Monarto to Murray Bridge, and on to Milang

Gazelles at Monarto Wildlife Park ... probably heading off to a feeding point. It's getting along to mid-late
afternoon, and we're starting to think about afternoon tea ourselves!

A zebra heads determinedly along a guide fence ... tea, anyone?!

Prezwalski's horse: almost extinct in the wild, and thriving at Monarto.

American bison against a backdrop of native Australian trees -- how surreal is this! Cool, though.

American buffalo ... molting in an Australian fall. How do they manage the Aussie summer??

Monarto's white rhino snoozes the afternoon away in his corral...

...from the bus, which makes its way through these vast paddocks filled with antelope, giraffes, ostrich...
and if you keep a sharp eye out you'll see kangaroos in the distance!

Leaving Monarto, you exit via the gallery and store, which has touch-friendly exhibits...

And we're off on the road to Murray Bridge, hoping for afternoon tea.

Murray Bridge -- Mobilong Precinct, above the wharf...

Parklands along the river ... where we stopped for a picnic, since no place in town was open for a decent meal!
Bizarre as it sounds, every restaurant and pub stops serving at 2:00pm and doesn't reopen till 6:00.

Galahs (often known overseas as rose-breasted cockatoos) cavorting in the tree over our picnic spot...

...powerboats and water-skiers zipped up and down on the river, and a family of noisy miners cadged for crumbs.

The afternoon sun was lowering as we headed for Milang, where we were booked in at our usual --
the Milang Lakes Motel, our favorite place to stay on Lake Alexandrina.

It's a picturesque drive, especially in good weather. Often, the skies darken as you approach Milang, but
this time we were lucky ... blue skies all the way.

A strong wing raises whitecaps on Lake Alexandrina, on the way into town...

An Australian magpie stands beak-to-the-wind under a racing windlass.

Lake Alexandrina -- the lakeshore. Actually, a shot borrowed from another day, as you can tell from the
calm lake surface and the lovely sky. Confession: after Monarto, I was dead tired and ready for a rest at the motel! 

Milang: Paddle Steamer Drive, seen across the wetlands -- again, borrowed from another day.

And Milang: the bird sanctuary. Should be called a FROG sanctuary! Dang, those guys are loud at night.

The main thought in our minds as we left the Monarto Wildlife Park was FOOD. We'd intended to head to Murray Bridge for something like a very late lunch or very early dinner, but plans were upturned by the fact that every restaurant or pub in town was no longer serving. They close the kitchen at 2:00pm and don't reopen till 6:00, so we were out of luck, unless we wanted fast food, which we didn't.

The solution was a somewhat on-the-fly picnic, in the parklands by the river. Wouldn't you know it? Usually we go out loaded (and bring back 90% of the food). This time we'd intended to go "cafe to cafe," so we hadn't over-packed. But enough was in the cooler to put something together, and we didn't exactly starve.

Then, on to Milang as a strong wind began to crank. The lake was energetic with whitecaps, and we guessed it would be cold later. But what got our hopes up was the clear blue sky. For the first time in many years, you'd see stars tonight. And Milang is so far from any town that the skies there are DARK ... we were longing to see the Milky Way, and were not disappointed.

We put on as many layers as we could and went out at about 10:30pm. Aha! The sky was blazing. You can walk out of town in 90 seconds, and we did. The whole galaxy arched overhead like something out of a movie. Gorgeous! But there was no way to photograph it ... not with "compact" cameras. One of these days we'll go back with a full-on digital SLR and see what can be done.

Next: the lake in the morning light, waterbirds galore, and off to Wellington for breakfast.

Riverlands 2014, Part Six: wine by the truckload, the world's biggest sheep, and one amazing sunset

Loxton, on South Australia's Murray River, is a wine region producing an amazing volumes as well as
some really wonderful wines... 

Dave checks out the visitor information. As the sign says, "Welcome to Loxton" --!

Everywhere you look, it's tanks of wine ... and watch out for trucks crossing!

Wineries also frequently offer restaurants, cafes and accommodation ... makes it just too easy.
Now, if we could only remember which this one is! Pretty, at any rate.

But the time really had come to turn for home, point the Mitsubishi Magna called Lola toward Adelaide
and put the foot down. Heading west from Loxton on the Karoonda Highway, you run into wheat country...

...and the road is a rollercoaster. It was laid down on ancient dunes -- this whole area was once (in geological terms)
the bottom of the sea, and later a desert like the Sahara. The road shows that wave-pattern of dunes...

...as it takes you to (!) Karoonda, on its way from Berri to Murray Bridge. Now, those are grain silos.

Karoonda has quite a history -- perfectly readable here, if you view this image at large size --

-- and also, Karoonda boasts probably the biggest sheep in the world ... concrete, of course! He's HUGE --
known as "the Big Ram" for obvious reasons. It's a tribute to the Merino sheep which made this region prosperous.

Wall art depicts something of Karoonda's past -- neat. (Actually, this graces the west wall of
the public facilities! Neat bathrooms, too ... and halfway from Loxton to Murray bridge, very welcome!)

One of the enormous windlass sails -- these devices played a major part in opening up this country.
As the sign there says, "No wind, no water, no life." Very, very true.

Main street Karoonda ... and at this time on a Sunday evening, almost everything is closed. The pub's open...

Back on the road, we're headed almost due west into the the rapidly-lowering sun...

A beautiful evening, maybe half an hour east of Murray Bridge ...
shot from the side window, at 100kph, hence the movement-blur in the foreground.

Back in Murray Bridge at last, as evening begins to settle down over the hills...

