Author: Mr A
From: Balranald
To: Weethalle (Where? Click here for map!)
Distance: 331 km
We packed up this morning keen to get the Hay Plains drive behind us, remembering from it from a previous trip. Checking email though we saw a note from Zone RV to the effect that there was potentially a problem with the plate attaching our tow hitch. We had to send them some photos to check if there was any damage. Despite it only being 7.30am in head office, Zone Service management were back within minutes with an answer, we were good to go, but that just in case we should reduce our water payload. So I emptied out most of the water in the tanks and gave the grass at the site a good watering!
The Hay Plain drive was a lot more scenic than we remembered, or perhaps we’re getting more attuned to the subtle variations in the Australian landscape. We stopped for a couple of quick breaks, and by mid afternoon we are pulling up at our camp for the night at the Weethalle Showgrounds – home to the country club (a tennis court, bowling green and a makeshift golf course) and three or four horses. 
This is Tassie’s expression after spotting the horses – she’s such a city slicker:
We called the caretaker and she came to open up the power box and the toilets, all for $10! She was so welcoming, and after walking around the small settlement of Weethalle, indicative of the friendliness of this isolated little place, and typical of what we have experienced in all these country towns (since leaving the tourist spots in the Kimberley!).
Clearly times are tough here, boarded up shops and run down property, but looking in the window of the local café (The Road Kill Grillz!), there is lots of effort being made to organise community activities.
It has been a real education for both of us city dwellers to spend time in these country settlements, and try and work out how economic and technological changes are impacting rural Australia.
Our experience has shown that very few communities are thriving. We contrast that with how, closer to Sydney, there is a flight from the city by people who have grown up there and are now breathing new life into towns like Bathurst, Dubbo and down in the Southern Highlands. Telecommuters, retirees, new business starters – it seems to be giving these rural areas a much needed injection of cash. Sadly, we haven’t seen much of this happening elsewhere. Exceptions would be (from what we have seen) only in the Margaret River region, and some of the wine regions close to Adelaide.
We holed up with a vegetarian Thai curry for dinnerand an evening of Netflix viewing as the threatening rain finally hit and the temperatures began to drop below 30 degrees. A very cosy and quiet camp for the night.
The river is an ever changing environment with flood and drought adjusting the river’s path all the time. The tree roots from the towering red gums were like incredible sculptures along the rivers edge, their solid ground long gone.
We returned to camp and cleaned up our things, dried the boats and took Princess Tassie out for another walk. She feels very adventurous here and is absolutely fascinated by the river.
A home cooked meal completed the day, eaten outside in the warm evening – it stays light until way past 9pm these days. We had a chat with some friends, making plans for Christmas. As much as we are enjoying our travels, we are quite excited about catching up with our Sydney ‘family’ again. Being apart has made us appreciate them all the more.
Tomorrow we hit the road again, heading off to adventures new. I wonder what the next camp will bring…?
Let me explain in my defence, I had been wondering, in idle movements (of which there had been a few), if I could get my bike on the packraft, thereby opening up more route possibilities. I’m not convinced yet.
We were immediately immersed in the forest, towering river red gums dominated the landscape. Small flocks of parrots scattered as we rode through this magnificent scenery. We were heading into Yanga National Park to see a historic woolshed, and had a short bit of deserted tarmac to ride down on the way.
We explored the woolshed buildings which operated until 2005 and are now a museum. These buildings hosted a number of B&S balls in their time (bachelor and spinster parties), and employed numerous locals involved in shearing the 5,000 sheep here three weeks each year.
I was particularly intrigued by the explanation of how Balranold was at the heart of such an extensive river transport network reaching right across the southern part of Australia. Apparently 5,300km of navigable river was utilised when the water was up.
Now the rivers are so quiet, in four days camped by the Murray we saw three tinnies and a houseboat.
We arrived back at camp to find Miss Tasmania enjoying the sun and ready for another sniff around the campsite. She had a big walk this morning with Catherine again. It just makes me smile every day to see how willing she is to explore the bushier camps like this one.
