Ballarat to Adelaide & Home

 Sun 24 July – A cold cloudy morning as we shopped and left Ballarat heading out on the Western Hwy. Halfway down the road the cloud lifted, and we broke into sunshine. The country is flat and the road straight. Our overnight stop was at a horse racing track where we camped in the gum trees. We sat outside in the sun reading before it cooled down. Val tried to download books from our Waimak library but there was a problem. Hope we can solve it as we will run out of books shortly!

Mon 25 July – It rained in the night and was torrential as we continued west. Suddenly the skies cleared, and we drove thru Horsham, a large town, and continued on to Dimboola, a tiny country village. We camped at a shire camping ground and walked a track back to the town. Dimboola is on the Wimmera River. These small towns all have great public facilities including, libraries, stadia, swimming pools, sports ground, and parks all paid for by the local shire. Val managed to partially solve our library problem so we have some books that will get us home.

 Tues 26 July – A cool sunny day but with a strong wind blowing. On the way out of Dimboola we stopped at the Pink Salt Lake. We are camped in Bordertown about 20kms into South Australia. This is a different time zone, so we had to wind our clocks back 30 minutes. We want to be close to Tailem Bend for the Supercars starting Friday so have 3 days to get there. As this is a nice town, we will stay an extra night here leaving us one night in a camp close to Tailem Bend. Sheltered by “Andy” we had lunch in the sun and walked a bit of the town. This is the birth place of Bob Hawke, Australia's charismatic Prime Minister.

 Wed 27 July – A lovely sunny morning. We both did a bit of internal cleaning of “Andy”. In the afternoon we walked around the town and around a small lake. Read outside for an hour before coming inside. The camp is starting to fill up.

 Thurs 28 July – Our last fill of diesel for this trip!! Drove west, stopping at a small town for the last of our food, before our overnight camp at Coonalpyn, a free shire camp. A heavy drizzle has set in. In a break (we thought) we walked out to some huge silo art featuring 5 local school children. Unfortunately, we miss read the rain and got soaked.

Fri 29 July – A 45-minute drive to our camp at Tailem Bend for our Supercar weekend. The friendly staff booked us in remembering getting Val’s pleading email for a powered site! Tailem Bend town is just up the road. The bend in the name refers to a bend in a Murray River. The camp is full of like-minded motorsport fans. Only a short walk (500m) to the raceway where we spent some time wandering around the supercar pits. The semi-trailers are very impressive! We walked along the main straight to a grandstand at the end. We will not have access to this stand tomorrow. All the support classes were either practicing or qualifying. The track is quite large (4.95kms) but it is easy to walk to many vantage points. There is also a free bus circulating around. We sorted out some good spots for tomorrow for the first of three supercar races. There is also camping at the raceway but is dearer and there is no power. Frost forecast for tonight. Back at our camp by 3:30pm.

Sat 30 July – All organised with a packed lunch, warm clothes and our chairs, we walked to the track by 9:30am. We set up our chairs in front of the grandstand at the end of the front straight where we have a great view of 5 corners and saw plenty of action. We were in time to see the first practice session for the Supercars. There are 5 other support classes racing, Historic Touring Cars, Aussie Racing cars, Sports sedans, V8 Superutes, and Porsche Carreras competing this weekend. There is also track entertainment, Drift cars, aerobatic planes, 4WD dirt trucks, and even dancing girls in any down time. After the practice session we walked back to the pits for another look. This venue is unique letting the public have access to many areas not available on other tracks. We crossed thru a tunnel to the infield and saw more of the circuit. Back over an overbridge, bought a coffee, and to our chairs and the action. It is cold and the wind is freezing! The last race of the day was Race 21, the first of the three Supercar races. There is a compulsory pit stop for each car to change 2 tyres. Shane van Gisbergen came thru the field, pitted very late, and won! His driving is so very smooth but quick. Surprising how many Aussies cheer for him but it could be that he drives a Holden!! We did not hang around for the drag car demonstration and fireworks as we were frozen. A great day despite the cold.

Sun 31 July – We have reviewed our dress code! Now two pairs of track pants and two jackets. We must look like the Michelin Man. We like our possie at the end of the front straight so went back there. More qualifying, before the second Supercar Race 22. A car stalled on the front row of the grid and Heimgartner (NZ) drove into it at 100km/h. Eventually the carnage was cleared and SVG won again also recording the fasted lap. The last race of the day was Race 23. After the cars formed up on the grid rain set in. All cars changed to wet tyres and the race started behind the safety car for a couple of laps. The word went around that the grandstand was now free so we grabbed our chairs and headed out of the rain just in time for the race. SVG and Cam Waters drove in torrential rain side by side for many laps. Quite astounding the car control these guys have in these conditions. Again, SVG won also getting bonus points for the fastest lap! Back to “Andy” to dry out jackets, brollies, and a tarp. Another thrilling day!

 Mon 1 Aug – Everyone is packing up camp today. “The Bend” is an amazing place, privately owned with beautiful  facilities including many racing circuits, drag track, go karts track, a Rydges Hotel above the pits and our camping ground. We headed west, crossing the Murray River and thru the hills and the Barossa Valley to our camp, south of Gawler, 10kms from where we will store “Andy” on Wednesday. We have started to cross off our “to do” list before storing. We walked to a railway station to find out about buying train tickets for Wednesday, but it was tiny and unmanned. Val has now sorted it out.

 Tues 2 Aug – This is our pack up day and Val spent the morning washing our bedding and towels. I did a few jobs outside. Val got all the laundry dry just before it started to rain. This has been a great trip. We have been very lucky as the east coast of Australia has had some serious rain and flooding. We have managed to dodge it all, flooding down south when we were north and vice versa. Thinking back, we have not spent one full day inside because of the weather.

 Wed 3 Aug – We were packed up by 10:00am and a very short drive to Angle Vale and our storage place. We found this place on Gum Tree and it is the huge back yard of Val and Kathy, where they have about 10 other vehicles and a boat stored. We are very happy to with the setup. It feels secure. We put the bikes inside, locked up and, as Val and Kathy were going to the shopping, we gratefully accepted their offer of a lift to the train station.

 An hour-long ride, in a lovely modern electric train, took us right into the heart of Adelaide and a short walk to our budget hotel. We walked around the CBD along the Rundle Mall. Lots of historic buildings with modern buildings built behind. We picked up lunch headed down to the University area to eat it. On to the Museum, Art Gallery, Government House, and Parliament House, before crossing the Torrens River and the Adelaide Oval and St Peters Cathedral. Around the Oval and back across the Torrens River, very like a bigger version of the Avon before walking back to our hotel. We will go to the Adelaide Airport early tomorrow for our flight to Auckland and on to home.