6 Apr 2025

 6 Apr 2025

Was another early morning at the Shelly Beach van park, so many people up and about and it is amazing how many people cough first thing in the morning (and smoke, even before the sun is up, what is that). So as all these nice folk woke me up I decided to make sure anyone who wasn't yet awake was. I packed up the tent and everything as quietly as I could, but just after 0700am I decide to leave for the day and, well lets just say The Count isn't a morning car, took a great deal of cranking and rough idling to get going. I actually did feel sorry for anyone when was still asleep.

On setting out I discovered that those two great mining trucks that take up the whole highway are actually on quite the scenic trip and were straddling the highway just out of Ceduna, so they waved the two cars behind then around and away we went. I stopped at Penong for some fuel and as I was filling the mining truck convoy was just passing, so they were travelling a lot faster than me, so to give them time to get along I stopped at the Penong Windmill Museum for a bit of a look. Turns out it is open air and it is drive through and free.

Australia's Biggest Windmill

This is "Bruce" named after it's owner. Bruce has a 35 foot tower and a 35 foot diameter. It can pump 4.4 gallons every stroke of the pump and it can pump 250,000 gallons a day. Supposedly Bruce was one of 5 owned by the railway in Australia. It seems Comet knew how to make a decent windmill.

So onwards across the central section of Australia's south we reach the Eastern end of the Nullarbor Plain, The Treeless Plain, well perhaps there are one or two really big shrubs here and there.

Eastern end of the Nullarbor Plain

Next stop the Nullarbor Roadhouse for some of the most expensive fuel I have ever purchased. I am very pleased The Count only has a 25 litre tank and it was still half full anyway (you never pass a petrol station out here if you are half or below), it was $2.82 a litre. Really feel sorry for all the people with big RAM and Chevy two cars, I'd cry if I was paying over $200 a time to fill it up.

Onwards again, long straight roads with not a lot of traffic, which is fantastic, less trucks and when they do come along they can just go around. Oh and I forgot, the mine truck tour was at the Nullarbor Roadhouse, swapping over the police escort team or something.  Anyway next stop was the Bunda Cliffs lookout on the Great Australian Bight. Stunning coastline, just amazing.

And imagine the surprise as I was just about to turn back onto the highway and the mining truck tour goes sailing past with all light flashing. I was happy to let them go as I say they were travelling faster than I was and now hopefully they have passed beyond where I am now at Eucla (which has it's own time zone in Australia, well a couple of other places do too, but it is exclusive) and therefore I won't run into them again tomorrow too.

Anyway Eucla, Police and a Nursing service a few houses and a Roadhouse with a caravan park and a motel. That's about it. Well there is the old Telegraph Station down a dirt road, not sure if I am going to do that or not, we'll see. 

Swallows seem to love the main buildings

 

You have to hand it to these Western Australians, they do do a quite good sunset...

5 Apr 2025

 5 Apr 2025

Another long drive day today after a rough start at the last camp ground, the neighbours decided that they needed to get moving at 04:30 in the morning and so everyone else was awake as well. Amazing how much noise someone who is trying to be silent can make. The rough part though was the gravel camp site, not great, but the galvanised roofing nails worked a treat when the tent pegs wouldn't even go into the ground.

It was a slow start for everyone along the highway this morning as well and it wasn't because of The Count either, they were moving two huge mining trucks along the highway out to Iron Knob and they took up both lanes of the highway. Who knew there was something the road trains actually have to stop for. It was a long shadows kind of morning which was great, great light.

Managed to make it to the half way mark around 10am, at Kimba, where they have silo art and a big Galah as well.

Kimba Silo Art - painted by: Cam Scale

 From there it was on to Wudinna, home to "The Australian Farmer", which is also listed as one of Australia's Big Things, it stands 8 metres tall and weighs 70 tonnes. It is a stylised representation of a farmer and commemorates early settlers. It was created by artists Marijan Bekic and her son David.

From there just the long drive across to Ceduna, there are worse places to set up camp

4 Apr 2025

 So, today started by crossing the border into South Australia and leaving all those pesky fruit flies behind. Good thing that they know they can't cross the SA border and stay out. On a direct route the first stop was Paringa to check out their Silo Art, as I just happened to be passing, it would be wrong not to.

Paringa Silo Art - painted by Jack Fran and Sam Brooks

 Anyway after that break it was just a few minutes into Renmark and trying the auto parts shops for another headlight, whish was completely unsuccessful. And... since I was heading along the westerly direction why not just take a slight detour to Waikerie to check out their Silo Art as well. 

Waikerie Silo Art - painted by: Jimmy Dvate and Garry Duncan

Both were great, but the styles are completely different, the bird is amazing. Have to say that so far these SA Silo Art instillations certainly don't make it easy to get your car in from of them. Oh and while driving into the town I passed an auto parts shop, who could not help with a light either. Anyway I didn't realise the route I had taken to get to Waikerie took me up the south bank of the Murray River and the road I needed to continue on was on the north bank. No problem you say, just cross the bridge. Well they don't have one it is a car ferry and it is free too! Awesome, yes it only takes a few minutes, but it breaks up a day.

