Victoria – Willy Kloven

December 8, 2017May 21, 2019

Introduction – Dec 2017 and Jan2018 (Part 1)

Sometime ago (approximately June 2017) William decided it was time to see Australia, Personally I’d never been that bothered but there were places on the bucket list I wanted to see so why not do them all in one go.

William started investigating Motor Homes, again something that had never appealed – too “Grey Nomadic”.

So after much looking around and one very pushy salesman we ended up with a mobile home hence forth known as Marge (Simpsons Reference).

We didn’t have a define departure date but we eventually took delivery of the van mid October.

In the meantime Willy had managed to break his right arm in a cycling incident (whole different story – details available on request).

We hadn’t actually taken delivery when the accident happened but by that time we were fully committed.

For anyone interested the Van is a locally manufactured Avan “C” class based on a Fiat chassis. It’s diesel, licensed to carry and sleep 4 and is about the largest motor home van you can get which doesn’t need a special vehicle

licence. It has additional features to support “free camping” – camping away from services. We can probably manage about 6 days away from any facilities, the limiting factor being water. There is an additional solar panel and an extra house battery. We also added a bike rack to carry the electric bikes.

Between mid October and end of November we did a couple of short trips to test Marge out and after making a couple of modifications we felt ready to go.

To help fund the trip we have let the apartment which happened from the 27th November 2017 with a 12 month lease. Friends and acquaintances beware…

As most of you will know, about 12 months ago we got a 6 week old rescue kitten, Lisa who has turned out to be a bit of a handful. A friend of ours, Alan very bravely agreed to look after Lisa (sight unseen) for at least some of the time we were planning to be away.

As Alan was available from 6th December and we let had the apartment from late 29th Nov Brian & Grant kindly offered to put us up.

The journey proper started on Tuesday December 6th 2917. We stayed in Wagga Wagga from Tuesday through to Friday. By the time we left Lisa seemed to have settled in well . She managed to find a suitable panic room in the wardrobe but was spending most of her time under the duvet.

We planned to end up in Melbourne on about 21st Dec, leave the van at the airport and fly back to Sydney for Christmas/New Year and then return to Melbourne on 4th Jan 2018. .

The meant that the only deadline we had was to be in Melbourne in time to park the van and catch the flight on 21st December. Not having any definite travel route from Wagga Wagga we decided to head into the Victorian alps making for Beechworth.

9th Dec – Beechworth and it’s close neighbour Yackandandah are old gold mining towns in the Mount Pilot National Park. There’s lots of good walking and cycling tracks.

On the Saturday we did a short part of the Mountains to Murray track from Beechworth to Everton. At about 32kms round trip and billed as “Easy Down, Challenging Up” it’s a great trip passing several vineyards through cuttings and best of all no traffic.

Unfortunately after the trip I ended up with a very sore bum so decided to take the next day off and sat around in the sun reading some Scandi-Noir (as if it’s not bad enough living with it!).

Book Finished: Anne Hold – What Dark Clouds Hide

9th Dec – Took the Alpine Way to Bright – fantastic scenery all the way with some very steep hills. At one point there was a distinct smell of disk pads after a particularly long and steep decent.

Stopped off at Myrtleford to do a bit of shopping and have a coffee – nice place but they have music playing everywhere – was somewhat reminiscent of Patrick Macgoohan and Prisoner.

From Myrtleford travelled through to Bright which is an even nicer little town and no music. Found a perfect spot in Wandilgong about 5km outside Bright, besides a creek and only $10/night…

10th Dec – Left Wandilong about 10.00 and headed for Mount Hotham. The countryside is quite stunning very very green, very windy roads, not too many safety barriers and some really nasty bends. Fortunately there is very little traffic. The scenery is quite stunning probably the best I have seen in Australia. Lots of Alpine Gums between about 800m and 1200m. The last big fire was 2013 but the result is plain to see.

Stopped at Mount Hotham alpine village for a coffee when William decided he wanted to take the mountain cycle track and I would take the van down and meet him at a place called Wiskey Flats which he though was about 12 kms further on. I suppose it was really my fault but when I reached East Gippslands and still hadn’t found Wiskey Flat decided to turn around. Anyway eventually found the meeting place which was really another alpine village caller Dinner Plate and the trip continued on to Omeo.

