Big Trip 2024 - Day 4 (Diversions and Ferries)

The Coorong area is probably one of my favourite areas to drive in. The scenery from the driver's seat is stunning, with a array of lakes, lagoons, bushland and grasslands over a 2 hour drive.

In the past, though, the Coorong has always been a drive through. Today I decided to allow myself the luxury of taking whatever diversions took my fancy.

The first sign that caught my eye was this:

"The Granites" were ... underwhelming.

That is literally it.

There were a number of stops where I tried taking a photo, but the camera wasn't capturing the beauty of the landscapes. I could be me, or it could be the iphone (I'll blame the equipment).

Here is Pink Lake:

And this was taken from Parnka Point.

I got to the town of Meningie late morning and realised I had taken a few too many diversions. I had a deadline later that afternoon and I was running a bit late.

Rechecking Google Maps and I picked up a shortcut that ended up saving me an hour or so of driving time. It required the crossing the Murray River in a ferry (well, a barge), at Wellington, however it did allow me to visit the picturesque town of Milang. 

A highlight was the Anzac Park

Roses in full bloom, hiding the public toilets.

I have a thing against inappropriately positioned Palm trees. I think this may qualify.

In the 1867 this cannon was fired to celebrate the visit to Milang by the Duke of Edinburgh.

A lot of locals have volunteered for serving in the armed forces. The Hopgood family seems to have contributed through a number of generations.

I was driving to make it to the 4:00pm crossing of the ferry from Jervis Bay to Kangaroo Island.

This is not a small ferry.

This is why a big ferry is needed. There were half a dozen large trucks making the trip to and from Kangaroo Island this time around.

No expense spared. Comfort Plus.

This was the view for much of the trip.

As we were approaching the island we could see a large cruise ship also visiting.

I am now at American River, a small town at the midpoint of Kangaroo Island.

Tea was at a local restaurant - Glossy Black. For a population of under 5,000, this island has some pretty decent eating places.

PIE REVIEW

Today's pie is brought to you by Meningie Bakery (no slogan).

The pie chosen was a steak (mince), bacon and tomato pie ($7.50 - I may owe yesterday's bakery an apology).

Although this was a smallish pie, this was an absolute revelation.

I have never had a pie that has had tomato as part of the filling before. I have been missing out.

This particular pie was a perfect combination of mince, tomato, bacon and pastry.

Given the tomato inside, no tomato sauce was required.

This pie goes to the top of my list.

Podcast of the day: The Rest is Politics - US Election 

- a variety of knowledgeable people making very poor predictions of the result of the USA elections, in real time.

Total km traveled - 1,260

Big Trip 2024 - Day 3 (Kingston SE)

With a population of less than 1,700, Kingston SE is a town that appears bigger than it is.

Situated at the southern end of the Coorong, it prides itself as being where the beach starts.

"Kingston - the beach starts here"

Which is not entirely correct. To the north is over 200km of beaches, as part of the Coorong. To the south, the seaside towns of Robe and Beachport, with their own stunning beaches. It would be more accurate to say "Kingston - beaches everywhere!"

The central retail district of the town seems to have had a lot of money thrown at it. Street beautification works, is how they describe it at home. And according to the council website, this was only completed a couple of years ago.

 The town was first settled in the 1860's and like most old towns, it lets you know about that with heritage signs all over the place.

The town has pretty much all the conveniences you need - 2 banks (1 part time), pubs, bakeries (more on that later), Op Shop (plenty of those), Home Hardware, a chemist (doubling as a Tatts agency), and a string of home wear shops.

It also has street art. Lots and lots of street art.

At the foreshore there is a stone "arch" commemorating the cleaning up  of the foreshore back in the early nineties. It must have been pretty bad back then.

Also on the foreshore is a shop that sells something (forgot what it was).

Near the public toilets / rotunda / caravan park there are a number of art murals and art installations.

I quite like this one.

I think this might be a photo background opportunity for traveling influencers.

Those fish are piranhas. I think.

This is the view from the street. The piranha mural is on the other side of this.

