I got a couple of photos of the weir and the lock but looking for the eagle hawks and looking at the pelicans (who are now officially dad's most unfavourite bird) due to the fact he had caught a fish and was reeling it in when heaps of pelicans pounced on it and the one that got the fish flew away with the fish in its huge mouth.... and 200 meters of dad's good fishing line. (I didn't talk to dad after that... he was in a really bad mood). Mum just walked away and left him to fix his fishing reel... Pelicans do a lot of damage like that, and we hoped dad could fix his reel.
A couple of funny things happened. Mum decided to do some fishing while dad went into Berri to get some things. Dad wanted to know if mum wanted to use shrimp as bait. Mum said no way and had complete trust in her secret recipe for her magic dough as she just wanted to help get rid of the carp in the river to feed the eagle hawks. Dad said she would be called Hawk Lady on the UHF radio... Dad got his new name "Carp Man" at lock 9.
Five minutes after dad left for town mum had a bite, and reeled in a reasonable sized carp. Ten minutes dad left for town mum had a huge bite and reeled in a 10 lb carp... mum exclaimed "how the heck am I going to get this in with one hand?" Luckily, dad left his lip grips so mum was able to lay her rod back in the rod holder and grab the fish. She carried it over to where the other fish was until dad got back to move them to where the eagles fed in the clearing. Dad returned home coming down to where mum and I were fishing and said (naughty word here again folks)... He had a grin on his face not knowing about the big one. Mum just pointed over to where the fish lay and dad exclaimed "what's all this shit!? Did you bring this in yourself?" Mum said she did, then dad said he wasn't sure if it counted because he wasn't there to see it... Mum gave him one her 'special looks' and he shut up. Mum went on to get a total of 10 and dad got zip.. that'll teach him.
The other funny thing happened at night, possums came down from the trees and while we were sitting outside just after sunset dad told mum there was a possum behind her, mum turned around and said "where" she didn't know it was almost climbing onto her chair. The possum screeched and jumped up and ran straight up a tree.. Mum screeched too in surprise and jumped up in the air too. Dad and I just laughed.. Mum shone the torch up in the tree and caught the possum in the torch light "sorry I scared you mate!" but it didn't come near mum again.
After three days and four nights we packed up again and headed off, this time we are going to set up camp at the Overland Corner hotel that has free camping behind the historic pub! Should be very interesting... as the weather forecast has changed and it's getting a bit cold for us to swim, but I am sure mum will suss that out!
See you all in the funny papers! Have a wombatty day...
Tahune xx
INDIGENOUS ART WORK IN MAIN STREET
VIEW OF BERRI FROM THE LOOKOUT
STOP AND CHECK FOR NASTIES AT THE QUARANTINE STATION
AND THEN DRIVE UNDER A BIG DUNLOP TYRE
SWIMMING AND FISHING HOLE
(Can you see me? I'm hiding again)
"I GOT THE POWER!"
MUM IN BERRI PARK
ANY CLOSER DAD WE'D BE CAMPED IN THE LOO!
CLIFFS ARE SO PRETTY AFTER THE RAIN
DAD DOES NOT LIKE HEIGHTS!
BEFORE THE CLIMB
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OVERLAND CORNER HOTEL FOR FREE CAMPING (THAT COST US $100!)
