The Count around Australia, travelling in a Morris Minor.: Morris

Showing posts with label Morris. Show all posts

Monday, 21 April 2025

21 Apr 2025

Penultimate day has just been done! Well for the 2025 Morris Minors Rally in Perth anyway. It has sort of turned into a South Australian Silo Art trip along the way as well. So I guess it is fitting that I wind up the SA Silo Art tomorrow too. I saw a few today and got thoroughly sent in the wrong direction by the TomTom, it added about 120 kilometres to the trip. Anyway made it to the cabin for the night and found a pizza vending machine for dinner (there is nothing else at all here for food after 4 PM.

I am in Karoonda for the night and the cabin is fantastic, it is an ECO Cabin, so it has everything you need in a small package, it is solar and battery operated, and has a fridge and air-cond as well.

A Cabin in Karoonda

So today was made up of 4 Silo Art sites, though I didn't realise when I set out today that two of those were Silos were only accessible via lots of unsealed roads. Unsealed roads are fine and that is what the car had to deal with when it was new, but it was built in 1955 and it isn't in its "first flush of youth" anymore, so what is fine in a modern is a but hard on a 70 year old car. That said, there were some great sites along the way. it was 128 kilometres from the night stop to Galga, and only about 30 of that was dirt, but every street in Galga is dirt too, it is in the centre of nowhere

Driving the dirt highway

Interesting locations along the way

Some very nice Silo Art too:

Galga Silo Art - painted by: Jarrod Loxton

Form there another equally great road out to Copeville, not sure how that town is even still there, just a hand-full of houses and very overgrown tennis courts. Nice Silo Art though, glad to have seen it, though I can't see me every going back.

Copeville Silo Art - Painted by: Jarrod Loxton

From there it seemed like a very long way along some very ordinary dirt roads to get back to the sealed highways, though some more side of the road interest along the way:

Finally back on the main roads again, the TomTom decided to add a huge amount of mileage and stress to the mix by dropping me on one of the busiest highways I have seen in weeks, well out of the way of where I wanted to end up too, 125 kilometre drive to get to Coonalpyn when it could have been 60 kilometres (as I did on the way to the next Silos and the nights stop at Karoonda:

Coonalpyn Silo Art - painted by: Guido van Helten

Karoonda Silo Art - painted by: Heesco

There are two more Silo Art sites to see tomorrow, that it seems that my last on in South Australia will not be quite done, they are currently painting another Silo where it is. Then there is one in Victoria I need to see again as they have recently completed repainting the Silos with a new creation. The it is straight home!...

Sunday, 20 April 2025

20 Apr 2025

Today was all about Silo Art, so it was no loss to see Port Augusta in the rear view mirror. It seemed to take forever to get to the first Silos at Bute, but then it is 184 kilometres, so it was the bulk of the days driving in one go. Definitely worth a visit, though I must admit I am surprised that all of the South Australian silos see to have been built either at right angles to the road or they are all hidden behind trees and scrub. In Victoria all the silos seem to have been build parallel to the road, eg. the train tracks run along side the road. Here in SA all the old tracks to the silos seem to cross the roads, not that it is a great drama, it just means getting the car in front of them can be tricky, rather than just pulling up to the silo and taking a pic like in Victoria.

Bute Silo, you see what I mean about hidden.

Bute Silo Art - painted by: Kimsone & Scott Nagy

From Bute it was a relatively leisurely drive, only 82 kilometres to Owen. This was the start of a small about of back tracking, but you have to do that to see them all.

Owen Silo Art - painted by: Robert Hannaford and Cam Scale

As you can see the weather has again caught up with me and a few places were a tad damp, which required waiting in the car until it let up, but all part of the job I guess. So retracing some of the distance from Owen it was 77 kilometres on to Farrell Flat, this one was definitely a wait till it passes situation, it rained horizontally here! The wind, wow it has been strong. Another stunning example of how difficult it is to get in front of these silos.

Farrell Flat Silo Art - Painted by: Jarrod Soden & Matthew Knights of Perplswet Designs

So following that little downpour, it was a leisurely (ok not really, the road was rough and there were a lot of hills and potholes in the sharp bends, which can be a tad exciting in a cart spring old car) 66 kilometre run to Eudnuda. This one was definitely a challenge to get to. Actually it took me a while to even see the sign on how to get to it, I mean I could see the silos over the building and trees, but the sign to it was tiny.

Eudunda Silo Art - painted by: Sam Brooks

And that about wraps up today, 225 kilometres just to see Silos, and 184 kilometres to get to the first one, a short days driving really. Tomorrow should be a short days driving too...

Saturday, 19 April 2025

19 Apr 2025

Wow we really has it all today, well not quite, there was no snow. We did get torrential rain one second (well it actually lasted for a lot longer than a second), then it instantly cut off, like driving through a curtain and its a raring gale force dust storm. Yes that is right we car, dust storm, brown car, formerly green. Even had a gale gust so strong that it blew the car clear onto the other side of the road, luckily I was the only one on the road.

