Big Trip 2024 - Day 21 (Final Day)

 The very warm temperatures overnight unfortunately meant a poor night's sleep.

I needed a kick start, which I got, overlooking the great 'Bidgee River.

That's Murrumbidgee River, for you non-locals

And on to the final stretch.

The landscape from Willcannia to the Murray River is an almost unending expanse of flat land. Which is why the land around the Cobb Highway is also known as The Long Paddock.

This started off as a stock route in the 1800's. It's now been transformed into a tourism route, with stories told on panels at stops dotted throughout the route, together with a number of sculptures.

I did stop off on most of these, I really did. But it was very hot, and I didn't linger too long at any of the panels. Also no photos of this. Sorry.

I was still on the lookout for water tower/silo art. The town of Mathoura did not disappoint, and for the first time ever, I saw one of these works of art in the middle of its creation.

The artist in question is called Dulk, from Spain.

The lunch time spot was over the border in Echuca. Here I managed to deal with two of my projects on this trip, a pie review (see below) and a visit to a distillery.

 

As always, it would have been rude to not try some.

From Echuca it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive home, one that I had taken many times before.

Not too much to say about this final leg, except for the Silo/Water Tower art in Rochester,

and in Colbinabbin. This was particularly impressive as it was spread out over 5 separate structures.

I'm home now, and starting to reflect on the last three weeks.

I had three major destinations that I was keen to explore - Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln and Broken Hill. I can confirm that a) I loved these towns and b) I did not spend nearly enough time in any of them. They will all be worth a revisit, though maybe not on the same trip.

I was keen to visit distilleries along the way, and I think this had been achieved with distilleries in :

• Kangaroo Island
• Port Lincoln (West Coast)
• Gumeracha (Applewood)
• Broken Hill
• Echuca

I explored artwork in the country, which included:

• Art Galleries
• Murals
• Silo and Water Tower Art
• Sculptures

I saw a large chunk of the coast line of South Australia, as far as Ceduna.

I was fascinated by the changing landscapes, from coastline to hills to red desert to bush to plains.

I (re)learnt my limits.

And as an added bonus I caught up with some friends in Wallaroo.

My souvenirs included 1/2 a car of gin, dozens of photos, this journal, some fridge magnets, a couple of tshirts and some wonderful memories.

Now, where to for the 2025 Big trip?

PIE REVIEW

The final review is from a bakery that is situated in Echuca, as well as 7 other locations in Victoria. It's the Beechworth Bakery.

The pie today was the Beechworth Steak Pie - $6.50 (I think)

Now after the major disappointments over the previous couple of days I was looking forward to finishing these reviews with a high class pie.

The verdict?

Unfortunately is was a bit meh.

I don't think the crust was all that tasty and that detracted from the overall pie taste. The filling itself was OK, but not fantastic.

I was a bit disappointed in the end. I think I expected more.

So, what does the leader board look like at the end of all this?

6. The Egg and Bacon Pie at the Port Augusta French Hot Bread

This breakfast pie was well seasoned, well cooked and was very tasty.

5. The Sausage Roll from Ardrossan Bakery

Yes it's not a pie. Get over it. A juicy, meaty sausage wrapped by a tasty, flaky pastry.

4. The Standard Pie from Elliston Bakery

This was anything but a standard pie. A small bakery in a small town on the Eyre Peninsula has no business creating pies that are this good. And yet it does.

3. The Brisket and Jalapeno Pie from Macs Oven Foods in Broken Hill.

The very right combination of meat and heat. 

2. Tomato Steak and Bacon Pie form Meningie Bakery

The inclusion of tomato and bacon on the pie would have been an absolute winner, except for the pie that actually won.

1. and Winner The Slow Cooked Beef Pie with Mushrooms

The biggest pie eaten on holiday and with the tastiest filling and the tastiest crust. A very clear winner.

Podcast of the day: i enjoyed yesterday without a podcast and extended it out by another day. There is only so much talking you can handle whilst driving.

Total km travelled : 5,706

Good night

Big Trip 2024 - Day 20 (Heading Home 1)

There comes a time in every holiday when all the things you wanted to do have been ticked off and all that's left is the getting home bit. That's what it felt like today. 

From Wilcannia the trip home should take about 8 and a half hours of driving or 800 km. I can't do that in one day so it means I will be home by Saturday afternoon.

Before I left Wilcannia I missed some street art that I really needed to include in my entries. 

River us our Heartbeat. Water is Life.

Wilcannia sits alongside the Darling River. Whilst this river system had been used to ship goods to towns along the river, that was a long time ago.  Studies have shown that the Darling River is drying up and that climate change is the big culprit. If the Darling River disappears, then so will towns like Wilcannia.

After leaving Wilcannia I hopped on to the Cobb Highway which was to see me through to my stop tonight in Hay.

The Cobb Highway was named in honour of the Cobb & Co stagecoach companies, operating in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

From the time I got on to the Cobb Highway to the time I entered Ivanhoe (160km or 1 1/2 hours), I did not see one car, truck or any other vehicle. And only one house, which appeared unoccupied.

What I did see were plenty of these.

These are cattle grids. There is not much fencing out here and cattle are free to roam wherever they want.

The cattle grids are designed to restrict their movement between properties. 

Between yesterday's dirt road travelling and the Cobb Highway today, I would have driven over 150 of these.

Other highlights of the morning's travel included:

• Tumbleweeds. Real tumbleweeds, as you would have seen in old timey Westerns. The wind would carry them quickly across the road. The first couple scared me, as I couldn't avoid them. When I worked out what they were, I calmed down.
• Lizards. Big lizard activity as well as "big lizard" activity. Two monitor lizards that scurried off the road as I approached.
• Emus. They weren't terribly scared of the car.

