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Sleepy Koala and Dreaded Black Wombat report on their road trip
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 Sleepy Koala and Dreaded Black Wombat report on their road trip |
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Bob |
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Also Travel is great, coming home equally great |
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Yes! Welcome home, you were sorely missed, Bob. |
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Road Trip - Day One First stop was Cowra. A small town whose biggest claim to fame was the Prisoner of War camp it hosted during WW2. The prisoners were Italians (and a few Germans) and Japanese, and geography made it plain that escape back to Italy or Japan was simply not possible. The two groups were kept separate, but under the control of their own officers within the camp. The Italians understood this and generally settled down to waiting out the war. They were put onto local works such as maintaining roads, and typically worked at a casual pace. It wasn't as boring as sitting in the barracks. There was at least one instance when the 'guards' forgot about a detached work group at the end of the day; the gang had to walk back through town and bang on the gates of the camp to be allowed back in. The Japanese were not so compliant. Their officers were embarrassed that they had been captured instead of an 'honourable' suicide, and disciplined their men rather strictly. One point in particular was that they refused to do any work that might help the Australian war effort, and that included roadworks. They were asked to do other work, such as levelling the local football field (which apparently had a significant sideways slope to it), but there was a generally sullen atmosphere. It was proposed to move the Japanese to a new camp at Hay, even more remote into the outback, when the Japanese charged the wire, killing a few Australian guards and escaping. They were rounded up pretty quickly; it wasn't easy for a Japanese man to go un-noticed in outback Australia back in those days. There is a memorial ornamental garden there today for the Japanese who died in the attempt. |
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Bob |
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Bob |
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Zorro 11:01 Next stop was Hay. The Hay Plains are so flat that the Murrumbidgee gets confused and doesn't know which way is downstream. The big advantage of this is that roads can be arrow-straight for miles upon miles. We measured 19 kilometres between two bends, and didn't bother seeing f the next straight was longer. With such low traffic volumes, one lane in each direction is ample; you have the sight distance to overtake slower vehicles virtually at will, which makes the roads cheaper to build and maintain. Rarely do you get the echidna train effect that's common in more uneven country. I was trying to think of something else about Hay that was interesting, but couldn't. Hay being boring is its most interesting feature. Next step was Wentworth/Mildura, where the Darling joins the Murray. It's also the border between New South Wales and Victoria. I was surprised to see a Victorian police car covered in graffiti; a brave street urchin to try that! But it turned out that the Victorian police did it themselves! Thet are currently campaigning for a pay increase (in Australia, policing is a State responsibility, not the responsibility of individual cities or counties), and they are using their vehicles as travelling protest signs. Meanwhile the New South Wales police force, which pays considerably more than the Vics, is working hard trying to recruit qualified Victorian police in twin border towns such as Wentworth/Mildura, Albury/Wodonga, Echuca/Moama, etc. So if Riaan is still unhappy with his job in the Rainbow Nation, there's plenty of opportunity over here! Then on to Blanchetown, where the biggest attraction is a barrage across the Murray to maintain navigable water depths upstream. The Murray is so flat (like the Murrumbidgee at Hay) that an extra metre of water at the barrage provided navigable water depths for hundreds of kilometres upstream. There is also a lock to allow boats to pass. This dates back to the end of the 19th century, when Wentworth (junction of the Murray and Darling) was one of the busiest ports in the nation shipping wheat and wool from the basins to market. The biggest problem was that the Murray-Darling system goes through a flood/drought cycle, like the rest of Australia. Often the water was so low that the old paddle-steamers were trapped in a chain of ponds. The barrages were aimed at ensuring enough of the floodwaters were retained to maintain sufficient water depth into the next drought. |
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Bob |
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Driving the outback is quite an experience |
