My big trip to South Australia (photos!)

[vat_man]

Okay, finally got a chance to flick through my photos of my big road trip last weekend. To give you an idea of where we were I did a map...

 

[vat_man]

Okay, this first series of shots are at Renmark, a reasonable sized town about 30 km or so from where we were staying.

 

[vat_man]

That first shot is of the Murray River. This is one of the pub (of course).

 

[vat_man]

...and the cheap laugh of the morning - check the Pelican lined up for lunch....why doesn't it just eat a seagull?

 

[vat_man]

Okay, so on to Moorook, where we were staying. It was a little two bedroom cottage, part of an orange orchard. This is the view of the cottage from the road.

 

[vat_man]

D'oh!

 

[vat_man]

..now the view from the front deck...

 

[vat_man]

..and the big blue super Sube nestled between the cottage and the orange trees...

 

[vat_man]

Okay, now to the salubrious surroundings of Moorook. This is the view south along the main road. I went to get the paper at 9.30am and saw four people - which included my partner, the guy at the shop, some guy in his front yard, and a ute that drove past. Bit different to Sydney!

 

[vat_man]

..and the view north out of town...

 

[vat_man]

...Moorook sits on the same river as Renmark, the mighty Murray. Took some shots - this one is the view to the south.

 

[vat_man]

Another shot looking south - there's an island thats splits the river here...

 

[vat_man]

..and now the view north...

 

[vat_man]

Here's a cormorant (I think). I forgot these birds swim underwater - after I took this shot I tried to get closer and the little bugger disappeared under the water, and turned up about 90 seconds later about 100 metres away!

 

[Shannon]

Nice pics. I'm getting the feeling that that isn't all.

 

[vat_man]

So, now to my cousin's place - he's got about 8 acres there, was a vineyard MANY years ago, just low salt scrub now.

So, when you're a truckie with 8 acres, you tend to collect a lot of wrecks - the air's very dry here, so things take a long time to rust...

 

[vat_man]

..and so it goes...

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by vat_man
..and so it goes...

 

[vat_man]

...and goes...

 

[vat_man]

...and the compulsory windmill and watertank...

 

[vat_man]

...and his neat little projects - a Ford V8 sedan. He has an old REO truck parked behind that which is used as his 'pick up'!

 

[vat_man]

...and to finish, some shots from lunch with my partner, on my birthday, at Banrock Station. They run a winery here, but have also done a lot of conservation work on the nearby wetlands.

This is a view from the decking at the main building...

 

[vat_man]

...and back the other way...

 

[vat_man]

...view back towards the building from the other side of the vineyard

 

[vat_man]

....view of some non-descript scrub. Apart from soil colour variations, most Australian scrub looks like this.

 

[vat_man]

..quick look at the wetlands...

 

[vat_man]

This is what the inside of the building looks like...

 

[vat_man]

Okay boys, it's been nearly 12 months, so here's your first up close shot of the Vat!

You know, I've had the digital camera for 6 month, taken about 500 photos, and this is the first one of me!!

 

[Jordan]

Great pictures - sure is flat there! It actually reminds me a lot of some parts of California. You look quite a lot like how I always imagined you. How is the weather in that part of Australia these days?

 

[vat_man]

Yeah - very flat. It's actually on the south east edge of the desert, so while it's very clear, it gets cool out there at night.

Weather is generally very dry, and through winter it gets down to around zero overnight, and the days get to around 15-20 degrees. If the wind's up it can be very cool indeed.

This particular area is an old river basin, so the soil's actually pretty good - hence the orange and grape production (there's quite a lot of vineyards in the area).