The Coorong

The storm passed and the sun sneaked out between the clouds in time for me to take a ride around Kingston S.E. before I pushed on to the night’s campsite. The cycle way is brilliant, running parallel to the beach around Lacepede Bay for about six kilometres, then skirting the town and winding its way around each of the town’s recreation areas. Kingston S.E. is also very RV friendly, which is unusual for a seaside town, and now offers overnight free camping for self-contained vehicles. I would have stayed if I had known (I’ll have to update my book!) but I needed to travel a few more kilometres for the day. I do struggle to do more than 100kms a day – there’s so much to see and explore! So I waved to the Big Lobster as I headed out of town, and witnessed the colours of the setting sun as I pulled into my chosen freedom camp, about 25kms north towards Robe.

 Seaweed mounds on Kingston S.E. beach

Freedom camp

 

Robe is a quaint but cosmopolitan town with many scores of historic sites and buildings and is a popular luxury tourism destination, favoured also for its rock lobster. Baudin Rocks, located off shore, was the last place name applied in South Australia in 1802 by Matthew Flinders, Commander of H.M. Sloop Investigator in honor of the Commander of the French expedition, Nicolas Baudin. Robe was once a major colonial out-port, but the fall in produce prices, poor agricultural seasons and the introduction of the railway soon turned the bustling, thriving town into a quiet country village.

 Flinders and Baudin outside Customs House, Robe

Our Lady Star of the Sea, Robe

After driving through Coorong National Park beside a 140km long saline lagoon, the next stop for the day was Meningie, the northern gateway to The Coorong on the shores of Lake Albert, which has the cleanest public restrooms I have ever come across. It is also home to many pelicans (live ones) and an ostrich (a sculpture). The story goes that South Australia’s only bushranger used to get around on an ostrich, as it could make an easy getaway in the sand dunes. John Francis Peggotty half-naked and draped in stolen jewellery brandished ornate pistols at his victims until one day he was shot. Riding off into the sand hills on his trusty ostrich he was never seen again, apparently succumbing to his wounds. So if you find his remains, you may just become a very rich person.

Lake Albert, Meningie

Meningie foreshore

 

Now I’m just outside of Adelaide, staying with friends: actually they were guests of SkiLib over New Year’s Eve. Gary kindly fixed their car so they could return home from their Mt Buller holiday, and have offered in return a place to park the motorhome and give it the once over before the big trip across the Nullarbor. After a road ride into the city on a sunny penultimate autumn day, a wet and muddy mountain bike ride through Blackwood down to Flinders University was on the agenda today. Life is just one big bike ride really.

P.S. As I’m writing this, a koala is roaming up and down the eucalypt tree just outside my window.  

Water

I’m sitting in the sanctuary of Delvy waiting for the storm to pass, hoping I can get out on the bike and take a tour around Kingston S.E. (I don’t know why they still hang on to the S.E. bit – perhaps for historical purposes – but I think it’s fairly obvious that Kingston is in the south east of the state, considering how strong the wind is blowing!).
Anyway, the crossing into South Australia was an innocuous event. I was looking out for the sign, but I obviously blinked at the wrong time. However, it was a very pleasant drive from Portland to the border town of Nelson, which is situated on the Glenelg River and provides the last opportunity to stock up on supplies for the Great South West Walk before heading into the wilderness. Like all small southern coastal towns though, at this time of year there is very little activity going on. The fishing and cruising boats are all tied up at the wharf going nowhere, the camping areas are empty and the caravan parks have only a handful (if they’re lucky) of tourists, and many houses/cottages stand silent; until next summer when all hell breaks loose. I prefer this time of year; less people, less traffic and more of what the place is really like.

 

Moving on, I managed to successfully navigate my way to the visitor information centre in Mt Gambier, then moved onto the bike to have a look around. The Umpherston Sinkhole is a spectacular sunken garden, which has to be seen to be believed. The town’s water supply, the Blue Lake (the crater of an extinct volcano but looking steel grey at the moment), has extensive walking trails, a MTB track, scenic lake and city views, and plenty of picnic/BBQ areas: well worth spending some time there.

 

The chosen free camp site for the night was a few kilometres west at Tantanoola, and home to one of the most spectacular small caves I have ever seen. Discovered in 1930 by a boy who lost his ferret, tours have been conducted ever since. The cliff top walk in the Tantanoola Caves Conservation Park gives commanding views of the coast and Australia’s largest wind farm, Woakwine Range.