Tail lights gleam in the twilight on the Southeastern Freeway. Headed for home: looks like it'll be a lovely sunset.

Sunset -- perfect conditions! Grab the camera. All these images were captured (by Jade ... Dave was
driving). We didn't even have to pull over. Check out those "god rays."

It's amazing what you can do in two days, if you make an early start and get home late. Looking back over this series of posts, we're astonished ... we packed in a lot. This last post covers just the final few hours as we finally turned for home -- in Loxton. We put the trusty Mitsubishi Magna on the Karoonda Highway to Murray Bridge, through the region known as "the Murray Mallee," and settled in for the long haul.

Halfway back to Murray Bridge you can take a welcome break in the rural town of Karoonda, which is not-quite-world-famous, but a most pleasant community ... with arguably the biggest concrete sheep in the world. "The Big Ram" is a masterpiece statue done as a tribute to the Merino sheep that made this region prosperous in the early 1950s. If you're interested, view the info panel, above, at full-size: it's perfectly readable. (Traveling around, one can be inundated with these pages of history, and Jade usually photographs them to read later. Sometimes there's the makings of a major novel in them -- like the story of the mines in Burra.)

The shadows were long and it was actually getting quite chilly as we left Karoonda with far to go. We knew we'd be getting home after dark, but there was one more treat in store: a thoroughly spectacular sunset, which was photographed from the road at 110kph -- Jade with the camera, Dave driving, obviously. Not too long after the last shot was captured, we pulled into our driveway, home again, home again, too tired to do the jigging part.

Apologies to all that it's taken so long to get these posts up. It's been an "interesting" year. These last episodes are being uploaded after the 2015 road trip -- in fact, as soon as the quick-list for this one is done, Jade will be starting on the next: lions and lakes, bison and barrages, fall colors and fur seals, and the place where photography meets art when the sun rises over Milang. It was a lot of fun, about one month ago at the time of this writing.

Riverlands 2014, Part Two: Murray Bridge to Blanchetown

This is where we're headed, as we leave Murray Bridge after lunch on the riverboat Captain Proud; but --

It'll be a long drive as the afternoon shadows begin to lengthen over the roar to Mannum.

Mannum itself -- across the river. We didn't stop -- there's too many miles ahead of us ...

...as the road sign shows. We're booked in a cabin at Blanchetown for the night, 108 K's away.

Foot down on the loud pedal -- headed for Swan Reach now.

Along the road to Swan Reach, you're wanting to stop every few K's,
as the scenery becomes more beautiful along the river --

-- but don't scramble too close to the bank in search of that photo!

The views from Len Kroehn's Lookout are superb.

Lola takes a breather, not far from the tiny town of Nildottie.

A typically South Australian landscape, just a few K's from Nildottie

The Murray River has sustained life in South Australia since the earliest years of the colony.

A houseboat is tucked in at the bank of the Murray River very close to Nildottie.
Now, these guys have the right idea! And you can rent these houseboats. Hmmm...!

Back on the road, we're headed for Blanchetown --

-- more or less following the river and looking forward to dinner!

Houseboats cluster along the riverbank at Blanchetown --

-- as evening light falls over the wetlands. With the car unpacked, we took a stroll...

Swamp hens thrive in these lush wetlands...

A songbird was in full voice as these pictures were taken -- not a bird you'd hear closer to Adelaide,
and we have no idea what it was. Never caught a glimpse of it, sadly.

Photography meets art ... nice. Difficult exposure in the low light ...
and I'd switched to the tiny Nikon CoolPix picket camera.

Evening settles over the river, and we're ready for dinner and some sleep. We'll have a
very early start tomorrow, if we're to stick to schedule.

Dawn breaks over the River Murray at Blanchetown --

And you can tell with one glance at that sky, the weather is changing. It always does on these trips!

Houseboats in the dawn light, under a lowering sky ... and the river is busy with pelicans. You can see
them at lower right -- view this image at full size.

Kookaburras were cackling in the pink of the dawn as we headed back to the cabin...

We had one eye on that sky, wondering what might be coming up!

Sure enough, a weather front headed in as we made tracks for Morgan, in search of breakfast.

Main street Morgan -- and very good bacon and egg rolls!

From Murray Bridge to Blanchetown is a fairly long drive and, admittedly, we stopped numerous times for pictures. The late afternoon light was golden and the silence was profound over a landscape where tiny towns are strung like beads on a necklace, along the river.

The Murray River is quite something ... the third longest navigable river in the world (only the Amazon and Nile are longer), and over 2,500 K's in length, from the point where it rises in the Kosciusco National Park to its outfall at Goolwa -- and over 1,800 K's of this can be navigated. The river provides water to something like a million and a half households, via the third largest catchment system on the planet.

We've wanted to see every part of the river in South Australia, from the point where it crosses the border into this state, to the outfall. Well ... we've seen 95% of it, but the furthest reach, right on the state border, continues to elude us. Another year, for sure.

After the lunch cruise on the Captain Proud we headed out of Murray bridge with the intention of "making the plot up as we went along." Good plan! Evening found us checking into one of the town's two tourist parks. A stroll in the wetlands, dinner ... sleeeep! The night was almost silent, save for the roar of heavy trucks crossing the road bridge over the river, carrying freight to Adelaide.

We'd hoped for a spectacular sunrise, but the pictures above show just what happened. No colors! A flush of faint pink, and then a slow fade up into daylight. Dang. Next time. We packed the car and got out of dodge early, with the object in mind of hunting up breakfast in Morgan, along the river...

And that's where we'll be in the next post.