Hello everyone! Dad and mum got up early and let me sleep until it was time to fold the van down and head off. I had heard about the overland hotel, and that it was the oldest working hotel still in South Australia. Build in 1869 by the Brand Brothers and had been flooded in 1956 tooI thought it only affected one or two towns like Wentworth, dad told me it affected most of the state. Glad I wasn't around then! But the hotel was built from local materials and was tough as old nails. There is an eerie photo of the brothers and there is a ghostly face in the top right hand corner.. I got so scared I got people bumps! One of the workers at the hotel told me that one night he was locking up and heard footsteps (the brothers used to live in the back of the hotel) "Yikes... don't tell me any more!" mum said that the hotel had a really good feeling about it and all was good as it was still being used for what it was built for. We took a drive down to the River, but it was just to reedy which means too big a chance of snakes so mum said no.... we set up camp and as it was only overnight we didn't even need the awning up. We had lunch with mum and dad sharing fish and chips and salad for lunch (I ate their salad) and they even had a drink or two. Mum was a piggy and had an ice cream sundae for afters Phil the man who managed the hotel asked her what flavor she wanted. "Chocolate! Is there any other?" Phil just smiled and shook his head "nope". We all went for a walk and after went back for dinner which was really yummy and we sat in the dining room next to the bedroom that had spookies in it! Mum and dad went through the antique section that belonged to the National Trust of S.A and mum saw lots of things that were familiar to her from her nanna's place and even a really old oven pot that unfortunately rusted through and was thrown out. Mum wished she knew how important it was because she would have kept it, she got a bit sad but added 'all good'. I took some photos because what is my blog without photos? Because I took them, they're not many with me in it... oh well.
Mum put me to bed and went back to the beer garden and where they relaxed and had a couple more beers while they listened to the music being played. I DIDN'T SLEEP until they got back because dad said there was a full moon and the Yowies were going to come out of the river and get me! Mum laughed and poked dad who was laughing too and said he shouldn't tease, dad said it was funny... IT WASN'T FUNNY! Especially as he made howling noises while walking away. Mum took me outside as it was a full moon and we took some photos together. Then I was ok to go to sleep.
It's morning now, packed up and off we go to our next destination Hogwash Bend (they must have a lot of dirty pigs there).
WHERE CAPTAIN STARLITE RODE HIS HORSE INTO THE BAR
BEHIND THE HOTEL
EERILY BEAUTIFUL
THE BUSHRANGERS BAR
THE OVERLAND HOTEL
THE CANOE TREE
UMM, MUM? WHO'S THE GUY BEHIND THE FIRST GUY?
FLOOD LEVEL MARKER FROM 1956 MURRAY RIVER FLOOD
YEP... IT AFFECTED SOUTH AUSTRALIA TOO
POOR OLD CAR, LOCKED AWAY
MUM AT THE OVERLAND HOTEL
AT THE LOOKOUT DURING THE HERITAGE WALK
THE ENTRANCE OVERLAND CORNER HOTEL
THE DINING ROOM
HAPPY FLOWERS IN THE DESERT
THE BRAND FAMILY. I CRIED.. LUCY WAS ONLY A BABY
LIMESTONE BRICKWORK MINE
MUM OUTSIDE THE OCHRE MINE
THE SITES, THE WALKS AND THE RESERVE MAP
OLD GOLD MINES HAND DUG BY WELSH MINERS
THEY DIDN'T FIND DIDDLYSQUAT
THE LONG HALL THAT REMINDS ME OF JIMBILL AT COOTAMUNDRA
OUTSIDE STAGE IN THE BEER GARDEN
WHERE THE OVERLAND CORNER HOTEL IS.. AND WHERE
YOU HAVE TO GO EVEN JUST ONCE!
Cya! love Tahune xx
HI ALL FROM HOGWASH BEND
I have been to a lot of places but their name suits them... Hogwash Bend outside Morgan and Cadell does not suit it! It's on the Murray River but it's more like a beach with very little reeds, sandy banks and sand up to the road. Dad read up on this and bought some sand pegs so we set up camp on the sane close to the water. There were a lot of different birds there, and mum put a crumbled up biscuit (cookie for my Canadian and American fans) and we played 'find the bikkie'... the birds found them most of the time, but we had fun. Then there were the ducks, a family of them would come up to the van expecting to be fed, so dad fed them, one of the ducks was with the family but had to stay on the outside as it had a deformed foot. Mum would throw a handful of crumbs out to the side of the van, and while the other ducks and soldier birds (noisy minors - Australian native minors) chased the crumbs, mum threw some corn out for 'Wobbles' dad gave him his name... I felt sorry for Wobbles because while he could fly andd take off were good the landings were more like nose dives. We had fun on the sand though... we played 'tag' with a soldier bird and follow the leader, we always let wobbles go first, 'cos wobbles couldn't follow fast, and the other ducks would peck at him.Mum and dad went swimming but it was so shallow they could almost walk to the other side of the Murray River, but there were deep channels and a lot of house boats and cruise boats either on pontoons or large catarmarans took people up and down the River from the Morgan ferry to the Cadell Pier. Mum and dad and the other campers would wave to the people on the boats and they would all wave back. A bad thing about Hogwash Bend were the flies! were pretty bad during the day but the cream they used works well, it's Cedarwood and Rosemary in a eucalyptus based cream and the bush flies, sand flies and some march flies which are particularly nasty worked a treat the flies hated it! They buzzed but they wouldn't land which suited mum and dad fine.
