Rawnsley Park Station to Berri - 28 Sept. 2016

Time to leave the Flinders Ranges  :-(

I was a bit of a novice at staying in a caravan park but the staff were lovely and helpful. The cabin at Rawnsley Park Station was more than adequate. RPS has other accommodation too - for tents and caravans, cabins with en suite bathrooms, and 'eco villas' designed for those with cash to splash. Having 'got the lie of the land' and seen a little bit of the accommodation at Wilpena pound, if I go again (I'd like to!) I'd choose RPS over Wilpena every time.

Last view of Rawnsley Bluff

I didn't realise until later in the day that, while showering in the morning, having left me alone until then, mozzies had made a meal of me. Itchy!! I left in fine weather, ahead of forecast rains. I hoped to escape that.

Heading to the Rawnsley Park gate and the road to Hawker

First stop Hawker, for petrol. There I spotted a quilt and art exhibition – naturally I couldn't resist. There were also lots of fabulous home baked goodies, jams, chutnies, etc. I'd have stocked up if the provisions hadn't had to survive three days in the car before getting home. Also knitting, sewing and some beautiful dyed silk scarves.

As I left, the first spots of rain. A portent of things to come.

Hawker Uniting Church

I'd set myself more driving than I should have so cut out some small towns that had been on the itinerary and cut across country instead. Given that the rain increased, that was a wise move. The drive became unpleasant when, after turning off to Orroroo, I got caught in the middle of a car rally – the Mystery Box Rally, raising money for the Cancer Council I learned later from google. A good cause and they obviously raise a lot of money but I was singularly unimpressed. I got caught in the middle because I pulled over for the lead car. It had a flashing light so I thought an emergency or working vehicle of some sort. Nothing of the kind. The cars that then passed me were emblazoned with different slogans, all of which you would associate with yobs or bogans. And some of them certainly drove like that.

I stopped at Orroroo because there was another Flinders art exhibition there. When I couldn't immediately see it, I asked at the local shire office. In spite of the advertised dates, the Orroroo exhibition had finished a week earlier. Not amused. I'd thought of having coffee there but with the rally drivers having the same plan I hot-footed it out of town to escape them.

On to Peterborough where, with no sign of the advertised Flinders art exhibition I kept driving as a section of the rally drivers had beaten me there for coffee.

Escape at last! It had also become very windy. The door was nearly ripped off the car and I was all but blown away when I stopped at Hallett for a leg-stretch and a couple of muesli bars to sustain me.

Hallett Library - doesn't look like it opens much, if at all

Then on to Burra for a late lunch. As I arrived the thunder and lightning started. When I went into a cafe it seemed very dark – only moments before their power had gone out. Someone was on the phone organising an electrician for the next day. That wasn't going to help, as it later became known - the whole of South Australia had lost power.

Looking ominous at Burra

After lunch the rain had stopped and pretty much all the way to Berri I was following a rainbow. It was rather lovely and eased the tension of the stressful section of the day's drive. Little did I know what was ahead.

Chasing the rainbow

As I arrived at my Berri Hotel the rain started again and when I went inside, more darkness. The stay here became a cross between farce and the surreal. I had to call reception to let me out of the room I was given. A broken door handle and dodgy lock had trapped me inside. I was given a new room. It hadn't been cleaned since the previous occupants had departed. A third room. Seemed OK. I went to sit and read in a lounge area with a gorgeous view over the Murray. 

Paddle steamer and houseboats on the Murray at Berri

When it became too dark to read I went to have dinner. A choice of Caesar or Greek salads since there were no cooking facilities. Eaten by candlelight in an atrium where I could see the lightning flashes above me.

Dinner by candlelight!

On finishing the salad I ordered a drink before dashing upstairs to get my tablets. The dash took a while. The ceiling was leaking. Moved to my fourth room!!!! This was an upgrade which meant I had a full ensuite bathroom. The three previous rooms were “budget” class and had a shower and hand basin but the loos were down the hall. Mind you, the fourth room was Fawlty Towers too – the bar fridge was faulty and had been pulled out of its alcove so you had to walk around it. This room also had the same fabulous views over the Murray although a bit dark to see by now.

When I finally got downstairs they gave me my drink for free. I settled down to write a blog draft when I was ushered upstairs. “For health and safety” they were clearing the ground floor! Thus, for the first time since goodness knows when, recent illnesses excepted, I was in bed before 8pm! Surprisingly, I fell asleep quite quickly and awoke about 1.30am to find power restored. Quickly plugged in my phone to recharge! Then I fell asleep again, not waking until about 7.30am. How about that!

Burra to Port Augusta - 23 Sept. 2016

I'm going to have to come back to Burra and the Clare Valley. So much to see, so much beauty to take in. It got to the stage where I had to tell myself, “This is not my holiday. This is just passing through to get to my holiday destination.” I spent too much time in and around Burra so that I had to ditch some of my planned stops and take the most direct routes to Port Pirie and Port Augusta.

Burra Creek, its surrounds turned into a lovely park, play, camping area

Before the gold rushes at Ballarat and Bendigo, Burra was properous thanks to copper. Much of the old town has been preserved yet this is not a museum town. These beautiful buildings house 21^st century families and businesses.

Burra Town Hall

Catholic Church, Burra - one of the very many seen during this trip dedicated to St Joseph

Burra business premises

Other than a bit of a wander around the town itself, I visited the old mine site primarily to see the Cornish style engine house. And the reason for wanting to see that had nothing to do with history and everything to do with the TV show Grand Designs which showed the conversion of one such building into a home, complete with discussion about where to place the stairs to minimise loss of living area!

Engine house

View of the now water-filled old mine from a window in the engine house.
No way was I going out on one of those balconies!

