Entry 8 – Adelaide to Canberra, planned time line 22/5/18 –
7/6/18
We had pencilled a departure date for around 22nd
- 24th May for travel to Canberra where we planned to greet the
arrival of granddaughter number two, due mid-June. As per normal we spent the
21st finalising our packing with the transfer of those every day
needed items from the house into the caravan. By the end of the day Steve had
identified another couple of issues to sort prior to departure. Some
maintenance on the caravan sail track and manufacture of a bracket to assist
with securing the shot cord on the vehicle roof rack cover. He addressed these
issues the next morning and we had everything finalised by 1pm. Our thoughts
then focused on a departure time. The standard opinions we’ve all had drummed
into our thought process over the decades was for departure early morning. We
assessed our needs and concluded we could depart at any time of the day, including
then! At 1.30pm 22nd May 2018 we happily commenced our journey.
It felt good to be “On the Road Again,” bestowing a sense of
calmness upon our bodies. We decided to travel through the South Australian Riverland
region with our first night at the township of Mannum. We travelled along the
quiet back roads via Monarto, a new route for us where we were able to dawdle
along on the near deserted roads taking in the country side views.
We set camp on the bank of the River Murray opposite the
township of Mannum and set off for a refreshing walk. We took the ferry back
across the river and walked along the town’s main street, returning an hour
later feeling rejuvenated. We went to bed with the bedroom curtain open gazing
across the water’s surface, illuminated by the reflection of the towns lights providing
a beautiful magical setting.
Steve’s morning vehicle inspection showed one of the caravan
tyres to be half deflated. We drove directly to the local tyre business where a
wire was found sticking out of the tyre. With the tyre repaired we were on our
way an hour later at about 10am.
We wondered along viewing the scenery and decided at 12pm it
was time to pull up for the day at Walker Flat in Swamp Hen Reserve.
It was quiet at Walker Flat, very different from our last
time at this location during a summer weekend with a constant stream of ski
boats on the water and plenty of people about. After a quiet night we travelled
about 30 kilometres up the road / river where we spent another night at Swan
Reach camping near the ferry crossing. Happy hour was spent around a fire with
4 neighbours, happily chatting for a couple of hours.
Our next planned stop over was in the scattered community in
the township of Winkie near Berri about 130-kilometre drive for the day. Along
the way we stopped for a couple of hours at Loxton where we had a cuppa and
chat at the home of some fellow travellers we first met 2015, Arthur and Ann.
It was enjoyable conversation with them. Late in the day we made our way to Winkie
the home of Kath and John one of our groom’s men. We had let Kath know we were
nearby and she immediately invited us for tea. She had made 3 casseroles for a
shared tea with some friends over for the evening. She texted us when it was
safe for our appearance. We drove into the driveway and John said, “a caravan
has just pulled into our driveway, who was coming in their caravan?”
Kath said, “That would be Steve and Mary.”
John had to look out the window a couple of times before it
sunk in that it was actually us. It had been 3 years since our last visit.
We had a wow of a time catching up on one another’s news
with nonstop chatter with us staying 2 nights.
Leaving Winkie, we ducked back into Loxton catching up with
Mary’s uncle and auntie, Kevin and Janet who had recently relocated from
Lameroo retiring at Loxton. Janet provided a beautiful Sunday roast for lunch with
a hot home-made apple crumble for desert.
Our camp for the night was at the quiet small township of
Lyrup, half way between Berri and Renmark where you were able to camp close to
the banks of the River Murray with power for $5 a night. It was a location only
for self-contained vehicles with the added bonus of a flushing loo.
We must have been rather fatigued from all our recent
socialising as we slept in till about 10 am with our bodies still feeling
sluggish. A walk around town helped address rebooting our bodies but the day
was slipping by, so we decided to stay another night.
We were travelling quite early the next morning feeling
refreshed. Our target was a riverside camp location near Mildura. It had rained
a bit at our location overnight but the amount of water lying on the side of
the road increased the closer we got to Mildura. We decided to err on the side
of caution, not to drive onto the wet clay surface near the Murray River,
avoiding the possibility of getting bogged and continued towards Balranald
camping the night in the gravel carpark overlooking Lake Benanee, with about 30
other caravans and motor homes. It was a happy atmosphere where we chatted with
several other happy campers. We joined in with a group around a camp fire for
happy hour which was eventually abandoned due to a shower of rain.
The scenery driving through the Riverland regions consisted
of Mallee scrub, various varieties of orchards consisting mainly of fruit trees
with a predominant landscape planted with grape vines covered with colourful
autumn coloured leaves.
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