Passed through Omeo and eventually ended up at Swift Creek which had been recommend as an overnight stop. We camped right next to the creek.

11th Dec – Headed for Lakes Entrance, stayed long enough to have fish and chips. The next stop was back inland in the Mitchell National Park. The site had good reviews and was situation at the end of a unsealed road.

The campsite was nice – only one couple there, lots of space and some vans

that had not been moved for years (meths lab / hydroponic weed?) , lots of fire wood and a duck pond. Wandering around the site we found a Bower Bird’s nest complete with blue things.

Bower bird’s nest – everything is blue – lots of milk bottle tops

That Wolf Creek Feeling: On the site was a old shed and if you looked closely there was someone looking out of the window. On closer inspection it wasn’t a person but a full size shop window dummy complete with blonde wig and what looked like a tutu. In fact there were several dummies all done out in different costumes – this was really quite bizarre and add to this the couple of large wood chopping axes, the total isolation of the place (no phone signals) and my vivid imagination it was a real Wolf Creek stuff. I must admit I was very relieved when daylight broke the following morning and it was time to move on.

Books Finished: Agatha Christie – A murder is Announced

15th December – After leaving Wolf Creek we need to find a site with some water and power and ended up in small country town – Yarram. The camp site had good reviews and everything we needed. All was going well until the dog incident which pissed William off no end. He’s the same in Rushcutters Bay Park with owners and errant dogs….

That evening Tina Turner and Joe Cocker (just in from Melbourne apparently) were performing at the local theatre and we were offered cheap tickets by the bar man – we declined and just had dinner – Garlic Bread followed by Roast Beef for Willy – I had fish and chips again. Country pubs are not big on vegetarian cuisine.

Then moved to Wilson Promontory which is all national park.

Did a 12km walk to a couple of the bays on the first day and then did a 9km mountain and boardwalk walk on the second.

Tuesday Dec 19th we decided to by-pass Melbourne and take the Sorrento to Queenscliff ferry service. This takes about 40 minutes and saves all the hassle of Melbourne. It crosses Port Phillip bay at the narrowest part of the entrance.

From Queenscliff we head for Barwon Heads camping. The place is next to the water with a rather rocky beach. Arrived and were offered one of two sites

we picked the really good one, no neighbours and on a quiet corner. Bit of a tricky site to get into so had to move the van a couple of times to get the services connected and avoid a low hanging tree. Took about 60 minutes and then relaxed. Took the bikes off the back and decided to go to the local hotel which we noticed on the way in for a drink.

I picked up the parking information given to us at reception and noticed that were allocated site 115 or 128 – we were actually on 125 – bugger. Had to pack up and move by which time it was starting to rain. Needless to say someone wasn’t happy – must be more careful in future before setting up. Just to make matters worse the site we had to move from is still empty….

Dinner: Prawn Gyoza with Salmon seared in Chilli and Garlic Soy with green salad.

We are booked back to Sydney from Avalon on Thursday 21st Dec. Leave Barwon Heads about 10.00 and head for Avalon which is about 60 minutes away. Arrive, put the bikes in the van and head off to Sydney.

21st December to 4th January

Stayed in Potts Point and thanks to John & Hal had the perfect Christmas/ New Year break from our 12 month around Australia break.

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Hans & Lotte do Macleay Street (a view from the pool)

We had Christmas eve with Brian and Grant and then Christmas lunch with Bob and Diane.

Managed to fit in a “pensioners day out” to see the Pipiloiti Rist exhibition at the MCA in Sydney, caught up Elisabeth and with Susan for lunch and had dinner with the Priests, David and Jeff and Denise.

Watched the NY fireworks from the apartment and had a quiet few days before Brian kindy took us to the airport on Thursday Jan 4th to catch our plane back to Melbourne.

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Apologies to all Facebook fans….Neither Willy or myself have active Facebook accounts so I’m afraid it’s an old fashioned blog. You can receive notifications of updates by registering using the form at the end. The good news is that you can also unsubscribe….