A short drive to Mintaro brought me to Martindale Hall, the home of various grandees from the past. The sandstone Georgian building looks somewhat incongruous, sitting in an Australian landscape, albeit with an English style garden surrounding the house. 

Martindale Hall, Mintaro

There is a very grand entrance hall with magnificent staircase.

However, the rest of the rooms make a large but liveable home rather than something completely over the top. 

This bath is so big that it could be turned into an endless lap pool!

Outside, even the working buildings, garage, barn, etc, were beautiful, their honey-coloured stone glowing in the sunlight.

Later in the trip I saw a handful of flowering gums, but no gum nuts to match these beauties on trees lining the Martindale Hall driveway.

Having taken up much more time than expected, I raced through Clare, a bustling metropolis compared to most towns I'd passed through since leaving home, and cut across country to Port Pirie where my mother had lived for a while as a child. If she'd ever used the library, she would recognise it still – it was still in use until 2010 when the new new library was opened.

Old Port Pirie Library

I visited the art gallery / tourist info building where there was a good collection of recent works on show. I later learned this was part of the Flinders Ranges A Brush With Art annual event across a dozen galleries and spaces. I loved this, a cross between Aboriginal dot painting and pointillism, most notably practised by Georges Seurat.

Painting detail

I chanced upon the new library by fluke. From the art space, thinking a coffee might be nice, I saw what looked like a small shopping arcade. That was the library! The new library looks lovely from a patron's perspective but a chat with a librarian amongst the shelves revealed a few problems. On the plus side, it appears to be an extension to an old railway station. Looking through the far end library windows, it does seem like you're part of the station as you look down the platform.

I visited the local museum, housed in the old main railway station, a grand building whose tower I climbed (via ladder-like stairs that I tried not to think about) for a murky view of the city through very grubby windows.

The museum also housed a schoolroom of a bygone era. The teacher needs some remedial maths lessons!

Spot the mistake!

Finally, on to Port Augusta. On the way out of town I stopped by Solomontown Beach - a pleasant place to picnic, perhaps, but not inviting to swim .... too close to the port area.

Just up the road I turned into Port Germein briefly - to see its jetty disappearing off into the distance. 

After that I had to skip several more small towns I'd planned to have a drive-by look at, aiming once again to beat the lengthening shadows and kangaroos. 

On today's drive, the ground had become much less wet and canola was blooming everywhere.

Tonight I was staying in a conventional motel. I was alarmed to see a busload of Chinese tourists. I wasn't planning to have breakfast at the motel anyway. My consternation was at learning they would be departing at 5am. What time would they start packing and boarding the bus with how much excited chatter?

Well, as it happened, it bucketed rain from the wee small hours, blotting out the sounds of packing, and of people who would have boarded the bus in one mad dash. The rain woke me early, not the tourists!  

Ouyen to Burra - 22 Sept. 2016

Next morning, I had a quick 'slow drive around town'. Ouyen looked a nicer place than the pub had led me to expect. The mobile library was in town – parked in its own parking space. I still haven't been inside one but this truck was partly 'unpacked' so I could see through the locked glass door. Quite ingenious.

Next stop was Pinnaroo, just the other side of the Victoria / South Australia border. But there was something I was watching out for – just as well I spotted it when there was little traffic about – I wasn't doing my most appropriate driving! - and there was a safe place to stop to take the photos. My little Mazda2, 2005 model, clicked over 100,000km. It's been a trusty vehicle in spite of a challenge or two I've given it. Hopefully it will see me through another 100,000.

Once into South Australia, almost immediately I started to spot the beautiful stone houses that abound in the state. A pity so many, in the country at least, are now in ruins.

Ruins - one of so many

Pinnaroo was nothing to write home about, just a chance to walk about a bit until driving on to Loxton, a really lovely town, bustling and looking prosperous. A very helpful lady at the tourist info centre gave me a bundle of information for the following day and pointed me in the right direction to get out of town. I was heading for a lavender farm where I planned to have lunch and buy some lavender soap. Ho hum. The pizzas did look delicious but there was a busload of tourists plus others so I wasn't inspired to wait. The lavender goods on sale looked tired and as though they had come from elsewhere. Very disappointing. I did indulge my mug fetish though and bought one decorated with stalks of lavender. I need another mug like I need a hole in my head!!!

Before leaving Loxton I took a drive down by the river, another suggestion of the tourist info lady. A lovely spot for caravanners and houseboat holiday makers. But it's not always that beautiful. The river floods from time to time!

The Murray at Loxton

The Tree of Knowledge by the Murray - showing flood levels
Note 1956!

Giving the tree and the flood levels a broader perspective

So what to do for lunch? Try the winery that the lovely tourist lady at Loxton had been recommending strongly. (I did wonder if she had shares! But she was spot on in suggesting this.) 

I'm not a wine drinker but did enjoy a mini yum cha lunch on the verandah overlooking stunning wetlands at Banrock Station. You can walk about the wetlands but alas, I didn't have time for that. But I did have time to shop! Although not a wine drinker, I did buy myself some prunes in port. I'm partial to a drop of port … and tokay and muscat :-)

Vines and wetlands at Banrock Station

Shortly afterwards I crossed the Murray by ferry and not terribly long after that (well, about 170km!), I arrived at Burra, the day's destination.

Waiting for the ferry at Kingston-on-Murray

Accommodation here – Paxton Cottages, three rows of stone miners cottages, about 35 in all, now let out for holiday makers like me. I loved it! 

Paxton Cottages - one of the three rows

Inside my cottage

The cottages are basic but have all you need. Really, all that's missing are the things that various accommodation providers tizz their places up with. I wished I'd been staying there longer. Mind you, the one bedroom cottage I had was ideal for me or a couple. Back in the day I doubt it would have been a lot of fun for a miner with a wife and a horde of children!