Blogs from South Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 4

Melbourne was almost Batmania, the name suggested by it’s founder John Batman. The site he declared was “a good place for a village.” Thankfully saner (or more politically astute) minds prevailed and it was called Melbourne after the prime minister of the time. One of the first major industries was confectionery, MacRobertson’s Steam Confectionery Works developed and produced the crunchie and freddo bars in the 1920’s. Products taken over when Cadbury’s bought the company in 1967. Another proud first was the installation of the first traffic lights in Australia to ‘solve’ the problem of traffic,and pedestrian congestion. They went in at the junction of Flinders And Swanson Streets, still a major junction and still pretty congested. But given they were only installed in 1928 I suppose it is early days yet. Well we took the shuttle ... read more

What a difference a day makes! After the really hot day yesterday we were a little surprised to wake up to a cloudy sky and a mere 20 degrees outside. In some ways it was a bit of a relief as it was a little too hot to do much yesterday. We didn’t have any set plans today, but thought we’d head over towards Murray Bridge. We ended up at Old Tailem Town, which had lots and lots of replica houses, garages, stores and churches e.t.c. which represent how people lived and worked over the past 100+ years. As we walked in the lady warned us that there were ‘loads of mozzies out there today’ – marvellous! Good job we are now used to the morning routine of sun screen and bug repellent! We wandered around ... read more

We woke up to glorious sunshine here in Victor Harbour this morning so could get dressed for summer for our full day here. We tried to get on a morning boat tour but missed out so booked a shorter trip for the afternoon, we were halfway across the causeway so carried on to Granite Island to see the penguin centre. Unfortunately, even though the room map mentions it, it no longer exists so after a drink in the café we headed back towards town. We were going to use the horsedrawn tram but decided to walk instead, I think it was quicker anyway and saved us $30! We sat and had a quick beer in the Hotel Victor and then headed back to the room, for a bit of lunch and a top up on the ... read more

After a relaxed start to the day, we set off to see the Engelbrecht Cave, which was only a 5min drive away. They do guided tours on the hour, we’d just missed one so booked up for the next one and sat outside enjoying the sunshine with a coffee while we waited. The time went pretty quickly and before we knew it we were being called in to hear the ‘rules’ and prepare for our tour. Our tour was pretty busy, 18 people – the earlier one we’d missed only had about 6! But the guide was very good and made sure everyone could hear what was being said. The cave was accessed via a sinkhole (there’s a lot of those around here, we’d be concerned living in this town!) which was quite a lot of ... read more

We were quite excited to leave Marree to tackle the icon of the Aussie outback, the Birdsville Track. Before hitting the Track, we replenished out water tank. Dave and Kerry Date followed us out to “the sign” and we took the memory photos. Birdsville Track was created in 1860's by drover Percy Burt to avoid the main hazards of the Diamantina floodplain. We found the track conditions from Marree to Mungeranie quite smooth however that changed to rough heading north from Mungeranie. The surface was generally dry on a sandy base covered with large pebbles (very large) called "gibbers". Our travelling speed varied depending on the varied road surface as caring for our tyres was a priority. At no stage have we underestimated the outback conditions. We had read that there are many serious accidents on ... read more