There was another diversion that I wanted to take, it would have added another 230 kilometres to the day so that will have to wait for another day. Pressing on through Jamestown and on to Wirrabara for a look at their Silo Art as well.

Wirrabara Silo Art - painted by: Smug

From this point time was really getting on and I headed off for Port Augusta, via the Horrocks Pass road, which is an awesome road, great surface and lots of bends and rises and falls. It would be great on a motorbike as the road surface is perfect. Mind, most of the road surfaces have been fantastic in SA, though you wouldn't have to try too hard to be better that any road in Victoria, we really do have the worst roads in Australia in Victoria. Don't feel slighted though country Victorians, the roads in Melbourne are mostly rubbish as well, perhaps except for the posh eastern suburb areas where the wealthy and the Ministers live.

Anyway I digress, from there it was on into Port Augusta to find the Caravan Park I was setting the tent up in for the night. Mind it just so happened that on the way into town there is a huge car parts store and even though it was past closing time they let me in and even had a headlight for me too! So once I was all set up the Van park I swapped out the headlight and now we have two again! for now... 

3 Apr 2025

 3 Apr 2025

Down town at the Port of Echuca

So the day started with a decent light show in Echuca this morning, Though the photos were achieved with quite a few laps of the main street, so I guess people knew I was mad, they didn't just have to guess. I then plugged in the TomTom and picked the welcome sign for Mildura, it worked out the route and off we went. Great roads, nowhere near the main highways and I almost had the roads to myself. A total of three cars went the other way in about 40 kilometres, which was good as it was a central strip sealed road, so if anyone comes along you both have to drop the left side wheels into the dirt. 

Central strip sealed road, about 100 k's of this with 1 truck and 5 cars.

 One unfortunate incident though, the last car in that 40k section managed to kick up a rock that bounced perfectly to collect the headlight, the lens of which shattered completely. The good part is that it didn't het the windscreen! I would have been well and truly stuffed then (mind a later car did flick a stone which did hit the windscreen, you can see where it hit! Thankfully it didn't shatter it either!)

Ok so you recall I said i picked the welcome to Mildura sign as the route destination? Well imagine the surprise when I reached the sign and it is actually 142 kilometres from Mildura! What a joy, still it was only 404 kilometres all up today.

only 142 kilometres from Mildura!

I have managed to get a replacement headlight for the car, though the problem is that I can't get it to fit into the locking ring for the headlights, it is just a tad too large and you can hear glass grinding if I try to force it in, so back to the old lens-less one for now.

The camp ground isn't particularly close to town, though it is nice and quiet and the location next to the river isn't too shabby so plenty of time to try fitting the light and setting up the tent, even greased the trunions. 

Managed to set up the tent, not to replace the headlight though.

The mighty Murray River.

Apex River Campground

Oh and I even managed to get to the Lake Boga Silo art today as well. Lake Boga was the home of the Catalina Flying Boat Repair Squadron during the second world war.

Lake Boga Silo Art

Tomorrow is off to Port Augusta, should be a long day driving as there may be one or two optional detours along the way...

2 Apr 2025

 2 Apr 2025

Reasonably early start this morning, just because Melbourne to Perth and back isn't quite enough. To add to the excitement I decided that I would leave a day earlier than planned and spend it driving around some of Victoria. Mostly it was to go and see the Silo Art in Victoria that I haven't seen yet, as there were only a few and they are relatively close together (well, close if you remember we are driving across the country from tomorrow). In part it was also about having another opportunity to test the engine again on a decent run before heading further afield, if anything had turned to shite I would be much closer to home!

The car ran well and have to say the oil leaking engine has almost stopped doing it! It can't be completely oil free though as it is a Morris and British (by design) so leaking oil is an absolute necessity (it is part of the built-in anti-rust system). Once it cools down I will check the oil level and re-grease the trunions ready for the off to Mildura in the morning. They are going to be relatively short days driving over to Perth and back, only about 500-600 kilometres a day. So a relaxing trip haha.

Today was only 435 kilometres, but about 6 hours or there abouts, so well enough for a shake-down test-run. Route was Melbourne - Colbinaddin - Katamatite - Picola - Rochester (via Echuca) - Echuca (back track to) and all Silos done. Well not quite true, they have repainted one that I have seen before and I will visit that again in the way home to see the new painting.

Colbinabbin Silo Art - painted by: Tim Bowtell

GrainCorp Silos at Katamatite - painted by: Tim Bowtell

Picola Silo Art - painted by: Jimmy Dvate

GrainCorp Silos at Rochester - painted by: Jimmy Dvate

All in all well worth the few hundred extra kilometres. Well really only a couple of extra, some of the distance I would have had to have covered tomorrow anyway...

