Actually, we’ve already paid the ferry man in full, otherwise he wouldn’t have let us on the boat. But, I get ahead of myself.
Despite the looming deadline to catch the ferry to Tasmania on Saturday the 7th of March, our trip has started to slow down. We’re driving fewer km per day and taking more opportunity to stop and smell the roses along the way – aka sightsee.
Leaving Chilpenunda Common, in 4wd low range to escape the sticky boggy mud on the track in, we were soon cruising along the back-country gravel roads, making our way to what should be the “world famous” Wudinna Bakery.
We’d happened upon the Wudinna Bakery on our 2024 trip and were blown away by their vanilla slices and pies, so it was high on our list for a revisit. A loaf of bread, two coffees, two vanilla slices, two pies and a Cornish pastie later, and we were satiated and had reconfirmed the quality of Wudinna Bakery produce.
From Wudinna, we were hoping to shoot through to Kimba for a night, and then across the top of the Eyre Peninsula via Iron Knob and Port Augusta, however, the road east of Iron Knob was still closed due to recent flooding. So instead, we headed a little further south, dropping in at a favourite town, Cleve, en route to our overnight destination, another favourite, Cowell.
Camping again at the Cowell RV camp for $15, we setup the van and then walked the couple of km into town, ending up as usual at the Franklin Inn for a beer, or three. To offset the beer guilt and calories, we walked out to the end of the jetty, chatting to fellow travellers along the way, before wandering back home for the evening.
Jules being the astute astrologist she is, or rather, au fait with current goings on, advised that tonight was a full moon lunar eclipse event, resulting in a blood moon at 10pm local. I should have been more prepared and gotten out my tripod and shutter cable release, but instead I was lazy and only managed to grab a couple of hand-held shots with my 400mm (800mm full frame equivalent) lens which still provided a reasonable record of the event.
From Cowell, we travelled north, stopping in Whyalla to grab a couple things from BCF, before passing around the head of the Spencer Gulf at Port Augusta and ending our drive at another donation based RV camp, just off the highway in Nelshaby, approximately 230km north of Adelaide. This RV camp was surprisingly busy, but there was plenty of room for everyone and it provided the luxury of flushing dunnies which was nice. Based in the foothills of the Wirrabara Range, I sent the drone up to grab some shots of the gullies and gorges, and the view out to the Spencer Gulf in the West.
From Nelshaby, we plotted a very roundabout, but beautiful drive through the rolling hills of the SA countryside, driving past (again) the Midnight Oil house which features on the Diesel and Dust album cover, and then stopping for the first time to visit the lovely little town of Burra.
Burra is a historic town, now focussed on agriculture, however, back in the early 1800’s it was a major copper mine and the profits from the mine helped saved the then very small and struggling SA colony from going bankrupt. It’s a beautiful little town with a fantastic history and we’ve bookmarked it for a future longer visit.
From Burra, we dropped through a number of small towns to view their silo art, stopping for lunch in Eudunda, another lovely little town we want to revisit some day.
On our final run into our camp for the night, we unfortunately passed through the Barossa Valley, and right past one of our favourite little wineries, Kalleske. It would have been stupidly rude of us not to stop, so we did, partaking in a quick (re)tasting of their great wines, picking a couple bottles up for enjoying on the trip.
After what felt like a long days drive, although it was only 400km in total, we pulled into another community RV camp, in Jabuk, population 56. It was another, one of many in regional Australia, little town that seems be dying a slow death. The RV camp is on the old footy field which is now disused, across from the tennis courts which is rapidly becoming overgrown. But, there was only one other camper there, so we had a lovely quiet night, waking up to a heavy, pea soup fog in the morning.
Our drive today saw us again taking as many back roads as we could, meaning some of our trip was on gravel roads and the last 100kms was on a very bouncy bitumen road. But we’d much rather these roads, than take the main highways and the scenery through the countryside was great. The first hour or so was driving through the thick fog, providing some great opportunities for foggy landscape shots.
