Heading home

All good things have to come to an end and Sue and Keith's trip to Australia was almost at an end so we had to part company - they to WA to daughter Bourby where they would pack their big suitcases in readiness for their trip back to the UK; and us back to sunny Queensland.
Before we parted company we visited the shops in Gisborne (where Bob and Kathy live) and Sue was able to find herself a couple of cuddly souvenirs.

Surprisingly the souvenirs Sue found were actually made here in Australia! It is getting more and more difficult to find souvenirs that are affordable that are made in the country you visit! More often than not they are made in China.
Sue and Keith were dropped unceremoniously at the airport and fast and furious goodbyes were said, Colin and I packed our cases and left in our clean red Corolla the following morning.
Not too many photographs were taken on our homeward trek. We seemed to be more intent on "getting home" than on wandering from the direct route. However the sight of a landlocked submarine in the middle of New South Wales did encourage us to take an unscheduled break!

The town name Holbrook was in honour of a highly decorated submarine captain who lived there and the towns people bought the shell of the submarine "Otway" after it had been decommissioned. More can be found out about the place by doing a Google search for "Holbrook submarine"

One very small detour off the Hume highway was made so that I could take a couple of photos of the Dog on the Tuckerbox. there is a famous Aussie song about this dog. The first statue was very different from the present one, I have included both dogs so you can see the difference!

The first dog was nine miles from Gundagai and the newer dog on the tuckerbox is five miles from Gundagai - so that it is closer to the town and to the highway.
The sight of a bank of wind generators brought the camera up to the eye again - this time to Colin''s eye! There has been a lot of reporting in the press about how these wind turbines are causing illnesses among the people who live close to them. We were not close enough to hear them but they certainly look very impressive high on the hilltop.

We booked in for the night at Goulburn, we turned of the highway and came face to face with a mighty Merino sheep! The sun was sinking by this time so it looked very striking in the golden glow of evening.

We had made the choice to drive via the coast road rather than struggle with the flooded roads of the inland so we took the M7 to bypass Sydney and joined the Pacific Highway (which bypasses just about every city on the east coast!) It was an easy and fast run with the allowable speed 110 kph for much of the way. We were amused at the "koala crossing" overhead near Newcastle. I wonder how many koalas cross the road on these aerial bridges!

You can see the inward leaning fences that prevent the animals from climbing over the top of them, on the left. I guess they have to climb lots of different trees to find the one that has the road bridge attached! What a strange idea!
I love bridges too, so when we drove over an opening bridge (one time I did see it open) out came the camera again.

This time Colin was driving so I could take the picture myself! We drove and drove until we reached home - we crawled into the garage at eight in the evening - just as our son arrived home with his tour bus. Next morning, before he left I noticed that the tree at the end of our drive way was reflected in the windows of the coach.

I couldn't really let you see the red car - it was smothered with yellow bugs! Its good to be home - but now I will have to keep busy to keep the blog alive!
AJ

Hanging Rock and Maceton hills

Kathy had taken a day off work so she could have some time with us (Sue, Keith, Colin and me) so in two cars with Bob driving one and me the other, we drove out to enjoy the sights around Gisborne. Firstly we stopped briefly in front of the house in which Bob and Kathy used to live and then drove through some beautiful mountainous lanes with huge trees and flowering agapanthus (blue and white) decorating the sides of the roads, until we reached a restaurant at the top of Mount Macedon. A walk from the restaurant led to a mighty cross that towered above the trees and overlooked the amazing view over the valley below.

The gardens leading up to the cross were planted with hydrangeas and these were the strongest blue that we had ever seen on this plant.

 The avenue leading to the Cross

Hydrangeas range from white through to pink, to purple and to blue, depending on the alkalinity or acidity of the soil.

 Keith capturing the blues of the Hydgrangea

On one side of the gigantic cross was embedded a huge bronze sword. Having taken a couple of photos from the approach to the cross I almost didn’t look up when I reached the other side so I almost missed seeing it.

After our walk we undid all the good we had done by eating two of the largest scones with jam and cream that we had ever had! Of course it was necessary to have a little more exercise to make things right again so we drove on to “Hanging Rock” – the same place that was the inspiration for the book and movie “Picnic at Hanging Rock”. Once there we really had some exercise! The sun had come out so it was a lot warmer – the morning was cool enough for jackets. The scenery was stunning. I enjoyed walking up the steep steps and taking photographs of the amazing rock formations.

 We all have different degrees of fitness so it was only Sue, Keith and me who reached the “Summit” and the “Eagle” – Colin and Kathy made it as far as the “Hanging Rock”

before returning to the café at the base of the outcrop to order iced coffees for everyone.

 This is the formation known as "Hanging Rock"

The views from the top were spectacular between the rocks. It was well worth the extra exertion! 

 Here is another view in a different direction.

The grass is rather brown at this time of year (summer) so these same view would look so different in three months time when all is green and lush.

