5 August 2015

After a hiatus of 10 months I decided it’s time to put finger to key board and to tap out a new travel log.  We are not travelling through any exotic foreign setting rather we are travelling through the southern parts of Australia along the Murray River and then on to South Australia, the Flinders Ranges and the Clare Valley wine region.  Of course for the foreign readers of this log these locations would be very exotic – it’s all in the eyes of the beholder.

I have found trying to view my own country through fresh eyes is a challenge, it’s not like driving through the wilds of Scotland and seeing everything for the first time.  Maybe that’s why it’s taken me a while to get inspired to write and to appreciate what is quirky and different about this place. So on a cold and rainy day a number of observations come to mind.

• In his book Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond described  Australia as the oldest, flattest, driest and most infertile continent of all the continents.   Clearly he wasn’t here when mandarins were on sale from road side stalls for $3 for a huge bag.  The tricky bit is the Quarantine stations are down the road from where you bought the fruit and you  now have two days to gorge on mandarins.  Once you cross into the next Quarantine zone you get to buy a fresh bag of mandarins. Maybe this is just a very clever marketing strategy.
• Beyond the irrigated citrus groves the country is flat, rocky and covered in salt bush.  Only good for sheep, roos and emus.
• Jared Diamond was on the mark about FLAT.  We started this trip at the Murray river for a four day trip on a houseboat with two other couples.  This is a trip we have done before and we are getting better at manoeuvring this floating two storey apartment complete with four bathrooms, spa, five flat screen TVs and a barbeque.  It handles like a brick and there is an art in navigating it around the many meanderings of the river.   Back to FLAT.  We call it the Murray River however in a little over 1700 river kms (1061 miles) the river drops just 96 metres (315 feet) that means it falls 1metre in every 17 kms (approx 3 feet every 11 miles).  So maybe it should be described as a really long and skinny lake rather than a river, after all in most years it doesn’t even break through to the ocean.
• From Lake Murray we drove into the Flinders Ranges.  The rocks that make up the ranges are about 650 million years old.  That’s well before the Vikings invaded the UK and a few years before Mungo woman died in southern NSW.  Her skeleton indicated she died 41,000 years ago and foot prints near Lake Mungo are about 40,000 years old.  Unfortunately someone walking the tracks we covered in the Flinders felt the ‘millions’ was inaccurate and removed the word from all the information boards, suggesting the rocks were 650 years old.  I don’t mind creationists believing what they believe, I do object to them vandalising informative panels in a national park. And are they suggesting these rocks are younger than the pyramids?
• Since we are not travelling in traditional holiday periods ie summer or the school holidays, means we are surrounded by people who like us are not locked into work or school timetables.  This means we see ourselves everywhere we go, in bakeries, at the camp grounds, in the stores, at the petrol stations.  When I say we see ourselves I mean people of our age demographic.  That’s ok, what gets weird is when you are in a camp kitchen and you find all these older people on their smart phones, tablets and laptops because this is the only place in the camp where you can get the internet and mobile coverage.  Gone are the days when it would have been masses of 13 year old boys on their hand held Gameboys.  Now its older people checking their emails, downloading photos to Facebook, Skyping grandchildren and arguing with their partner about what app they can’t download.  How times have changed.  Have you noticed the voice grandparents use when talking to their grandchildren over the phone or via Skype?  Its kinda high pitched with a rising inflection and used exclusively for grandchildren.  It’s so hard to have a private conversation in a large room with 20 other people!
• Emus and non traditional families.  We have seen many emu mobs of 20 to 30 birds and were curious about these large gatherings.  It turns out after the eggs are laid dad emu incubates the eggs.  He then looks after the hatchlings for the next 2 years while mum has cleared off to follow her own pursuits.  Now if there is a dad who decides child care is not his thing he hands over his brood to another dad who seems to be doing the job.  In this way it is common to observe one dad emu looking after 20 to 30 young birds who are almost as big as he is.  After a couple of years the chicks are independent and I guess he goes looking for another female to start the process all over again.  Is this why the emu is on the Australian Coat of Arms?  Are we recognising his perseverance, willingness to forgo hanging out with his emu mates and being a good dad?
• Speaking of our national symbols; a couple of nights ago we enjoyed dinner at a very remote pub in the middle of nowhere.  The proprietor challenged me on this observation commenting the pub was equal distant from Oodnadatta,  Broken Hill and Adelaide and was therefore in the centre of everything.  For the USA based readers see if you can find these locations on Google maps or Google earth.  Back to the national symbols; for dinner we enjoyed emu, kangaroo, camel and wallaby.  Two of these meat sources make up the Australian coat of arms.  Isn’t it great that we can enjoy our national symbols with a nice shiraz.  I am not sure US citizens are ready to eat bald eagle but maybe the turkey could be your national bird.
• We are now in wine country and today we sampled wines from a Jesuit run winery.  Being a church they pay no taxes on their wine which I am sure is appreciated by their local competitors.  And even though they pay no taxes their wine is no less expensive. I have to say their wine has been one of the highlights of the trip.
• Final comment.  On this trip we are enjoying our new truck which has now received its first chipped windscreen and rock damage on one of the doors from a passing vehicle.  Don’t have to worry about keeping it pristine any more.

That’s it for the moment.  As always if you would prefer to be removed from this email list just drop me a note no offence will be taken.