek to Oodnadatta it became more corrugated with the wheel tracks becoming deeper with more stone and rock, from Oodnadatta to Marla the track become very dusty, visibility behind us was nil, at times when looking in the mirrors all i could see behind me for a long distance was the fine dust hanging in the air.

We stopped at many of the ruins of the siding stations of the Old Ghan Railway, i took photo's whilst Vickie scoured the rubbish dumps looking through all the broken glass, she found a couple of old medicine bottles as souveneirs. We had plenty of firewood for the evening campfire with tons of old railway sleepers scattered about. We refilled the water tanks at Curdimurka Siding with fresh clean water for showering.


The F250 & Bushtracker traversed the track with no problems other than the flush mechanism of the Thetford toilet refusing to work, this was no problem as we were able to use the shower to flush the loo. At Alice Springs we managed to get into Heritage Caravan Park after trying 3 others which all were booked, we didn't know it but Peter the former Electrician at Bushtracker factory was working here and he gave me some pointers on what to check and between the both of us we determined one of the micro switches had failed, $63 for another switch and all is working again.

Fuel at William Creek & Oodnadatta was $1.89 per litre for diesel, at Maree i think it was $1.59.

We will stay in Alice 3 nights, catch up with Vickie's brother who works at the Pine Gap base and go to the Camel Races today, Monday we will head off to the West McDonnell Ranges and check out the attractions out that way for 8-10 days before coming back into town so Vickie can fly down to Adelaide for another eye treatment.

More photo's can be found here NIKNOFF

Freezing Bloody Cold in Perth

For many weeks we have endured cold & wet weather in SA whilst watching the temperatures in Perth still in the mid 20's, it's typical that now we are 'home' visiting family that we are now experiencing more freezing cold & wet conditions. Its been lovely seeing our granddaughters, we are being smothered in hugs & kisses, today Vickie [Nana] has taken the girls out shopping so that will be a lovely day for them. I took our 'home' car the Corolla in for a service and whilst waiting back at Pop's place i have been loading maps onto the laptop for use in the Garmin Nuvi that we use for navigation. My feet are like blocks of ICE !!!



Our beautiful granddaughters, Millana Jean & Ruby Grace

Mt Eliza Vic - Coorong SA

Leaving Mt Eliza we headed down to Sorrento where the Ferry leaves for Queenscliff, the last time we were at Sorrento a few years back we had a great meal of Fish & Chips with friends so that was in our minds for lunch before the ferry trip. Without a doubt this meal was the BEST F&C we have ever had, we can recommend Fish Fetish at 27 Ocean Beach Road Sorrento, the servings were huge and the batter was superb with the chips just cooked to perfection! We also visited the local Mitre 10 store and bought some carpet runner for the van.




The ferry trip over was good, 40 mins with lovely conditions gave us time to just look around the scenery of Port Phillip Bay and before we knew it we were told to get in the vehicle ready to disembark. Our Bushtracker friends Rob & Sonia live in Barwon Heads not far away from Queenscliff so that was our destination, they live opposite the Barwon River in a beautiful home with plenty of room beside to park the van although it can be be a bit tight getting into. I had met RobnSon previously at Mareeba Qld, they were parked on the side of the road whilst Vickie was in the shops and since then i have continued corresponding with them via email, we had such a great an evening, we were treated like we were at a 5 star Restaurant and had a very enjoyable evening.


Leaving Barwon Heads we drove along the Great Ocean Road, a road we have travelled before with our last Van, plus many 'blasts' along the route in my younger days on motorbikes. We stopped at a camp area at Princetown for smoko, we have stayed here previously but camp charges have increased to the point where we decided to head towards the Otway National Park and stay at Aire River Campground. Some other campers were set up on the main track so we went down on to the flats to turn around to get the van level, it was wet & slippery getting out and our fellow campers were taking bets to see if we would manage, but we did albeit with lots of mud splatter alongside the rig. The weather was wet & cold so not much exploring was done before an early night of championship Skip Bo card game.










Next morning we left and drove on and visited Port Cambell, Peterborough, & Warrnambool before finally choosing #589 Fitzroy River for our camp site. Again we had the place to ourselves and enjoyed a lovely camp fire in the evening. The next night was spent at Southend Foreshore Campground, part of the Beachport Conservation Park, a cost of $5 per vehicle was charged for camping with no entry fee which was very reasonable compared to what WA charge. We did the usual drive & look around the area and then headed to our next destination 'The Granites' # 29, this was just a car park at the end of a 1klm dirt road, the Granites were a group of 3 or 4 large boulders on the beach, nothing exciting but a night spent with a camp fire is always nice regardless of where we are so we were happy.