• Goats. Many, many goats. Feral. You could say they were in plague proportions.

It was good to see human activity when I reached Ivanhoe. It's interesting to compare and contrast the 1 general store, 1 pub Ivanhoe in outback New South Wales with the affluent suburban Ivanhoe in Victoria. Chalk and cheese.

After a bite to eat (pie review below). It was on to Hay - about 2 hours driving. The only thing of note were the toilet signs in the tiny town of Booligal.

Due to the severe heat I had limited my stops along the way, so consequently I was able to arrive in Hay a couple of hours earlier than planned.

In my quest to see all of the silo and water tower art around the country I found a great specimen in Hay.

Last leg tomorrow. I should get home by late afternoon.

PIE REVIEW

I was appreciative that, although Ivanhoe didn't have a bakery, their general store was selling hot pies.

What I was less appreciative of was that the pies were heated through the use of a microwave oven.

So it is that I bought the Mrs Macs Angus beef pie ($6.50).

The pie is a little bit larger than your standard 4'n'20 pie. It actually looks quite impressive from the outside.  However looks can be deceiving for the crust tasted just like you would expect a microwaved pie to taste.

So the first mouthful also got me some gristle. Luckily this was the only evidence of this in the pie. The rest of the filling was actually pretty tasty. The crust caused me to mark this way, way down.

This was marginally better than yesterday's pie.

Final results tomorrow.

I had someone ask me whether I normally eat pies. Truth is that there have only been a couple of bakeries I will normally buy pies from - Buck's Country Bakehouse in Yaark is one and Flour Flower Bakery in Kinglake West is another. And after this holiday's effort of eating a pie every day (excluding Port Lincoln) I think I am going to stay clear of pies for the next year or so. 

Have I put on weight with all this pie eating? I don't think so. I have been keeping track of my "steps" and my average daily is significantly more than at home. I'd like to think the extra walking was keeping the extra calories in check. But that might also be wishful thinking.

Podcast of the day: After 19 days of podcasts I decided to change things up and avoided them today. A day of music instead. 

 Total km travelled: 5,228

Big Trip 2024 - Day 19 (Menindee)

 The end point for today's trip was Wilcannia, a small town to the east of Broken Hill. But it was only going to take a couple of hours to get there ... directly.

I did want to visit a town to the south east - Menindee, home of the Menindee Lakes. From there I would work out how I would end up getting to Wilcannia.

When they are full, the Menindee Lakes hold 3 times as much water as Sydney Harbour. At the moment they are slightly less than half full. The water collected here is used in Broken Hill and surrounding districts.

Menindee is not on the way to anywhere - it is a destination. Not much of a destination as it turned out. The cafe was closed until Monday and there wasn't a lot of activity going on. Given that it was 35 degrees at 11 o'clock I shouldn't have been too surprised. I certainly didn't want to take long walks outside the air conditioned comfort of my Mazda.

After morning tea (pie review below) I decided to drive around some parts of the lakes.

The first hamlet/group of houses + pub that I visited was called Sunset Strip, which I am guessing is called that because of the view of the sunsets over the lakes.

Most of the houses were in need of repair. This piece of art stopped me:

"Dunny Tree"

Nearby was a lookout that was near the train line that is used by the Indian Pacific on its way from Sydney to Perth (I actually saw this train in Broken Hill yesterday. 878 metres long)

I then drove to the main Weir, which seems to be a camping ground as well as the weir itself. It was interesting seeing all these large fish (maybe Murray Cod or carp according to online) at the top end of the weir, waiting to make their way to the lower reaches of the weir.

I then drove back in to Menindee to work out the travel for the rest of the day.

From Menindee there are three ways to get to Wilcannia. The first is to double back to Broken Hill and drive on bitumen to Wilcannia. Then there are two dirt roads, one south of the Darling River and one north of it. The road north had a Caution sign at the start. The road south didn't.

I took the south road.

What then followed was over two hours of driving on road conditions that changed from sand to dirt to clay, then back to sand. For 150km. Challenging? Yes. Was it doable in the Mazda? I can now say, yes, it was.

Here are some photos taken of the view along this road.

Things I was unable to take photos of because i was too slow, or through better of it.

• Scores of raptors (I think Whistling kites, according to online, but also possibly eagles) feasting on the plethora of dead kangaroos, most of which seemed to come off second best with cars.
• At least two wild boar carcasses, one of which was the size of a medium sized cow.
• Snakes. A fair bit of snake activity on the road, which surprised me.

Towards the end of this road I did take a picture of this:

Snowman in 40 degrees

After leaving this road the rest of the trip was pretty short and uneventful.

The caravan park where I am staying had snack food laid out for all interested guests at 5 o'clock. I turned up, as did two retired couples. When one of the men starting praising senator Matt Canavan, I recognized this as my cue to leave.

Dinner was at the golf club because there were no other choices. I did enjoy my burger and I was politely requested to put a favourable review up on Facebook. I have never been asked to do this before and was happy to oblige. DJ's Home Cooking, if you're interested.

I'm only here one night and will start to head south tomorrow.

PIE REVIEW

So, I forgot to take a photo.

There are no bakeries in Menindee, however the general store sold a range of Villi's Pies. So I had a pepper steak pie. I think this was the second time with a pepper steak pie.

I probably shouldn't have bothered. This had been in the pie warmer for a very long time and was dry and unappetising. Bottom of the list.

Podcast of the day: Wilosophy - Wil Anderson with Matt Parkinson

- I was up for another 2 hour + interview by Wil Anderson and this one did not disappoint. You may know Matt from Big Gig days (part of Empty Pockets), as the comedian that won everything on Sale of the Century or on the current series of The Chase on Channel 7.

Total km travelled: 4,859