Mid-morning we passed through the town of Keith and decided it was a good time for a wee stop and quick wander to stretch our legs. Keith has the most amazing and cool kids playground which was very well attended by travelling families. And, as we walked up the little main drag we came across a sign stating “Coffee & Wine Bar” which is like a red rag to a bull for us. Poking our head in the door, there wasn’t much to see, a vacant till and a couple of small, but empty tables. But, we could hear there was more going on, so passing through the shop front, through a corrugated iron clad corridor, we popped out into a huge warehouse area which was busy with people buying and consuming coffee and cakes. Of course, we had FOMO and had to grab a coffee, and then as it was kinda morno’s time, I got a vanilla slice and Jules a homemade ham and cheese croissant.
Talking to one of the ladies, she advised the huge warehouse used to be the local Bridgestone tyre store. But they’d long gone and the enterprising ladies had taken on the space for coffee and cakes by day, and wine and craft beer with a small menu by night – very cool, with great coffee and food.
Leaving Keith, we soon crossed the SA / Victorian border, and headed to our evenings destination of Casterton. Again, we camped at the local town’s free RV camp, this one on the banks of the ESS Lagoon, a lovely spot.
After setting up we walked into town for some basic supplies and to check out the Visitors Centre as Casterton is the home of the Kelpie, Australian’s famous working dog.
Leaving Casteron we passed by the local Polo Club where coincidentally the National Polocrosse Competition was being held. From our quick google and watch, Polocrosse is a combination of traditional Polo, on horseback, mixed with Lacrosse and Netball rules, with the aim to throw a ball through a set of narrow goals to score.
The riders and horses certainly had some skill and it looked physical and quick!
From Casterton, GoogleMaps took us through the countryside, well away from the main highways for most of the journey, through to the big smoke of Geelong. First stop was to run the car and van through a self-car wash to remove the mud due to Tassies biohazard rules and the risk of importing of pests. Then it was down to the terminal, arriving well ahead of schedule so we parked up, at the start of the feeder lane queue and waited for a couple of hours. Upon passing through the quarantine and security check, we again had to wait for just over an hour in marshal designed lanes, awaiting the loading of all the cars, motorbikes and vans onto the ship. We passed this hour watching the Melbourne F1 Qualifying on my mobile though so the timing was good.
Finally being released by the marshal, it was up the ramp and into the tightly packed hold of the ship, parking up on the port side of deck 5. We quickly dumped our stuff in our little cabin, had a much needed shower, and then headed down to grab some dinner and a drink. Fennel Roasted Pork Roast with veggies, some salads and other stuff was the meal of the day and for $32 each, we got heaps of great tasting food. We backed this up with a couple of local Tassie beers, before retiring to the bar lounge to try some Tassie gin and whisky, whilst watching the Aussie girls play India in the day/night Test Match at the WACA.
As you do when travelling, you get chatting to people, and old mate to the left informed us that Lucy Hamilton, who was batting out the Aussie’s first innings at the time, was his niece. He was from Bundaberg in Qld and regaled us with tales of his niece and Qld lifestyle. And then, old mate to the right is an ex-butcher who used to run the Beaconsfield Butchers in Tassie for many years. Noting that Beaconsfield is the town that I was born and grew up in until we left for the mainland when I was about 8 – small world.
After leaving Geelong the ferry takes about three hours to reach the heads of the Port Philip Bay to enter the Bass Straight. So those first few hours were very calm, with just the quiet rumble and vibration of the engine the only indication we were steaming across the bay at about 48kph. It was about 10pm when we reached the heads and then things got a little rolly and bumpy for the next couple of hours, but it wasn’t too bad. It did make trying to sleep a little challenging, but we survived the night, albeit with a bit of sleep deprivation.
We were already awake and getting dressed when the 5:45am ‘Welcome to Devonport – now get up’ announcement came over the boat intercom. A bit bleary eyed, we made our way down to the kitchen for a ham and cheese toastie and coffee, whilst we awaited our instructions and leave to disembark.
Welcome to Tasmania!
So, despite having to pay the ferry man early, we have made it safely to Tassie and we’re currently sitting in a lovely little caravan park in Eugenana. But, the story and pics of Eugenana are the subject of the next blog (part 3), so till then, it sucks to be you guys, as Jules and I are having a ball!