As part of the blog we are going record books read, some of the more notable meals, living life without shampoo and meat (pescatarianism), advances with our social skills (talking to people) plus much much more….

January 22, 2018May 21, 2019

Melbourne & Tasmania Jan 2018 (Part 2)

We left Marge in Melbourne just before Christmas and returned to Sydney for Christmas and New year – this part of the blog continues after the time spent in Sydney….

Thursday 4th January 2018

Brian kindly took us to the airport to catch our flight back to Melbourne, we arrived back mid-afternoon. In gratitude to Brian for the lift I have included a picture of Brian’s cat – Buttons.

We were staying in the city for a few days before picking the van up from the airport. Being in the holiday season it was a great time to explore the city on foot and using public transport.

One of the biggest differences between Melbourne and Sydney is the public transport system – Melbourne leaves Sydney for dead both in terms of ease of use and frequency and an added bonus is much of it is free!

Melbourne turns out to be Hipster heaven, not that I’ve anything against hipsters – think they’re wonderful so much so that I have been trying to grow a hipster beard myself. Wandering about the lanes late in the evening we ended up in what must be Hipster Central, just sat and watched bar-tending being turned into an art-form. Much tossing and juggling of bottles and shakers – suppose I am showing my age but it all wonderfully superficial. The highlight was when our man failed to open my twist top light beer in the crook of his arm and had to resort to bottle opener. He’s probably been kicked out of the fraternity by now.

On the Friday went to the Triennial exhibition at the NGA.

“The NGV Triennial explores cutting edge technologies, architecture, animation, performance, film, painting, drawing, fashion design, tapestry and sculpture” – their words not mine. .

The pot scourers was a great idea the whole display was made out of small sponge pot scourers.

There was a similar one made out of pegs and another one made out of long sponge flotation things (noodles?).

I hasten to add that these are aimed at children but I found them interesting

The setting for the red flowers was a house with different rooms. Everyone was given an adhesive red flower as you entered. and you had to place the red flower anywhere – well it amused me anyway.

On Saturday it was forecast to be 40+ so we decided to take the tram to St. Kilda Beach- big mistake stayed about 10 minutes and caught the tram back – just too hot.

Sunday morning we caught the bus to Avalon to rescue Marge from the airport carpark. A little apprehensive, she had been there for over two weeks, however she was still there, intact and graffiti free. – that’s another thing about Melbourne there is some great graffiti not that we particularly wanted any on Marge.

Sunday afternoon we went down to one of the few remaining gay pubs in Australia and had a couple of light beers before a rather good Thai meal.

We also spent sometime in the evening people watching in Federation Square – home of the new Apple store(?). One of the less impressive sites was seeing young African guys being moved on for no apparent reason other than they were there.

In spite of this, the few days spent in Melbourne were interesting and relaxing, it really is a very nice city. Our NSW politicians and city planners have much to learn about making cities more liveable.

Monday 8th January 2018

Uber from the hotel to take the 09:30 ferry from Port Melbourne to Devonport. A smooth and uneventful crossing, spent some of it planning the Tasmanian sojourn. We had already booked one night at a campsite on the N Coast so we decided to start off by doing the North Western part of the Island..

First night spent at Turners beach, not a great site but ok. The next day cycled to Ulverstone which we have immortalised on video

Slow Bike Riding

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As the Norwegians were the creators of Slow TV it is only appropriate that a son of Norway should continue this exciting new media channel. If you manage to watch all the way through, despite the dramatic ending, there were no more broken shoulders.

Ulverstone is a really nice little town, William had a scollop pie for lunch together with a Apple and Blackberry pastry all made from local produce. Very friendly locals.

NB: I will start doing something on the improvement in our social interactions soon 🙂

Wednesday started to move westwards along the coast stopping at Penguin for coffee. Everything here is penguinesque, even the litter boxes in the streets are penguins. Had the worlds most expensive piece of Banana cake – probably contained essence of penguin.

Spent the night at Wynyard, the camp sight was run by a South African who had a house in Mosman – oh how I wish North Shore Bob was with us. Got the shock of my life when I bumped into her in the male showers at midnight!.

