THE TRIP

Long, is the one word discription of our trip to SA (half way across Australia).  The constrasts were huge, the people friendly (although pretty simple in a couple of take away places in Mt Barker).  The people we went to see and meet were great though which made up for a few hiccups in the trip. 

First stop was Warrnambool.  We attended a home educators camp at a camp ground open to the public.  We were only there for 4 days/3 nights of the 7 days available.  We did enjoy this area immensely and hope to do it again next year.  The down side was needing to get a new tyre for the van as one was stuffed.

Warrnambool is green, very green and the weather was really nice, not too hot then cooler at night.  I don't really like the beach, don't do salt swimming but I do enjoy walking along the beach and fossicking..

We found a few cuttle fish bones for various friends with birds..they were pretty happy with that..

They have really set up this area for walking, cycling or skating. There is a boardwalk right around the bay and a playground park just across the road with little boats for hire.  The kids had a ball..

Then it was on the road again.  This was the longest leg of our journey.  It took over 14 hrs and 1100+km.  From Warrnambool up the state and over to Kimba, half way across Australia.

There were a lot of roads like this..

There are heaps of roads like this in SA....very different to other places I have been so far.

There are some wind farms along the route too!  Some people don't like them and protested them going up as they were an eye sore.

But personally, I love them.  They look surreal and majestic.  I don't know why but they remind me of the sound used in War of the Worlds (the original soundtrack), OOOHHH WAAHHHH...

We did have to stop along the way for various toilet and food stops.  We were driving down a road boardered by pine plantation and stopped at a rest stop..I thought there were flush toilets there..but apparently not..lol...(thank goodness I didn't need to go)

 

Most other cities have some kind of bypass for travelers and trucks passing through...apparently this concept hasn't quite hit one of the largest cities in Australia...

This was one of the last pics I took before dark set in..It is the tunnel on the road coming into Adelaide.

The rest of the trip to Kimba was pretty much in the dark and after 10 hrs on the road we were all pretty buggered and not particularly interested in taking photos..

We had been warned to watch out for kangaroo's on the road between Iron Knob and Kimba but thankfully we only saw one on the side of the road and that was before the turn off.

The next morning, I sent the kids out with the camera to take photos of the big thing the locals probably cringe about everytime they see it.

The very large Galah which to be honest, is a bit of an eyesore.

This is my friends B&B house that she kindly let us use while staying in the area.

It's not flash, it's comfortable and pretty typical of the houses in the area.  I think it's about 80 years old and much nicer than a tent with 7 kids.

Later the first morning my friend came around and we followed her back to her farm.  They have 2400acres about 15km out of Kimba. 

Her driveway is 1.5km long...

They dont' do much of anything small in this part of the world.

This is the front paddock...

it's around 300acres...

I think the nature of the land demands that you do things on a larger scale.  The best and most reliable stock feed is a shrub called salt bush.  The light grey bush in the above photo is one.

My friends kids are quite involved in show jumping and anything horsey is one of my great loves..oh to have a bigger back yard....

We visited the horses in their huge paddock...these guys are either resting or retired.

Aren't they beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the days in the area we did a 288km round trip to watch my friends lovely eldest daughter compete in a local show.  It wasn't a big affair but it was a lovely day with good friends..

This is Total Rush, affectionately known as Smack.  He's a naughty boy and my personal favourite.  He is the upcoming horse of the pair..

And this is Mowglii, the 'A' horse, he is a lovely gentleman..

He's a beautiful boy and a crackin good jumper too!!!!

It takes guts to jump this size of jumps, Mowglii jumps at least 1.4m before he even starts trying,  Karla, I am in awe!!

You can't get away from the wildlife in this country.  If it's not Kangaroos or foxes on the road, it's silly Galah's and lizards..  It's never dull, that is for real. 

I was here mostly for a total fibre type fix so the kids had to find something to do where they could.  They started a great lizard hunt..with great results.

The locals call this a Sleepy Lizard, mostly as it's sleeps (or warms up) on the road and don't really move too quickly.  To a reptile person, it is a Shingleback.

Q found this beauty in the back yard.  They mate for life so you should never remove an adult from it's local haunt.  We let him go..

There is also lots of birds, Bearded Dragons, ants and mice(mice OMG, the mice, they're heading for a plague up there this winter, the kids had a ball setting mouse traps and then feeding the catch to the meat ants...gross to us but fantastic kid entertainment).  With all that food of course there is quite likely snakes so the kids were under strict instructions that if it didn't have legs they were to give it a very wide berth.

Can't have a trip to the farm without at least one pic of the sheep.  These are English Leicesters and had been sold so were in the yard close to the house.

So after a good 10 days of fibre luxury we were off toward home again.  Stopping for 3 days in a burb just out of Adelaide to have a stall at the Mt Barker Show.

So more travel pics...it was dark when we passed through here the first time.

Looks like one of the other pics don't it....nup it's not...

The sun was in the wrong place so pics of Iron Knob weren't very good, I did manage one of the end..

I'm not sure but I think this entire hill is basically tailings from the mine...

Then came the Grampians, these are the hills on the other side of Adelaide..

Driving up the Adelaide hills on the other side of the city from this pic above, I almost missed this photo op...I did however get it and I think it may be the only pic of it.  By the time the news crews got there the fire was out...

This truck caught alight going up the hill..the driver had gotten out and it was pretty dangerous looking.

As usual people were rubber necking...

We went to a camp ground close to the show where I was having a stall..It was pretty much a freak show...some odd people live in these places..

The show wasn't overly big but we all did ok the first day.

Here is a pic of our stall..

I had my fibre to spin, stitch markers etc, my partners were Moseley Wool, with her  yarns and SpinningWoodie with his beautifully made wooden drop spindles and other lovely stuff!!!

The second day was cursed by rain so people came, looked, but didn't buy.  We were told to pack up at 3.30pm so when hubs came to pick me up we decided to drop the tent (which was soaked through from the rain) and head home.  It was a 9 hour drive but all the kids were pretty keen to get home again after 14 days away.

The trip home was plagued by drizzling rain and mice running across the road.  I have never seen so many mice in my life..  The grain regions are heading for a big mouse plague this year so I hope they are pre-empting the problem..