Week one of our trip has taken us from Canberra to McLaren Vale with overnight stops at Hay, Lake Mungo National Park and Murray Bridge. We’re travelling in the Hiace campervan and not the X-Trail and campertrailer, thanks to some gale force winds, which is a good thing. The enforced closeness in the Hiace is an enriching experience, isn’t it Jen? There haven’t been any “camping holiday” moments at all.
We got off to a flying start and being very conscious of the dangers of driver fatigue our first Stop, Revive, Survive coffee break was Yass. We eventually made it to Hay for the first night where much to Barbie’s disappointment we had no TV reception and therefore no Tour De France coverage (I wasn’t impressed by her sour mood that night – the Tour De France is not the be all and end all Barbie!).
Night two and the next day saw us at Lake Mungo National Park. The drive in and out was spectacular. It might look like flat, desolate, salt bush country and nothing more from the car, but the plant and birdlife when we stopped and looked around was beautiful. There was no TripleJ reception on the radio but we didn’t need it. Aural entertainment for the 200km of dirt roads we travelled was provided by the sounds of the crockery and cutlery in the back of the van crashing and breaking.
Lake Mungo was the venue for two field trips for me 30 years ago. The first was a Year 12 Archaeology field trip, the second a Uni Geomorphology field trip. Both trips live very large in my memory and both were quite instrumental in germinating the seed that became who I am today. Both trips also introduced me to the experience of drinking alcohol without adult supervision (yes, I was a very late starter) – when I say without adult supervision, I don’t mean to imply that adults weren’t present, because they were. Perhaps they were supervising and the teaching technique they employed was to allow us, blossoming adults that we were, to discover the unpleasantness of alcoholic poisoning for ourselves. Thanks to trip two, to this day I cannot even smell ouzo without my stomach somersaulting several times. Anyway, Mungo was fabulous. Seeing the woolshed, shearers quarters and the Walls of China where we were involved in an archaeological dig brought back so many wonderful memories.
Murray Bridge was night three where we stayed in the same caravan park that I stayed in back in January when I came over to Adelaide for the Tour Down Under. The lady running the park remembered me from January but thought I was in the office as the husband of the 70 something women registering in front of me. One of us walked out of the office that evening with a spring in our step and feeling quite flattered and one of us didn’t!
And now we’re in a beautiful caravan park in McLaren Vale surrounded by vineyards. We’ll base ourselves here for the next 4 or 5 days and sample the various wineries and cafes in the district. There’s also a number of bike rides we can do from here, one of which Jenny has just set out on that will take her down to the beaches. I’m about to do part of the Tour Down Under Stage 5 route and climb Wilunga Hill again to work off some of the pies, pastries, red wine and local beers I’ve been indulging in over the last few days. Not sure that my level of fitness has been sustained since we left Canberra really, so this could be interesting.