Next day Thursday 11th Jan decided it was time to save some money and do some real “Free Camping”. Drove to Stanley which is on a bit of a promontory on the North Coast – wasn’t quite free – $8 only problem was the wind. Stanley is nice little town where the only Tasmanian P.M. Joseph Aloysius Lyons was born and also where some of the movie “The Light Between Oceans” was filmed. Had scollops in curry sauce pies for dinner – not the greatest. William flew his kite on the beach.

Friday 12th Jan – decided to explore the Tarkine area so moved onto Smithton for one night before heading in land and ended up at another Free campsite at Julius River – right in the forest. The Tarkine is part of the Savage River National Park and contains areas of Wilderness. ”

The Tarkine is noted for its beauty and natural values, containing the largest area of Gondwanan cool-temperate rainforest in Australia”

The Tarkine

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We took the bikes for a couple of trips to nearby walks through the forest, it really is quite stunning.

Monday 15th Jan From Julius River we tried to get to Cradle Mountain without going back to the coast. When we hit the link road decided it was too much for Marge – RVs rattle anyway but on a non-sealed surface they really rattle. We ended up going up the West coast staying one night at Authur River and then turning inland to Burnie.

After free camping for several days we needed a site with amenities – particularly showers and washing machines. The campsite at Burnie was very run down so just stayed the one night but this was long enough to see the nightly ritual of Small Penguins coming ashore after a day out at sea fishing for food for their chicks

Wednesday 17th Jan Drove to Moina where there is a great Free camping site on the shores of Lake Gairdner about 10 minutes drive from Cradle Mountain visitor centre.

From the visitor centre shuttle buses run to several spots where you can pick up walks of varying degrees of difficulty.

We had decided to do an easy walk around Dove Lake which went really well (it is the 2nd easiest category). In fact it went so well William decided he wanted to do a bit more so we took of on the:

Lake Wilks Track,
Face Track
Overland Track
Marions Lookout Link Track.

These are all rated at hard to very hard. Particularly the Marions Lookout Link Track which one is advised not to use because it’s “steep and very rough”- Fortunately in some places they do have chains to hang onto when scrambling over rocks.

Five hours and 1,300 metres later we arrived back at the van. Fortunately William’s Acrophobia seems to have sorted itself out. I suppose one can only have so many issues.

Friday 19th Jan was a day at rest sitting by Lake Gairdner surrounded by wildlife including platypuses blogging.

Saturday – Again went to Cradle Mountain and did another 5 hour walk. This time we took the easier way up as we wanted to attempt the Cradle Mountain Summit and didn’t want to be totally knackered before we reached the summit trail.

I didn’t manage to get very far up the track it was another hot day however William gave it a good crack while I stayed at base camp looking after the bags and eagerly awaiting his return.

Willy got almost to the top but his vertigo got the better of him – never the less a very valiant effort.

The Way to the Summit – Cradle Mountain

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My Big Mistake

When we were in Melbourne we bought a scrabble set. I knew from the start this was an incredibly risky thing to do and had been delaying the purchase as long as possible. I knew that to loose at scrabble would be akin to losing at boules but a thousand times worse.

We played for many nights and I always managed to win but eventually due to the worst tiles imaginable I lost. Needless to say life will never be the same again. Anyone who knows William will feel my pain – he’s not the most gracious of winners.

Sunday 21st Left Cradle Mountain and moved to another national park – this time Mount Field National Park which is SW and Australias’ oldest National Park.

We spent three nights at the camp site in the park doing a couple of walks.

The first took in the three water falls and an area of Swamp Gums. Swamp Gums can reach up to 90 metres and are really magnificent trees. The whole walk was about 6 kms through some really nice woodland

Pademelons – Mount Field National Park

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The second walk was much more ambitious and started with a 9km uphill bike ride. Even with electric bikes it was still quite an effort.

The walk was around the peak of Mount Field East, we didn’t attempt the summit – it jut looked too hard. The walk itself took us above the tree line, across an area of marsh land before going down to the start point.

