The Journey Home: Naracoorte to Lucindale

Yeah, yeah... I've changed the title around a bit. There And Back Again seemed to be getting, oh I don't know perhaps a *bit* stale, and TABA (cool acronym, eh?) just didn't seem to cut it.

You'll notice I also eliminated which part this is. Gee, I guess that means you'll just have to look at a map of the trip to figure out where you are.

Does this help?



No? It doesn't? Dang, alrighty then, here's a closeup:



Just let me 'splain a few things for ya:



As we left Naracoorte heading west --Go west young man! Or in my case, git outta town ya old fart!-- we passed by a truck. It was a small, flatbed truck with high, solid, metal grating on the sides and back to keep the HORSES from jumping off. They were very well groomed beasties and could walk around on the flatbed without being able to jump off. This truck and our car (ok, it's WP's car but I was driving) would play tag all the way to Kingston SE since whenever we stopped for pictures or whatever (get your minds out of the gutter) the horse truck would pass us. More about the horsie truck next post.

But, we found some water birds! Just have a squizz at my drawed-upon map. You'll realise we wuz only 5 k outta town. Hmmmmm, seems like a nice time to stretch the legs and check the cameras.

The horsie truck passed us, btw.

There were loads of Straw-necked Ibis (thems the ones with ear-uh-des-sunt feathers) one Australian White Ibis (sometimes mistaken for an Egyptian Sacred Ibis, same genus, different species --and ours don't go nowhere else (except New Guinea and some of the lower islands of Indonesia)), lot's of Pacific Black Ducks, a few Cape Barren Geese, a couple of Aussie Shelducks, and lots of little flittering critters that didn't stay long enough for me to eyedentifye.

Here's a start:



These are a bunch of the Straw-necked Ibisisssses (Ibi? Ibix? Do ANY of my millions of loyal readers know the plural of Ibis??? WITHOUT using google? C'mon, there's gotta be a grammer czeckerr out there somewhere!)



More straw-neckers:



I'm counting 2 Cape Barren gooses, 2 Pacific Blacks, 2 Aussie Shelducks, 2 Straw-necked Ibisysix, and 2 little flitty varmits


Here's a shot of the one Aussie White Ibis that was hanging out with the crowd.

Note that I've got a whole boatload of closeups of one of these blokes from around the corner of the homestead, but it'll wait till we've finished The Journey Home. BTW, those brown and black furry critters at the top of the picture are NOT birds.

Trying to capture the iridescence of the feathers...



Maybe this is better...



We then got back in the car, passed the horsie truck, and stopped in Lucindale. That town is a hustlin' and bustlin' place, let me tell ya! 300 folks live there! Here's the main store. It also doubles as the main hangout for the locals.

Isn't that a cool lense-flare WP got off that back windshield?


One thing about Lucindale is they've got an actual police station. C'mon, how many country towns need a police station? Oh, wait a sec... It turns out the Lucindale Police Station is the front lounge of the house of the local constable...

You may notice that behind our car is the carport of the constable where he has his boat parked.

We were going through Lucindale on a Thursday, and on the forthcoming Friday and Saturday ole Lucydale would become a thriving metropolis of over 20,000 folk for 48 hours. Seems they have a big agricultural shindig there once a year and everyone (probably the entire population within a hundred mile radius) shows up. My guess is that during those 48 hours the constable takes his boat down to Kingston SE and lets the village fend for itself.

Well, that's what I'd do. Perhaps that's why I'm not a constable.

Here's a picture I took looking down the busy thoroughfair of the "main" street of Lucindale. I had to dodge a lot of traffic.

Yes, that is the horsie truck that we shadowed all the way down to the coast!

WP and I both really liked Lucindale. Just about the right size, although I'd probably start to feel hemmed in by all the people. Reedy Creek for me!

Seriously, we could live there. No worries mates.