Muirs on the move 13.4.11

Point Lowly out of Whyalla. Lovely place although as we came along the side of a massive gas refinery I did wonder where we were going to stay and what we were going to find.
What we found was a free camp spot on either side of the point, toilet, showers (all be it cold) and great views and a children's playground.We chose to stay on the boat ramp side, but quickly learnt that it gets very busy around there. Not to mention there is an up coming snapper fishing comp coming up so every angler from miles away are converging to get out and find where the fish are to mark in their GPS for the big day.
The boat ramp has a break water so boat launch and retrieval is fuss free. We wont be launching to windy and not enough time, plus the amount of people now arriving to camp makes us think we will only stay the night.

We went for a walk around the point a little further where we discovered the Point Lowly lighthouse built in 1883, she is a ripper. Although still working she hasn't been manned since the mid 70's. We saw a seal and for the first time, really paused and realised we where now on holidays.
The kids rode bikes all afternoon and enjoyed all the boat action. Plenty of professional fisherman work out of this area, so John and the boys walked up and down the jetty's talking to them all.

The gas refinery was really a sight to see, especially at night when it was all lit up.It seems to provide an enormous amount of employment for the area, as we discovered after John stopped to chat with a local.

Muirs on the move 11.4-12.4.2011

Today we drove through to a gorgeous South Australian town called Cadell. Really not alot here, however we did find a great place to camp and at bargain rates. We stayed at the footy ground, power, water, clean amenities, and a free washing machine all on the Murray river. The place was clean and quiet.
When checking in at the local milkbar found they where selling huge pumpkins for 50 cents each, now who could walk away from a deal like that empty handed. The cost for the night $14.00 BARGAIN.

We again had a camp fire and had a visit from a gorgeous owl who had flown in to say hello.

We left Cadell headed towards Morgan via the FREE Cadell river ferry. The kids and I must say John and I really enjoyed it, the views up and down the river where fantastic. The effects of floods in Qld could be seen as the water has made it's way down into SA and the river was so high that it had taken in the surrounding picnic areas and most of what was river banks. You could see just the very top of gazebos way out in the water.

We continued on through to the gorgeous old minning town of Burra. I could have walked around the streets here taking in the history all day. Time however only allowed for a quick refuelling of the car.

Leaving Burra, having felt that I have managed to take in everything I could from the road in and out, we headed off to the town of Peterborough. The road inbetween the 2 towns had the most wind turbines I have ever seen in my life.

This is the welcome into Peterbourough, the kids where seemingly impressed, we continued our drive onto Point Lowly as that was our next camp spot and after the amount of kilometers we have travelled today we are all, very ready to be there!

Today we finally hit the road

Who would have thought after all the time put into planning and preparation I would be nervous as we drive out of the drive way at Doug and Veronica's. We have said our goodbyes and with best intentions to have been on the road by 9am its now 10am. (whats 1 hour in the scheme of things though). Inverloch gave us a parting gift of light drizzle and as we headed Melbourne bound the sun began to shine. John and I look each other and with awkward smiles, I say " can you believe we are finally doing this?" He just looked at me smiled bigger and said "no".
Our first stop was as close as Bass, We needed fuel and alot of it. The price was so good we filled up till nearly over flowing, from there we journeyed through to Tooradin with some extra last minute goodbyes. Mum, Val, Jo and the kids where all there for last hugs. They say a quick goodbye is a good goodbye so we hit the road again wishing that we could pack all the people we love so much in the van and pull them out for hugs when we need them.
Shortly after that again we found ourselves stopping for the last of our goodbyes. We pulled into a pub at Berwick to find an already bawling Sarah, Alec and Will waving at us enthusiastically. Wow what a sight and I had done so well not to let anyone see me cry till this point. I took a deep breath and got out all smiles had my hugs and said see ya, this time we were off and we weren't stopping till well over the other side of the city.
Good old Citilink had roadworks so after a detour we where headed to Bendigo, not the greatest start as we then missed our turn and had to take the long way around to Bridgewater. Never the less we did get to Bridgewater safely, stopping for a late lunch and a cuppa.

The kids played on huge gravel mounds and checked out the nearby creek, whilst I organised the food side of things. We hit the road again, stopping this time in Kerang, the service station was on the corner of Muir ave so we just had to take a photo. I mean what an honor they named a street after us LOL. Full tank of fuel on board again and we where off, this time headed to Swan Hill. We had to do the stop in and see the Huge mighty Murray cod, it would have been un Australian not to. The kids thought it was great, they hopped in his mouth and we took some photos. It was nearly dark so we needed to get a wriggle on to our first over night stop on our big adventure Nyah only a few more kilometers up the road.

What a fantastic camp spot, behind the harness racing club on the banks of the Murray river. Had  a great camp fire, the only downfall, a very cheap and noisy generator running in the next camp.