"Birding" at Milang, breakfast at Wellington, on a glorious morning

The railway used to come to Milang in the days when this was a busy freight port. The track is disused now...

...the station and remaining cars are a standing exhibit, with Devonshire Ceam Teas serves on Sundays!
You find historic railway exhibits in many rural places, often with a retired steam locomotive.

Main street Milang in the early morning light: the wetlands and lake are on the right...

Milang wetlands; main street is right behind you.

The long jetty, where barges and paddle boats would unload freight. The old crane is still in place.

A brilliant morning on Lake Alexandrina. It'd be a great day for sailing.

The view from the jetty to Paddlesteamer Drive.

Lake Alexandrina -- the shoreline, with Paddlesteamer Drive just ahead. A major caravan park is on the right.

Paddlesteamer Drive in all its glory. For years, Alexandrina Council tried to get rid of these "shacks," but
the folks who live and/or holiday down here are grandfathered in. Well, would you sell out?!

Pelicans next in the reedbeds opposite the shoreline -- see two pictures above.

Gulls, egrets and pelicans gather on the short jetty ... on your doorstep, if you live on Paddle Steamer Drive.

Turn around, look in the other direction: the sky is changing.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s Milang was as busy with trade as today it's drowsy and laid back with
boaties, fisher folk and people like us just staying overnight to share the peace and quiet.

Where you find water, you find gnats, and where you find gnats -- swallows. These are welcome swallows,
common in all coastal and watery areas in South Australia.

Welcome swallows are tiny and rarely sit still. Lucky to get this shot!

Lake Alexandrina is one of the best places in this region for "birders," and especially camera-happy birders. We sometimes try the Goolwa Bird Hide, which is a timber shed with benches and long windows, nestled in the reedbeds just short of the Coorong; but in a half dozen visits we've yet to get really good pictures. The reason is, the water is a long way off, and the birds usually so distant, they're specks in your camera lens.

At Milang, quite a number of birds are not so shy of humans. They'll hang out on the shore and jetties, and it's fairly easy to get good pictures. One of these days I'd like to go to the Bird Hide with a massive 1000mm lens attached to a DSLR camera, on a glorious blue-sky day. But till then, Milang and, just up the shore, Clayton, are the places to be.

The plan was, we'd hit the road early and head over to Wellington for breakfast. And here we go...

The Old Courthouse is exactly that: the original 19th century building that was once used as a lockup and regional
court. Its recently been renovated with B&B rooms added, while the original building houses a museum...

In the middle of the Courthouse facilities was the most fantastic indoor/outdoor courtyard dining facility.
We absolutely loved this ... sad to say, when the building/business changed hands a year or so later, the new
owners redesigned everything. It's not like this any more. Dang. See the sunny archway? Go through it, and --

--you find yourself on the lawns behind the building, with a view of the car ferry. The ferry runs about every ten
minutes, and its free. Across the Murray River is Tailem Bend, and the Duke's Highway.

Above: As you eat breakfast, look out over the river at the flocks of cavorting little corellas which swarm around Wellington by the thousands. Earplugs might be a good idea. These guys are loud even one at a time, and when you get a hundred ... whoa. (Pictures uploaded at full size: click on them to view.)

Back to the courtyard for breakfast, which ought to be just about ready by now --

There's little to add to the picture captions! Milang in the morning light was glorious -- though it was rather cold, which you can't tell from these images. The day warmed up rapidly, however, and by the time we were in Wellington it was almost hot.

The Wellington Courthouse is a great cafe/B&B, with a nice line in breakfasts and a fascinating local history musem. We haven't used the B&B yet, since we always stay about 45 minutes up the road at the Milang Lakes Motel, but we've had breakfast at Wellington Courthouse many times. It's a great place to stop and fuel up for the day before taking the ferry over to Tailem Bend. Must do the B&B there one day.

Today, we were just meandering, and birding. The whole object was to see what species we could find and photograph, and we lucked out on the shore of Lake Alexandrina, as you see above!