# 31 in the Camps Aust Book, Old Coorong Campgrounds was our next nights stay, we really enjoyed the Coorong National Park, the fee's very reasonable with excellent facilities and large camping areas. We walked over the large sand dunes twice to the beach where Vickie was in her ellement beach combing for shells, Vickie found the 'mutha of shells' which she has displayed in the van, I took the beach rod and chucked lures up and down the beach before catching two weird fish that i described as Elephant Fish for the probiscuous looking snout. We also walked the 4wd track to the beach and explored the beach in the opposite direction the next day before leaving reluctantly hoping our next stop would be as nice.





42 Mile Crossing was another nice campground in the Coorong, here the walk to the beach was a longer trek, the tide was in and the beach was getting hammered with waves but we were on a mission to find the best shell's washed up so we spent the next few hours scouring along the high tide mark before realising the time was getting on and headed back to camp via the walking track, the sun was starting to set and we were hoping the walkway was going to be the quickest route back. The walk was certainly more scenic with lovely views and plenty of Kangaroo's surprised to see us trecking along, the Van was a welcomed sight by the time we got back after giving the legs a big workout.


The Coorong was great for birds & wildlife, we came across a wombat scratching his nose on the road who wasn't too fazed about me getting close, an Echidna which dug his paws in to the dirt as we tried to shoo him off the road plus heaps of Emu's & Roo's. We called into Parnka Point hoping for another ocean side camp, and though it was picturesque being situated alongside the Coorong the sand flies were already out in force, speaking to another couple leaving they warned us about the huge Mozzies also, plus being low on water in the van we decided to head back to Adelaide Base and that is where we are now untill we fly back to Perth to visit our children & granddaughters in a weeks time.

Murray-Kulkyne Regional Park - Heathcote

We left Mildura which to me was just another large town with all the things large towns offer, to be fair we can recommend the Sandbar Hotel for a good counter meal in huge portions,


Murray-Kulkyne Regional Park #395 in the camps 3 Aust wide book was our 1st night after leaving Mildura, we stumbled upon this Park as we were initially on the Calder Highway when we exected to be further North travelling along the Murray, once we realised this we cut across to Coligman and came across the Kulkyne Park, the park is seperated from the adjoining Hattah Kulkyne National Park by a dirt road with the river on the Kulkyne Park side. The National Park has two gazetted camping area's with fee's to apply whereas the Park had very few restrictions and no fee's, plus being along side the river it was a no brainer as to which we enjoyed.



Amazing along all these roads and camping sites we came across very few other campers, one spot we did meet some other caravanners was at Passage Bend # 344, this was a 5klm windy track in coming out at a nice camp area right on a bend in the river, hence the name. Murray & Jenny with a Kedron XC were already setting up camp amongst the tree's and a Mother & daughter travelling in a car & box trailer with all their possessions had a well set up camp with tents on a cleared area on the river's banks, fortunately for us they were leaving so we were able to take over their spot and lay claim to the firewood they had left. Gordon & Wendy from Qld towing a 25' Jayco arrived soon after so that made up our happy hour crew for that night.


We stayed two nights at Passage Bend and it was a lovely spot with lots of Sulphur Crested Cockatoo's performing their tumbling acts for us each afternoon as they came home to roost in the tree's around us. Everyone had the same idea as us and left after two days but we were last to break camp and head out onto the Murray Valley Highway with our next nights camp just a hop skip & jump along at Nyah State Forest [#339] again we were by ourselves for the night . The full moon had been & gone and it was surprisingly very black outside with the stars shining brightly, helped only by the flickering flames of our camp fire, what a great LIFE !



A drive into Swan Hill ..... another large town, a quick look around and on we drove towards Kerang where we fueled up and drove to Cohuna, here was another pleasent surprise for us, we saw a mud map at the closed Information Bay showing plenty of free camping areas along the river, a quick check with the local camping store and we had infomation along with a map of the area, where we were heading was Gunbower Island, simple to get to we just crossed over the creek and followed the dirt tracks down to the river and took our choice of the many lovely camp sites, without the map though we would have still been looking. No shortage of firewood again and we had another wonderful evening by the fire this time playing Skip Bo and i copped another beating so that meant i was on morning coffee duty again.


