The Travelling Buncebury's

Covering 28 September to 1 October 2019 one of the lovely late Victorian/Edwardian Adelaide buildings On our first morning walk in Adelaide, we were waiting for some pedestrian lights to change and the man in front and to my left turned round and said “you’ve got a great complexion mate, lovely skin”.   Difficult to know how to react but being quick with a quip I managed “thanks very much”.   Bizarre.   Particularly from someone who was covered in tattoos, including a revolver inked right up one side of his face.   He was one of those people you see from time to time who look as if they’d fallen into a deep sleep when a group of young children armed with indelible marker pens had happened across him and set to scribbling.   Mind you, at my age I’ll accept any compliment going.   Come to think of it, I’d have accepted any compliment at any age. I didn't realise the D of E was that old Adelaide streets are set out on a grid pattern and just like Perth,

Covering 20 September to 27 September 2019 storm clouds on the way , Fitzgerald National Park Only a few days ago we’d been in 35C heat but now on the coast of The Fitzgerald NP we were enjoying hail.   It was freezing, we were on a National Park site with no electricity and blessed with a van heating system that only works on mains power.   It was so cold that I slept wearing a hat and on a morning which was gloriously sunny we just drove to get the van heater working before we stopped to have breakfast.   Shower ? Ha ! Miley's Beach, Fitzgerald NP not a coast to be wrecked on This is a huge NP and to be fair, in the time we spend in each of the National Parks we cannot do any of them justice.   It’s all a bit like a tiny taster selection at a restaurant with a huge menu.   We get an impression, some fine views and some good flowers but there is just so much we know we’re missing.   In what seems like an age ago in Perth we picked up a leaflet for

Covering 12 September to 14 September 2019. a typical flowery roadside verge a three wagon land train rumbling past Our Google mapping software informed us to “continue for 175kms and at the roundabout, go straight on”.   Not that unusual with these distances.   There are quite a number of land trains on the roads, these are trucks with multiple trailers behind.   Usually two or three trailers but we did see one towing four full size ones and some signs by the roadside saying maximum size 60 metres (185 feet).   Goodness knows what the distance is for an emergency stop or how big they can be in the real outback across ‘the big red’.    We were overtaken by a two trailer one when driving a little below the speed limit.   It took a long time for it to get past.   One of the reasons these monsters work here is that generally the place is flat, very flat and certainly flatter than Norfolk.   Another is the lack of bends in the roads which remain straight for huge distan

C overing 15 September to 19 September 2019. some of The Pinnacles with drifted white sand behind On leaving Cervantes, we visited the relatively nearby Pinnacles National Park, an area of odd geological formations set amongst sand dunes.   The Pinnacles are limestone rocks, roughly pointed, standing four to ten feet out of the sand and there are h undreds of them, looking a bit like misshapen standing stones on a European Neolithic site.   Nobody knows exactly how they were formed and the two complicated suggestions in the visitor centre both seem implausible to me. and yet more Pinnacles one variety of the insect eating Sundews Road signs appear regularly with comments like “Local Police are Targeting Speeding” which I thought took Aussie friendliness to a new extreme being a great message for any bank robbers awaiting their chance.   We’ve also seen “Targeting Fatigue”, “Targeting Burglary” and “Targeting Drink Driving” linked with “We know the Limi