The highlight of the walk for William was the 9 kms down hill bike ride which happened without incident in spit of a top speed of 60kms/hr on what was a gravel road

Thursday 25th time to head for Hobart and Mona which we have booked for tomorrow. Didn’t realise it was Australia Day – another reason to change the date!

On the way down, through the Derwent Valley, passed through New Norfolk which from the out-skirts looked like a very plain small country town. However s we hadn’t any breakfast went into the town centre looking for something to eat and came across the most amazing antique / anything-old shop.

The place was spread over several buildings which previously were a school, hospital and nurses home.

They had the most eclectic collection of stuff, including some really nice pieces of glass ware, furniture and old AV equipment. Outside there was a tremendous collection of old cars and trucks including a steam engine.

To top it off hens and chickens were running around in the gardening centre. – great place. Turns out was owned by Penny & Hadyn Pearce – who we think did a TV show at some time. They certainly have a great collection of collectables.

Arrived at the Mobile Home park at the the show ground in Hobart – not the greenest/lushest of places but looks ok and the facilities are new. Plus we have air con and it’s forecast to be getting up to 36º over the weekend.

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We’ll finish this blog with one of the highlights of the trip so far – Cradle Mountain….

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March 21, 2018April 27, 2018

Melbourne to Snowtown Feb-Mar 2018 (Part 4)

The previous Blog – Part 4 ended when we left on the Ferry from Tasmania back to Melbourne.

This part covers the trip from Melbourne to Adelaide and then our adventures in South Australia up to the time we went to Snowtown.

It should have covered the whole of SA but for various reasons like driving licences and bike parts we will be in South Australia longer than expected. As we are being hounded by our readers for the next instalment it has been released a little earlier than planned while we are still in SA.

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Saturday 17th Feb – left on the 09:00 ferry and arrived back in Port Melbourne at 18:30. It was a totally un-eventful trip as we both spent most of the time sleeping.

Went into the city on the Saturday night – it was the White Night festival so the place was buzzy. On the Sunday met up with an old friend from Hong Kong aka Magic Paul due to his ability to do magic tricks or at least that’s what he said. Spent the afternoon with them in Fitzroy drinking and generally lapping up the atmosphere. It was good to catch up.

Monday 19th Feb – had some bits and pieces of shopping to do which included looking for an anti-flap device for Marge’s awning (partially successful) and visit to IKEA which included the mandatory Swedish Meat Balls for William and Veggie Balls for me. We were looking for 2 pillows to fit the pillow cases we had brought with us by mistake.

Spent most of the day in the City on errands before taking the road to Geelong and the Great Ocean Road.

We weren’t sure how far we would get so hadn’t booked anything. We ended up on an equestrian farm, in a paddock and were the only ones there. The difference in price between Victoria and Tasmania came as quite a shock, hopefully once we get off the GOR prices will become more sensible.

Left the paddock about 11 went back to Torquay and then started back along the GOR .

The scenery is splendid. For the most part it hugs the coastline with dense forests on one side and the Ocean and absolutely beautiful beaches on the other. We decided to stop the night (Tuesday 20th Feb) at Wye River. This is one of the numerous creeks that drain down to the sea along the length of the GOR. The campsite, unfortunately not free, was right on the beach.

We had heard many stories about the number of tourists on the GOR and horror stories of inexperienced overseas drivers. There certainly are wall to wall tourists from our Asian neighbours – they must be keeping this part of Australia afloat .

As for the driving, we had a couple of experiences with obviously very very nervous drivers travelling well below the speed limit also there was tendency to stop and look at sights and animals with little regard to the traffic conditions. Many of the road signs are in Chinese and frequent signs saying “In Australia drive on the left”

On Wednesday21st we decided to head back in-land into the Otway National Park. Willy had found a mountain bike track is Forrest – so off we went. We found a great free campsite at Stevenson’s Falls – it was quite superb and about 6Kms from the bike tracks. The campsite was down in a valley surrounded by dense, very lush forests, a steam and plenty of large sites each with their own fire pit. Building fires seems to be an obsession with most campers – we haven’t caught the bug yet but we nearly bought an axe in Aldi last time we went shopping. Apparently also useful for killing wild pigs and on a more serious note finishing off any thing that you might hit – (animals not people).