AJ

Tent city to rich city

Before leaving Swan Hill and our beautiful and gaudy purple motel There just had to be a few photos of the Town.

 The purple motel

We wanted to see the Pioneer Settlement down by the river, the entrance used to be through the old paddle-steamer “Gem”. The entrance has been moved – and as a result the old timber vessel may last a bit longer – but the Gem is such an unusual water craft by the standard of today that I enjoyed the opportunity to take a few shots of it while there were no people around.

 a former Murray River paddlesteamer

Unfortunately the cost of entering this tourist village was rather exorbitant and since we only had an hour in which we could take a look through we decided that we would rather drive on to Bendigo and spend a bit of time there instead. It was a little disappointing at the time (not to go around the Pioneer Settlement) but as it turned out we were able to take a tram tour around Bendigo and still not be too late getting to my brother’s home near Melbourne.

I asked our tram driver to pose beside the 1914 tram that he was going to drive.

 Our tram driver in authentic uniform

We started out in a tram that was much younger than this and when we pulled into the tram depot all the passengers were asked to dismount and transfer to this timber lined tram.

 The timber interior of the 1914 tram

Our trip on the tram took us past a few of the things we had walked around on foot. We passed the Golden Dragon Museum that houses the Chinese dragons that are used in parades for Chinese New Year.

We saw the wonderful ornately decorated roofs of the temples and pagodas in the grounds of the Golden Dragon Museum.

The tram journey took us past many early timber buildings and it was slow enough to stand up and take photographs out of the open windows.

Bendigo grew because of the gold fields of the 1850’s, many of the poppet heads from those days have been preserved and some of the mines are open for tourists.

The Deborah Mine, which is also the start of the tram tour, has many levels of mine underground and it is possible to spend half a day on a tour with an experienced guide, exploring the nine levels of tunnels and shafts.

I think a quick look into one tunnel might be interesting, I am not sure if I could get pleasure from spending several hours in a tunnel!

AJ

Back to the farm

Although today’s journey was not a long road trip as Australian road trips go, it took from 7.30 am until 5.30pm to get from Adelaide to Swan Hill. We found so many things to stop and take photos of! At the border between South Australia and Victoria in a town that has shrunk almost to a ghost town we noticed a fantastic mural on the wall of a now empty row of shops. The mural is three dimensional.

Can you see how the farm equipment continues into the painting?

When we walked across the road to the picnic tables we looked down and noticed that they were inlaid with colourful tiles that had been made to commemorate businesses and clubs in the town – the town of Pinaroo.

Above our heads was a clock – but not just any old clock, this was different to any that we had seen before. This was a war memorial clock.

At Ouyen, some kilometers further along we found many more things of interest including more murals. I include a photo of one of the sign boards to show you where we were!

Helpful?

Rather than continue showing the town’s artwork I will instead share a wonderful sight that was perfectly natural.

There must have been very strong winds way up high because we were all fascinated by the patterns of the high level clouds and all of us could not help but aim our cameras upward! That shot is only one of many and each is very different from the other.

And then we drove past our old farm. Some things do not change – this is the road past the entrance to the farm.

Yes, that is a salt lake - some days it is bright pink, today it was glistening white.

Now for a couple of shots of the land – wide open spaces with very little timber.

When we were farming we ran sheep as well as grew grain crops but there is now a dreadful weed/grass that has a seed with multiple barbed spikes all over it that cling to anything that touches it. Shearers would need leather leggings to be able to shear sheep raised here so it looks as if this is no longer sheep country. We saw no sheep.

Finally I am showing a photograph that shows the nature of the soil we were farming – it is fine and it can blow in drifts. Farming methods have changed since our time here and it looks as if they have overcome the problem of the paddocks blowing away in every puff of wind – but when we were farming every hill looked like this (this shot was taken on the side of a minor road near the farm). 

My memories of life on the farm was that  every mouthful of food felt as if it was sprinkled with sand. I am glad we live where we live now!

AJ

Adelaide City sights

After exploring the countryside around Adelaide over the weekend, today was spent in the city – not shopping but checking out the sights! After tucking the car away in a multi story car park (which cost us an arm and a leg) we sauntered across the road to the Museum. Since it was a few minutes too early for the doors to open we wandered around taking photos of the buildings and statues.

A water feature held our attention for a few minutes, the strange shapes, we found out, are supposed to represent segments of back bone of a whale.

The Adelaide Museum has a wonderful collection of Aboriginal artifacts; I was amazed at a small piece of almost decayed bent twig which was the oldest boomerang that had ever been found. It looked to be too small and light to have been of much use as a throwing stick and yet that is what it was. How the finder knew that it was an ancient tool and not just a very old piece of branch, I really do not know! A collection of decorated shields made for a good photograph – no flashes were permitted so this was the best I could do without a tripod.

