Tastes Salty

Woke early and headed into town to get some supplies...Mt Ives has no extra supplies for us, merely a bed.

After the normal frisson between husband and wife surrounding packing etiquette we headed west. We stopped at Iron Knob, though we took no photos. The mine tours were not on so we visited the Iron Knob Museum. It was run by  a lady who had retired to Iron Knob after she and her husband gave up their sheep property.Yep surprised us too. She put on a video and pointed out the highlights. Basically they had a mountain of iron and now it is mostly a hole. It has been started up again by that Indian rich Gupta family. We purchased a couple of industrial machinery postcards for Dom and Theo, posted them at the post office and used the facilities...tastefully labelled Dunnies by the locals. If I get a chance I will post the iphone photo.

SO a couple of hundred metres out of Iron Knob we took the outback road. It seemed fine but I dropped the tyre pressure to 30kpi anyway and off we set through the salt bush country. As always there is the odd character in the bush who decides to liven things up.

It was very and cold so we did not exit the car much even though there appeared to be some decent wildflowers. However we did stop at a dry creek bed where Marjan added to her rock collection and joy of joys we spotted Sturt Desert Pea. We had never seen one in the wild and finding this little clump was the highlight of our morning.

And where there are flowers....there are bugs

We managed the road fairly well, it was a little rocky but not too bad and we could get around 70kph. We had traversed some different arid country with passages of casuarina, others of salt bush, others of lowish scrub. We were now in country surrounded by lowish, reddish hills: The Gawler Ranges. Turned left at the submarine and we were at Mt Ives. The young Scottish lass gave us instructions and keys and we checked out our Stone Room accommodation. Quaint. We share bathroom and kitchen facilities with the shearers....who aren't here as they are NOT shearing.

Anyway a quick bite to eat and off we headed. Firstly we headed to a Rhyolite formation called the organ pipes. Tough roads in made up mostly of red rocks. Much like the Organ Pipes on the Calder Highway but Rhyolite rather than basalt. Really beautiful views down the valley and the reds were stunning. It was a shame it was not sunny. We did get the odd bit of sun and we did spot the odd wildflower.

Next we headed down to Lake Gairdner. It is the third largest salt lake after Eyre and Torrens. It actually had water in it. Not much by the look. It appeared very shallow and the edges very salty with crystal salt encrusting the Rhyolite rocks around the edge. The crystals were quite hard and difficult to get off.  Yes I tasted some and yes it was salty. I am not planning on dying from it.

Finally we made a trip to the wombat holes. An area where wombats have taken over. Quite impressive holes.

All these trip were on private roads on Mt Ive station.

We finally headed back. Opened a Grencahe and some olives and sat outside our stone hut after an enjoyable day. Yes it was cold....yes Marjan is wearing her sleeping bag coat.

A Jesuit's Retreat

So, a leisurely morning....partially because we were woken by some rude guests late last night, and partially because it was raining reasonably heavily when we woke up. That meant that I checked out the news for the first time......OMG. NK exploding H bombs and snow in Melbourne! We were consumed with worry.

What do we do? We asked ourselves. Let's go to a winery and at least have enough plonk to die happy we answered. So the decision that had been long delayed: a route from Adelaide to Port Augusta was finally made: The road through the Clare Valley.

So off we set with fear and trepidation in our hearts and the sonnets of William S sung by Paul K on our stereo.

The road out was quite busy and it took us an hour to break free of the last of the Adelaide traffic. That is the last we will see of traffic till we skirt Adelaide on the way back.

When we finally got away from Adelaide we were in South Australian wheat country. Beautiful gently undulating plain a patchwork of bright green (wheat) , dark green (field peas?) and yellow (canola). With the rain cleared sky, it was beautiful.

It is interesting how you suddenly lose th plains as you enter the Clare Valley and the crops give way to cattle, sheep and vineyards.

At any rate we stopped off at Seven Hills Winery. It is a Jesuit establishment, the first winery in the Clare, I believe. We figured if we drank and prayed we would be OK when the nuclear winter came. They have quite an amazing church up in the hills and some lovely ruins. Apart from the cold wind and the odd shower we had a lovely time and brought away some of their Riesling.

We then headed to Kilikanoon. We missed this the last time through as we arrived too early. Today we arrived just a hail storm hit. We could barely see the vines as we drove in, so no piccies of the very pretty vineyard. Though I did see the signs of Spring. We bought some more Riesling, but they also did nice things with Grenache so we also had a couple of Roses and a plain Grenache red.

Lunch at Clare...can you believe at the same place we ate last time around......we are boring.  We decided the Riseling sophistication required some jazzier music so Dave Brubeck was enlisted. Nice. Is Take Five not the most NY lounge song ever?

Then the, we were warned, boring drive to Port Augusta.....where we are booked in to the same place as last time........incorrigible.

Not much to look at. The towns were pretty but very quiet. We liked the Yacka Institute.

We had a slight scare on the way when the wine and sun saw me veering towards an oncoming road train on A1. Not close enough for real danger but enough to decide to pep up the NY jazz with a little more energy......Dolly Parton was Marjan's choice. I had to put up with it as she had OKed the jazz.