Unfortunately the river banks in the campsite were being taken over by blackberries – quite awful as it devastates the local flora (or is that fauna?).. The upside is great bird life. Groups of Blue Wrens hopping about, Woody Ducks and Yellow Robins…. together with some Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos and the inevitable Kookaburras…

I did ask William if I could go mountain bike riding with him but he said that he would be “dis-respected” by the brotherhood if he was seen with someone on a non-binary bike. Obviously falling off your bike and breaking you shoulder in Taylor Square Sydney is quite a different matter – nothing disrespectful about that!

Needless to say I didn’t go on the mountain bike trails but did the rail-trail which was really good. On the way came across the echidna in the video. The quietness and peace of the place was wonderful.

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We enjoyed Forrest and the campsite so much we decided to stay another night and the next day William did some of the harder bike trails while I read my book and ate ice cream.

Friday – 23rd Feb – Even though the weather was rather bleak, raining and only about 19º, we headed back to the coast making for the 12 Apostles (Sandstone Stacks). They are worth visiting but I think the only way to really appreciate them would be to do the walk along the coast and take in the whole spectacle, just going and looking at them in isolation doesn’t do them justice.

Today happens to be my birthday – but nothing happened. About 5 in the evening after a give away phone call from John R he suddenly realised – too late. Apparently he had worked out that Saturday was the 23rd.

We stayed the night in Port Campbell, went out to the local pub for dinner – no birthday cake though.

Saturday 24th Feb – Visited Loch Arg Gorge which was the site of a shipwreck in the 1800’s, more sandstone pillars which I think are more dramatic than the 12 Apostles.

Then headed back along the GOR and ended up in Portland. The weather was still bad so didn’t actually do anything. Our neighbours at the Portland campsite were friends of Dorothy’s from Newcastle (NSW) – you can always tell really cutting edge and fashionable – just like ourselves.

From Portland, on the Monday 26th Feb, we again headed inland to The Grampians – this is a mountain range/national park in the West of Victoria. Found a rather nice free camping site at Halls Gap. On the Tuesday did the Pinnacle walk which is about 6km round trip through an area strewn with huge boulders with sandstone peaks. Took about 60mins to reach “The Pinnacle” which is an outcrop that overhangs the valley below.

It was great until a bunch of tourists (Germans) decided to start flying drones. William, himself a drone enthusiast, soon put paid to that!. Actually flying drones is banned anywhere within national parks.

Late in the afternoon we moved to another campsite in Halls Gap – we were in urgent need of laundry facilities. Great site but judging by the droppings there must be wombats. Wombat’s poo is square so it doesn’t roll away – at least that’s what we have been told. If you’re wondering about non-rolling poo it a scent marking thing – or again that’s what we have been told – won’t look it up as I don’t want to be disillusioned.

Tuesday 27th Feb – had another late start and headed for Mount Gambier via a route less travelled. Ended up in a free camping site in Casterton which is the Kelpie capital of the world. Lovely camping site down by the Ess Lagoon which apparently is full of Trout and Red Fin – now if only one of us knew something about fishing we would be OK. Apparently fishing in the Southern Hemisphere is totally different from fishing in the Northern Hemisphere and there is no cross-hemisphere commonality!

Wednesday 28th Feb – Weather turned nasty again really windy and quite cold. Crossed the border into South Australia and stopped off in Mount Gambier for a coffee. The Lonely Traveller guide sums it up well by saying “Mount Gambier is much improved – you can now get a decent coffee” or words to that effect. Had a look at the Blue Lake which is an extinct volcano full of water of the most beautiful blue. It’s only blue for a couple of months in summer and then turns normal water colour. Nobody knows why – perhaps something to do with (saint) Mary Mckillop who came from near here. Needless to say we didn’t do the MMc tourist route for fear of being struck down.

Right in the centre of the town is a large cave caused through erosion of the under lying sandstone. You descend a set of steps look into the cave and see the pavement and shops above – a strange juxtaposition, there’s also a good set of information. and an evening son et luminere show. The biggest problem is someone has thrown two Woolworth’s super-maket trolleys into the middle of this – not a good look.

