Nullabor Road house

This is where we are camped tonight. Dropped into Ceduna on the way, our jockey wheel had become very stiff and hard to wind as we didnt want to be in a spot where it no longer functioned, we bought another one. $39 to set minds at rest is not a great deal of money. We kept going as we had had to past a couple of caravans that that been going much slower than us and another one that seemed to be creeping all of the road, fortunately he was tending to go more left than right but we didnt want stones thrown up plus his top speed was around 72. We didnt want to have to pass them again.

We headed for Nundroo Roadhouse to fill up and have lunch.

There was a bar at the Nundroo Roadhouse and these models, fashioned out of beer cans had pride of place on the bar, the plane was in a display cabinet.

Here are the vans

It was a nice 27 degrees. I had been dreading travelliang across the Nullabor because of the heat but so far all good. The temp did get to 33 around 2 pm but only for a short time then dropped back to 30, we pulled up here around three. 

Had been concerned about where or not we needed to book a spot but a question put to a couple of forums assured us that there was no need.

$30 a night and one dollar for a shower, there is no water supplied for the vans but thats not a drama.

Streaky Bay

A day of rest today but we did fit in a nice drive around the bluff.

This is called Halley's Bluff and had a nice wooden deck down to the water. Cant believe the colour of the water, so blue!

Did some shopping bought some tinned stuff as apparently cant take fresh fruit and vegetables into WA.

This is our site, right on the foreshore. We went for a swim this afternoon, it was about 25 degrees and I did think that I would just put a toe in to say that I had been in but it was so nice. We ended up swimming and snorkling until about 5.30pm. I had to try my new rashie shirt and reef shoes, they work a treat!

Cowell to Streaky Bay

Today was another travel day as we had the extra days in Point Turton. We were heading to Elliston as Warren had read somewhere that the cornish pasties at the bakery in Elliston were good. He even marked it on out map so of course we had to go there.

I had packed morning tea though to have on the way, I used to pack it (MT) in our wheely insuled bag but found it too big, so I used a plastic shopping bag but the flask and everything was too loose. This morning I decided to use one of the plastic buckets that we bought at Bunnings (they would be really handy, hadnt found a use for them yet). The flask stood up, the cups alongside, two sachets of coffee, a spoon and a container of biscuits, altogether in one handy carry hold all. All was left for Warren to grab was the milk for the car fridge.

Anyway we stopped on the road from Cleve to Lock, not a bad road quite wide and bitumen, not one car, truck, caravan or even a horse passed on the road while we were stopped, it was magic and very very quiet.

Ninety minutes later we pulled into Elliston and I reminded Warren it was after twelve on a Saturday. He looked at me in disbelief, surely they would not be closed! The grocery shop alongside was but luckily the bakery was still open and had one pastie left, we took that and a steak and kidney pie and shared them at the foreshore. Lovely little place with clear blue skies and deep blue sea, a very nice 24 degrees.

Streaky bay was much the same when we got there after another hundred or so kms

Heading into the Unknown.

I feel like I need some creepy music now. Once Warren and I drove past Port Pirie it is all new territory to us. We have nor been more west than that. Warren has flown into Perth but not by road.

It was interesting to go through places that we remembered having to place on maps when we were at school. PT Pirie, Pt Wakefield, Pt Augusta Whyalla, it was great to go through, didn't have time to stop.

A highlight of the day for me was stopping in a rest spot just outside Whyalla, making lunch, we were alongside a train line and we saw a train coming but it was only the engine, we stood up and waved wondering if he would even see us. He saw, he waved and then he pulled the cord, no-one else around but us, small thing but made my day.

We drove on to Cowell, nice part just outside the town. Its like a bush part with string bark trees for shade, we are members of this park chain and only need to pay $26 for the night. Great looking pool which we used this afternoon, very nice.

Heading West tomorrow.