After breakfast we were headed for Rusticana at Langhorne Creek, and the Goolwa Barrages, and then we'd swing home in a northbound loop via Mount Compass. One more post will wrap up this trip!

Strathalbyn and points east

The Naracoorte caves, and --

The Coorong ... this is where we'll be. But first, we have to get there!

On the road to Strathalby, and wouldn't you know it? Looks like rain!

A quiet backwater of Strathalbyn, and we're looking for a place to stop for a late breakfast.

St. Andrew's church overlooks  the whole town, with its population of little corellas, or "blue eyed cockatoos." 

Leaving Strathalbyn, headed for the Langhorne region -- on Langhorne Creek Road ...

Salt pans off the roadside by Dog Lake and Boggy Lake, as you run through to Wellington.

What's at Wellington? Well, for a start, the ferry! The only way to cross the Murray River, this side of Murraybridge.

The Wellington ferry runs every 10 or 15 minutes, and is free. Every kind of vehicle crosses the river this way.

A little history, while we wait for the ferry to come back across.

Meanwhile, the ferry is waiting for the dredge! So --

Catch up with the history of the town, and stretch the legs.

Wellington's old courthouse. Not working as a courthouse, now, of course -- 

In fact, a B&B and cafe ... now, there's a thought!

Follow the leader, drive down onto the ferry for the trip across...

Windmills on the Tailem Bend side of the river.

Gentlemen, restart your engines! Drive up off the ferry...

Now, where are we going? Tailem Bend first.

And we seemed to leave the clouds behind as we headed east. By Tailem Bend, the sun was shining.

Tailem Bend used to be a railway town ... an old steam locomotive still stands in the playground. 

We stopped for lunch, got some cool drinks at one of these stores, then --

You pick up the Dukes Highway, head east, and put the foot down!

It's grain country -- the wheat grown here is taken by rail to the flour mill in Strathalbyn --

The railway shadows the road as you head on, through tiny towns spread far apart...

Silos tower beside the road; the railway is just on the other side of these.

And you're sharing the Dukes Highway with some of the biggest trucks on the road, but we were
very impressed by the safety of this road: great visibility and signage.

Ah, a town! Needing a stretch of the legs we stopped here...

Coonalpyn: an agricultural center where fields stretch to the horizon on either side of the road.

Strange, hardy trees, suited to an arid environment, line the road...

And soon enough we're moving again -- next stop, Keith.

The only possible downside to planning these road trips a long way in advance is that when the time comes, you have to take the weather as you find it. We thought we'd "picked it wrong" as we set out: skies were gray and it looked like rain, all the way to Strathalbyn, where we stopped in the park for a late picnic breakfast.

The view of St Andrew's is lovely from any angle, and the little corellas -- "blue eyed cockatoos" -- were swooping and calling everywhere. They're all over Strathalbyn, and Wellington too, nothing the locals can do about them, and why should they? The birds were in these locations before humans arrived!

But the skies cleared as we headed east, and by the time we reached Tailem Bend the sun was shining. Tailem Bend is quite an interesting town, and has a neat page of its own. But we were only stopping for lunch and a cool drink before we tackled the Dukes Highway.

The Dukes is characterized by its "miles and miles of miles and miles." It's a loooong haul from Tailem Bend to Naracoorte, and the tiny towns (blink, and you really will miss them) are spaced far apart, little centers with names like Cook Plains, and Coomandook, Coonaplyn and Culbara, and at last, Tintinara -- a place that doesn't start with a 'C'!

It's all wheat and the railway in this region, and you just have to "lead foot it," and get through ... fortunately the road is wide, visibility is great and the signage is excellent, so it's a safe drive, though it is a long one.

Next stop: Keith, an oasis of green amid the parched summer landscape ... and a Land Rover on a pole ... after which, Naracoorte isn't far away!

• Here's Dave's account of this part of the trip: "Sturt to Strathalbyn," and "Tailem to Keith."