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Published: March 23rd 2009
Drop Me Off Here
...I may be some time.DAY 135
Waking up to iffy weather this morning weather was a bit iffy, it had rained in the night, (Typical) when you want to put the trailer tent away, still it had to be done what ever the weather.
I got up early as I needed to write the blog, we also had access to mains power and as we were moving on today, it was mothers day in the UK and we both wanted to speak to our mums tonight, and more likely than not we would be free camping without any electricity, so we had to make sure the laptop was fully charged.
The trailer was finally packed away we wanted to say farewell to the family “Next Door” the Blytons, Tim Sharon and Wade, in their lovely T-Van.
We hit the road and were almost instantly over the Victoria Border in to South Australia, we had some distance to cover today to get as close as we could in the vicinity of Adelaide, the ferry actually goes from Cape Jervis. Our plan was to get on to Kangaroo Island in reasonable time before the Easter rush, Rick and Liz Aitchison had told us
Grapes
Lovely bunches of grapes almost ready for picking... that 5 days would be plenty of time to do Kangaroo island.
Every Kilometer today we saw the weather improve by, making our way through the Coonawarra Wine Region, and the fields of vines just went on for miles on both sides, we see familiar names (well familiar to Caroline anyway), such as Lindemans, Penfolds, Wolf Blass to name but a few. There were sign boards depicting which the vines were such as Cabernet Sauvignon.
The South Australian roads were very straight, and in great condition, that is to say that the journey through this region was very smooth. By lunchtime the day was scorching. I think Caroline would liked to have been dropped off in this region to do some research and then for me to collect her in 6 months time.
Caroline and myself are mad keen Dakar fans, it all started with me riding my KTM Factory 400 dirt bike and getting involved with a KTM dealer in West Sussex, who supported the only lady ever to complete the tough Desert Race the “Dakar”, we followed Patsy Quick and her riding partner Clive “Zippy” Town with interest. Every year just after Christmas we would
Next Door Neighbour
Wade Tim and Sharon with their T Van (oh and Landcruiser) on their Aussie Adventure never miss a night following the results of the Bike Riders, Car and Truck Drivers. However we were saddened in 2006, when the Australian Rider Andy Caldecott was fatally injured.
From the Andy Caldecott Memorial Trust Website:
Sadly, Andy passed away while competing in the 2006 DAKAR. Winner of Stage 3, he was currently in 6th place when tragedy struck. During the 9th stage in Mauritania, Andy crashed fatally at the 250km point. Andy came from a tiny town in South Australia called Keith, it has a population of around 1089 and the year Andy lost his life the whole town had raised money so he could participate in such a difficult race. We headed in to Keith on our journey on route to Adelaide and went past a piece of land that was Andy’s training track, we are lead to believe that a memorial is being erected this year in Keith for Andy Caldecott.
We leave Keith in this blazing hot sunshine and head back out towards the coast to find our campsite for the night. This last 51 kilometres just seems to go on and on, the road was good and although the land had
Home of a Legend
Andy Caldecott put Keith on the map. been primarily flat it was now looking as if the wind had shaped the low hills on either side of the road the hills were now giving way to sand dunes, as once again the terrain altered as we got closer to the coast and finally at a T junction we turned left and followed the coast further North.
We were now driving up the middle of the salt flats of the Coorong National Park, we are now looking for our site which is only a few kilometres on the left hand side in the National Park.
We find one place that is listed in Camps 5, the Coorong Wilderness Lodge, we drove up there but it looked very exposed on the Peninsula and there were no other campers, ther would be a fee for this one but still only under $22. We moved on to find Parnka Point, which is the one we really wanted.
At around 4.00pm we arrived at Parnka Point which is part of the Coorong National Park, Camps 5 page 260 No. 40 (South Australia), it wasn’t totally free camping as it is a National Park you had to put 5 bucks
KTM
Sorry everyone, just a picture for those KTM lovers out there! in an envelope and place the envelope through a secure letter box, then display a receipt in your wind screen.
We both agreed that we would not pay the $5 until we had seen the camp area, so we drove the 3 Kilometres down the dusty corrugated road until we saw other trailers and campers. The site was fantastic right on the river inlet, there were a few sites we could have chosen.
After our bed was made for the night, we sat and had a cup of tea just to soak up what was left of the afternoon sunshine, we did all the foody tea stuff, we sat and watched the sunset while we both skyped our Mums to wish them “Happy Mothers Day”, they were both pleased that we had remembered to send them a card (no flowers this year though). I don’t think either of them had expected one while we were travelling.
We said our goodbyes, closed Skype and the laptop then settled in for the night. As we were so close to the sea the wind whipped up a bit so I went round the trailer to make sure all the guy
ropes were tight.
Again the night sky was amazing, so far from any light pollution we just stood there gawping at the amazing black canopy with light sparkly dots, shining through, it somehow made us feel insignificant.
Back in the tent, out came our cards for the next grudge match, Caroline got totally trounced, but it was a hard fight.
We were hoping there would be a lot of wildlife in such a quiet place, earlier we had seen loads of bunny rabbits (Snakes Favourite) delight. We assumed with so many rabbits snakes would be abundant but no such luck.
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Jan & Ted
non-member comment
The Coorong
Hi Andy & Caroline, If you are still in the vicinity, make sure you check out Chinamen's Wells there in The Coorong. Historical sites with actual water wells constructed by early immigrant Chinese who came to Australia during the gold rushes in the 1800's. When the Victorian Government put a "tax" of 10 pounds on people (particularly the Chinese) arriving on their shores on their way to the goldfields, the Chinese came up with the idea that they would "land" in South Australia and then walk the rest of the way into Victoria, thereby avoiding the 10 pound tax. Of course, it was a very long walk through some very barren and inhospitable country and they needed drinking water so, they built a series of these wells so that they could be sure of available water to sustain them on their journey. Still well (pardon the pun!) preserved and, one still with water in it, even today. Love your work! Love Jan & Ted xxx