 

Next stop was Beachport and a ride around the beautiful Bowman Scenic Drive. Exploring by bicycle is so much easier than driving the bus around, plus it not only keeps me fit; it gives me something to do, something to fill in the hours. Strangely, no one wants to talk to you when you travel alone. It must be way too weird to see a single female driving around in a bus: you don’t see them very often I suppose. Put it this way, I haven’t seen anyone else doing it. There are plenty of ‘oldies’ in caravans, a few European backpackers in clapped-out old vans, and an increasing Asian contingent getting about in Britz campers, but no single white females. I guess they’re busy doing other things.

 

A fast ride out to Lake George (to beat the oncoming storm) on a hard packed sandy road rewarded me with hundreds of black swans noisily honking their way around the far side of the vast lake. A quick wash down of the bike and I (in my swimmers: no wonder people think I’m weird!) using the outdoor shower by the jetty, I headed off to my next overnight free campsite, overlooking Lake St. Clair on the road to Robe and Kingston S.E.

 

Portland

It was a colourful coastal sunrise to start the day before a ride on the rail trail from Port Fairy to Koirot and back. The intermittent showers didn’t deter me and I managed to be back in the shelter of Delvy before the heavy stuff came.

 

Next stop was Portland to visit Cathy and Frank, a lovely couple we met by chance when we first started travelling in Delvy nearly two years ago. Gary and I were parked alongside the road in the middle of nowhere amongst the blue and green bush near a sign called Nulla, on the Renmark Road from Wentworth, when a car pulls up and its occupants invite us back to look at an enormous old sheep station they were minding for a week or two. That’s another story, but we spent a memorable afternoon together, and now finally have taken up another invitation to visit them on the south west coast.

Portland began as a whaling and sealing town, and was the first European settlement in the Colony of Victoria. It also features one of the world’s earliest sites of indigenous settlement, that of the Gunditjmara. The volcanic landscape is stunning, with beautiful bays, beaches and cliffs, making the 250km Great South West Walk a must for any avid bushwalker. Highlights of the area include the Petrified Forest at Cape Bridgewater, which doesn’t involve any trees but the natural erosion of the stone in the ground makes it look like an old forest.

Cape Nelson is a scenic place to take a picnic and enjoy the birdlife, and short walks around the cliff top and the grounds of the lighthouse, built in 1883.

The town has many fine examples of blue stone buildings, and the busy Port of Portland has many ships coming and going. I enjoyed watching the large trucks get tipped vertical to unload the woodchips. The one kilometre long Lee Breakwater is a popular spot for land based fishing, and if you have a boat, you can join the hundreds of fishermen on the hunt for Southern Bluefin Tuna. At this time of year the foreshore is packed with 4WD’s with boat trailers attached (we estimated 400), wanting to catch their quota of two fish per person.

The Southern Ocean waters are also a year round whale watching destination, and Portland has many vantage points to see the Southern Right Whale in the winter months, and the Blue Whale during summer.

Portland is a beautiful region, and I was lucky to be shown around by some locals and enjoy their warm hospitality and friendship. Thanks Cathy and Frank. I’ll be back!

Navigational challenges

I left Kyneton around mid-morning with the intention of stopping in Ballarat for a look around. However, my best intentions came unstuck as I lost my way in the centre of town and became a nervous wreck. I never have been the best navigator (just ask Gary!), and you’d think it would not be possible to lose the yellow and blue ‘i’ sign, but I did. I managed to pull up outside the university gates at a dead end street across three empty parking spaces, at the same time that Gary decides to phone me, as he bobs around in the Indian Ocean monitoring his diving guests. “What are you doing driving through a city?”, he exclaims. “You have to put up with your own navigation now”. Thanks, and I am, and now I know how it feels to have someone navigate for you who can’t navigate. So I exited the city as gracefully as I could, pulled over at the first large rest area overlooking paddocks (sigh!), cracked open a jar of pickles and had a cup of tea. Note to self: avoid all cities. What I’ll do when I reach Adelaide I don’t know, but surely the airport can’t be too hard to find.

Back to normality and on a country road, I headed south west to Derrinallum, a small and easy to get around village: just my thing. The recreation reserve on the east end offers overnight camping for a donation, with fantastic views of Mount Elephant. And with a name like that, I just have to climb it. I organised to collect the key in the morning from Geoff at the local garage, and meanwhile, sat back and watched the Tuesday night footy practice while cooking some dinner.  