Port Germein

We packed early today as we awake and had a fair way to go. We don't hurry when we are packing up and we have discovered that if we do we will forget to do something so its pretty leisurely and we were ready to pull out by 8.30 am. Last thing before leaving,  is a lights check. Blinkers, yep check, tail lights yep check, brakes, brakes? what was he doing? there was a yell from the front. Oh dear he had been testing the brakes but there was no lights happening.

Out comes the tool box etc etc, he was fiddling while I was looking up the nearest Auto electrican or RACQ (RAA in sth Aussie). Give it another go, yep working thank goodness but then no blinkers. Not a problem as he then knew what the problem was, took the connector apart again and tightened all the wires and yes then we had lift off or at least could go. So much for our early start, left around 9.30 am which is our usual time.

Morning tea was at Port Germein or Port Germie as the GPS says it. As I discovered the other day it has the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere, it says it is 1536 metres long, wikipedia says 1.67kms, whatever it is, its a loooong way.

We didnt have time to walk it so we walked to the jetty start and took a photo. There is about 200 metres of dirt before getting to the actual jetty, possibly where the confusion lays.

This is an automatic tide indicator and was in use up until 1986

Visiting the toilets I saw a mural on the outside wall.

I am amazed at these murals besides the fact that they are well done, the other thing that I realized today that impresses me about them is there is no graffiti on or around them, how fantastic is that?

Wallaroo and Kadina

Today was a travel day from Pt Turton to Wallaroo. We are staying near the beach again but it has come a little cold so no swimming.

Mid afternoon we headed to Kadina to see Val, Warren's sister.

When we got there she was measuring the height of the garage as there was a chap there moving some display cabinets. They were loaded into a trailer and apparently there was little clearance to get it out from under the garage roof.

Warren climbs into the trailer to weigh it down and tells me to jump up too. Before I knew it we were both standing in the back of a trailer, acting as ballast, while an unknown man slowly drove through the garage. It worked and although we had to duck our heads the cabinets went through with a clearance of five or six inches.

After we waved him off ( he was collecting the displays from Val who had been storing them for the gem club) and locked the gates, we had a few hours with her, finishing up at the Ale house in Wallaroo for dinner. Excellent place looking over the marina and we also caught up on the footy, Brisbane Lions playing Gold Coast at Morton Bay footy ground, which is in Caboolture!

A rainy Day

At the beach on a rainy day, what do you do? Clean the van and climb back into bed with a good book.

Then I surfaced and made scones with jam and cream for afternoon tea which we ate after a long walk about 6 kms so didn't mind eating scones then.

The start of the walk we went out on the jetty and then the breakwaters and we saw three dolphins followed by an Eagle Ray.

Sheridan had her phone so she rang the rest of the family and they bolted down, just as well as the dolphins were working a patch and were soon on their way out to sea.

Wildlife in the York

There are heaps of it here.

Bit hard to see but there is a string ray in the top right of the photo. We had seen an eagle ray the day before but didnt have my camera with me. The string ray is round like a dinner plate and the eagle ray has pointed fins. Its amaxing what can be seen on a walk out the jetty and along the breakwaters.

Two or three seals seem to be in residence off the rocks of the breakwater, I did use my zoom but even so he is only about three metres away, this is the smaller one.

Pelicans waiting for a feed from the guys who were cleaning fish.

Then there was this guy, just lucky to get a shot in as he flew off just after, he must have thought I was getting too close.

We have been snorkling earlier in the afternoon and had seen quite a lot of small fish. I dont snorkle often and have never done it in southern seas but it was good, water was fine. Kids need to get used to snorkling as we are booked in to do swimming with the whales over in WA.

Edithburgh

We are staying at Point Turton and as it was misty rain and cold this morning we drove across to Edithburgh which is a pretty quiet township with a few places closed because it was Monday. We took a walk on the jetty which seems small to us after walking several times out on Beachport's jetty. At 772 metres, (it was 1.2kms until some cold fisherman decided to light a fire on it) Beachport's is the second longest in Sth Australia. I had to google to see which the longest is and it is at Pr Germain just up the road from here (1.7 km long).

