Monday, 29th April ~ Waikerie, South Australia

Our decision to depart Ouyen was mixed ... yes, we're going to move on; no, we're not. At our driver/navigator meeting we discussed the different roads we could take with the day's journey end destination planned to be South Australia, not sure which town, but we'd work that out as the day unfolded. Ok, we're off. 

Then we heard the weather warning of 'strong winds'; oh well, maybe we'll stay around Ouyen as a 'day off'. No problem, our previous day was quite busy, we could do with a 'day off'. Ok, we're staying.

But then realised that outside, there wasn't a breath of wind. Ok, let's go and see how the day unfolds.

With the expectation of high winds, we topped up the fuel (just so happened to be place where we'd bought the jelly slice the day before - so bought another one mmm). The traffic level on the road we took was quite low, making the journey quite relaxed enough to enjoy our latest book ('The Farmers Wife') and the wonderful/funny town names ...

Patchewollock, Walpeup, Speed, Boinka, Cowangie, Linga, Tutye, Danyo...
We had smoko in Cowangie and found this great info board with some of the town names

 

 



Crossing the Victoria/South Australia border

A sign .. scabby at that! Am I the only person in Australia who thinks that there should be more 'fanfare' associated with crossing a state/territory border?

So much land-clearing for crops

Mind you, we experienced a bit more 'fanfare' at the quarantine stop. I didn't get a photo .. dam .. it was a stop sign on the highway - like roadworks. Quarantine officer came out, and gave us a brochure, we gave her lots more. But, someone has to do the job.

We replenished our supplies at Woolies today. There's another story .. SA banned plastic shopping bags - forgot about that - but you can buy a plastic bag for 15 cents. Dam .. now we'll have to buy garbage bags.

We're staying at Waikerie, a small rural town in the Riverland region on the south bank of the Murray River.  From here, we travel to Gluepot Reserve for a bit of bush camping and twitching. Guess what .. it rained today :)  Never mind, it's supposed to fine up again tomorrow. They need the rain here.

Saturday, 27th April ~ Ouyen, Vic

Where in the world are you now I hear you ask? And why Ouyen?

Ouyen is situated on the crossroads of the Calder Highway (Melbourne-Mildura) and the Mallee Highway (Sydney-Adelaide). It's 110km south of Muldura. But, I'm a visual person, so here's a map to help you place us.

And of course, it's all about a bird. You may remember that we were after the Mallee Fowl. It's another score for us ! A big score you could say ... We saw these Big Mallee Fowls in Patchewollock. (I know, rolls off the tongue doesn't it?)

 

We've been quite excited to read how many, and how often, people were seeing the Mallee Fowl. And now we were actually in the area to have our chance.

Our 'contacts' told us to be in the area to see these shy birds between 4-5.30pm. We found ourselves on the road travelling to the caravan park at 12.30, thinking oh well, here's where we need to come back to later this arvee. But lo and behold, our luck shined, and we saw one on the side of the road. We slowed and even managed to get a photo of him walking away into the bush (it's the most common photos you'll see). We didn't see that he/she had a watch to know that it wasn't the right time to be seen.

Proudly, we set off for the caravan park again. Only to be slowed down again, by not one, but two birds!! Very exciting. Didn't get a photo .. ah well. Again, off to the caravan park. On checking in, the lady said to us, 'have you come to see the Mallee Fowl?' InK said 'yes, and we've just seen three !!'.

We went back later (of course) and found a not-so-shy bird ... happily picking away and totally not worried about us snapping away.

 

Another pose, doing his typical scratching

The other reason we like to stay in Ouyen is because it's a 'stones throw' away from the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. Always a good chance to get a Mallee Emu-wren. He's an elusive, lovely little guy. Bit more 'attractive' than the Mallee Fowl. And we picked him up too.

Ouyen developed around a railway station, which was established in 1906 after the Melbourne to Mildura line was built. Blocks in the area were sold in 1910 and cleared for sheep, wheat, barley and oat production. 

It's the former home of the Great Vanilla Slice Triumph (apparently the home of the Great Vanilla Slice has moved to Mildura). There is a cafe that still makes the vanilla slice, yummy, but when I eyes the cake cabinet and found a jelly slice - there was no competition.

As you can see by the map, we're quite close to South Australia. Might as well go there ... but we'll see how we feel.

Thursday, 25th April ~ Horsham, Vic

ANZAC Day
while we are attending ANZAC Day service in Horsham, Vic
My spirit is with my serving Defence Force family marching today;
Raoul in Sydney and
Anna and Sarah in Nowra
I'm so very proud of them xo

 

 

ANZAC Park in Horsham is on the Wimmera River, a very nice setting for todays service. Here is the guest speaker CDRE Michael Houghton (a Navy theme for the Horsham service) beside the bell from HMAS Horsham.

