Renmark to Clare 12th August

Tuesday 12^th August.

We planned to take photos of the sunrise so we left the window blind down in the direction where the sun was to rise. Because we had gone to bed so early we were ready to wake up. Initially not impressive, I decided to clean my teeth before getting my camera out of the car. Greg by this time was up and low and behold a most magnificent display of light and clouds reflecting off the calm of the river. 

Worth getting up for - the sunrise

Murray at day break

It was such a treat that we went nuts taking photos until the sun was very up and the colors gone to reveal the blue sky with a few clouds day – so we kicked our hot water system in the van into play and prepared to have a ‘sailor’s shower’ and go. Coffee time!

 

Lovely big gums around the  Overland area.

On the road again and this time heading toward the Overland Corner and the famous Overland Pub. Highly recommended on all the literature we had read. Unfortunately it opens at 11 and we were there at 10 and didn’t want to hang around so missed the pub. Sadness abounds. Strange though, around the pub must have been a quarry as the rock had been cut into a square. 

The curious carved square with power points everywhere

Walking into the square note the power box on the side.

The overland Pub we never went into as it was shut. Make ya cry!!

Even more interestingly were power boxes with about a dozen or more power points in each. There were about 5 stations of these equally spaced around the square. They must do concerts or performances of sorts as it was very odd indeed. We were dying to find out but we had to go so must make a note to look it up later. The pub itself was very old and I would have been so interested to go inside. Pity that.

Back in the car. It was so cold outside I was almost wearing everything I packed. The wind was just cold. Not a crisp cold like Canberra, more like a Melbourne damp bone aching cold. In spite of the periodically sunny day we hopped back in the car and turned the heater up and headed out toward Morgan.

Morgan was about 50km or thereabouts away. We rolled in to this town in the middle of nowhere and did a lap of the block as we missed the servo the first time. Topped up the car with diesel at a price cheaper than Canberra – but that’s not hard and the challenge is to not pay Canberra price in spite of being in the most remote towns. Its actually not hard. Petrol station owners must be very fat cats indeed.

Anyway, in true Caz style I visited the ladies and when I came out after washing my hands in icy water, a table of locals enjoying coffee invited me to warm my hands over their open fire. Wow how lovely – so I warmed my hands and several other bits of me that were cold and had a brief chat. Greg paid for the fuel and we were off again. This time in the wrong direction so had to turn around. Heading toward the Clare Valley!

The barren saltbush landscape went on for ages and ages and it seemed that nobody would want to live out here – except the original indigenous folk who knew the land as there wasn’t much to offer anyone else. Even sheep were scarce. After a long time though, we came over the town of Burra which I turned off to. It was lunch time and I was starving so pulled up for a quick look about at the town and a sandwich build in the van. The saltbush plains had been converted to lush green fields of crops. Don’t know what that’s why farmers have to put signs up saying what it is they are growing. Its interesting to tourists. I guess they don’t care. Would stop a lot of debate though. Anyway Burra is a very old and interesting town that deserves a good crawl through. Some of the pubs and building were just gorgeous. Quaint little B & B’s were here and there and there were some trendy little cafés which boasted making fabulous coffee and soup. Not that crazy about soup but it was so cold that I could have gone a good bowl of hot anything – soup would have sufficed!

I perused the local IGA and the hardware store for a vegie peeler- seems mine parted company with me last Canberra Caravan and Camping Hash.  Actually the Hashers who kindly lent me a hand would have put it in the camp kitchen cutlery draw not realizing it was mine. I realized it wasn’t there when I went to peel a carrot in the middle of the free camp miles from anywhere. Wasn’t very happy about that and it was a good peeler too!

Not a peeler was to be had in Burra so we left and pressed on toward Clare – the town. I must admit the drive was so pretty except the light was grey not a sun speck to be had and the wind made towing Gibson tricky as he blows lady all over the road as he is so high off the ground. Sounds dirty but its hard to drive!

Coming into Clare and there are just hills and acres upon acres of vineyards. Well you would expect to see that but just fields of them as far as the eye can see. Vines neatly trimmed back to promote growth and the first hint of spring and bud burst. Must have taken people ages to do.

The town of Clare is just so quaint and an absolute nightmare to tow a van. The roads are narrow and the van parking is weird and hard to get in to and out of unless you have a 12 foot pop top. Greg decided he could do a much better job than me so I left him to it to look for a vegie peeler in the shops – a better option in my opinion. Target don’t have them.

Anyway, Greg finished parking the van to perfection and joined me in the main street where we found the tourist information center and collected information on wineries and where to stay. We had decided that it was so miserable that we needed to run the heater so needed power and than meant spending money in a caravan park.

The lady at the tourist information center was really helpful with all things including a kitchen shop which I hastily hot footed over to and ‘praise the lord’ found my vegie peeler. The lady in the shop told me that they were the best and we had a 5 minute conversation about the merits of an effective vegie peeler which my husband nearly rolled his eyes right out of his head.

Victorious and deliriously happy, we went to find the car, and find the caravan park. Freezing to death almost on the way. The wind was icy and quite strong. I didn’t expect this on holiday. I hardly any warm clothes for wearing down the street all my warm clothes are a bit daggy for wearing around the camp fire where nobody sees you and the odd ember burning the fabric of a jacket matters not! So daggy camping lady I felt just like L

The caravan park lady was lovely and clever and as a Top Tourist Park, I am a member so got a discount. She even gave us a drive through spot and I asked for a spot for ‘one night with a possibility of an extension’ which means I write too many CIT requests to advertise. My supervisor might have a laugh about that. We towed Gibson in, leveled up, stayed hitched, plugged and plummed and turned on the heater. It was so cold neither of us wanted to go out again. So we didn’t really – except to use their loos to save ours. Cooked dinner in the van, organized photos, updated the blog and went to bed after drinking a really average red we scrounged in Hay. Tomorrow will be a better day – but boy did we do some miles and get some stuff done. Hooray for us.