From Mt.Gambier we took the coast road towards Adelaide. No really good free camping parks so we stayed in a rather nice paying one in Robe which is a rather nice, obviously quite wealthy town.

Countyside- wise there not a lot to see on the road it’s very flat but just far enough away from the water to obscure any views. The weather was still cold and windy so not the greatest introduction to SA.

Thursday 1st March – went Free Camping at Pelican Point which is in the Coorong National Park. The Coorong National Park is a protected area located in South Australia about 150 kms southeast of Adelaide. It pre-dominantly covers a lagoon ecosystem officially known as the Coorong and the Younghusband Peninsula – watch the video below for more.

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Being within the lagoon it’s not a great beach to swim from – most of the sand is covered in a thick layer of salt and the detritus from birds and the surrounding scrub. It is however totally deserted. We were there 3 days and saw only one other couple (Danish) so a great place to do nothing. – which we both succeeded in doing.

Saturday moved on to Adelaide to site near West Beach. Didn’t realise that it

was the motor racing weekend (was the Clipseal 500 but is now just the Adelaide 500) it was also Fringe weekend so went into the City (good biking city) in the evening. Wandered around for a couple of hours, some of the light shows were very similar to Sydney’s Vivid but in a much smaller areas so easier to see more.

In the The Garden of Unearthly Delights (Rundle Park) a mixture of comedians and vaudeville plus food and drink and stomach churning rides.

Sunday and Monday spent looking around the city. We are actually coming back the following weekend for the Womad Festival.

Monday evening we went for dinner with some old friends of Willy’s, only problem was Willy managed to get a puncture on the way there so had to ditch the bikes for the night and Uber it. The mountain bike, rather than my non-binary bike, seems to be very susceptible to breakdowns.

With all the activity in Adelaide (car racing, Fringe, Adelaide Festival and WOMAD) prices were a bit steep. We decided to go south for a few days free camping at Rapid Bay.

Rapid Bay – breakfast by the water. Can you see the Dolphin?

On the second day we manage to get a perfect site right on the beach. It’s so good we were watching dolphins while having morning coffee in the shade of the van. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

But as with most things in life there’s a downside. The place is so good and easy driving to the City it fills up at weekend with Adelaidians out to party so we left on Friday 9th March to go back to Adelaide.

On the way down to Rapid Bay we had stopped to get some post from a friend of Willy’s from his Adelaide days. We were hoping to pick up, amongst other things, his renewed driving licence. Yes, I know going away for a year you would check that your driving licence was valid for at least 12 months.

What we got was a letter plus all the submitted documentation – there was a signature missing and the licence actually expired today – I’m now the sole driver and we had to start the application process again.

He signed the form and rushed to the post office to express post it back to the licence centre in Parkes, NSW. About an hour later he went to get his wallet and found the photos for his licence in his pocket. Fortunately we managed to recover the package from the Post Office and include the photos.

Spent three nights at Rapid Bay before returning to the Big Smoke (Adelaide) on Friday morning in time to take Willy’s bike in for a service… Safely arrived in Adelaide dropped the bike off and then went shopping for a sunscreen for Marge which we found. Driving Marge around a city isn’t as daunting as it sounds except for parking which is an absolute nightmare!

No news of the licence at the processing centre so i looks like we won’t see it until mid-next week at the earliest. Poor William I think he feels somehow emasculated having to ride in the passenger seat.

Arrived back safely at the West Beach Caravan park in Adelaide where we had stayed the previous week.

Saturday 10th March – went into town to mooch around The Fringe – decided on a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, went for a beer and then back to the restaurant, Half way through the meal wondered why there was no Vietnamese food on the menu and then realised we were at the restaurant next door.

Tried to get into a couple of fringe shows but sold out so we decided to go and see John Hastings (we had been given a complimentary ticket so just had to buy one more). I thought he was really good and so pleased we weren’t in the front row.

One line I particularly liked was he considers riding a bike makes you superior to Vegans.

After the show sat around listening to the music until 2am – it was really good, very laid back, great temperature and not too many people.

