Darwin 2011

Wow, today is the final day in our 6 week journey and I can say that I’m looking forward to home! For those that have been faithfully reading my blogg, thanks for your feedback and comments along the way. I initially wrote this as a record of what we did and when. I didn’t really take it to serious at first however I can say that I have really enjoyed recounting the day’s events and embellishing it wherever I could.
For those that are wondering where the URL Bubblelips comes from, it's from a children’s book: Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, by David Pilkey. The storyline is that the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names by the use of a code. The ‘code’ is then used to work out your new name. Essentially Smith = Bubblelips hence we used it for our URL.
Some stats from the trip…
We’ve covered 11562.5 Kilometres in 42 days and I won't add up the fuel cost! I’ve had over 2400 views of my blogg and my highest ranking day is Day 7 & 20, with 199 views. I’ve now written over 20 pages totaling more than 13000 words which makes it my longest essay ever!
We’ve taken a couple thousand photo’s and met lots of really interesting people and shared fascinating stories along the way.
Our most expensive night was $68 at Alice Springs and the least expensive was Winton at $33. Ironically, the best ‘inhouse’ entertainment was at Winton!
The family best and worst from the trip:
Best Thing:
Madi – Mount Isa park
Lisa – Jumping Croc’s
Ashlee – Jumping Croc’s
Bernard – Palm Valley!
Gemma – Climbing Ayers Rock
Worst thing: we’re unanimous on this one… the 11500 kilometres in the car!
4:30pm and we’re home! The house is cold but nothing central heating can’t fix and the thought of my own bed is very warming. Thankyou for providing me the inspiration to write and I look forward to sharing the next Bubblelips adventure!!

Cheers!

It has been cold for the past couple of days, but today it's a clear blue sky and although not particularly warm, it's great to see the sun again. We left Renmark around 9 am and hit the road. The road from Renmark to Mildura (130 km’s) is dead straight. I wrote a few days ago about straight roads, but this is straight straight, not just straight! We bypassed Mildura and Redcliffs to avoid the slow speed zones and stopped at Ouyen for lunch. I’ve passed through Ouyen many times although I’ve never actually stopped in the main centre (off the highway). Ouyen is quite a busy little place at lunch on a Thursday. There were plenty of people in the street and the café’s were full. Maybe it was one out of the box, but there seemed to be vibrancy about the small country town. We followed up lunch with a sample of the famous Ouyen Vanilla Slice from the bakery. I can recommend their famous ‘Snot Block’ – very yummy.

We decided to head to Horsham a few days back and leave the van there for the next couple of weeks. We have some family commitments that we’ll use it for and the detour to Horsham is only an extra 30 kilometres.

We arrived at Megan’s (Lisa’s Sister’s) at around 3:30, having lost ½ hr in the time zone change from Central Australia.
The kids were quickly out of the car to see their Aunty and Cousins, but to their surprise Kessia was not home. We chatted for a while about the trip and around 5 did a short ½ hr drive out to Chris (my cousin) and Annette’s to pick Kessia up from Laura’s Birthday Party(13). It was good to catch up with Chris and family briefly, and then back to Megan’s to enjoy her inspirational cuisine for Dinner!

The Paringa Bridge across the Murray opens twice a day (if there are bookings) and Doug has at least one booking so we’re all going down to see it. The Paringa suspension bridge was opened on October 31, 1927. It’s mostly steel riveted sections and the full span of the bridge is approximately 100 metres. It has a section around 15 metres wide on the Paringa side that lifts to allow boats to pass under. It’s amazing that after 84 years and substantially bigger and heavier trucks and cars that it’s still in operation. We watched Doug raise the bridge section and 2 house boats passed under, one in each direction. The traffic are now stopped via traffic lights and kept back around 50 metres from each end of the bridge. This is a recent upgrade where the traffic is no longer allowed to stop on the bridge. There is very little room each side of the railing with around half a metre each side of a B-Double truck.
It’s been quite cold here today, so we came back to the van and veg’d out with the heater on. Mid afternoon we took a drive around Renmark and went to Ruston’s Roses. They have a small collection of restored vehicles and a nice café where we enjoyed hot chocolates and a warm by the fire. We took a drive around Renmark suburbia (if there’s such a thing) and had dinner at the van.

It was a slow start to the day, today. We’re nearing the end of this journey and we’re trying to savour every last drop although the temperature is not particularly favorable today at 13 degrees.
We took in the Renmark sights and went to the Tourist info centre. They have a paddle steamer here, so we went aboard and checked it out.
In the afternoon, the kids caught up on their journals and played tennis at the park. Late afternoon, we drove across the mighty Murray to Doug and Cheryl Head’s (Lisa’s Aunty). They manage house boats here and have a house right on the river. Yes right on the river! It would only be 10 metres to the water, although it’s currently being demolished to build a new one. Lisa and I last visited them in 1994, when Dave and Kylie got married in Mildura. It’s changed a bit as they now freehold the land. They previously had an end of life lease on the property, but thanks to an SA liberal government, they converted it to a freehold around 8 years ago.
Doug is also the bridge master, so we’ll go back at 9:30 tomorrow to watch the bridge being raised so boats can pass under. There are 2 very close locks here so the water level is maintained at a constant level.

We packed up and said farewell to the Shultz’s. They will also leave Port Augusta today and travel via Port Lincoln back to Perth.
We took a look around Port Augusta, visiting the Wharf, the Visitors centre and took a drive around the suburbs. It’s quite a pretty town with the Southern part of the Flinders Ranges providing backdrop.
We travelled down the Eyre Hwy and turned off just after Port Pirie to Crystal Brook. Crystal Brook is a very nice little town, and just driving through we got the sense it is a strong community. It would be good to spend some time there to take in the sights, but not this trip. From here we travelled through what looks to be very good cropping country at the top of the Clare Valley. The crops are all in and looking great. It seems to be fairly closely populated with farm houses, so it would seem to be productive land. Gulnarre is only a small town of 20 or 30 houses, but it also has a great feel and looks to be well maintained and a strong community sense. As we left here we passed through some quiet hilly country to Burra. This is marginal land and runs into what is typically South Australia with scattered limestone (or perhaps Grass Flat!?!) in the paddocks. We stopped at Burra for lunch. From Burra through to Morgan is really flat and poor quality land. Most of it is covered with scattered trees that look like they badly need water and a low growing salt bush (or possibly Tagasaste) around knee to hip height. It was flat, boring and the road was dead straight in parts.

We arrived at Morgan around 4:30 and stopped to have a ‘play’ at the world famous kids play ground. Lisa has childhood memories of playing there, but unfortunately due to legal liability issues, most of the once very popular playground pieces have been removed (1992). The history to this free park is that a local steel fabricator made lots of weird and wonderful creations that kids of all generations enjoyed for around 30 years. There is a tarzan swing and 2 giant swings that remain, but the rest have been scrapped.
We moved on after the big kids had finished their play time and arrived at the Renmark Big4 which is a great park. We have a site right on the river and the water is only ~15 metres from the front of the van.

Yes AussieBugger, but Richmond station is a long way from Coober Pedy.