What a difference a few kilometres make... from a coffee stop north of Port Augusta in the red dust and views across flat plains with the silhouette of the dry and barren Flinders Ranges... to just 15 minutes south of Port Augusta as we turned off the main highway and up over Horrocks Pass. Suddenly green rolling hills... a great sight after so much red and dust (love the red and dust, but so good to see green again).
Seemingly a world away from the outback but in reality the difference between our morning coffee stop and our lunch break we came upon a gem of a town, called Wilmington. Literally a colourful welcome into town... this piece of art was painted by a 15 year old boy...
We had a look around town, and like many country towns it has some cute old buildings, some still well used, some looking a little ramshackle, both full of character and a story or two to tell.
Wilmington also had a couple of other surprises up its sleeve... a toy museum and just up the road a puppet and marionette museum... One looked really inviting on the outside, the other, well not so inviting you could say... judge for yourself:
Then there was the recount of our childhoods with the following puppets: Rupert Bear, Lamb Chop, Basil Brush, Dougal and Brian the Snail from the Magic Roundabout, Thunderbirds and who could forget, Sooty and Sweep!
We went into the visually more appealing from the outside toy museum, and yes it was okay, another trip down memory lane, but without an enthusiastic owner to show us around and with their collection covered in more dust than our caravan after a month in the outback... well let's say we much preferred the puppet museum.
From Wilmington we drove another 88 km's to Peterborough where we planned to stay two nights. Checked into the nice caravan park and from our front window had views over the countryside.
Peterborough exists because of the railway - it is where three different gauges met and became a transit point, a maintenance depot and a thriving place in the days of the railway. Of course, all that is gone now. The Indian Pacific passes through but does not stop a couple of times a week, goods trains pass through, but the train yards, roundhouse and turntable are now a museum.
There are four roads in / out of Peterborough and each is marked with a brilliant train themed sign...
The caravan park also had its own, smaller train welcome...
There were plenty of grand old buildings in town...
This small statue is of 'Bob the Rail Dog'... in memory of a stray dog that was adopted by the railways and he was seen travelling all over the place on different trains and in distant cities and towns as he enjoyed his train obsession...
This mural was on the side of a building in the main street... I instantly thought about the classic Moving Pictures song 'What About Me?'.... So I posed Ethan in the pic for the first verse:
Well there's a little boy waiting at the counter of the corner shop
He's been waiting down there, waiting half the day,
They never ever see him from the top
He gets pushed around, knocked to the ground,
He gets to his feet and he says
He's been waiting down there, waiting half the day,
They never ever see him from the top
He gets pushed around, knocked to the ground,
He gets to his feet and he says
What about me? It isn't fair
I've had enough, now I want my share
Can't you see, I want to live
But you just take more than you give
The good people of Peterborough have done an amazing job of converting the old rail works / round house and turntable into a great museum. We opted for the day tour and the evening light and sound show. Rather than bore you with words... enjoy these pictures:I've had enough, now I want my share
Can't you see, I want to live
But you just take more than you give
About 20 km's from Peterborough is Terowie - also an important rail town. But unlike Peterborough it has become a virtual ghost town of late. It made a fascinating place to spend an hour or two wandering around:
This goat plus a French family were the only signs of intelligent life in Terowie. I don't know the goats story, but the French family had booked a week in a cottage not exactly knowing where it was!
Moving on from the Peterborough region we drove through Burra. A famous town based on its copper mines, we had stayed there a few years ago, so the only stop we did was at the iconic 'Midnight Oil' house just out of town.
Next it was the Riverland of South Australia. At Morgan we stopped by the mighty Murray River. Made a note to ourselves that this would make a great spot to spend a week...
We saw the Murray Princess paddle her way through - apparently it only happens once a month, so that was pretty lucky. Pretty lucky also that we did not spend too long at the craft shop...
After Morgan we headed through a couple of other Riverland towns including Loxton before heading south to Pinnaroo and hanging a left onto the Mallee Hwy. It is there that we crossed the Victorian border!
Not far from the border, we decided to stay in the little town of Murrayville. It has a great little van park that is cheap, clean, simple and is highly rated on Wikicamps, so we decided to spend the night. Looking around town chasing a couple of geocaches we found a paddock of irony...
Pun intended... some rusting iron tanks (of the war variety), surrounded by colourful flowers (of the peace variety)... so a little bit of war and peace in the far west of Victoria.
We decided to celebrate returning to our home state by eating at the local pub.
Zac loves his Guiness, I mean sugar free coke...
Quite often the last few days of a road trip like the one we've been on are a bit of an anti-climax, it is all about getting home and not so much the journey anymore. As I write this, tomorrow morning we embark on the last leg and head for home. The past couple of days have been just as exciting as the rest of the trip... but you'll have to wait til we are home and I do a final update to fill you in.
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