 

 

Monday, April 22nd ~ Hamilton, Vic

We may have stayed around Port Fairy for another day, but the wind was incredible. As you looked into the distance, it was like fog, the sea spray was so thick. So we headed inland to Hamilton.

In 2010 we were last in Hamilton and because of the wet weather then, were limited to visiting the Art Gallery; The Big Wool Bales, a tribute to the local wool industry which regards Hamilton as the wool capital of the world; and a lot of sightseeing from the car.

This time, we are able to walk around Lake Hamilton and enjoy birdwatching.

You never know, we might pick up the FRECKLED DUCK  !!  Yes, another tick.

But it doesn't stop there, here's a few more ticks ...

Blue-billed Duck

 

Musk Duck 

 

Pink-eared Duck (far right) 

 

Australasian Shoveller

 

 

It is concerning to see the water level low here too, but at least there is still some water for the ducks and birdlife (and us) to enjoy.

 

I think we'll rename Hamilton, we'll call it 'Duck Town' !!

Saturday, April 20th ~ Port Fairy, Vic

Before we left Maryborough, we visited Paddy Ranges National Park and the Sewing Machine Museum.

In Paddy Ranges NP, it was hard to pick an area of 'untouched' ground, ie where the prospectors haven't been. Prospectors with Gold Fever have dug out many divets (thereby creating mounds) everywhere you look, every inch of ground turned over. We kicked around a few rocks and stones, well you never know do you? I've heard of a few random kicks that have yielded a sparkler. Our gold was in the form of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater and Golden Whistler ~ pure gold for us.

Quite the contrast then, to head to the Sewing Machine Museum. But how could a 'craftee' miss the opportunity?  The museum is housed in the old Maryborough Flour Mill building, in itself, a nice piece of history. I don't know how many sewing machines and associated stuff we looked at, but I loved it.

I'd almost forgotten about my ol' Singer treadle machine. (Yeah, Mum & Dad, what happened to my first?)

And I'd quite forgotton about the coloured cams. (The round piece of plastic with bumps around the circumference. When the cam is inserted in the sewing machine, the "bumps" make the needle move left or right to form decorative stitches. Each different cam makes the sewing machine form one specific decorative stitch.)

But then the wind came up, blowing quite strongly and we raced back to the van to ensure Mary Poppins didn't have her eye on our place. Thankfully, all was in place, so we hunkered down for the afternoon, and played our first game of Travel Scrabble and studied the map to see where this wind would take us next.

Thankfully, the wind eased for our trip out of Maryborough, heading towards (maybe) Port Fairy. The plan was to stop at Lake Goldsmith and Slater Lakes for a spot of birdwatching and stop for the night somewhere (not necessarily Port Fairy, but that general direction). But, Mother Nature had other plans. I was driving and my navigator was madly switching map to map, because according to his maps, we should be seeing the lake off to the right. Instead, we could see a large, flat, bare space of ground, not a skerick of water. ummmm, how bad is that? While we were experiencing rain, you think rain is falling mostly everywhere, but not so. Here before us was this dry, very dry, area. It was quite deflating for us. What can you do? We drove on, to the next lake. But it was the same story .. duh. So (sadly) we drove on. And before we knew it, we were in Port Fairy. Nice to see the ocean again.

The wind was still blowing, but we put the awning out a little way anyway and sat down to lunch (yes, even after our seemingly slow day, we were in Port Fairy by lunch). After lunch, we took in the awning, it was just too windy.

After a rest, we headed out to the information centre and a bit of sightseeing (including birdwatching of course). Surprise, surprise, it was a bit windy for the birds. But we rugged up and ventured out around Griffiths Island to see the Shearwater Colony.

The adults have recently left the colony now, leaving their young to fend for themselves (or die). We saw so many carcasses and one poor thing 'surfing' in the ocean, trying to fly, but not quite sure what he was doing. The walk around the island takes about an hour - some path to the beach, then some beach walking ~ great exercise.

And saw the lighthouse (built in 1859)

While we were wandering around the streets of Port Fairy, we noticed in the shop windows, buckets of yo-yos (you know the biscuits), all sizes, mini yo-yos, normal sized yo-yos. Seems to be the trend here, not cup cakes like everywhere else. We saw them again today at the Farmers Market (Saturday). YUMMY !!

We finished the day with a Kelp Gull (a bit special because he comes from a restricted geographical area). He brings our trip bird count to 223!

 

Not too far away from the Kelp Gull were a few Crested Terns...

 

Moving on tomorrow, time for our Driver/Navigator meeting.

 



Wednesday, 17th April ~ Maryborough, Vic (part 2)

SCORE !!  Thank you to Gary Oliver and directions to the Chestnut-rumped Heath Wren.

