tanunda to adelaide

We woke to the sound of rain, proper rain, and wind, it was in fact, bloody miserable. But it was the first serious rain we have had all tour so we've done extremely well. After breakfast we donned ther wet weather gear and set off for the first of the wineries which was to be seppeltsfield. Sadly we arrived too early and rathrer than wait for the 45 minutes for them to open wedecided to go to the second winery on the list, penfolds. If that too was shut, then the plan was to hit a bakery, drink coffee and eat strudel. Penfolds however were just opening as we arrived so we went in to have a mooch around.

The women there were very friendly indeed, and after assembling a few odds and sods to buy, we were into the tasting. We essentially went through all the reds on offer, which included bin 28, 389, 407, 707, the special reserve shiraz and cab sav and the port. By this time we were feeling very warm and compfortable and in no great rush to leave. To even things out a bit we also had a coffee. I mentioned that i was lookingng for a particular garlic metwurst and without hesitation they all said linkies butchery in nooriupta. So that's where we went and for me it was some kind of heaven, i found exactly what i was looking for plus a whole lot more.

wal and i with two $200 bottles of wine. all good

me in linkes butcher shop feeling very much like a pig in mud

From linkes we went back through tanunda and stopped for a bite to eat before heading for lindoch amd the house/shop wal's mum grew up in. When we got to lindoch wal found the place pretty quickly and we went into one of the shops, it had been divided into 2 seperate businesses, to have a look around. The woman in the shop started chatting to us and wal mentioned that his grandparents had built the place and that his mother had been born and raised there. The woman then asked wal if he had ever seen this photo and produced a picture of the bulding complete with all of his mother's family and she very kindly allowed him to take the photo and get a copy. This was clearly a great experience for wal.

wal out the front of the shop that his grandparents built in 1929

After this it was time to get on to adelaide as we were due at the bmw dealers at 3.30. Wal managed to navigate us to within 2 streets of the dealership which i thought was very impessive indeed. The guys at the dealers were great and offered to fit my mirror for me while i waited which was fantastic.

That done it was time to go our seperate ways, wal to his family thing and me to a friends place. I hadn't given it any thought prior to this but it was kinda weird riding off in different directions given we have been everywhere together for the last 4 weeks. Wal had given me very good directions to get to where i needed to be and i got there withoput incident.

I was staying at a friends house but they were out of town so i would be lobbing on their cousin mesh and his girlfriend MT who i had never met but are utterly brilliant and made me extremely welcome. They cooked for me and plied me with beer and we spent the evening chatting and playing music. It doesn't get much better really, thanks guys.

the creek that rus through suzie and michael's place

hawker to tanunda

We left hawker this morning under yet another big blue sky, it was utterly perfect weather for riding. The plan was to head for tanunda with a few stops for coffee and cakes and a bit of sightseeing. We followed the r m williams way, and whoever planned that road was clearly a motorcyclist, it was beyond brilliant, a heavenly mix of hills and curves, set in scenery that was becoming more and more chocolate box with every kilometre. What did strike me, and i had been noticing it for a while, were the number of ruined buildings, i'm guessing farmhouses, that had been dotting the countryside since the oodnadatta track but were now becoming more and more common.

just bone of the many ruins we saw in south australia

We had come from incredibly dry country to get to hawker, and it too was pretty dry, but that changed remarkably quickly. Within about an hour of leaving hawker things started to get greener and some of the creeks actully had water in them. After leaving orroroo, where we had a cracking morning tea, and made friends with the giant red gum, the change in the countryside was marked. Rolling hills checkered with various shades of green broken up by patches of outrageous yellow.

the main street of orroroo

me showing my appreciation of the giant red gum of orroroo

fields of canola

From there it was into the clare valley, which is incredibly lush, for lunch of the worst hamburger we've had so far. We've been to some fly speck towns and had awesome food, this is a reasonably sized place with lots of tourists and crap food. Very disappointing.

We swung past turo to go to a bakery for old times sake for wal, but it had changed hands and also was a little disappointing.

Not so disappointing was the car and motorcycle museum in nuriootpa, which had a great collection of old ariel bikes and chevrolet cars and after a brief wander around to stretch our legs we were on to tanunda. The visitors centre in tanunda were very helpful and pointed us in the direction of the local van park where the very cheerful and helpful staff sorted us out with a unit.

my favourite, the wallace and gromit

After a shower and a change of clothes it was into town in search of beer, food and to catch up with wal's cousin bob. All of which we did in the tanunda hotel where we had great feed a few fine ales and great conversation with bob.