So this will be the last you read for a while. I will continue writing, but we are into outback country tomorrow. Mt Ive Station does not offer wifi for it's guests, and I am not too sure about the next couple of places either. In fact it will be patchy for the remaining part of the trip.

Fair Suck of the Sav

So we woke Melbourne time which is very early in Adelaide. It had rained a bit overnight and I sent off an email to check that some of the outback roads were still open before we headed out for a walk.

Back to our favourite building for a bit, well mine maybe......

Then on to check that all the sleaze had been cleaned up on Hindley St. Even the cheap no name stuff. We also bumped into 'Strike Me Lucky' Mo'. Fair suck of the sav!

On Through Rundle Mall and on and on. As we wandered along the mall we were approached by an almost middle-aged gent asking if we had some loose change as he was having car trouble. We really did not have any loose change, so he suggested some small notes, we again had none of those and we walked on before he asked for a fifty.

One highlight was the best lolly shop we have seen for along time. Almost missed it tucked away in a small laneway.

We walked for about 90 minutes checking out the city.

A couple of quick impressions. Either Adelaide is:

• very small; or
• very learned.

In our 90 minutes we passed University of SA, University of Adelaide, Flinders University, SA Tafe, SA College of the Arts as well as many private colleges. We also passed many Crispy Kremes.......all them books make you peckish.

Adelaide still has a lot of older, smaller, charming buildings. I hope they keep them.

Also some odd artwork.....

There were a lot of buildings with the word Polites as a sign on the them. We wondered about this. We found out later it was the name of the building's owner a certain Con Polites a local real estate tycoon.

Eventually our feet wore out and our bladders filled and we went back to our hotel and used the fluid facilities. 

Then straight back out to drive to Port Adelaide. We went to the Fisherman's Wharf market. Apparently it has been there for many years. A real treasure trove of all sorts of stuff. I particularly liked the fathers day signs in Adelaide footy team colours (one for the Crows on for the Power). Marjan found a lovely old gent with a chaotic book store who also sold Sunbeam Mixmaster beaters. We bought up, on the advice that if they did not fit we could come back and exchange them. He was quite serious and I have no doubt if we did return he would live up to his word.

So after the market we wandered around Port Adelaide for a while. Again lots of lovely old buildings....and some stunning wall art work.

After getting drenched in a passing shower we warmed up with a coffee and a crepe......yummy.

Then we headed off to see Ceri and family who all live near by. SO most of the afternoon was taken up with chat and lunch and chat and reminiscence  etc. You know boring non-photographic stuff. All very wonderful but not for the blog apart from saying they all appeared to be well and happy. 

One interesting bit of news from Clarrie is that they will probably be shearing at Mt Ives when we are there. That would be most interesting. We got word back roads are open, but we will keep checking....do not want to get bogged.

And a factoid for Laura. 198 photos were taken yesterday....139 today. Yesterday's Photo map

Beaufort + A Country Vanilla Slice + Paul Kelly

So we set off a little later than expected, but not by much. The weather was grey with intermittent showers. We got over the West Gate by about 7:45am and we were both a little flat with the grey sky and the early morning.

Beaufort is our Western Highway first stop. We have stopped there a number of times and today was no different. By the time we got there, almost exactly two hours, we had a few bits of sunshine, a few lovely acacias in bloom and best of all there was a market on. We stretched our legs, Marjan had a coffee and a lovely country baked vanilla slice, I bough some choc aniseed rings from a local producer and we were feeling a hell of a lot better. The only downer was my choc lady told me that the whales were leaving Warrnambool.....hope they are still there at the Head of The Bight.

Into the car and on with some Paul Kelly, we listened to his sonnets album. Do yourself a favour have a listen, it is awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj0kGzuL-cA

By this time we were in a happy road trip frame of mind. As my philosophical guru said, all it takes is Beaufort, a vanilla slice and Paul Kelly and the road trip is ON. Paul kept us going for a while. he is so perfect for an Australian road trip.

Lots of lovely canola fields, some of which I shot on the iPhone, but I cannot be bothered posting iPhone photos.

We stopped again at the pink lake for a fluid changeover....as you do when you are old.

Onwards and upwards. Paul was replaced by Pete Rowan. A little grumpy old man blue grass as we drove around the Wimmerra.  Old man view on religion:

My god is better than your god

My god does the job

your god is just odd

my god is better than your god

Or the old man love song:

Lord, send the angels for my darling

And take her to that home on high

I'll wait my time out here on earth love

And come to you when I die

We had to stop for one of the canola fields and take some proper photos. 

Another stop for a salad sandwich and then on though the uninspired SA landscape and the very grey day. Even the other Adelaide boys: Cold Chisel and Redgum did not lift the grey and even the Adelaide Hills looked flat. Although listening to Beaumont Rag as we passed the suburb was a hoot.

Made Adelaide by about 4PM local time, so time for a shower and a walk before we headed to our Argentinian steak house for dinner. We are on North Terrace and have some interesting architecture to look at.

A busker played Moonlight Sonata for us which was lovely. It was either that or Billy Joel. He knew no jazz.

Dinner was lovely, a steak and a bottle of red.

Back to our room and an early night. The driving gets to you after a while