Disaster – Willy’s bike has stopped working and the battery has to be sent back to Sydney for repair… so expect to be hanging around Adelaide for another week – there are worse place to be…

Sunday 11th March – last night was The Fringe this afternoon and this evening is Womad. (Wold of Music Adelaide)

WOMad was good, lots of ageing hippies so I felt quite at home. We watched a couple of sessions. An Australian Rapper who didn’t do much for me or Willy, an American Jazz group Kamasi Washington which was good, Avalanche who were really good and finished off with Peanut Butter Woolf who was actually a no show but nevertheless it was a great way to finish the day. For those who don’t know, PBW is a DJ and they substituted another DJ whom I am told was just as good – to me it’s just music and if you can hum along with it so much the better.

Monday 12th March – late start still in bed when I get a phone call that the Driving Licence has been approved and will be in the post tomorrow. Almost back to normal, bike battery is being couriered up to Sydney tomorrow and no mention of the broken toe…(happened when he stepped in his belt buckle and jumped the wrong way).

Looks like we will be spending the day tidying up, washing and doing odd and ends. We have decided to go North tomorrow to the Yorke Peninsula.

Tuesday 13th March – headed to the Yorke Peninsula which is to the North West of Adelaide – it’s shaped rather like Italy but that’s where the resemblance ends. It’s very flat, not very big and a big fishing area which is of no great interest to us. However as we need to hang around Adelaide for a while it’s in easy distance and has some good camping grounds. We end up in a nudist camping ground which was great. Very quiet, very relaxing, very dusty and very cheap with great hot showers.

Apart from fishing the area is farming, mainly wheat so acres and acres of flat yellow fields with a big sky – very relaxing except for the fact that the scrabble situation is dire. I have lost twice now – think i’ll remove the “z”, “x” and “q’s”. Being lucky he always gets them – “ark” spelt with a “q” is a new one though plus interchangeable “v”‘s and “w”‘s …….

Friday 16th March – We end up staying three nights at the nudist park so leave on the Friday to go further south to the Innes National Park. Tried Turton Point but that’s full of fishermen so move on to Marion Bay.

Stayed at Marion Bay camp site for 2 nights – it’s OK, go to the local hotel for dinner on Saturday night expecting it to be really quiet but the place is heaving. The local fish is King George Whiting and it is really delicious. Had diner and then retired back to the campsite.

Sunday 17th March – weather really funny incredibly hot sun but with a really cold wind and some rain. Move northwards and stay at Pondalowrie Campground. Quite deserted stay for 3 nights free camping.

Remains of The Edith – Innes National Park

Again it’s very quiet. The beaches are really beautiful but you wouldn’t want to go anywhere near the water unless you had some sort of death wish. The waves are relentless but really spectacular.

Went to an historic village built on the long gone gypsum industry which was sort of interesting. What was more interesting was I nearly became roadkill myself when a ostrich (or is that emu) and chick decided run across the road right in front of the bike. That would have been truely ironic… Nature strikes back!

Wednesday 21st March – We get a message that the bike shop in Sydney expects the part to be available tomorrow so that means it wont be in Adelaide until next week at the earliest.

So, having seen most of the Yorke Peninsula we decide to head north to the Flinders Ranges. Normally we would have done this on our way West to Western Australia but with time to kill we decide to do it now, then go back to Adelaide to collect the bike and licence etc etc before heading of to WA.

It’s about a 5 hour journey to the Flinders Ranges so William plans to break the trip. Of all places to stop he selects Snowtown.

For those of you who don’t know Snowtown was the location of some very gruesome murders in the late nineties. So gruesome that no one I know has managed to watch the film made about the incident from beginning to end,

So here in Snowtown ends this part of blog. We hope you enjoy it and if one or both of us disappears we are probably in a barrel in the bank!

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Books Started: Letters from the Trenches, Thatcher stole my trousers, The Little Paris Bookshop

Books Finished: Letters from the Trenches; Thatchers stole my trousers

PS – sorry about the lack of images towards the end of the blog but Facebook is not the only high tech organisation with problems. Our graphics department has become a bit bolshie – something about quality rather than quantity. All will be sorted out by the next edition.