Tomorrow we will visit a few wineries before mooching into adelaide for a few days rest.

our exact location:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-34.5307,138.95&ll=-34.5307,138.95&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

coward springs to hawker

There were only one or two sparrows cracking when we got up this morning as we had 200km of dirt out of 400km total. As we had already ridden the first 65km the day before we knew what to expect, nice hard pack, what was next was a bit of a mystery. As it unfolded, we had a little bit of everything and a bit too much of some.

After we passed the turn off to roxby downs, the road got a little rougher and rockier but it was still pretty good, the rockyness of the road was reflected in the landscape because that's all there was, miles and miles of little wind blown rocks and not a tree or shrub in sight. In fact there was little vegetation of any kind.

yep, that's us and a whole world of nuthin

About 30km out maree we came across planehenge, a field full of scluptures of found objects including 2 aircraft standing on their tails and covered with paintings and an old bus with wings called the ghan hover bus.

planehenge

the ghan hover bus at planehenge

the big dog of planehenge

Maree is a small town that clearly used to be something until the ghan stopped running, now it is just a small town with a lot of memorabilia that seems to be dying slowly. You can however get a cracking steak sandwich from the general store and roadhouse.

the maree roadhouse and general store

We were told that the road from maree to lindhurst, our next stop, was a mixture of tar and dirt and that it was in good condition. Well it was a mixture tar and dirt but there wasn't much tar and the dirt staarted out great but very quickly degenerated into something that was anything but great. It clearly rained quite a bit and the road had become one enormous skid pan. It was as slick as and it stuck to the tyres so traction and steering became a thing of the past and it made for a very slow 20km. Finally we hit tar to much celebration and after stopping to rid ourselves of many, many kilos of accumulated mud we set off again, revelling in the amount of grip and consitency of surface, only to run into rain.

a small portion of the mud clinging to our bikes by the time we got to lindhurst

We arrived in hawker at 5.00pm and we decided that enough was enough. Wilpena pound was still a good three quarters of an hour away and it was raining there and we didn't really feel like camping in the mud. Soft i know, but there you have it. So we hit the caravan park and grabbed a unit, then toddled into hawker to have a look around. It's a cute little town with lots of fabulous old stone buildings. This is another town that was very reliant on the ghan but it seems to be fairing substatially better than maree.

We went for dinner at the old ghan restaurant and gallery and where the only guests. The food was great and we got to chatting with bob, the owner, and wade, his son. After dinner we ended up playing pool with bob and wade and fortunately there was no money on it as we were well and truly schooled. Thanks for a great night guys.

the old ghan restaurant and gallery, a great feed and very good pool players

Tomorrow we're off to the barosa valley to take in some fine wine and a smackeral of fine food.

our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-31.8838,138.4125&ll=-31.8838,138.4125&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

woomera to coward springs

It was strange leaving woomera, there was no fuss no fanfare, we just left. I could have stayed a little longer but by the same token i was quite happy to leave. It was the disappointment it could quite easily have been, but neither was it as fullfilling as i had hoped it might have been. Anyway i was very keen to get to coward springs on the oodnadatta track as i had read there was an arteseasn spa and i was very keed to try it out.

On the road out of woomera i was, yet again, amazed at just how much nothing there is. This place has 'wide open' in spades. At one stage we stopped and regardless of which way you lookked it was flat and ther was not one tree, power poles and a road, but no trees. This changed as we got about 40km out of roxby downs. We were now riding through dunes and if it wasn't that the sand a rich red colour, you could easily think you were on the coast.

When we got to roxby downs i was completely taken aback. I was expecting a small, slightly shabby town with a roadhouse and a couple of dozen houses and lots of flies. What we found was a very affleunt, very neat, bustling, go-ahead town that is bigger than woomera. We bought our lunch to have on the road and suprisingly good coffee and a great ham and cheese croisant(?) for second breakfast.

the very much thriving town of roxby downs

After roxby we were onto the dirt and we had been told that the first 40km out of roxby were not great but that the rest was ok. For possibly the first time on the trip we had received an accurate summation of the road conditions. The first 40km were indeed pretty bloody ordinary, very rocky with patches of our beloved sand. But after that the road was remarkably good and when we got to the oodnadatta track, where we stopped to finish our lunch, it got even better.

