{"id":515,"date":"2014-07-22T14:08:34","date_gmt":"2014-07-22T04:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/?p=515"},"modified":"2014-07-22T14:08:34","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T04:08:34","slug":"revd-robyn-davis-walkabout-diary-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/?p=515","title":{"rendered":"Rev’d Robyn Davis’ Walkabout Diary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Robyn's<\/a>Walkabout Diary 2014<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0Friday 4th<\/sup> July<\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
We finally left Bendigo at 2pm and headed straight up the highway through Kerang and Swan Hill to spend the night by a warm fire and in our own bed at Balranald. Didn\u2019t get far but at least we got away from Bendigo.<\/address>\n
Our last walkabout trip was 2011 and we have certainly missed it. We both look forward to the peace and quiet of the bush and the time to do the little things that get pushed aside in the business of life at home.<\/address>\n
Saturday 5th<\/sup> <\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
Called in for early cuppa with friends Brian and Marlene before leaving Balranald and travelled through to Lake Benanee where we stopped to cook up veggies, (forgot about not taking them over the border!!) We met one fellow traveler who was in some trouble with his electric brakes stuck on his van and another with a tale of having his van stolen from his front yard by a disgruntled neighbour. What a way to start our trip!! Through Mildura to arrive in Renmark and have a short visit with family. We don\u2019t see these two grandchildren as much as the others so it\u2019s always an exciting visit with lots of jumping around and not being able to sleep, the kids that is, we are tired out after a couple of hours!!<\/address>\n
Sunday 6th<\/sup><\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
We had a great morning with family and headed off for an afternoon travelling to bush camp at a little town called Halbury about 10 ks from Balaklava.<\/address>\n
Monday 7th<\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
Just after lunch we arrived at Port Victoria to visit our good friends Peter and Raelene and their family. Raelene\u2019s two little grandys have certainly grown since we saw them last, three years ago. Isis is going to school now and Jamila, who was only two months old on our last visit, is now three. Raelene is a member of NATSIAC (National Aboriginal & Torress Strail Islander Anglican Council) and Peter is a retired Anglican Priest and Vietnam Veteran, so we all have lots to talk about. We enjoyed a big family get together over a roast tea and pancakes.<\/address>\n
Tuesday 8th<\/sup><\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
Morning tea with Raelenes daughter, Monique, and the little girls before we set off at mid day in very windy conditions for Gladstone and a visit to our dear friend Mona. Mona is a very well known and respected Aboriginal elder whose parents were forbidden to marry by the Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia and were hunted down for many years. Her father was a Muslim, Afgan Cameleer and her mother a traditional Aboriginal woman. An interesting book has been written about their story called \u201cThe Linden Girl\u201d a great read if you can get hold of a copy.<\/address>\n
Mona is recovering from a broken hip and is not getting around at all so was glad of the company.<\/address>\n
Wednesday 9th<\/sup><\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
This morning saw us having Eucharist with Bishop John Stead, then morning tea with his office staff before we caught up for a private meeting. Our previous visits to Gladstone have always included a visit with the bishop here in the Diocese of Wilochra as the diocese office is only across the railway line from Monas house. It was lovely to meet up with Bishop John again as we haven\u2019t seen him for a few years but we do miss our friend Bishop Gary who is now the bishop of Ballarat. We are having dreadful weather here, cold bitter winds and heavy rain so will stay another day here, catch up with some chores and keep Mona company.<\/address>\n
Thursday 10th<\/sup><\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
Travel day today. Said goodbye to Mona at 11am, had a quick stop at Pt Augusta and onto a beautiful bush camp about 40ks south of Pimba. Need to get to Roxby Downs as early as possible in the morning to catch the BCA Tag-along-tour.<\/address>\n
Friday 11th<\/sup><\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
We arrived in Roxby at 10 am in time to get aquainted with the BCA people before they set off for William Creek, where they will camp out for the night. We will meet them again tomorrow in Coober Pedy. This inaugural Tag-along-tour is being led by Mrs Vivien Bleby (and her husband Martin) Vivien is the BCA Regional Officer for SA\/ NT Ministry Centre. There are 5 cars on the tour, each supply their own food and camping gear. I believe this is a first for BCA but an idea that certainly is worth developing. We are camped at the Roxby Downs community church for the night all comfy and happy to be here.<\/address>\n
Saturday 12th<\/sup><\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
