Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[roverdriver]

If you have come across this story and wish to start from the beginning, Part 1 is here-

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/forum/phpbb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15972

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We had a nice look around the township of Crystal Brook next morning. It had a very 1920's feel to it as you can see from the streetscape.



From there we took our time driving the 101 K's to Port Wakefield. Although there far too early for a normal booking-in, we persuaded the caravan park operator to accept our booking, so we could tour through the day and be sure of a bed for the night. Bear in mind it was Saturday of a long weekend.

We drove out to Androssan on the Yorke Peninsula. Another somewhat typical South Australian town with period stone buildings.



There are many small hamlets clinging to the coast of the peninsula, and we called in to most of them on the way South. Unfortunately, for my wife and myself, after a while the beaches started to look much the same. It was however quite interesting. Agriculture is largely grain growing, fishing, both commercial and sport is popular and in the past quite a lot of mining for copper had taken place. As it is an easy drive from Adelaide there is quite a bit of tourist traffic too.

We did encounter a couple of cars on display. They don't seem to have moved for a long time, and I would think that a lot of work would be needed to coax them into moving themselves.





It was an interesting day's drive, and when we got back to Port Wakefield, we had a walk around some of the older parts of that town.



As I mentioned, Adelaide is not too far from here, in fact only about 100 k's (60 miles). We had found out about a route that would take us between the city itself and the coast, and would, we hoped, be less busy than going through the heart of the city.

Next morning early we set out, driving down the highway towards the South Australia capital. As we reached the outskirts, following some previously suggested plan, we turned towards Port Adelaide, and after a bit of urban driving, unexpectedly came upon this-



The wooden hulled clipper ship "The City of Adelaide", recently brought back to her home base ready for restoration.

Port Adelaide abounded in nice old substantial buildings, from the very neat Council offices, to warehouses build from rough stone. It was a bustling place from the first settlement until a few years ago, when port facilities moved away.



From here we worked our way Southwards. We did indeed skirt past the City itself, but the traffic volume increased dramatically. Did I mention that I hate cities?? Eventually we got through the worst of the throng, and then had to find a road that would take us over the hills to the East. Poor roadsigns didn't help, but eventually we found our way to a delightful winding road that led us to the township of Clarendon, nestled in a valley.

We lunched there, then pressed on through more hills, finding the countryside quite like that at home.



Eventually we reached Strathalbyn, quite a large town, and as we come into it I had to stop to photograph this-



Ampol was a brand founded in 1936 as the Australian Motorists Petroleum Company, and the brand remained on the market into the 1960's. Eventually it became swallowed up by Caltex. To find a genuine Ampol sign these days is rare.

We decided that the Strathalbyn region would be one to explore in the future, and so we pressed on to Wellington where we crossed the Murray River on a cable operated ferry.



Here there were lots of vinyards, and wine growing is an important part of the local economy, with the growing taking place virtually all the way to the Victorian border.

The ferry at Wellington continues the work of the very first one that provided the only way of crossing the Murray from the earliest days of settlement until a bridge was constructed upstream at Murray Bridge in 1879. Until then this was the main road from Adelaide to Melbourne.

On the other side we drove to a curve in the river with the same name as the town there- Tailem Bend, which had its roots as a railway town, just after the Murray Bridge was completed.



From there we were back onto the same road as we used on our outward journey, until, that is, we reached Keith, where we turned Southwards instead of continuing to Bordertown.

We reached Naracoorte just as the sun was disappearing and booked in to a cabin for the night. We had driven 517 K's for the day. Although the area has a tradition of beef, sheep and wheat, it is also the site of Naracoorte Caves where many ancient fossils have been unearthed.

Early next morning we had a short tour of the town.





We then set off to cross into Victoria via Penola (much wine growing) and Casterton. and from there proceeded to Hamilton where we encountered a rally for historic cars. Alas the cars were ready to move off from that venue, so I managed to photograph only a few.







I had a reason to travel some of the Hamilton Highway. I wanted to call in to the minute township of Caramut, but this route took us through Penshurst where I found this building with its fascinating signwriting mostly intact-



Quite odd to find a dealer in a small town being the agent for La Fayette cars.

