Blog 12 – Blinman – Peterborough – Moose’s Grans childhood cottage ruins - Friday. 17^th July

Once again Moose is outside under the van - soldiering. 

Monument is the little speck at the top of the hill

While sitting putting my shoes I look out through the kitchen window. Over the top of roofs, the war memorial on top of the hill catches my eye. I can just visualize Moose as a 17 year old racing to the top, with total focus on winning. His long hair flying out behind him as his long lanky legs pound up the steep climb. Then memories of us dating come flying in one after the other.  Me at 15 being shy and not very confident in myself. In some ways we have both changed a lot yet in others not at all. 

As I butter my toast I note the street lights are still on and all is quiet in town then out of nowhere about 20 people walk up the street - a bus must have stopped at the general store 

At 9am, we took Bon for a walk around the town, popped in and grabbed a coffee before heading over for our mine tour. Peter the tour guide informs us we need to drive to the mine which means moose has to unhitch the van.  We follow our instructions to get there and promptly drive straight past it. Thankfully Moose had checked the directions as well as myself so it was clearly the directions given not my bad receiving of them. 

Upward tunnel in the mine

Blinman Mine was found and named after a shepherd called Robert Blinman.  In 1859 Robert discovered an outcrop of copper at this site. The lease was bought by “The Yudanamutana Mining Company” in 1862 for 70 000 pounds. The mine was active over 4 separate periods from 1862 to 1907. It was a busy place with total production of 10 000 tonnes of copper metal from 20 000 tonnes of ore. Population of the town at it’s peak was1500 inhabitants.

  Throughout the tour I had Moose taking photos of the natural shapes, colour and texture of the rock formation. Great inspiration for textile design.

After the tour we packed up the van, re-hitched it to the car and headed towards Peterborough. 

Not too far out of town we came across “The Angorichina Tourist Village” it is basically a large caravan park with dorm accommodation for groups, a petrol pump and some food supplies. We stopped for fuel and lunch. It would be a beautiful spot to stay for a while with breath taking views of the rugged mountains and hills around it. Bonnie won over David the owner of the park. She wandered around checking out the area and he was more than happy for us to drive off and leave her there. With Bon in her usual position on the back seat we continued our journey.




Not five minutes down the road we had to stop to take a photo of huge gum tress setting off the Rock foundations.





Then onward through extensive plains of salt bush that meet up with two huge salt lakes. It really doesn't look much different to the Nullabor.  

It's a dirt road which probably means my enthusiastic clean the other day was absolutely pointless.

Wilpena Pound from the opposite side of where we stayed

 We have come full circle around Wilpena pound and can see where our crazy 4wd tour took us. The ranges change constantly with the sun shining and the cloud causing shadows. The clouds are getting lower like a big final curtain coming down on at the end of a great show 

I am looking at the ranges, thinking how I now know there's a town and people, stations, sheep all hidden in their folds. They are like a Pandoras box opened up. 

As we drive we see ruins of a couple of cottages and discus why they would be out here in the middle of nowhere. Why did they choose to build a cottage where they did? Then I spy part of an old railway siding and we realize that they choose very wisely. The siding matched up beautifully to the old Ghan railway we had crossed on our 4wd. 

When moose first suggested the Flinders I have to say I wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea as I remember the last time we went there which involved extremely hot weather that caused us to pack up and go home very quickly. But I'm glad I agreed as I've certainly enjoyed this time a lot more.

As we drive past Hawker - Moose says he didn't realize; he had been waiting for a turnoff. Soft green hills roll into each other with the odd cottage ruin tumbling down on them. No trees, only a couple of emus to be seen. The phone signal comes on as we reach the crest of a hill and disappears as we descent it. Then the land turns flat with short scrubby bushes, sheep munch on the patchy grass areas. As we come back into decent phone reception a text comes in from Jess, Moose rings Yak re Avon Descent and lack of water in the river while Tomas rings from Walpole. It was so good to catch up with them all.

The hills are all around us. The next town is Cradock which came to be in 1879. It consists of 2 churches 1 pub and half a dozen houses. as we drive along I see what looks like a cloud extending all the way to the ground or as moose says a cloud "burst". Photos 

Next up Orroroo – Carrieton, apparently half the town has disappeared to Queensland for a wedding. Dam, the coffee machine is broken.  The extra good news: it's going to be 1 degree tonight here so probably colder in Peterborough.

Peterborough is a huge spread out town. I could see a lot of stores were empty as we drove along the long Main Street, but the old style signage is there. We are heading to Moose’s great grandma cottage. Well the ruins of the cottage so not expecting tea, scones jam and cream. 

Sunlight was fading as we pulled into a clearing and parked up. While moose set up the dish I got to cooking. We had red wine casserole, mashed potatoes and sticky date pudding. After dinner, Moose stood at the sink swearing. The dirt roads had rattled the sink plug so much that the bolt which holds it together had rattled out and disappeared. He did the dishes with a smaller plug in so it was a bit of a rushed job. I feel he has to do them tomorrow night too as tonight's were not up to scratch.  After his effort he hunted through his drawer of bits and found a bolt that fitted the plug. All fixed now.

I took Bon outside for her toilet outing as she was fidgeting while we cleared up. But Princess Bonnie didn't like the prickles so after tippy toeing around she came back in. Then wouldn't go on her mat. I looked to see what was wrong and seen a big sheep poo snack in the middle of the mat. Obviously a present she brought inside earlier. So I removed that and she settled until her attention was caught by a bread bag tie on the floor. She grumbled and growled til moose removed it 

By that time we were ready for bed

Plumber Moose & Tired Moz signing out x