After a quick meeting with Revd Mary and Owen before they set off on a break, we settled down to a meeting with BCA affiliates Revd Barry and Avril Luke over a delicious breakfast. We were joined by a local school teacher, Jasper, who came expecting morning \u00a0prayer to be on. I don\u2019t think he was too disappointed as he got a good feed and great conversation.<\/address>\n
We finally got away at 11 am travelling north and arrived at Coober Pedy to join the tag-alongs at 5.30 pm.<\/address>\n
Sunday 13th<\/sup><\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
Our first full day at Coober Pedy with the BCA Tag Along Tour. We started with a church service in the beautiful but simple Catacombe Church with Martin and Vivien leading. The service was different as they start with a half hour of praise and singing, then a half hour cuppa and get to know visitors (who come from all over Australia) before resuming for prayer and worship. At the end of the service a local parishioner took us for a tour before we all met at Johns Pizza for a leisurely lunch. We left our car and van at the church and joined one of the tag-along cars for the day, which was a good move as it gave us time to make a new friend, Peter from Adelaide. The tour proceeded to the Breakaways in the afternoon. The Breakaways are a truly beautiful place but I was affected by an overwhelming feeling of sadness and felt a great weight of womens sorry business which made me very emotional and I stayed in the car for the rest of the trip. The second place I felt was mens business and OK but I still couldn\u2019t walk the land.<\/address>\n
Monday 14th<\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
Said good by to our new BCA friends who are travelling to Pt Augusta for a bush camp tonight.<\/address>\n
The weather is miserable again, cold, wet and windy so we decide to catch up with laundry before we go. The Laundromat is a little rough with only four washers working out of eight and one dryer of the three so waiting time is long. We have our van outside and decide to share morning tea in the laundromat with another man who is waiting, (the locals are just coming and going) this stranger introduces himself as an opal buyer from Sydney, who used to be a local jeweler. He certainly looks the part as he stands out from the locals and the tourists in all ways. After a time of sharing he calls us over to the corner and whispers to us (looking around furtively) \u201cI can trust you people of the church, you good people\u201d he says in his Greek accent. He then produced from a hidden pocket a small parcel which he unwrapped while keeping it close to his body. He said \u201cI just get this great bargain, man down on his luck needs cash, had to sell quick, I got for half price, only $22,000!!\u201d and there in his hand was the most biggest and most beautiful diamond I have ever seen!! He then proceeded to tell us he had a house in Athens and we could use it any time for a holiday!\u00a0 You just never know who you will meet next do you? After all the excitement we headed north for a bush camp 50 ks north of Marla.<\/address>\n
Tuesday 15th<\/sup><\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
Travel day today. Could have got to Alice Springs but decided to bush camp 15ks out and book into caravan park early in the morning. The vegetation is changing. We now see the little red mounds of the termite nests poking their heads above the straw coloured grass. Trees are sparse and only about 12ft high with needle like leaves to cope with the dry seasons. Every now and then the stark white trunk of an elegant ghost gum reaches to the sky above the dull vegetation of the shorter trees.<\/address>\n
Wednesday 16th<\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
We booked into our first park for the trip at 10am and headed off for the shops and visiting friends. My favourite Indigenous shops are here where I buy all my Aboriginal designed materials and I do look forward to getting up here to see the new designs every couple of years.<\/address>\n
Thursday 17th<\/sup><\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
What a life!! Here we are in the red centre and I mean RED centre \u2013 the ground is bright red and so beautiful. I have been here many times before but it never ceases to amaze me \u2013 the red of the earth and the blue of the sky.<\/address>\n
It\u2019s 6pm and we have just pulled into a bush track about 50ks south of Barrow Creek, made a cuppa and now sitting listening to the little bush birds calling their warning of strangers in their midst. The shadows are getting long. The breeze is getting fresh and the sun will soon set. As I said \u201cwhat a life!!\u2019 Thank you, Lord!<\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
Talk again soon<\/span><\/b><\/address>\n
God bless from Robyn & Ed on Walkabout<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Robyn's<\/a>Walkabout Diary 2014<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0Friday 4th July<\/b> We finally left Bendigo at 2pm and headed straight up the highway through Kerang and Swan Hill to spend \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Zkbl-8j","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":516,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions\/516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicanswanhill.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}