I’m loving a book by a Dutch historian Rutger Brekman, who we had heard on a podcast and both really enjoyed. He has collected together a bunch of research on social experiments that were tried in the US, Canada and the UK to see what would happen if we just gave money to the poor (with no strings attached) rather than set up an elaborate system of welfare with all the costs that go with overseeing and managing that bureaucracy. It’s fascinating and counter intuitive in some ways. All of the initiatives paid for themselves because when given money, and left to their own devices, the “poor” didn’t just quit work and spend it on booze and gambling, as many on the political right would think, but instead mostly carried on working, but changed jobs to follow their passion, spent more time with their kids, and generally made better decisions about their lives. Their health improved, their children’s educational success increased, crime went down, these social experiments showed incredible ROI.
Now…we are in the middle of the Riverina, one of the great wine producing regions of Australia. But apparently “the locals” don’t bother with wine much. Interestingly though, out of the four tables having dinner in the restaurant tonight, three were drinking wine. So don’t they really want a choice of good wine? Or is it that someone can’t be bothered to offer it?
Before long, Mr A’s bike was ready to collect. Sadly the bike shop owner told us a familiar tale – cycling here has really dropped back, and he doesn’t know how much longer he can sustain the business. So disappointing. Something needs to change to make people adopt this more sustainable transport method. Mildura is ideal for cycling – it has little gradient and some investment in bike lanes – but clearly not enough to shift the culture of getting in the car.
So we decided to head off on the bikes into Renmark. We picked a route to avoid the main road, and regretted it, sinking deep into clinging, stinky mud. I managed to wrap a piece of wire around my chain and break a spoke. After some fiddling around, and the odd expletive, we were off again and made it to the car wash on the edge of Renmark. Even the high pressure jet shifted the mud with some difficulty. Stickier than an English toffee that stuff.
Making back into camp with a wobbly wheel, we cheered ourselves up with home made pumpkin soup. Absolutely delicious. Our neighbour then knocked on the door to show us two European carp that he had caught. Apparently they aren’t a good eating fish, very bony, so the pelican got an unexpected Sunday feast.
The wind continues to howl along the water, so there is no sitting outside for drinks tonight, instead we are cosied up (again!) in the Zone sipping a lovely Adelaide Hills Shiraz and tucking into a spag bol. Perfect…we’ve really loved this camp…in those words made famous in our favourite Aussie movie The Castle, “Ah…the serenity”.
Leaving Banrock Station we drove back to Renmark. On a windy, overcast and relatively cool day it looked quite bleak. Most of the streets were shut off in anticipation of this evening’s Christmas Pagent – held at night due to the usually high temperatures. It was 37 degrees centigrade here on Thursday. Today it barely peaked 17! What climate change?
It wasn’t a long day behind the wheel though, and by early afternoon we were pulling up. It was a great location on a bend of the Murray, with only a few other vans here.
It was good to get in the bush again after our caravan park. Tas was happy to see a bit of greenery she could sniff around in, and didn’t seem phased by us being right next to such a large body of water. She really is developing a higher tolerance for new things!
I had been looking forward to getting the Packrafts out on the water, but with drizzle and wind it wasnt too appealing. Our neighbours also wandered over to warn us about a large brown snake that had driven off the previous occupants of our pitch. Ah well, better keep our eyes peeled.
After a cuppa we headed out for a quick explore, with half an eye on the gathering storm clouds. We really have landed in a beautiful spot, a giant grey kanagaroo bounded off when he saw us, more cormorants were splashing in and out of a backwater of the Murray. We really like this location – it’s free to camp here too!
Our first task was to travel to the nearby settlement of Nuriootpa to visit the bank. I had been paid for two years of work with Vanderbilt University with a cheque in USA dollars and had to pay it in before it expired. Of course this was not an easy task and required forms to be completed and for me to pay $45 fee up front for the privilege! I should expect to see my money in my account by the end of January next year…nothing is ever quick or easy in the world of banking! It just so happened the bank was next door to a very pretty bakery café, which then ended up as our lunch spot. Mr A proudly announced they had the best vanilla slice he had tried this trip. Big call – there have been quite a few vanilla slice tastings!
