2010 Travels | This Adventurous Age

November 12, 2021
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2010 Travels April 23

FRIDAY 23 APRIL PETERBOROUGH TO MT IVE 330kms

The usual morning routine was uneventful.

From Peterborough, went through Orroroo, Wilmington and via Horrocks Pass to Port Augusta.

I always found this section depressing. There were too many abandoned old stone buildings that were once farm homes. There was a sense of desperation and failure, to me. Tricked by a series of good years, would-be settlers had ignored Goyder’s Line and tried their luck out here. In the 1860’s, the Surveyor General, Goyder, had separated SA into two sections: the better watered part where agriculture was feasible, and the drier parts suited only to open grazing, if anything. The division between these on the maps became known as Goyder’s Line. Unfortunately, when there were a few unusually good seasons in a row, it was too easy for people to think he was wrong. Hence the abandoned ruins we were passing.

I wondered if, with current climatic change, a 21st century Goyder’s Line would shrink even closer to Adelaide?

John was very pleased with the performance of the van brakes through Horrocks Pass. That made a change. Maybe Trakmaster did something at the recent service that had actually worked.

As we were driving into Port Augusta, saw a Trakmaster van pulled up at an auto electrician place. After the trials of last year’s travel, I could sympathize.

We went to the Woolworths supermarket, easily finding a parking place for the rig in the large car park between the shopping complex and the sea front. Did a food shop, mostly for fresh provisions. We did not plan to be near shops again for a week or so.

Drove to an auto parts place, where John bought a new CB aerial. We were picking up M’s calls to us alright, but she couldn’t hear us transmit. John did not want to wait around for someone to install it, and said he would do it himself, later.

Headed out of town, on the highway west. At Iron Knob, turned off onto the unsealed Nonning Road that goes for about 120kms, through the Siam Station, to Mt Ive Homestead.

The road surface was not too bad, but in parts there were little humps, and dips, which necessitated great concentration. John missed seeing one such and we did a huge bounce – instant rearrangement of the contents of the van’s cupboards!

Stopped by the road side to eat lunch. A bit further on, there were glimpses of Lake Gilles, to the south – another salt lake. Gathered some wood for possible campfires.

The entrance to the Station approach road was marked, very distinctively and incongruously, by a submarine apparently rising out of the red earth. This had been built by some local volunteers, utilizing an old boiler. Why, I’d never been able to find out. Maybe because they could? Anyway, it certainly made for a very unusual mail box.

Mount Ive campground had been developed more, since our last visit in ’99. The camp area was more attractive, with tree plantings and a roofed sort of camp kitchen structure.

Our powered site cost $22 a night, with the seventh night free. Very reasonable we thought, for out here. There were two power poles, a distance apart, with eight outlet sockets on each. We chose an area by one pole where shelter screens kind of defined the camp spots, and we hoped would prevent any neighbours from becoming too intrusive.

We were not too far from the amenities, which were housed in one end of an ex-Woomera building that also housed a kitchen and recreation room – for users of the cabin accommodation only!

Woomera, further to the east, was the site of a military rocket launching and testing facility, from 1947 until 1982, a joint British and Australian facility. After 1982, the off limits Woomera village area was opened to the travelling public, though only official government staff can live there. As the facility was wound back somewhat, after 1982, some buildings that were not needed were sold off and re-located. Hence the one at Mt Ive.

We set up, with M putting her “living” tent at an angle to the back of the van. I re-packed the van cupboards. They were not quite as bad as I’d expected.

Had a wander around the campground and buildings. There were some excellent photos on display in the rec. room, many taken by a lady from nearby Thurlga Station. There was one photo of a bird delicately picking the nose of a sheep – a once-ever photo!

John was really absorbed by some Major Mitchell Cockatoos in scrub in the area.

A twin engine plane – identity VH ZUM – also featured in a photo that was obviously taken here. I wondered if that was taken before our one-time boss bought it for his aviation company, back in 2005. However, later, I saw some brochures set out, for his company, so then assumed that he had added Mt Ive to his aerial tour routes and destinations.

There were only a couple of other lots of campers here.

There had been cloud build up during the day, and it was quite overcast by sunset. Hoped it would not rain. The tracks in this area would not be pleasant, wet!

We had the usual happy hour, sitting outside, around a campfire we’d built. Our tea was salt and pepper squid rings, and salad.

The night was wonderfully quiet – back in the bush again…..

November 10, 2021
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2010 Travels April 22

THURSDAY 22 APRIL MILDURA TO PETERBOROUGH 425kms

Another hot day – got into the 30’s.

A routine drive again today. I worked out that this was the fourth time we had travelled west, via this route. And we’d come east across it, five times. That was nine. Probably, by the end of this trip it would be ten. No wonder it seemed less than interesting.