We had tried for the 'little brown bugger' just before leaving Castlemaine, but dipped.

Gary rang Ivor all excited, after reading the 'post' on the bird database. Excited that we ticked the Swift Parrott and also that we're 'just down the road'. So we relocated a whole 50km to Maryborough to have dinner with Gary and Glenda.

There's a story to how we met Gary (and Glenda). Back in October, 2010 while in Cooktown we noticed a fellow birdwatcher. Got to talking (as you do) and learned that he was on a 'mission' to photograph as many birds as he could in 12 months and tell the story (publish a book, maybe). Ivor gave some advice and pointed him in a few directions to assist with his quest. We also exchanged contact details, you never know, maybe we'd catch up somewhere ? We also signed up to his blog ~ Goliver's travels ~ love it!  Fast forward and the book is published ~ we bought it ! 

So, there you go, you never know.

Like Castlemaine, Maryborough is linked to gold mining history and a number of impressive buildings still stand including the post office and railway station.

The caravan park we're in is beside Lake Victoria which was 'dug out' by 'residents' of the goal last century.

Our next target bird is the Freckled Duck and a bit further along the track is the Mallee Fowl.  No rush though, we're getting a bit used to slowing down.

Wednesday, 17th April ~ Maryborough, Vic (part 1)

SCORE !! we ticked the Swift Parrott!! Thank you to Deb Worland and her camera to capture our target bird. The Swift Parrotts 'hang out' with Musk Lorikeets. At any other time, we'd be so happy to see a Musk, but as we were after a Swifty, we became a little complacent .. ahem..  and we may have been overheard saying, 'Dam, another Musk Lorikeet!'.  But right on time, well a little late, (should have been about 9am, but perhaps they were caught up somewhere, at 9.10am) they flew in.

I caught a rainbow with my camera ~

We are into Gold Country. There's a lot of gold history starting from the mid-1800's. Town after town (and they just about all join together in Victoria) has links to the gold mining history. As the boom time died down, Castlemaine thrived on with its agriculture, art and tourism.

As you drive around, I love seeing the monuments and different housing and building styles.

 

On to Maryborough next, where we'll be meeting up with Gary Oliver to talk about where to find the Chestnut-rumped Heath Wren. I reckon we're on a roll.

Saturday, 14th April ~ Castlemaine, Vic

Bye, bye Kate, Adrian, James & Ben and Melbourne. Thanks for having us. We've taken away a layer of lifetime memories, fun times and created some more layers of 'getting to know you all'. Very special times.

It was time for a bit of 'housekeeping' ~ servicing of car and caravan. We've been to Toyota Essendon in the past, so went back again. This time, we encountered the 'aircraft crossing in action'. Now that's something you don't see everyday. (For the caravan, we found a guy to come to the house .. very handy for us.)

 

Here are some other views around Melbourne...

 

 

 

The Southern Cross Wheel (out of action) but due to operate again later this year.

 

 

We've noticed that there are more and more cyclists or cars transporting bicycles so that they can cycle.  

Hah, no, we've not seen this many, but we have seen multiples usually two or three.

 

We've also noticed more and more caravans on the road. And as we sit here in our van in Castlemaine, we've watched four caravans roll and it's only 1.30pm !!

 

Our trip bird count so far is 199 and we've made contact with Debbie Worland who is the Swift Parrot guru. Castlemaine should yield us our Swift Parrot, pushing our count over 200 !! (101 species in Victoria).

 

 





Sunday, 7th April ~ Melbourne, Vic

Meanwhile back at Camp Mercedes ... where we're receiving loads of TLC ...

The girls had a bit of escape time on Saturday and loved the markets in Brunswick. A quick coffee before heading in ...

This guy loves his job directing people into the Rose Street Artist Market, just a 'natural born advertiser'

 

Inside the market - so many talented people. 

 

 

Outside the market; art on wall and art on people



 

 

And finished the day with the chef showing off with one of his yummy Raan Lamb dishes. (He can show off anytime he likes :)  .)

 

 

Sunday, we headed out to Pykes Creek Reservoir for a bit of boating.

 

Taking ourselves off the motorway for a more scenic route through Bacchus Marsh, here is 'The Avenue of Honour'.

 

Pumpkins anyone?

 

 

Such a beautiful day to try out the boat...

 

 

It may have been a 'little' windy ..
and while we had sausages (and left over Raan Lamb)


I made friends with these boys who were cooking up rather a large yummy feast! Not one, but three prongs of chicken shish kabab; and one huge souvlaki sausage thingee that looked rather strange, but I'm sure would have tasted yummy.

As we were leaving, more of their friends rolled in to share the feast.

What a great day, all in bed early tonight (extra early) because daylight saving is over !!  Just when we got used to it too.