Leaving the museum we walked down to see the river, on the way passing the Immigration Museum. We popped in for a very quick visit, I found the plaques on the wall that commemorated the movement of many different people from many different countries of far more interest than the stuff inside the rooms. The bronze statue of a family on the move was in the courtyard and of course fell victim to my camera!

Across the river was St Peter’s Cathedral. Since Adelaide is the city of churches I really wanted to visit at least on of the places of religion before we left.  It really is a beautiful building – and the inside is magnificent too. The organist was practicing some dramatic piece of music that shook the stone pillars with its deep and loud sounds! Colin had to leave because the sound was too much for him! There are some amazing stained glass windows too and I managed to take a couple of shots of them by resting the camera on the pews. This photograph of the Cathedral was taken as I walked from the river towards it.

Before returning to the car we had to take a walk through the Rundle Mall – the heart of the city where local shoppers and curious tourists mingle. We had refreshments in an island coffee shop (like a tent in the middle of the Mall) I had a mixed berry smoothie – I had never had a smoothie before and it was quite delicious!

My final photo for the day was taken in the Mall of one of the many street sculptures – there were four pigs but this one appealed to me the most!

Tomorrow we pack our cases and leave South Australia. We are taking my sister and her husband due east so they can see where we used to have our farm. We shall nor go into the farm – we haven’t made contact with the present owner and we don’t really have time to anyway. However we can give a reasonable idea of what the size of the land was just by driving around.

AJ

The Barossa

Umbrellas were loaded into the car – the forecast was not particularly good. However we didn’t need them. Today we drove to the Barossa Valley and we were not disappointed in what we found.

Our first port of call was the Yaldara winery – but it has changed hands and changed name. since it was coffee time when we arrived we made use of the picnic table outside the grand building and opened the flask of hot water.

The scenery in the Barossa Valley is stunning and we found ourselves stopping often to take photographs of the grapes and of the vistas.

Many of the grapes still have not been picked so the vines are covered with green leaves, the grapes are not so obvious from the road but the lines of vines make for many “wow” moments as you drive around.

One place I really wanted to visit was the Chateau Barrosa – a beautiful building with a huge rose garden. I remembered it from a previous visit. The place has changed hands twice since then the most recent change of ownership was only a few weeks ago. The place was a bit of a disappointment, the roses were no where near as magnificent – in fact they looked in desperate need of a rose expert, the pruning was all wrong and they looked very puny and small and a lot of bare patches where once there had been magnificent displays.

I managed to find a place where there were plenty of roses in bloom. I prefer to show something good!

Inside the Chateau the grand ballroom that was filled with antiques is still as magnificent with its huge chandeliers but since Sue and Keith were not interested in going in to have a look ($10 a head) none of us did.

A fascinating place we did find was a Sculpture Park. This is similar to the one at Broken Hill – but is a bit older (2008) and contains many more sculptures. The rock brought in for this Sculpture Symposium was a lot softer than that for the Broken Hill sculptures so there was a better finish to the works.

 Of course the majority of the sculptures were abstract but I did find a couple that were recognizable!

The Sculpture Park is high on a hill right beside a wonderful viewpoint. From here we could look out over the expanse of vines and farming land. It is a pity that the signage and maps are so inadequate – many people will miss out on finding many of the interesting place in this area because of that.

AJ

An unusual town

The little red car knew we had more passengers as it strained to climb the hills. I wasn’t able to fly today! Our day began in Hahndorf, a delightful little town that began as a home for German immigrants and was named after the captain of the ship that brought them to this fertile farming land. The town shed its German name, customs and language in the time of the first world war – there was so much ill feeling about the reliability of German Australians at that time. The name was restored many years later – but to learn about the fascinating history of the place you would need to do your own research!

We discovered a fascinating little place – actually, not as small as I expected, and every quaint building on the main street housed a shop that was worth walking into. There are lots of eating places too and there wasn’t a moment during the hours we spent there that we didn’t see a crowd of people eating and drinking!

Sue and Keith were tempted by a young lady offering free samples of strawberries. We bought a punnet of them to have for lunch.

 There was a sign for the Saturday Hahndoft market so we dropped in for a look.

It is always fun to look at the stalls – half of which were selling jewellery – and my eye was caught by the sight of a vegetable stall. Of course, vegetable stalls are a common sight at a market – but this one had multi-coloured carrots for sale! I was given a taste of them – four different coloured carrots had thin slices cut from them. I tasted the yellow and the purple and was so surprised to find that they tasted exactly the same and both of them tasted like . . . . carrot!

I just have to show you the fun that someone had with topiary. The sight of these two trees caught my eye! Aren’t they funny!

I wanted to kidnap these characters in the following photo. I think they would look terrific on my front lawn. Knowing the Gold Coast, I think I would have to anchor them to the ground or they would disappear one night! But they would look good!

The countryside around Hahndorf is a delight too. We had a wonderful drive around and even visited the Big Rocking Horse and toy factory. But that is another story!

AJ