The next settlement is Caramut, and my reason for visiting was the rather thin hope of finding a signature on the wall of a ruin there. Many many years before I had seen the signature, but only fairly recently found out that it must have been a genuine one. Alas the bluestone ruin where I had seen it was demolished long ago. The signature that I had seen was that of Harry Hawker, famous aviator and who gave his name to the aircraft company. Harry had been the chauffeur and mechanic for the owner of Caramut House, looking after the family Rolls Royce, before heading for England to involve himself with aviation.

At Terang, where there is a choice of routes, we stopped at a market, it being the Monday of the long weekend. We also saw two escapees from the Hamilton Rally stopped for a break on their way home.





On we went towards Mortlake and on the way came across miles of dry stone walls. This photo could be somewhere in the UK I think?



Although used as farm fencing, in the nearby town of Noorat, there is some in a slightly urban setting.



By following one highway for a while, then diverging to another, we gradually made our way to Queenscliff which is on the Bellarine Peninsular and guards the entrance to the vast Port Phillip Bay. Melbourne is at the head of the bay, many miles away- just where I prefer cities!

We found a suitable cabin for the night, and as it was our last night of the trip, we decided to eat at a restaurant run by the local bowling club.

Next morning was foggy as we wandered about the town.



We soon found our way ready to board a ferry to take us across to the other side of the bay- so by-passing a lot of city and metropolitan driving.



There are two ferries plying this route, and they cross at about half way.



After about 45 minutes, we were ashore again, said au revoir to the ferry and proceeded on the drive the rest of the way to home, a mere 150ks.



In all we had driven from home, not quite on the Eastern coast, all the way across the continent to the Western coast, then back again. Our journey (including touring etc.,) took us 8,893 Kilometers- 5,525 miles over a period of 17 days. We saw so much, and enjoyed it all immensely. Between my wife and myself we took over 5,000 photographs.

The cheapest petrol was 142.9 cents per liter at Dromana on the last leg of the trip. The next cheapest was at Port Augusta 147.9. Dearest was at Madura, 205 cents per liter. We spent a total of $1,760.28 on petrol, consuming 1052.27 liters. Our average consumption was 11.83 liters per 100 k's or 23.88 mpg. We used up some auto transmission fluid because of the weep from that unit, and consumed just 2 liters of engine oil. On the whole trip, the car behaved perfectly- and this with a machine that is supposed to be fairly unreliable! Interestingly, the engine oil is almost as clean as when it was changed over 5,000 miles ago.

Accommodation cost about $1,750. Most of our food costs were 'pre-paid' as we carried most of our needs with us. The same applied to liquid refreshment, especially as Noreen does not drink hot fluids. Myself, however indulged in frequent injections of hot instant coffee. We carried a couple of thermos flasks, along with 'the makings', and each morning before setting off would fill the flasks for the day's drive. I also instituted a one-man trans-Australian tree-watering programme at any non-town stops.

So concludes my story. I hope that you have enjoyed it, and also hope that it explains to non-Oz readers something about this country. I firmly believe that the drive 'Across the Nullarbor' is something that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime. You can even do it one-way and use the train for the other direction if you wish. And remember, in this story I have only picked out the highlights of the journey. There is so much more that I could have told about- so what about experiencing it for yourselves??

Very many thanks to Rick for allowing me to tell this story on his wonderful Forum.
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Dane- roverdriver but not a Viking.

[47Jag]

Dane,

This has been a great story. The ship City of Adelaide spent many years here in Glasgow as the RNVR club and was known a HMS Carrick then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Carrick

Art

[D4B]

Hello Dane,

Many thanks for sharing your amazing journey with us. Would love to do even some of it one day myself, and congratulations also to the SD1 Rover, if I was a betting man I would have lost all my money

Steve

[peter scott]

[kevin2306]

Many thanks for sharing, Hope to do a great journey like this one day myself,,

Kev

[Rick]

Interesting as always, the old garage is a brilliant survivor (maybe one to add to the surviving garages bit on the main site some day), and as for the two jalopies - Dodge and Buick?

RJ
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[Keith D]

Thanks Dane,

An extremely well written account of a fabulous journey. You have even tempted me to think about doing something similar, but the other way around of course, as I am already on the west coast!

Absolutely full marks to the Rover and to your obviously competent maintenance of it.

A fantastic read! Congratulations.

Keith

[Ashley]

It's a wonderful story and a most interesting read. Many thanks!

[peppiB]

Great diary. many thanks for posting