11 Mar 2025

 11 Mar 2025

Well, it turns out the last post from 18 Dec 2024 was a tad optimistic in the hope that the engine would be back in the car late Jan to early Feb. Due to other conflicting engine builder priorities, my engine wasn't completed and collected from Sydney 28 Feb 2025, and very shiny and pretty it looks too!  

There were a few issues with it and the engine builder was actually glad to see the back of it in the end (three head bolts wouldn't come out and one is now slightly compromised), it seems that somehow the brand new engine pulley that was fitted was actually made just slightly too small and in fitting it the crank managed to get bent by the tiniest fraction, though it was enough to lock up the engine and requiring removal and straightening and machining to fix the issue.

Anyhoo, it is now back in the car after surprisingly little actual swearing at it, those engine mounts must have been designed by whoever created the front trim hockey sticks, they are both nigh on impossible to get on and off. 

I know nothing about timing, it is weird magic to me, and of course, it was impossible to start the car. The pictures will show anyone who knows anything about timing what is wrong. I had to go back through an old bunch of photos to see what was wrong (and pestered a couple of friends for advice, they noticed what the old and new pics were showing too) the dizzy was completely out, so the car was overly retarded and there was no way it would ever have sparked at the right time. Turning the dizzy to match the old photograph and swapping the leads back to the correct locations made all the difference. It was running enough to do the initial running in of the engine, and then a short drive before its full retorque and valve clearance adjustment check. It has had the oil and filter changed so far, and things are looking good. Now I just have to clock up some miles on the engine and do another oil change, so I have been doing a few hours of aimless driving around the suburbs.

So we're back on the streets and ready for anything, well maybe not anything, and we need a full running in. Oh, and a steering rack gaiter, well at least one. The two-year-old one has a hole in it already! The car could really do with the roof being sanded back and repainted as well to be honest. Not to mention that "bubble" on the driver's door has returned too, so that needs looking at. It just doesn't stop!

Leaving for the drive to Perth 3 April 2025.

18 Dec 2024

 18 Dec 2024

Well, to date the Count hasn't been doing much. It is actually cooling its tyres in the garage of another home. Unfortunately, it hasn't been well, so none of the planned drives have happened and won't be anytime soon. 

This is how it should look.

Let's go back a bit;

14 Nov 2024

The car has, over a few days maybe a week or so, started to make a random knocking noise from the engine. Not really sure where it is coming from or what is causing it, but it doesn't happen all the time, though it is definitely getting more frequent and louder. It seems to be deep down in the engine, so lower engine, not upper. 

The engine was a second hand item a fellow Canberra Region Morris Minor Car Club member gave to me when the original (not to the car just original to me since I had owned the car) engine self-destructed following a rebuild many, many years ago. The engine had come out of a Minor he had bought as a modifying project and so he didn't want the engine. The history of the engine wasn't known, well other than it needed a new head gasket as it was blown. So that engine was installed in The Count and a new head gasket added and this is the engine that has taken the car on almost all of its journeys up and down the east coast of Australia and right around Australia as well. It has been in the car for close to 30 years now, so it is probably due some attention and rebuilding.

I contacted a classic Mini specialist, who are relatively close to me, to get an opinion on what was happening, and what the knock could be, and their response was, "It has rear drive mate, we're not interested". Regardless of the fact it has the same engine, in the most part, they didn't want a bar of it. 

A friend in the Morris Minor Car Club of Victoria recommended a Sprite specialist in Sydney who was more than happy to offer suggestions and discuss the engine. It was decided the engine needed a rebuild.

Now before all this I had arranged to have the carby rebuilt. It too had come directly from another car, a late model classic Mini Clubman, a 1.5" SU to replace the standard Minor 1.25" SU. The Mini was going for breaking due to terminal rust, and it looked like had probably never had any work done to it since it was new. The carby was a great improvement over the original and it has been in the car for longer than this engine, without ever being rebuilt or serviced. 

The carby specialist came and removed the SU and took it away for a full strip down and rebuild, he replaced just about anything that could wear and even polished it before bringing it back to fit up to the car. Hopefully, I'll get to see how it has improved once I get the engine back...

23 November 2024

It is always fun (NOT) to have to take the front off the car to do any work on the car and this time was no exception. Lots of unbolting and a surprisingly small amount of swearing saw the front end stripped and all the bolts holding the engine in place removed. A hire company delivered an engine hoist and, again with minimal swearing (this is quite surprising for working on this Morris Minor), the engine was removed from the Morris and put into the rear of the Santa Fe for a trip to Sydney for a Spa and Rejuvenation package holiday.

To date, the engine is still off on its break, though work has commenced already so hopefully it's looking good for a return and re-install late Jan, hopefully at the latest by mid-Feb, it needs to "run-in" properly before April as we're off to Perth for a drive.