Fishing was done mostly at night time and the moon was awesome! A full moon that looked super big came up slowly over the trees with mum and dad taking photos. Dad caught a few carp but no native fish which was a real shame! Not many mozzies either so winning there!
We stayed at Hogwash for two days and three nights and it was our last swim in the Murray River, next stop Adelaide with a very clever lady named Vanessa. Dad said Vanessa and her family used to live across the street from us when all the kids were little, so they kind of grew up together but we were very sad when they moved away. She makes all kind of cakes of every kind and has won a lot of prizes! She has a cake shop too. We are going to get some when we visit, I can't wait!
DAD COOKS DINNER ON THE BBQ
PHOTOBOMB!
PLAYING FIND THE COOKIE
CAMPSITE ON THE BEACH
WOBBLES, LEADING IN FOLLOW THE LEADER
BEAUTIFUL FULL MOON RISED OVER THE RIVER
MUM 'CHILLAXIN' AFTER A SWIM
THE SAND IS HOT!!!!!!!!
"TAG TAHUNE! YOU'RE IT!"
see you in Adelaide!
Tahune xxx
HELLO ADELAIDE AND CIVILIZATION.... (YUCK)
After saying goodbye to my new friends at Hogwash Bend, we set off for the capital of South Australia but had no intentions of actually going into the city itself. We drove past the Barossa Valley and over the Adelaide Hills district and followed the GPS's ladys voice and arrived at Vanessa's place! Vanessa had a nice paved area away from the driveway that had room for us to set up. We didn't have to put the awning up as we were only staying for one day... Vanessa arrived home and we had a huge hug together! Vanessa and Glen have two awesome kids named Bethany and Bradley, and they are all fantastic at baking stuff! Yummo! Vanessa has a cake shop near Adelaide and has won all kinds of prizes for her cakes. She's a very clever lady! And the best part of it was that we got some of her cakes... a bit from all the cakes she entered in the last show that got 1st's. Banana bread, carrot cake, marble cake, fruit cake... french coffee bar... all really yummy. They took us out to Cafe Uno just a short drive away for dinner but wouldn't allow dad to pay for any of it. Dad had a seafood pizza with oysters on it... ewwwwwww! Mum had fish and chips, so did the kids, Glen had a pizza and Vanessa had a nice piece of steak and mushrooms.
After dinner Brad and Bethany showed us their special books, when they were born, their preschool and school photos and their stories which were great! photos of them cooking in the kitchen too. They made ANZAC cookies and chocolate chip cookies that melted in your mouth. I took some photos of dad and Brad and mum took one of me with Bethany giving me a gi-normous hug! Then bath and bed time so while Glen and dad sat in the lounge room watching tele, mum put me to bed then stayed up catching up on everything for Vanessa, and Vanessa catching up with everything on our side too. Vanessa has a crazy puppy called Missy and she got excited and just ran back and I laughed.
In the morning dad hitched up the van again and we all hugged and said goodbye *sad face*, we weren't sure if we could park the van at Kylee's because her house hasn't much land and a narrow driveway. Vanessa said 'no worries! if it's too small, you can leave it here..we have heaps of room' we hugged Ness again and said she was awesome, took some last pictures of Vanessa and Dad and mum too and drove off.
