Entry 1 – 2023 - South Australia.
This will be the 11th year of recording our retirement lifestyle activities, where we continue to indulge with our special time together, loving life.
As per normal, life was busy prior and after Christmas 2022 attending to all those needs finalising our 2022 activities with January 2023 just as busy preparing for 2023 at our home base.
We pushed our bodies, completing our self-imposed minimum set target of requirements to satisfy our psychological thoughts for required home and other maintenance obligations.
Some of those set target jobs, painting our carport and home front including a general tidying. Mary made new seat covers for our caravan. At Steve’s parents’ home, cleaning pathways, bathroom maintenance and obtaining a new computer for his mum. As mothers do, Steve’s mum kept a close eye on his progress. Mary chipped in doing her bits.
We were getting accustomed to the feeling of weary bodies at days end, sensing it felt like we had returned to working life activities. We thought; we are retired and have no desire to continue a working lifestyle. Let’s get out of here and we did.
With some phone calls made we connected the tow tug and caravan, heading out into the great Australian outdoors. We started with some initial stop overs, catching up with people we had missed during our 2022 travels.
First stop was about 75 kilometres down the road with like-minded people Petra and Jeff. We stayed at their property for a couple of nights.
There was the constant chatter catching up with one another’s news. We spent more enjoyable time together with a day’s outing viewing the Goolwa barrages. This is the last lock on the Murray River before it flows into the Southern Ocean.
The Murray was currently in flood, reaching its second highest level on record, eclipsed by the 1956 floods. Upstream towns and communities were experiencing some devastating flooding. This was the first time we had seen all the Goolwa barrage gates open. For us, it was normal to see them all closed, with a height difference between the river and ocean side.
A drive to the Murray River viewing area overlooking its exit into the ocean showed a lot of people about with the same idea. There was even a pop-up food truck doing a roaring trade at a location normally deserted. The government, many years prior, had introduced permanent dredging activities to keep the Murray mouth open to the ocean for the good of the ecology. Even with the constant dredging the access channel between the ocean and the river was quite narrow. The flow of fresh water from the Murray River into the ocean had expanded the opening considerably.
There was an overnight stop at Mary’s family farm where we caught up with her mum and two brothers.
Later in the year we will clock up our 40th wedding anniversary. One of our groomsmen lived up the road a bit nearby the town of Berri located on the Murray River.
Normally we would travel the road from the town of Loxton to Berri, about a 10-minute drive. This road connects with Berri after travelling over a bridge high above the Murray River. Normally the Murray River would be around a hundred metres or so wide. Unfortunately, this road like many other roads within the vicinity of the Murray River was closed due to being submerged under flood waters, with the Murray width now measuring kilometres at many locations.
Our time of arrival at this location of the Murray River coincided with a drop of about one and a half metres from its peak flood height. Our shortest option of available deviation roads, an additional distance of about 35 kilometres had only been re-opened the very morning of our arrival.
We stayed at John and Kathy’s home for three nights. We were included into their busy social lives with an Australia Day luncheon at a local club and an evening meal at a friend’s home.
Many roads around the district were still closed due to flooding. All of these locations were barricaded with traffic wardens present, preventing access to flooded areas. Even with John and Kath’s local knowledge we were unable to get near most flooded areas hoping for some realistic viewing and a special photograph. The below pictures are some of our attempts to highlight the extent of the flooding.
Many of the main townships spread out along the Murray River were already protected by established levy banks. Many of these levy banks had been further reinforced to cater for the expected heightened levels of flood waters. Below is a picture of the additional levy banks established at the township of Berri.
Late on the day of our arrival the Lyrup ferry resumed vehicle transportation across the Murray River with weight restrictions imposed. This was the first of many vehicle ferries to resume operation in South Australia since the ceasing of operation due to the flooding. Normally we would drive down a steepish decline to enter onto a ferry including the Lyrup ferry. On this occasion we felt like we were driving upwards onto the ferry. An eerie feeling.
Nearby the Lyrup ferry we regularly camp for a night or two alongside the pictured shed.
The next picture is of the Overland Corner, a pub still in operation since the horse and cart days. The previous year we had camped for a couple of nights in the vicinity of the trees near the top right of the picture. The Murray River normally would be out of sight further over to the right of the picture. Over a kilometre of road to get to this location now submerged beneath the flood waters.
The flood waters were slowly making its way along the Murray River, originating from the large scale of rains during October and November the previous year in New South Wales and Victoria.
At the town of Morgan, you could see the ferry parked up on the Murray River, appearing to be above the height of the entrance road.
Moving on, our next camp location was at Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park located on the south western tip of Yorke Peninsula. A location familiar to us and much loved. It is an area known for its spectacular coastal landscapes with beautiful beaches and great walks. We booked a campsite for 5 nights at Pondalowie Bay campground, another beautiful setting. We had emus and kangaroos wandering around our campsite regularly. It felt quite special, watching from our caravan the wild life move about in their own environment.
We wandered around Shell Beach, mesmerised by the ocean colours and the nearby scenery.
Back in time Steve loved to ride the waves on his surfboard at the Pondalowie Bay surf break. Surfing requires a good level of fitness and agility. Unfortunately, Steve no longer has a level of fitness required to balance a surfboard and negotiate the rigors of lumpy waves. We watched a group of surfers riding the waves for a while. A large number of the surfers present were riding the waves with a rather sedate manner. It was good to see some senior surfing members out in the waves. It was a young person’s environment during Steve’s surfing days.
Ocean sunsets are generally quite a spectacle and the stormy sea activity near our campground provided the desired spectacle. Beautiful!
Ethel Beach was another enjoyable location. Our previous visit in early 2022 we could view a fair amount of the lower structure of the Ethel Ship Wreck. On this visit much of it was covered by sand. What remained evident at Ethel Beach was the imposing force of the ocean. We watched a young lad attempting to ride some of its waves.
We walked at various locations each day continuing to be mesmerised by the unique scenery of Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park. It is described as a High Energy Coastline, experiencing some of the highest energy waves in Australia. There are 22 ship wrecks recorded in the near vicinity of the National Park, lots of rocky outcrops. There are many ocean going ships, fishing boats etc using this area of ocean and you could see some moving about along the coastline.
We do love Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park.
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