There was the usual inspection at the SA border quarantine point. We had passed through this too many times to be even slightly tempted to carry something we shouldn’t. The van fridge and some cupboards were checked, and the Chescold fridge in the back of Truck as well. My greatest fear was that, one time, the inspector would ask to check the storage area under the bed. Not because of any contraband hidden there, but because everything loose in the van traveled on that bed: TV, electric frypan, books, empty fruit bowls, toiletries bags, radio, washing basket, and so on. The extra storage on top of the cupboards in a poptop was great when parked up, but everything that normally lived up there had to come off for travel. Clearing off the bed, to lift it up for inspection, would be a real pain.

Interstate again….for a while this year it looked like that would be an impossibility in 2010.

We stopped at a supermarket in Renmark to get some vegetables for tonight’s meal, and fruit for lunches.

There was another stop at Morgan, in the large parking area by the punt that took vehicles across the Murray River.

**Vehicle punt across the Murray River at Morgan**

We had morning smoko there and watched the punt travel back and forth across the river.

**Smoko. Thermos and mugs on the Defender’s front “table”.**

Obviously, we didn’t know it at this time, but the slope behind the vehicles, in the photo above, was where – a few years later – M would slip, sit down on her ankle and injure same. Despite the injury and pain, she managed to drive Bessie to Mildura, where she was found to have broken the ankle!

Although there had been fewer locusts since Mildura, we still needed to clean the windscreen again.

On the gradual uphill stretches to Burra, the engine temperature seemed to be a bit higher than usual. This might just have been an effect of all the replaced bits of the engine. It might not behave quite as it used to. We certainly hoped that was the explanation, anyway!

Lunch was had parked by the creek in Burra, watching the ducks on the water. It was a pleasant spot for a break, with its heritage buildings. As usual we said we must actually stay here for few days, sometime.

We pressed on, to Peterborough, arriving there mid-afternoon. Again, this was quite a long enough drive for John.

The Peterborough Caravan Park was a really pleasant little one. We paid $24 for our powered site, and had adjacent drive through sites, not intending to unhitch. Just passing through on the way to elsewhere.

**Peterborough Caravan Park. Vehicle cleaning needed a supervisor!**

After the minimal set up, we walked to the town centre. Had a bit of a wander around town. Posted a couple of birthday cards, timed to arrive at destinations early next week.

The Information Centre was shut – a pity, because a browse would have been interesting.

The way back to the caravan park was uphill, which made it all a rather hefty walk for John, but he managed.

Another clean of the vehicles was required. The insect carcasses made it look as if someone had thrown eggs at them!

Some cloud had built up through the day, and it helped make for some interesting dusk photos.

After happy hour, our dinner was potatoes cooked in foil in the electric frypan, bacon, eggs, tomatoes. M did her own catering, mostly, on such trips.

The night was warm.

November 8, 2021
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2010 Travels April 21

WEDNESDAY 21 APRIL BENDIGO TO MILDURA 390kms

Had the usual early visitor to the van – it makes his day! This time, we took him back inside to his breakfast, to wish daughter a happy birthday for today.

We left Bendigo about 9am. I’d texted M, who had left Melbourne at 7am. The plan was that she would catch up with us today, probably somewhere before Mildura.

The country through to Sea Lake was very green, which was great to see. The long drought that had finally broken earlier this year, had brought lots of good rains.

We fuelled up at Sea Lake, then pulled into the park there to eat the lunch I’d packed this morning.

After Sea Lake, we encountered the prevailing locust plague, that we’d been hearing about. It was really bad, the thickest hordes I’d ever experienced. Guess that was the down side of the lush, green countryside. The nasty yellow splats of expired locusts built up and made the windscreen almost impossible to see out of.

In places, there were thick swarms on the road. We slowed to about 65kmh – they didn’t seem to splat quite so badly then! Truck was “wearing” John’s home made shade cloth bug screen across the radiator grille, because we’d known in advance the pests were up this way. The hope was that this would prevent the build up of dead insects in the radiator body – which if bad enough can wreck the radiator. This one was new – like much of Truck now.

I hoped M had remembered to fit her shade cloth, too.

We stopped at Mittyack to clean the windscreen, then went on to Ouyen. By now, there was a strong smell of cooked locust – yuk! At Ouyen, pulled into the excellent rest stop area. Cleaned the windscreen again.

The bowls club was next to the rest area, and there were locusts all over the green there. Trying to bowl on that would have been a rather unpleasant experience.

**Bowling green Ouyen – with wild life…**

We hadn’t been there long, when M pulled in beside us. The Troopy was wearing its screen, and like us, lots of locusts.

The bugs did not seem quite so bad after Ouyen.

We decided to overnight at Mildura. It was enough for the day for John, and for M too, who had come further than us.