We arrived at Kylee and Mark's place in the afternoon with mum and dad had a good look at the driveway and it was too small for the van and the troll and it would have blocked the driveway, and we couldn't park it in the streetso we SMS'd Vanessa who messaged back saying 'no problem' so the Penguin was in good hands. Kylee and Mark were at work (they are both in the airforce) but their dog a beautiful Bull Mastiff named Winston was waiting for us in the back. We went outside and gave him big cuddles... I wasn't sure because he was a big puppy but we became friends and snuggled on mum and dad's bed! ha ha.
Kylee came home and wow! talk about super fit! Mum said she is an inspiration and is now determined to increase her fitness level too. Kylee is really very pretty and I laughed when dad said something 'smart like' to her and she just pulled a face at him! To say thank you to Kylee and Mark for letting us all stay there mum made here lamb stew with dumplings... needless to say, there wasn't any left! Kylee is studying for a fitness course so we didn't interrupt her when she was studying as studying is hard, to read, remember, do assignments and then remember what you've learned to show other people... Kylee is awesome! We met Mark when he arrived home later that night and we sat and talked for ages. The last time we saw Kylee was at dad's 50th surprise party (that's before they found me!) and that's just too long! The next day was the best day for mum... we drove into a suburb Elizabeth and went to the big medical centre and a nurse called mum and we went into a room where the lady brought out something that looked like a cross between and power saw and a sander... "Mum! What is she going to do with that!?" i was worried as it make a hell of a racket when turned on. Mum said she was going to get her cast cut off as it had been six weeks and her xrays said it was fine to take off. I didn't want to watch but mum said there was nothing to worry about. The blade just went back and forth and wouldn't cut her arm, just the cast. Mum was happy it was off but her wrist still looked funny and she still has to be careful for another couple of months while the new bone growth melds with the old.
That night Kylee and dad took Winston for a walk in the park while me mum and Mark watched the footy... they yelled a lot and would say 'sucks to be you'.. whatever that means, but the Rabbitohs lost to West Tigers (mum was goin for the bunnies and Mark is an avid Tigers fan) I still can't figure out why mum and Mark were yelling.. but they laughed a lot so I figured that was cool.
Mark cooked dinner on Saturday night yummy spagbog (Australian for Spaghetti Bolognese) mum couldn't finish hers, she was 'full as a tick' which I thought was a gross thing to say, but no one else minded so all good there too. That night Winston got on the bed with dad and we took a cute video, Winston is my mate and he didn't want us to go I think that had something to with dad 'accidentally' dropping bits of cake on the ground outside for Winston. Mum went crook at him... because it might make Winston sick.
We took photos and then packed up Sunday morning and said our goodbyes. Wished Kylee all the best for her work and drove off back to Vanessa's place where Bethany and Brad were very excited to see us. They said we had to stay forever now, but we told them we couldn't and have to move on, we promised we would be back sometime. After more hugs and kisses we were waved off by Vanessa and the kids.
AWESOME LADY AND MISSY
THE ULTIMATE IN WOMBAT ACCOMMODATION
BETHANY AND ME
DAD AND VANESSA
DAD AND BETHANY WITH HER SPECIAL BOOK
BRADLEY AND DAD WITH HIS SPECIAL BOOK
MUM AND NESS... THEY TALKED HEAPS!
(boring)
MISSY
DAD AND KYLEE
HI WINSTON
AWW, YOU OK?
KYLEE AND MARK
a w e s o m e !
DAD, KYLEE AND MUM
me: 'whaddya wanna do'
Winston: 'dunno whaddya wanna do'
me: 'whaddya wanna do'
Winston: 'dunno whaddya wanna do'
me: 'whaddya wanna do'
Winston: 'dunno whaddya wanna do'
* S I G H *
MOUNT REMARKABLE NATIONAL PARK
We decided to camp over night at Mount Remarkable National Park which was about 60 kms before Port Augusta, we could have gone straight there but there wasn't many options for camping there and this looked nice. We first stopped off about half way to Crystal Brook on advice from Vanessa as it's a very pretty town... it certainly was, and we found out that the most trains pass and stop through/at Crystal Brook than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere. We went to the cafe there which was very busy for a small country town with mum and dad both having a bacon and egg rolls coffee for mum and a diet coke for dad while I had a lettuce sandwich. Again mum's camera went "click click click" then we moved on to Mount Remarkable. We paid our camp fees and found good sized camp areas all numbered with hot showers and toilets. That suited dad! It didn't suit mum because a big spider was in the showers, that didn't worry mum, it was the scorpion the spider had caught and had pretty much eaten through it but it was still kicking! EEEK!