This is a mulloway  (Which makes me think that the fish above are not piranhas)

As you walk past the Shire offices you will see this representation of the CWA, found in most rural towns around the country (the CWA, not the mural). The council is quite proud of this one.

This mural is found outside the butcher (and next to the museum). Also on the council website.

This final one is apparently augmented reality, and involves downloading something to experience properly. I'll let others do this.

The final two are attached to businesses:

At the now closed ice-creamery

Right below the Not-So-Great Shark (see yesterday)

 Dinner tonight was back at the Royal Mail. Back on the road tomorrow.

PIE REVIEW

The "Bakery" is located opposite from Larry the Lobster, the giant crustacean I photographed yesterday.

The pie chosen today was a pepper pie. Beef mince with a peppery flavour,

The flavour was as you would expect from a pepper pie. The meat was tender and without gristle.

What caught me by surprise was the price.

The last two pies reviewed were between $5.20 and $5.60. And they both had fancy toppings.

Today's pie was $7.70.

Which means either the last two days were really cheap pies, or today's bakery was taking advantage of their position being right across the road from the Big Lobster. 

A suspect a bit of both here, if my online research is anything to go by.

I know we're not talking about sheep stations here. It's only a couple of dollars. Still ...

The pie was good. I would put it second on the list, just below yesterday's pie.

Podcast of the day: The Bugle: The Pollsters Have Given Up 

- as far as satirical news podcasts go, this would be one of the best. Andy Zaltzman at the helm with guest podcasters from around the planet.

Total km travelled - 843

Big Trip 2024 - Day 2 (Animals)

 Not the best sleep last night. It takes a while for my body to adjust sleeping in unfamiliar places. This will get better the longer I am away.

As the stay in Port Fairy was only for one night I needed to pack the car. 

I wasn't expecting this hitch-hiker:

This photo understates the size of this spider. I'm saying 15cm.

One last shot of Eastern Beach before heading west.

 

The last town west before crossing the SA border is called Nelson. With a population of 190 per the 2016 census there's not a lot going on here. They are on the coast, so it was only right that I took a short walk to check their beach.

Almost stepped on a snake on the way. It slithered away, unbothered by this clumsy oaf not looking where he was going.

Nelson seems to be a Mecca for hikers and campers. The Great South West Walk is a 260 odd kilometre trail from Portland to the border, in a loop. A wonderful pursuit for other people to do.

After a quick lunch in Mt Gambier (see below) I was driving towards Millicent when I saw a sign that reads "Tantanoola Tiger", an invitation to take a short detour.

The Tantanoola Tiger was an animal that was suspected of killing livestock around the area in the late 1800's. Turns out it wasn't a tiger, well not the normal variety, but some sort of cross between a Tasmanian tiger and a wolf (?).

You can read about it here. It's a fascinating read.

Great history, but what can you actually see now? . The hotel was closed, so viewing the stuffed beast was out of the question. Instead, there is something on the top of the hotel. 

Yeah, not the best photo to capture the full majesty of this beast.

 There are some great seaside towns further up the coast. The first was Beachport, which felt like it had a fair share of Melbournians who had found an opportunity to disappear for a very long weekend.

 

Shortly after is the town of Robe, probably the best know and most frequented of these towns.

 

As I was leaving Robe I had to stop and take a picture of some unusual animals, well at least in this part of the country. Camels.

Apologies for this photo. I'm having a fight with Google and it seems to be winning.

Robe is home to a camel farm. Where they sell milk. Humpalicious Milk. 

It's a thing.

Mid afternoon I arrived at my final stop for the day, Kingston SE.

Kingston SE seems to be the poorer cousin of Robe and Beachport. A bit more working class and less touristy.

It does have this, though:

The Big Lobster

 Australians love big things, and I am Australian.

They also had this, slightly less impressive exhibit:

The Not-So-Big Shark

Dinner was at the local Royal Mail Hotel. There must a thousand hotels in Australia called Royal Mail. This one had cold beer, cricket on the screen and served a  large plate of ribs. So not a bad night.

