Judie and I set off mid-September on our latest trip. The plan was to escape the constant rain the east coast has been experiencing and explore some of the Riverland, Mallee and central Victoria.

Our first stop was in the small town of Coolamon – on the Canola Way. Many fields of gold surrounded us on the drive there and we had an entertaining time talking to a retired fireman who runs a fire brigade museum. We also tasted some of the award-winning cheeses they make there. My favourite was their aged blue which Judie insists being kept double bagged in the fridge!

We had an overnight stop at Balranald and the Murrumbidgee was in flood. The last time we were there the Murrumbidgee was just a few stagnant pools. This time two of the cabins were unusable due to the river flooding.

The first major destination for this trip was the Birdlife Australia reserve called Gluepot. The reserve is located about 50 Km from the South Australian town of Waikerie. Our plan was to do some bird observing and for me to use my new star tracker for some astrophotography.

I’d been in contact with the rangers at Gluepot to check on road conditions as it is dirt and closes after rain. Unfortunately our first night in Waikerie it rained. We had over 20mm which was half of the total rainfall for the month. Consequently, the reserve was closed. Ah well! Time to formulate a Plan B which we did over a nice lunch at Banrock Station.

We decided to head off to Burra as we had only stopped one night there last year and there were a number of things we hadn’t seen.

Burra is an old copper mining town and was heavily influenced by Welsh and Cornish miners. The information centre has a key available that lets you into a number of historical buildings/locations. Great idea – especially as it allowed us access to the mine site at night. As we had the first clear sky night since the beginning of our trip, it gave me the opportunity to get out the star tracker for some milky way photography.

Our next stop was the Clare Valley – where we had finished our trip last year and still had plenty to see and do.

Martindale Hall at Mintaro is a magnificent building. It was completed in 1880 and because of the special skills needed, 50 of the 60 tradesmen who built it came from England. The hall has 32 rooms and also a large seven-room cellar, and its environs at the time also included a polo ground, a racecourse, a boating lake and a cricket pitch.

Clare is famous for its Rieslings but the Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon are very nice as well.

We decided to have lunch at Paulettes Bush de Vine restaurant. An excellent lunch with some very nice wine.

The Gluepot rangers contacted me and advised me that the reserve was going to be open for the weekend however, there was a school group at one of the camps and a large group at another. With crowds and some bad weather forecast for the following week, we abandoned our plans to visit Gluepot this trip.

Loxton is another SA town on the Murray and was where we decided to sit out the long weekend. Our campsite was near a lake that isn’t normally there and where we were camped was expected to be underwater a week later. The Murray was just below its banks and wouldn’t take a lot more to spill over.

Loxton is a nice town and we’ll probably stop there rather than Waikerie when we return to go into Gluepot.

Part two of our planned trip was to go into Wyperfield National Park in the Mallee. Guess what? It rained again so not wanting to risk getting bogged we had a night at the Patchewollock pub and then onto Hopetoun. The Patchewollock pub was interesting talking to the local farmers. No one complains about rain in the Mallee but even they are getting sick of it and it is threatening what is potentially a bumper crop for them.

We camped near Lake Lascelles in Hopetoun and sat out the latest rain event. We didn’t venture to the other side of the lake that had the free camping as we were advised we would probably get bogged with the wet weather. Good advice as they actually closed the track to the other side.

Lake Fyans was our next stop. We were heading there as Judie wanted to catch up with a relation in Stawell and we wanted to visit the Grampians again. Lake Fyans was a great spot to be as it was close to both without the crowds that Halls Gap attracts. Finally, I also had an opportunity to have a fish but only managed to get a few Redfin.

Our walk in the Grampians was to ‘The Pinnacle’. I saw that it was only 4.5 Km return so after this walk I had planned for us to have lunch at Wartook Reservoir and then take a look at MacKenzie Falls. Boy, was I wrong! The walk up to the Pinnacle was all uphill and by the time we returned to the car we were exhausted. So, back to camp for a well-earned rest.

Next up was Castlemaine. We had planned a couple of nights at Newstead but with a severe weather event coming we headed straight to Castlemaine where Nathaniel was joining us for a couple of days. Our site was next to a creek but luckily about 5 metres up from it. The creek flooded and spilled into the neighbouring botanical gardens. When Nathaniel and I went to the shops the water was up over the road and we had to find another route to return to the caravan. We had booked into a pub for dinner but received a call to say they were closed and sandbagging. We changed bookings to another place but they called to say they wouldn’t be opening as their staff couldn’t get to work due to flooding. The next day the creek was down and gave us an opportunity to explore the area and finally have dinner at a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant.

So after a few days of watching the weather and studying the VicTraffic app we planned our return home. Shepparton was not an option for travel so we cut across to the Hume Highway at Kilmore and headed home. A couple of quick stops and another few nights in Canberra and we were home. Just in time for some more rain!

A few more photos of our trip! Click on an image for the gallery.