We pulled into one of the conveniently located caravan parks on the stretch just before the Sturt Highway intersection. The person on the reception desk was engaged in a personal phone call, and kept on having it for the best part of ten minutes, while I stood there waiting. I was about to walk out, when she decided to deal with me. I really wanted a drive through site, so we did not have to unhitch, but she said they were all occupied. So they were – mostly by unhitched rigs! Some people just do not want to back onto a site.

Since we really wanted to stay hooked up – John was tired enough without having to go through the unhitch routine – the helpful woman suggested we just back onto part of the site behind us – the occupied site behind us! She seemed to have no comprehension that this might not suit the occupants of that site. For this level of customer service, we paid $24.30, after chain discount. This was already mentally tagged as one caravan park we would not be returning to.

WE asked the people on the site behind us if they would mind if we intruded onto their patch, explaining what we’d been told. They were very nice and said it was alright. We actually did not have to go very far onto their site. It was a mixed blessing as they were smokers, so we had to keep the back window closed.

**Occupying a site and a bit at Mildura**

Set up was thus minimal. The clean up of locust carcasses took a lot more time.

We walked across to the nearby shopping complex, as I needed to buy some vegetable matter for tea. As we’d come into the fruit fly quarantine zone, I hadn’t brought any with me. We also need a new dishwashing brush, as the old one had been commandeered for locust removal.

The walk was good for all of us, after the day of driving.

It had been a hot day, in the low 30’s. There was some cloud build up as we drove through the day, and it became quite humid.

We sat outside our van, the three of us, having happy hour. It was great to be travelling together again – the last time had been 2007.

Tea was scotch fillet steak, mushrooms, salad.

John was happy with the new, small, flat screen TV he’d bought before we left, for the van. It replaced the one we’d travelled with since 1997. That had lasted well, considering that it was shifted every time we moved on, from bench to bed and then back to bench, plus the sometimes extreme conditions we’d been in. But it was old technology and John wanted a flat screen.

We were tired though and did not stay up late, TV or not.

November 7, 2021
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2010 Travels April 20

TUESDAY 20 APRIL HOME TO BENDIGO 225kms

John had a 7.30am appointment at the ECRU unit at Box Hill – the place that was running the drug trial. We were very optimistic that all would be well, that he would have a month or so until the next appointment, and we would be able to leave on the trip today, as we were planning. All was indeed well, and he was given a five week break until the next visit. Bonus!

Back at home, there was still much packing of Truck to be done. John had tired yesterday, so not achieved as much as he’d intended. I watered the plants in pots on the terrace, fed the goldfish in the pond, cleared perishables out of the fridge and packed the last minute van stuff. Our unit tenant was going to keep an eye on things in our absence, so I briefed her.

Hitching up the van was harder than usual. John was not yet really used to the new clutch that had been recently put in Truck, and found it difficult to achieve the very small backwards movements needed to line up the Treg hitch. Our block slopes downhill, so he was backing uphill. On flat ground, I could always manoeuvre the van to line up with Truck, but if I took off the van brake and tried to do that on this slope, the result would be very messy indeed.

We eventually pulled out of the driveway at midday. It had already been a long day for John, who’d had to leave home this morning at around 6am, and battle the Melbourne peak time traffic to get to his appointment on time.

It was the usual trip, that we had done so often before, to daughter’s place at Bendigo. But this time, we were not embarking on the long trip to North Queensland that we had, so optimistically, planned for this year. After last year’s failure to get there, too, I was starting to think there was something doomed about us and Far North Queensland…..

There was much more regrowth now, in the bushfire ravaged areas along the Melba Highway. Looking more hopeful. We had a short break in Yea. Arrived at daughter’s at 3.30pm. The Truck and van combo was no speed machine over the Great Divide!

Daughter and grandson arrived home after we’d set up the van in their driveway – but without unhitching!

I went with them to the boy’s swimming lesson – he was doing very well. John stayed behind for a sleep. On the way back, we bought fish and chips for tea. Daughter’s partner’s mother came to tea as well, for a visit with us.

After tea, John helped daughter work on a resume for a new position she was applying for, within the Commonwealth Government organization for which she worked.

Grandson enjoyed our brief visit. He hadn’t seen John since they came down for a day to visit him in hospital, back in March – and the injuries had looked pretty fearsome then, for a kid to see. I think grandson was relieved to see him “normal” again. John promised him $50 if he achieved 150 nights of reading, this year – plus $20 that I’d already committed to. Cash is a great incentive!

From 5pm on, there were thunderstorms and quite heavy rain. I hoped that was not an omen for the coming travels.

Back in the van, we talked, watched a little TV, then it was bed at 9.30pm.

November 6, 2021
by wendyviney 3 Comments

2010 Travels Before April

BEFORE APRIL…..