We walked around the camping area and the cliff faces were awesome. There was a walk that was could take about 2.2 kilometers in total but they didn't tell us it was fairly wells straight up! Davey's Gully.. but when we got to the top it was worth the climb.. We could see the entire Spencer's Gulf! and mum told me the next day we would be on the other side on our way to Port Lincoln where we were to get the van serviced. Mum also heard you could dive with sharks! She got very excited but then she found out that dad was NOT going to do that, and besides, it was over $500 so she decided next time she's down this way.... she'll definitely do it. (Confidentially... I think she's crazy!)
Just one overnight stay here and we're off to Port Augusta for some shopping for stores and then off to Port Lincoln! Where was are going to stop off at Lipson Cove on the beach.... We will be on the beach right down at the bottom end of Australia part of Spencer's Gulf (Great Australian Bite) so I'm pretty sure it will be windy!
cya there!
Tahune xx
DAVEYS GULLY WALK
THE ROCK FACE
PRETTY SURROUNDINGS
ALWAYS CHECK OUT THE INFO BOARDS
THE TREE HAD BEEN SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE BY SOMETHING
BUT WAS TILL HUGE!
DAD LOOKS TINY
MUM FOUND ANOTHER TREE WITH NO MIDDLE
THE VIEW OF SPENCER'S GULF FROM THE TOP
SO PRETTY WHEN THE SUN HITS THE CLIFF FACE
MUM AT THE LOOKOUT
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
OLD MAN EMU
THE PENGUIN AND THE TROLL
HUH? APPARENTLY IT MEANS STOP CREEPING
UP OVER THE SPEED LIMIT...
MUST BE A SOUTH AUSTRALIA THING
WOMBATTY GREETINGS FROM LIPSON COVE
"BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES.. IT'S A TAD WINDY!"
HANG ON TO YOUR HATS PEOPLE! Okay, so it's not that bad... but it is windy. Not much shade or shelter to protect you from the southerlies that bombard the coast here but the view and the beach make it worth the trouble. As this was only an overnight stay dad didn't bother with the awning and cross braced the van with guy ropes making a big "X" at the front and back of the van the same way he did at the Overland Corner Hotel. The wind blew but the valiant Penguin didn't move a bit. Groaned a little sure, but it wasn't going anywhere. Mum found she had some phone coverage so quickly phoned Zane who said the chickens were still clucking and he hadn't burned the house down yet.. haha.. he's funny! Then she rang Bev, had a quick chat and then ran out of credit "Damn you Telstra!"We walked along the beach and saw the other side of South Australia we waved and I yelled "Hellooo Winston!" Dinner was cooked and then a walk after a beautiful sunset behind the hills down to the toilet for the last wombat potty time before bed.
Mum and dad talked about how long it would take to get us to Port Lincoln (that's our next stop and where we were to get the van serviced) mum told the lovely lady at JAYCO via email that she would wait until we finished our trip around Various parts of Australia before getting the door fixed and parts of the tent resewn. (Little did we know about the traumatic turn of event that were in front of us.. but more on that another time) Mum's wrist was hurting a lot that night but she managed to sleep ok. Dad was snoring so that woke me up but I didn't really mind because it gave me the opportunity to just look up and out the windows into an amazing night sky! It was dotted everywhere with stars and bright planets and I saw three shooting stars and the satelites were easily seen.
The next morning we were awake early and packed up in about ten minutes and set off to Port Lincoln.... another place to explore, I am loving this!!
Until next time...
Tahune xx
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