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Zorro 14:04 There are a lot of crows who are making a good living just cruising along the highways at 'ground reconnaissance' level and gorging themselves on the carrion. |
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Bob Melbourne was our favorite city. We spent 7 weeks in Oz. We spent time with several GK friends - you may remember Changeling, in Cairns. We visited Kiwi (Louis, who l play otb virtual Random chess almost weekly, happened to be visiting his daughter in Sydney and we spent a lovely day). Mark Allen in Melbourne hosted us for 3 days. And AussieSpud and his family in Adelaide. Great trip. We also stayed w friends in Brisbane and in Orange (who loaned us their car and camping gear for 3 weeks. And visited Greg, a nurse in Broken Hill who lives in White Cliffs. Music festival and rollicking good times Australian hospitality rocks. |
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Bob And did y'all taste-sample the road-kill you saw during the trip? |
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Mo 08:12 1. <How hot did it get and how much rain fell during your trip?> Not very hot. Around 30 degrees most days (high 80's F), but cool in the mornings (around 10 degrees C). This was because the DBW kept God informed of our progress and arranged the details for each day on a nightly basis. A few sprinkles of rain on two mornings, when we were driving, but we soon outran that for a dry afternoon sightseeing. Our only wet day was an all-day drive from Port Campbell through Geelong and Melbourne (typical!) to Seymour. 2. <And did y'all taste-sample the road-kill you saw during the trip?> No, but a few of the kangaroos were fresh and a free kangaroo hide was a tempting thought. But not the flesh; my father had a pet-food shop when I was a teenager, and I worked as a butcher for him on weekends. I knew every cut on a kangaroo rump, and the smell is with me to this day. I'm told it's very healthy meat, low in fat and high in protein; but I've seen too much. |
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Roo |
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The further adventures of Sleepy and Dreaded... Question:- "What do you call a paying customer under the age of sixty?" Answer:- "A care-giver." We spend four nights and the intervening three days on the Murray., dropping in on a few sights on the way and having a barbeque on shore one evening. There was also a tour of an Aboriginal traditional camp, complete with petroglyphs and some folk lore. The most spectacular part was the Murray Cliffs. Back about a million years ago, there was a huge inland lake now called Lake Bungunnia, covering about 33,000 square kilometres. This is mid-way in size between Michigan and Erie. The early English settlers here who suspected that the Murray, Macquarie, Lachlan, and other rivers all drained into an 'Inland Sea' were not wrong; just 600,000 years too late. During a period of wetter climate this lake filled and eventually over-topped the ridge holding it back. A 30-metre deep gorge about a mile wide was eroded. That is now the Murray floodplain through this section. www.bing.com |
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Sleepy and Dreaded press on! The Southern Vales is not as high-profile as other wine regions, but can always be relied upon to put out a few good reds. Solid, workmanlike, professional efforts that would go down well in a quality restaurant. We tasted a few at the cellar door and bought up on a few of our favourites. Then along the shoreline of Spencer's Gulf (You call that a surf?!?) and through to the Clare Valley, another of our old-time favourites. It's only been 45 years! A night to recuperate and then more wine-tasting. A bit disappointing; we had been looking forward to one particular winery, but walked away empty-handed. A couple of others were up to par. Then on to Wilpena Pound. On the way there was more road kill, and a mob of emus perhaps fifty metres off the road. We slowed down in case one of them took fright and bolted across our path. Wilpena Pound (aka 'Ikara' = 'the meeting place" in the local language) looks at first glance like an impact crater, but is actually the cup of a geosyncline in two directions. It certainly looked like an ideal place for multi-clan meetings and initiation ceremonies, etc. en.wikipedia.org Excellent bushwalking! On our walk we came across an echidna foraging for ants. It had no fear of us at all, walking randomly as it snouted into the leaf litter. It walked between us at one stage. |
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Bob |
