Saturday, 2 June 2018

8 - Adelaide to Canberra, 22/5/18 - 7/6/18???



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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