It was more like a market than a supermarket, with cheese counters and delicatessens spilling over with produce. It was overall an excellent experience. Even the staff were cheerful and chatty, with our checkout server proudly announcing the store was intending to steal the accolade of ‘Best Supermarket in South Australia’ from the store we visited in Frewville, Adelaide. I’d say they are not far off!
There were some delicious wines – their single vineyard Three Brians Grenache, made from 116 year old vines, was a standout, and we bought a bottle of the Maurice Grenache (also single vineyard, younger 50 year old vines) and the Rob and Les Shiraz. We are seriously running out of wine storage now! 
We headed back to camp after this tasting. Tonight the weather is due to change quite dramatically, with temperatures predicted to drop more than 10 degrees with torrential rain and thunder storms – already there is discussion of sandbagging shopfronts and preparing for flooding. There’s nothing more people love to talk about than a dramatically extreme weather event!
We’re getting as packed up as possible while the sun still shines. We’ll be moving on tomorrow to our next location, a few kilometres closer to Sydney, somewhere along the River Murray (hopefully not on a flood plain!). We have really loved our time in the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley – a combination of lovely people, stunning scenery, great cycling (despite no other cyclists!) and fabulous food and wine. We are sorry to leave, but sure to return.
I was particularly attracted by the 97 points they had just been awarded by James Halliday (wine critic) for their Mother Vine Monopole. We were the only people tasting at this newly opened cellar door with fabulous views stretching over the vineyard.
What a disappointing experience. Initially, we were ignored, before the gentleman behind the counter came over and asked us what we’d like to taste. We selected something we’d not previously tasted, he poured us a sample and walked away. The tasting notes were minimalistic – simply the grape and whether it had been in a barrel or not. We tasted and tried to regain eye contact hoping he might return and instil some of the magic – the stories behind the wine, where the grape was originally grown, how it came to this vineyard, the flavours and aromas you might encounter, the colour, any prizes or reviews the wine had, where it is sold – all help bring a tasting to life. There was none of that here. A second cellar door person emerged and we called her over to see whether she would tell us more. She asked with irritation ‘What are your questions?’. If I hadn’t wanted to try more, we would have left there and then. Mr A almost did.
Our enthusiasm for wine tasting waned after that third experience, and so we decided to continue our circuit and head back into Tanundra for some lunch, riding through some spectacular scenery and seeing no other cyclists. We settled at a lovely little café for some great food.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent simply relaxing, reading our books and sipping on a Bohemian Pilsner – a gift from Ali from Lobethal Bierhaus. Thank you Ali – they’re just the ticket and a reminder of wine (and beer) tasting with better service!
I supervised….
We got chatting, and sadly an all too familiar story emerged. After 18 months of getting the shop set up he was throwing in the towel at Christmas. Just not enough business. He told me that cycling participation in Adelaide and its surrounds is down by 20% this year. A similar story to Sydney. We both mused over the cause. I shared with him a little bit of research I had done this week. If you’ve read my Facebook post skip this bit. After reading about another cyclist being killed in Sydney I Googled on the phrase “cyclist dies” and set my search parameters to Australia and the last month. Eight deaths and another two left ‘fighting for their lives’. In three of the cases the driver didn’t stop but just left the cyclist in the road. As Evan said, there’s not much good news reported on cycling in Australia. Instead it is often tales of road rage from either the motorist or the rider, or reporting on these terrible accidents.
Catherine then got pulled over by the police for not wearing a helmet. Oh dear…more bad news for cyclists, you can’t just potter around the shops wearing a hat. You have to wear a helmet for every type of ride, including wandering along a cycle path to pick up an ice cream. So guess what, another reason people give for not taking their bike out for that quick trip to the shops.
Everywhere is kept so spick and span, it is a real treat to see after these struggling outback towns we have spent so many months travelling through. 
The scenery surrounding the town is just gorgeous, rolling hills frame the vineyards. Who needs the Loire Valley?!
A quick stop at the shops for some more supplies for dinner (so easy on a bike!) and we headed back for another fab meal, and the peace and quiet of no evening construction works, oh and no wine 🙁