Late in 2009, John underwent the much needed second hip replacement. The other hip had been replaced in 1997 and was followed by major blood clotting events that, at the time, threatened to derail our plans for retirement and long-term travel, and maybe even kill him.

Obviously, with that history, this time lots of precautions were taken – directed by a specialist “blood” professor. The operation went as planned and John’s recovery seemed speedy, compared to 1997, when exercise with the new hip was precluded by being in a hospital bed for a month. For a month after this surgery, he had to inject himself daily with Clexane, an anti-clotting drug.

All was well, for over two months. The man had even resumed bowls! On a morning in mid-February, John collapsed. He’d gone out to do something at the pool, quite normal and routine. I heard what sounded like a faint call, and found him collapsed, face down, on the ground, in a little pool of blood. Ambulance – off to Emergency at Box Hill Hospital with suspected complications of his type 2 diabetes. No – he was found to have blood clots in his lungs and assorted veins, including a solid clot from ankle to abdomen in the operated-upon leg. The fall onto the slate pavers had removed amounts of skin from his face, broken his nose, and his glasses, which had also cut the face – hence the pool of blood.

John was transferred across to Epworth Eastern Hospital and into the care of assorted specialists. Initially, he was not a pretty picture, but that was the least of the worries. The verdict was that he would have ongoing issues with poor circulation in the affected leg, and this time, his lungs would not fully recover. No one could explain why this had occurred, so long after the hip replacement, and with the anti-clotting precautions that had been taken.

I commenced a routine where a goodly part of each day was taken up with driving to Box Hill, visiting John, driving home again, avoiding the morning and afternoon traffic peaks. The Eastern Freeway certainly made it easier, but it could take half an hour to get onto the freeway, from home, depending on traffic. However, it was a breeze, compared to my daily visiting when John was in the private inner suburban surgical hospital, with the hip operation. No freeways to get there – and – hard to believe – no parking provided. The surrounding streets were not very parking friendly, either.

Whilst undergoing treatment at Epworth, John agreed to become part of a clinical trial of a new anti-clotting drug. This had already been approved for use overseas, but was going through the processes required in this country. It would be a vast improvement on the standard Warfarin treatment, with its frequent blood tests, seesawing INR readings, and dose adjustments – all very constraining of a normal life, as we knew from prior experience. John was a prime target for the trial, with his prior history.

After several weeks in hospital, and on the trial drug, John progressed from the initial daily blood tests, to weekly ones. All was going well, and he went onto monthly blood tests and checks. This would continue until the trial ended in late August. Unfortunately, it would then be back onto Warfarin with all its hassles and limitations. As it happened, by year’s end, he was – courtesy of a special arrangement with our lovely GP – back on the new drug, approved for use for a different condition, but not yet for anti-clotting.

All of the above severely limited our travel options, and John’s abilities to do so, through 2010.

Sadly, we cancelled our wonderful house sitters, who had been booked for a five month stay. They had no problems finding a replacement sit – someone else’s good fortune.

On a much more optimistic note, whilst John was in hospital, the prolonged Millenium Drought that had lasted for some thirteen years, finally broke, with massive storms hitting Melbourne. I knew, because I’d been driving the hospital run at the time of the first storms. Quite scary storms….

We had, last year, received some money back related to last year’s botched work on Truck and broken parts. Courtesy of a Land Rover owners’ forum, we’d also found a new mechanic – a Land Rover devotee of many years – who worked not too far away.

This had been precipitated sooner than intended, in January. John had been out somewhere, thought he smelled something strange in the vehicle, but was in a hurry to get home and get to bowls, so did not stop to investigate. When he pulled up into the car port at home, smoke erupted out from under the bonnet. Fortunately, son was visiting at the time, grabbed an appropriate fire extinguisher and put out the fire in the engine. Something had broken and brake fluid had ignited from the hot engine. All quite dramatic at the time, but it meant that a mechanic was rather urgently needed.

Over about three months – and at considerable cost – he re-did the botched work of a year previous, plus a lot more. Truck had done 350,000kms, some of it over challenging terrain, and over 100,000kms of it towing the van. It was in need of a major overhaul.

With John feeling more like himself, and with a month-long window of opportunity between drug trial checks, our thoughts turned to a trip away. Not too ambitious, but still a break from things medical. It would have to be a bit provisional, dependent on how John coped….

Friend M was at a loose end. We cast our eyes towards SA – the Gawler Ranges and Eyre Peninsula. Not too far away for the time available, and destinations where M had not yet visited.

The van had been off for its annual check up at Trakmaster and was back and packed. We hoped Truck was well readied, considering the multiple thousands of dollars outlaid upon it. M and her Troopy were ready……

This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Category Archives: 2010 Travels