Mount Elephant was formed some 20 000 years ago and is one of the highest volcanoes in Victoria, rising 240 metres above sea level, and is the most obvious as the land all around is flat for miles. The crater rim walk takes about an hour, leading you up to the trig point then east around the rim and through the cone. The views are spectacular, but make sure you take a wind proof jacket, on any day, as it can get very blowy. Parking is in the quarry, where I spent the rest of the morning relaxing in the sunshine. I could have quite easily stayed all day (and night) but needed to return the key and push on for the coast.

After travelling on the roughest main roads I have come across for a long time (I don’t even think the Midland Highway in Tasmania is as bad!), I made it to my chosen campsite, after thanking the GPS for by-passing Warrnambool. It was perfect weather for a quick spin on my bike from Killarney Beach Recreation Reserve into Port Fairy for a look around, and the sight and smell of the blue Southern Ocean was uplifting.

It’s been a big 36 hours: early night tonight.

Mt Elephant crater 

 Derrinallum Recreational Reserve

 View towards South East

 Mt Elephant entrance gate

 Quarry

 Township of Derrinallum

Volcanic farmland

Killarney Beach with Port Fairy headland in background

Autumn

Autumn is the best time of year. Well I think so anyway! Perfect weather for anything, particularly bike riding: cool air with little wind, clear skies and lots of autumn colour to give it the wow factor.

 Campaspe River, Kyneton

 Delvy beside the Kyneton Botanical Gardens

 Mineral Springs rest area

Kyneton Botanical Gardens

 

It's also a good time to make green tomato pickles, and lots of them! I think I will rename Delvy the Pickle Bus.

There's plenty more riding to be done in and around Kyneton, but I have certainly pedalled a few kilometres since I have been here. Thanks Steve for being tour guide!

It's time to jump back into Delvy tomorrow and head south west. Thanks Steve, Alex, Barbara and John for your wonderful hospitality. See you in the Spring!

A weekend in and around Kyneton

A rainy Saturday in Kyneton didn't deter us from hopping on the bikes and pedalling to the monthly Farmers Markets, followed by croissants and coffee (tea for me!) at Monsieur Pierre.

Steve and I then tackled Mt Macedon (elevation 615 metres) and the Memorial Cross, a 54 kilometre ride from Gisborne to Kyneton. For the cycling enthusiasts, click here for more details. The weather was fine until we neared the top, but by then I was so drenched in sweat that a passing shower wasn't really an issue. The colours of autumn made this a spectacular ride, plus it was a lot of fun going down the other side!

 Mt Macedon in the background.

To finish off the weekend the sun came out, so a leisurely flat 26km return ride to Malmsbury for a Mother's Day morning tea was in order. There were the usual sheep, cattle and horses grazing in the paddocks, so we were most amused to see a camel or three along the way.

Mt Buller to Kyneton

Closing the door behind me for the last time at SkiLib ends another summer season of mountain biking on Mt Buller. It's a beautiful sunny day as I drive down the hill to Merrijig where Delvy is waiting. It takes me longer than anticipated to transfer all the gear from the Subaru to the bus; clothes, bikes and gear, some food. What more does one need really? Engine checks reveal a fair bit of water is required in the radiator so I contact my mobile mechanic (Gary, husband in W.A) to keep him aware of the situation. I eventually leave Ted and Jen's place around 11am and head to Mansfield to fuel up. Feeling a little daunted, I soon start to relax a little as I listen to the soothing tunes of Cam Tapp and head towards the Macedon Ranges.
It's much easier to have a co-pilot when driving a heavy vehicle; someone to pass you a drink or snack, change the music, adjust the interior temperature, and provide general commentary on the passing scenery. Still, I manage to get by without running off the road, and take in the vistas of freshly greened farming land scattered with cattle and sheep, and the many galahs and parrots grazing along the roadside edges. The tail end of autumn is still providing splashes of red, orange and yellow in contrast with the dusty green leaves of large eucalypts.

It was nice to be greeted by a friendly face and a hot cup of tea in Kyneton, after my first big drive without my traveling buddy! I'm looking forward to spending time exploring the area on the bikes with Steve & Alex, as well as popping into the big city on the train for a day or two. All a bit of a novelty after living on top of a mountain for six months! Best rummage around for some town clothes.

Mt Buller to Coral Bay

With a couple of days to go, I am thankful the sun is shining as I pack up the last of the gear to take down the mountain to where the motorhome is waiting. With 4885 kilometres to travel from Mt Buller, Victoria to Coral Bay, W.A. to reunite with my husband, you can follow the Adventures of Delvy here. It's time to leave the snow gums behind and head for the azure waters of the west.

Planned route from Mt Buller to Coral Bay