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The adventure continues... We found a delightful Italian restaurant on the southern fringes of the city; 'Buono Sera'. A couple of old brothers ran the place, and there were only three tables occupied. Ours, a family group of eight and a couple with a young teenager. One of the brothers started chatting with us. He said they used to run a 200-seat place up the road but it all became too much like hard work. So they closed, and only told their family and best customers that they were re-opening and where. We talked about our Italian son-in-law and he was full of nostalgia. At the end of the night he gave us each a tawny port; quite a good one, too! Then the next day down to Coonawarra! We tasted at a couple of old favourite wineries, and found a new favourite in the process. An altogether expensive day! Thern to Mount Gambier. A city built around a sinkhole! I'd think twice about putting an expensive building anywhere near the place! Then to the Victorian south coast and the start of the Great Ocean Road. |
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The next exciting installment... This is an amazing thing to consider! The local aborigines have an oral tradition the describes how two minor volcanic eruptions dammed a local creek to form a pond and wetlands upstream. Recent geological studies have verified these legends and dated these eruptions to 37,000 years ago, before there were modern humans in either Europe of the Americas. One investigation found a stone axe under the lava flow. This created a very rich environment. The local aborigines no longer had to be nomadic hunters and gatherers. They settled down and built stone shelters with waterproof rooves. Next they modified the landscape in what can only be called civil engineering to create an aquaculture industry. They built fish traps and eel traps, stone jetties and canals. Archaeologists have dated some of these to 6,500 years old, and these are probably repairs or replacement of works that had been in existence from many thousands of years earlier according to the oral legends that connect the start of aquaculture to the volcanic activity. There are also reports of what Mithen called 'wild gardens'; these are not horticulture as Europeans practice it, with extensive monoculture; but they are areas which are recognised to be well-suited to various food crops, often a mixture of different plants, and which the locals maintain for those crops by removing invasive species and weeds, etc. Thus they formed settled, permanent villages with stone buildings tens of thousands of years before the equivalent were seen in the Middle East or anywhere else. DAMMIT, these guys were civilised when everyone else were still dodging Ice Ages! The most technically-advanced people on the planet by tens of millennia! The Great Ocean Road is worth travelling. We were last there more that 40 years ago, and since then 'London Bridge' has fallen down. A man and his young son were lucky that they were on the arch that DIDN'T collapse. It took a helicopter to retrieve them. This coast has shipwrecks beyond numbering. The old route from Europe to Australia, back when only the east coast was settled, involved crossing the Indian Ocean from Cape Town for several thousand miles without sight of land, 'threading the needle' of Bass Strait (which looks easy on a flat map projection, but is a lot trickier if you look at a globe and trace the Great Circle route!) and then turning north to Melbourne or Sydney. Get your position wrong, and you run straight into the limestone cliffs of the Shipwreck Coast. Then into the Otway Ranges for some delightful walking. |
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Going home... It's easy to get lost in Seymour. We did it several times. What looks like a main road goes nowhere, and the actual main drag seems somehow forgotten. Then we realised why! The town services the nearby Army training ground of Puckapunyal. The difficulty of navigating the town is obviously a lesson for the troops in the traps of an enemy using false road signs and deceptive layout to misdirect invaders. There is an Avenue of Remembrance in Seymour devoted to Vietnam vets. It includes a Centurion tank, an APC and a 88mm field piece, and lots of graphics. Well worth the time to walk through in a contemplative frame of mind. I even found a 'Springett' on the roll, but not one of my close kin. The next day we pressed on the Glenrowan and Rutherglen, where you can find the best value in fortified wines in Australia. We remembered several of the wineries from when we were there 45 years ago, and in particular Chambers 'Rosewood' vineyards. Back then it's label was old-fashioned, a monochrome print of a rose bloom and simple lettering. We arrived this time to fine it unchanged. We stocked up embarrassingly, mostly on tawny ports. We asked about the 'HJT' line that was magnificent back in the day, when we could afford to buy a few bottles. We were told that had been discontinued when that winemaker, Harry Tinson, either retired or passed away (the worker wasn't sure of which). Then a night to recover, and home the next day. |
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Bob We’re going to Barcelona for a week and then Greece for two weeks in January. Been awhile since we travelled. |