The Kingston Pier

Pie Review

Today's pie is from the aptly named OK Pie Shop in Mt Gambier, which boasts that they are Mt Gambier's favourite bakery.

 

The pie chosen was the Pizza Pie.

In place of a top crust this had pineapple, tomato sauce and melted cheese. So not too dissimilar to yesterday's pie.

This was less salty and more meaty. The melted cheese was, however, difficult to bite into. It became quite a messy affair.

I'd say this is a good pie shop, and I chose poorly. Would definitely come back, but will choose something else.

Podcast of the day: PEP with Chas and Dr Dave - The Final Week (Part 2)

- Chas Licciardello (formerly of The Chaser fame) and Dr David Smith (Sydney Uni) overanalyse USA politics, including the upcoming election. Seriously, this one was 4hrs 21 mins.

Total km travelled - 793

Big Trip 2024 - Day 1 (The Beginning)

Back in May 2021, I almost died, and then didn't.

Whilst recovering I made a commitment to myself that, once I was given the all clear to drive, I would look at exploring a lot more of this country.

My first big trip was in 2023 as a way of "easing into it", and involved an almost 4,000 km trip to Byron Bay and back, traveling up the guts of New South Wales and returning along the coast. The pretense for this was to catch up with clients in New South Wales and ACT. 

It was a great trip.

I should have kept my blog on that trip but didn't.

No such mistake this time around.

Welcome to The Big Trip 2024. 

The plan is to head west, along the coast, exploring a lot of the South Australia coast. This will include stays on Kangaroo Island, The Yorke Peninsula and the Eyre Peninsula, all the way to Ceduna, at the start of the Nullabor. The return trip will involve traveling inland to Broken Hill before heading back south to home.

I will clock up about 4,500km of travel. All in 21 days.

The first day of travel involved a lot of familiar roads and sights, and equally familiar stops.

 Port Fairy has been one of our family's favourite holidays destination of the last 15 years or so. Great beaches, a wide variety of eating choices, and activities options of both strenuous and lazy in nature.

 Getting to Port Fairy is not too bad. It will mostly include some sort of lunch option in or around Ballarat (Buninyong this time around), with an arrival time mid afternoon. Here are some highlights.

Western Victoria has a large number of wind farms, probably taking advantage of the winds along the Western plains. This particular turbine was just outside of Ballan.

In years gone by our kids would have been crawling all over this. With that excuse gone, I am now exposed as a stationary train spotter. This one is in Grimwade Park, Lismore.

As someone suffering from "old man troubles" my knowledge of the best public toilets has improved immensely. I could help them on this.

Mt Elephant, near Derrinallum. One of the better known examples of extinct volcanic activity in Western Victoria.

Silo Art at Lismore Golf Club. I'll have more to say about Silo Art later on this trip.

Tower Hill, just outside of Warrnambool. This extinct volcano last erupted about 34 thousand years ago.

At Port Fairy I visited the beaches:

Hello Southern Beach

Hello Eastern Beach

Hello Killarney Beach (my favourite!)

Dinner tonight was at the local Chines Restaurant - Four Season. I have a soft spot for this restaurant as it never appears busy yet I have never been disappointed by them.

Pie Review

As part of this blog I will be attempting to review as many pies as possible. Hopefully every day, however I can't promise that.

Today's pie was from The Buningyong Bakehouse

The photo glare obscured their motto: Quality Baked Goods, Country Style.

The pie I chose today was the Hawaiian Pie.

Yes, in the tradition of Australia's favourite Hawaiian Pizza, the Hawaiian Pie had crust that could have been a Hawaiian Pizza - Pineapple, Ham and a bit of Cheese, topping a standard meat pie.

I found the pie to be a little bit too salty for my taste, which I put down to the use of some very salty ham. Otherwise, it was an interesting pie. Would buy again.

Podcast of the day : Dram Talk - Dram Talk 2: Dram Harder 

- two Sydney lads talking about whisky for one hour.

Total Km travelled: 400 (exact)