Down on the Farm.................

On Wednesday 17th February, after getting a camber kit fitted to Winny the previous day, we left my brother's place to do a 2 week Permaculture Design Cerificate course (starting 21st Feb) near Mudgee, N.S.W., around 1500 kms away.

We headed north east through the Barossa Valley, then east along the Sturt Highway through the Riverland to Renmark, across the border to Mildura, Victoria, then very shortly across the border into New South Wales, now heading south east. We camped by the edge of Lake Benanee, not far from Euston. It was quite hot, and the tiny flying bugs were out in force! Winny was full of them. Rick attacked them with spray (cough, cough, yuk) and next morning we had to sweep all the little blighters out.

18th Feb, heading east, we set off to cross the Hay Plain towards Hay. I drove the easy part, along the nice flat and relatively straight road into Hay. Rick took the wheel next, and we drove approximately 280kms to West Wyalong, before turning north east to Forbes, another 100km and our next camp site.
There had been a lot of rain through this area recently, and there was evidence of flooding; small lakes in paddocks, roadside ditches looked like creeks.........
The Lachlan River in Forbes, where we camped the night, looked very high.

Next morning, 19th Feb, we drove through picturesque and wet countryside towards Orange. Along the way we had to stop and watch as an 82 year old bloke ploughed his paddock with an old fashioned horse drawn machine. We chatted with him awhile, and he said people often stopped to watch him work. Below are a couple of pics.

On towards Orange, the hills were getting bigger, then to Bathurst it was like a roller coaster, up and down, up and down.............  LOL

Just before Lithgow (and the Blue Mountains) we turned north on the Castlereigh Highway to find our next camp for the night. This was another hilly winding road. We stopped at a lookout and what magnificent views! 2 photos below.

We camped beside an old hall in the tiny village of Ilford, very quiet here, nice view of 2 big rocky hills jutting out of the green paddocks in which sheep were grazing in the early evening sunshine.  Life is good.

                           

Saturday dawned nice and warm and sunny. We set the GPS to help us find Milkwood Farm, and it directed us to a narrow, winding, bumpy dirt road on top of a ridge; this looked a bit scary, but we decided to trust the GPS. Took an hour to travel the 20 kms to the farm, the road was so bad. We were told later that was the quick way in! 4WD vehicles handle the road much better than our motorhome.

For the next 2 weeks we had classes in the wool shed and outside; worked on projects and absorbed as much information as our old brains could manage. We were fed delicious farm fresh food, enjoyed the company of the other 6 students and our hosts and their families.

Below are links to Milkwood Farm's websites.

http://www.milkwoodpermaculture.com.au/milkwood-farm

http://www.milkwood.net/

To Port Lincoln and Eyre Peninsula.

After a quiet New Year with brother and sister in law, we planned to visit friends in Port Lincoln, over 600 km from here. We waited until 12th January to leave though, as it was very hot and we didn't fancy driving through areas which had extreme fire risk.
Cool change with rain, and we headed north to Port Augusta, then around the top of the gulf and down to Whyalla, where we camped the night at the Footy club for $5.00.

Next day I drove Winny from Cowell to just outside Port Lincoln. The road was an easy drive.
We arrived at our friends K & R's house around 3.30pm and parked in their driveway. We had a good view of the town and Boston Bay; at night it was nice to see the lights down there, and in the morning we could watch the sun rise behind hill.
View from where our Winny was parked.

We stayed at K & R's for 2 weeks, and during that time we helped them with their business where we could, and toured around the area. Around 25 kms south of town is Whalers Way at the tip of Eyre Peninsula. K & R kindly let us use their old ute to drive down there; the dirt roads were very rough, so we were happy we didn't have to take Winny down there.

The coastline is rugged, and care must be taken when walking near the edge of cliffs.
A couple of photos of this area........

Another excursion we took was a boat ride out into the bay to feed and swim with Tuna. (Port lincoln is the Tuna capital of Australia)  The fish in this pen are babies at around 40 kg, and swim very fast. Rick and I fed them, but didn't swim with them, though quite a few in our group did get in the water, and appeared to enjoy the experience.

Port Lincoln is famous for its annual Tunarama Festival, which includes various events - the Tuna Toss, (they use rubber ones these days) prawn toss (plastic ones, for the kids) Grand parade, bands and music for all tastes, sideshows, food stalls etc.
We strolled down for a looky-see, enjoyed a feed of fresh local fish, and listened to some good music. We particularly enjoyed the reggae band.

27th January we packed Winny, said our goodbyes to K & R whose hospitality was very generous, and headed of up the centre of Eyre peninsula, through Cummins and Lock; Kyancutta on the Eyre Highway, then Kimba (halfway point across Aus) where we stopped for the night.
Next morning we visited the Information centre and Rick asked about the Gawler ranges. We were told the road is good, so off we went. 100km to the entrance of the Gawler Ranges National Park; the road was sealed and good condition for about 40km, then wide graded gravel road. Then it became narrower, and rougher, with puddles and corrugations. We were beginning to wonder if we had gone the wrong way.

Finally we reached the Park. We couldn't drive off and see too much as most of the tracks are 4WD only, so we drove through the park, (more narrow corrugated dirt road) and out the other side, around 40km. Then we discover we have about another 40km of dirt road before we reach the highway again! The corrugations were even worse on this stretch of road! So we took it slowly while everything rattled and banged; we thought we would be shaken to pieces!
Then we both see it at once and say simultaneously.................BITUMEN!  Yay! 
Photo is a view in the Gawler Ranges National Park.

We had taken a long detour and ended up back on the Eyre Highway 45 km north west of Kyancutta. We camped at Polkdinney Park, Kyancutta, near the general store. We plan to avoid dirt roads for a while.

Friday 29th January - around 180km east / north east to our next stop, Iron Knob, where we took a mine tour and looked at the interesting exhibits in the Information Centre.
We stayed the night at a camp spot in the centre of town; this was very quiet.

Photo below taken from the top of the mine.

Saturday 30th January - Next stop Port Augusta. Rick found the house he lived in for a few years as a child. Right next to a small cliff which he used to ride his go-kart down; and the mangroves he used to play and fish in.
Around 20km south of Port Augusta we turned east towards the southern Flinders ranges; through Horrocks Pass to Wilmington, through Melrose and other towns; then Clare Valley.
We arrived back at my brother's place 7.30pm.
Photo below is a view of southern Flinders Ranges from the road to Horrocks Pass.

We are still here, planning our next trip. We are waiting to have a camber kit fitted to Winny; must phone the Iveco dealer and ask what's happening with it.