So from Ceduna to Port Augusta via Cowell. It added an extra 100 or so kilometres to the journey, so another very long day driving, though I think it was worth the effort. As I have done all the current Silo Art pieces in Victoria (well I will have by the time I get home as one has just been repainted) I decided to do the South Australian ones and today was another off that list. There is another further down the Eyre Peninsula at Tumby Bay, but that one is just too far out of the way and to be honest I don't mind missing it. The Cowell one is great though and well wort a look if you ever find yourself down that way (or if you are just ticking them off and have extra time to get there). It took just two and a half weeks to paint!

Cowell Silo Art - painted by: N I T S U A

On the way to Cowell, stopped for a brief visit in Cleve. Popped in to see Anne, but Henry said she was out, lost her glasses. He says she'd lose her head if it wasn't still firmly attached. Ok, I know, bad, but you have to have some fun don't you?

Welcome to Cleve, South Australia

After that there was just a brief stop in Whyalla, very brief, looks interesting from what I saw of it, but I really only did just pass through.

Then straight on to Port Augusta. What can I say, yes it is easter and nothing is open, but wow. I check into the motel and the lady asks for a credit card and licence. I ask how much this will cost and she says nothing (I had already pre-paid the room), so I say, but there must be an amount, she says it is just as a guarantee. I ask again how much and she says no amount, I know I am missing something here, so she has blocked an undisclosed amount on my credit card with no information as to how much or when she will remover the block.

Anyway Port Augusta, what can I say about it. Well actually I wrote a spiel about it and asked ChatGPT to tone it down, so over to how ChatGPT edited my paragraph:

"Ah, Port Augusta. Where the pubs are either fully booked or only accept customers with three teeth and a firm handshake from Centrelink. Anyway, back to town: food options are limited unless you brought your own stove and a pioneering spirit. The streets are alive with the sounds of the local youth, who appear to be auditioning for a Mad Max reboot by shouting profanities and staggering in packs. The whole place has the distinct aroma of giving up. And yet—just when you’re weighing up whether the bridge might offer sweet release—there’s the sunset. A warm, golden blaze over the river that almost tricks you into thinking the town has charm. Almost."

I think that came out rather well, so you can probably work out that my version was slightly more colourful, but it does sum it all up rather nicely.

Main street - Pub is open there are 5 people and no-one is eating.

Further along main street - Port Augusta

The river views and sunsets are nice though...

Friday, 18 April 2025

18 Apr 2025

Another wet morning, though it dried up fairly soon, and it started early with the neighbours leaving at 4 am and 6 am, so not a huge amount of sleep. it was a short day of about 6 hours driving today, or so I thought, but it seemed so much longer to do it. I didn't get into Ceduna until 5:30pm, 557 kilometres seems so much longer when you aren't doing 110 kilometres per hour.

Over all not a very adventurous day really, stopped for a couple of photos here and there and to get fuel, but that is about it. I didn't get much fuel, just topped it up twice as I had a jerry can in the boot of much better fuel from Perth as the engine now needs premium to run properly.

I stopped at Nullarbor Roadhouse and goodness the flies were out of control, no matter what you did you were completely covered in the things. I then went further on and stopped at Yalata where there is an unmanned fuel stop, I didn't get fuel just needed a break. There were no flies at all, not one! Driving further on and stopping at Nundroo for a dring (51 kilometres from Yalata) and the flies were worse than the Nullarbor Roadhouse. Is there some sort of no go zone for flies at Yalata, if so they should extend it to the other two places too!

I have been surprised by the number of people riding bicycles across the country, no matter where I have been driving there is always a bicycle or two to pass. Maybe everything is a scale, people think I am mad driving a Morris Minor across the country and I get to think these people are mad riding bicycles. I was passed by and passed going the other way a lot of motorcycles todays too, which was a first for the trip so far.

Have made a discovery as well. I was wondering why the passenger front door was suddenly scraping the leading edge on the back of the front guard again (it has done it before), but it seems like someone, somewhere has actually hit the car and slightly bent the bumper and the front guard, enough to push the alignment out and now the back of the guard is bent, so will keep hitting the front door. Unfortunately I am going to have to put a bolt back in the gap between the guard and the sill to keep them apart.

Monday, 14 April 2025

14 Apr 2025

Well that is it folks, nothing else to do and the Morris Minor Rally 2025 in Western Australia is all done and dusted. Great rally it has been and the organising committee has really excelled in their task, great locations, great food and easy driving routes and distances for getting between venues. All in all a fantastic effort by the organisers. Hopefully MMCCV will be able to outdo them when they host the next rally in 2027, possibly around the Benalla area.

Anyway today was the farewell run out to the Motor Museum of Western Australia. After what was a very quiet start to the day...

I was a bit early to arrive.

It was a good run mostly on the freeways out to the museum site, even managed to not lose anyone, well not for too long anyway. It was surprising how long it took, winding through the site where the museum is located, to get to the parking spot. The site is huge.

So with everyone gathered there was a show both inside the museum and outside too and the crowds again enjoyed seeing the cars. Some very interesting cars inside the museum, great motorbikes and some fantastic model collections too.