a nice shady spot for lunch

wal on the road out of roxby

Cruising along the track, in the direction of william creek, we crested a small hill and there was lake eyre south. It's huge and it's only the little bit at the bottom of lake eyre proper. The other cool thing about it is it's 12m below sea level.

finally on the oodnadatta track

lake eyre south

The last 5km of road to coward springs was pretty corragated but it was worth it. Coward springs is the classic oasis in every sense. The artesean spa is really a bore that has been here since the late 1800s when it was a siding for the ghan and there was even a hoel from 1910 to the 50s. The campsite is privately own and surrounded by national park and prue and greg have done a great job in setting it up. The have restored the 'spa' and it's fabulous, although it feels a little weird as you can't touch the bottom, but it is lovely and warm. The bore also helps to maintain the lush vegetation which gives the campsite a very private feel, and to run the wood fired showers. These were a first for me but they were brilliant. There's a small boiler outside the showers, you light a fire under it, wait 30 minutes for the water to heat, and away you go and as long as the fire is going the water the water will be hot. wal's campsite ar coward springs

the woodfired showers, really, really good

me in the artesean spa, also really, really good

a coward spings sunset

This place is seriously in the middle of nowhere, but if you're ever even remotely close to nowhere, go and see it, it's worth the trip.

Tomorrow we're off back the way came for a bit (at least we know the road's good) to maree and from there to wilpena pound in the flinders ranges.

our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-29.4012,136.8148&ll=-29.4012,136.8148&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

coober pedy to woomera

It was mighty fresh in coober pedy when we got up this morning but the sun was shining brightly, the sky was dazzlingly blue but bestest of all was there was no wind. woohoo! We fueled up and shot through as quickly as we could because we wanted to maximise the conditions and also because we both wanted to get to woomera as early as possible to allow us plenty of time to look around.

The riding conditions were beautiful and it was utterly brilliant not to be buffeted to bits. The crazy, luna type landscape of coober pedy slowly slipped past and was replaced by, well, nothing. Lots and lots of nothing. So much nothing it's difficult to comprehend. Flat open ground covered in saltbush and little else, there were no trees, none. If you needed shade then you had to make it yourself.

This lasted pretty much all the way to woomera with only the occassional stretch of low scrub and the sudden appearance of lake hart. Actually it had always been there i just wasn't expecting it, and suprisingly enough it had a substantial amount of water rather than just salt pan. It was an arresting sight and impossible not to stop and be amazed.

the boys and the impressive lake hart

After the manditory photo op (thanks to the guys from melbourne who kindly too somefor us) we were back on the road for pimba, a very small town 6km out of woomera. I wanted to stop there because as child i remember going there with my mother to get supplies from the 'tea and sugar' which was a train that came from adelaide once a month. Sadly the old siding no longer exists.

me out the front of the most interesting thing in pimba

When we arrived in woomera we stopped at the information board and looked at the map. I found the street i used to live in, which was very close to where we were so we went there first to see if my old house was there. It wasn't. There was a house there but it was not the one i lived in. I was a little disappointed but not suprised. What i was surprised by was the number of vacant blocks where our old neighbours used to be.

what you see when you come into woomera

me out the front of the house that stands where my old house used to be

Some things however are still here and still unchanged, the school oval, the church iwas christened in (sadly closed so i couldn't go in) and the picture theatre. This too was shut, but fortunately still operating. However we were lucky enough to be passing when a couple of firies where checking the systems and they very kindly let us into take some pictures in the foyer and it was exactly as i remember it so thanks guys.

the church i was christened in

this is where i usually spent my time at sunday school

me out the front of the cinema that i saw my first movie in

the woomera theatre foyer has not changed one bit

We also spent quite a bit of time at the museum which was incredibly interesting for both wal and i for different reasons, wal was taken up with all the aeronautical bits and i was absorbed in the historical stuff of the town and spent quite a while reading the local papers fron 1967.

the black arrow rocket which i watched being launched from the back steps of my house

I was unsure how i would feel coming back as i had so many wonderful childhood memories and although a lot of things have changed or gone i'm very glad i did. The town itself still looks good and is well maintainedand everyone is very friendly.

tomorrow we are of to coward springs for a night of camping and a dip in the artesean spa. Lovely.

our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-31.1998,136.8172&ll=-31.1998,136.8172&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1