We are now at Heathcote Caravan Park, it wasn't our intention but again we missed the road we were supposed to be on and it wasn't worth turning around, besides Heathcote has some memories for me, i recall coming here with my Mum and camping in a tent in the same park we are now in 43 years later, funny how life works sometimes.

Thiele’s Sandbar - The Murray - Mildura

Continuing up the Murray we have found some lovely camp sites, Thiele’s Sandbar & Paringa were another couple of camping area's alongside the river that we enjoyed staying at. Prior to Paringa we stayed a night at Martins Bend near Berri, a camp site that allows up to 30 days stay. It was nice enough but quite a few others were camped there and we prefer to be out in the bush so we headed to Paringa where we found some more escapees from Martins Bend had the same idea, Gary & Sandra from Central Coast had found themselves a nice spot close to the waters edge so we parked away to give each other some space, the same couldn't be said for another couple of campers who couldn't have gotten any closer to them if they tried, it was unbelievable! The vehicles were almost bumper to bumper and the camper just a few feet from the camp fire. Gary & Sandra are obviously more easy going than myself and they didn't cause a fuss, as it turned out we all enjoyed a few drinks around the fire that night with the 'intruders' bringing out the guitars and sharing a few 'tunes' with us. Perhaps they just weren't aware of the camp etiquette of giving people their space.

The Murray River

With provisions and clean water running low we decided to break camp and head to Mildura where we are now camped in a Caravan park for two nights so we can restock before heading back out and independently camping again. One thing comes to mind after spending two nights in this Van park is the other Caravanners are a non communicative lot, a different breed of people than you find out in the 'bush', the morning can't come fast enough, we can't wait to get back out there again.

Camp at Paringa

Arty - Farty Photo

Flight to Melbourne then back to the Murray River

We treated ourselves along with our daughter Erin & boyfriend Scott a flight to Melbourne to visit Vickie's sister and family. They live down the Penninsula at Mt Eliza and it's a 1.5hour drive, nearly twice the time it took for the flight from Adelaide to Melbourne. We were only in town from Thursday till Sunday and the girls wanted to go to the Casino and the blokes wanted to go to the Footy at the 'G', we combined both along with a visit to see our neice Danielle and her newborn son Tyson & 2 year old Jasper plus a trip to visit Sue & family wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Hastings Markets, by the time we flew out on an early morning flight we were all exhausted by the time we got back to the Van. Thanks for putting us up and ferrying us around Guys!

The queue waiting to get on the train after the footy

Sue & Vickie, Retro Chics

This old 'funny' looking boat was for sale $2k.

Jasper, this kid is a natural with a ball

Young Tyson

When we returned home Vickie had an appointment with her specialist, so once the 1st treatment of many to come for Vickie's eye was out of the way we left Glenelg for the Murray Riverland, our friends Mal & Lynne were heading to Broome via the same route we were travelling so we organised to meet up at Ramco Point just out of Waikerie, it was great to catch up again and we got to see their new Trailcraft Caravan. They stayed two nights and then we parted company with them heading further West, we also went West but only for 20klms where we spent another night at Hogwash Bend, it was another beautiful camp beside the River but we felt a bit lonely after having great company for the last couple of nights. The phone signal & TV reception at Hogwash was lousy also, we had an early night and read before falling asleep.

Houseboat passing Ramco Point.

Mal, Lynne, Myself & Vickie

Dusk at Ramco Point

The next morning

Dusk at Hogwash Bend

Camp at Hogwash

Leaving Hogwash we drove to Waikerie and then stopped at ........... [fill in later] for a few hours to read the papers and just relax, yep you guessed it, by the river. Tonight we are camped again along side the river at a free camp just out of Loxton. A lovely spot with lots of tree's and birdlife, we saw an interesting event when i heard a splash and spotted a large Kangaroo swimming across the river, it took him around 10 minutes before he got to the other side and another 10 minutes of splashing around in the bullrushes before he scrambled up the bank, he must have been exhausted, i was too captivated watching to think about the camera.

Camp at Loxon beside the Murray River

Dusk at Loxton Campsite

The end of the day produced another beautiful sunset, and that was about the time the bugs came out so it was time we headed for the comfort of the Van. Dinner was Spag Bog and an evening planned of computer time and watching the Footy.