We went out to view the wind farm, biggest one I have seen with sixty that we could count.

Many building in small towns have murals painted on them, this was one in Edithburgh.

The cafes that we had headed towards to have lunch was closed (Monday) so we went across to the Troubridge pub and had lunch there, very nice it was, as we were at a seaport I opted for fish and butter fish was on the menu. Never tasted it or even heard of butter fish but very nice. 

Funny things that are seen on the road.

Leaving Kapunda this morning, I was glad that we hadnt left ten minutes earlier as just when we were about to get in the car, we saw this.

Driving out of Kapunda we waved goodbye to Map.

Map's full name is Map Kernow which means in Cornish The son of Cornwall. I did have a photo of him but it has gone into the sky never to be seen again. He is a massive bloke from the mining era.

Coming along there was a fence line of about a hundred metres with all wheel trims on it, there must have been a couple of hundred of them, all different types and sizes.

Barossa markets and a bonus!

Sheri and I set out this morning as I wanted to check out the markets, a craft place and a lavender farm. She made the decision  to come even though it wasnt her thing, she does not like lavender. We were going to take the Jeep and I unlocked it but it didnt unlock. Short story, the battery was flat as between us, we had left the fridge attached to the battery all night! Warren hooked the Jeep up to the battery charger in the van and by this afternoon it was ready to go again.

So change of plan, we took the Isuzu and motoring down the road and came across the markets quicker than we thought. Again much of the produce was there for the tasting, I bought some pickles, pear and fennel and two Cornish pastries ($2 each)  Warren and I had them for lunch and they were great, mainly carrot but they werent over sweet.

As we left the market, this was across the road.

It is an automated grape picker, the yellow machine went up the rows and shook the bunches off the vines and then shot them into a trailer towed behind another tractor which was travelling in tandem, fascinating to watch.

Aviation Museum

There was a small sign on the side of the road as we were going to the wineries this morning. Not in the brochures and not in the GPS.

It was one man's collection and it was brilliant, so well laid out.

I asked and he told me there were 1400 planes!

There was a walk way to follow and things were labelled and explained.

$5 each to go in but I would have to say that it was one of the best that I have been to see.

Maggie Beer's Farm Shop

We were only a few kilometres from here so we visited. Well, there were tasting of everything! Everything that was on the shelves to sell, had a small pot in front with either sticks or spoons to taste. One item had bread so that it could be dipped olive oil and then grains.

I had packed lunch but compared to what was on offer there, sandwiches didnt really cut it. We ordered a mushroom picnic set with an extra bread. It came in a small cane tray with two small wholemeal french sticks, mushroom pate, dukar? and a cheese. Oh my goodness it was good. Too good to even think about taking a photo.

There are two walks around the farm and we did both.

This is on the nature walk and the shop is in the back ground.

We came across these on the farm walk, these are breed for their colours.

We did have to tale home some produce, keeping in mind, my budget and space, we bought two lots of jam and two bottles of sauce to complement my cooking I hope. He chose Apricot jam and I chose raspberry and pomegranate, yum.

Warren says we will have my packed lunch for dinner. 

Seppeltsfield winery

What a nice place.

The surrounds were brilliant.

We didnt do any wine tasting even though we were in the heart of the Barossa. We did go to the Jam Factory which was a craft shop and they have arts and crafts people who work there at different times. Today they had a milliner and a leathermaker, both women.

Lovely hats but way out of my price range.

These were in the glass blower's workshop.

The leather maker had handbags, wallets shoes and belts. The bags were about $300, Warren bought himself a belt as when we lived in Canberra he bought one from a similar place and had about fifteen years wear out of it. He figured that $60 spent on a quality item was worth the money.

The boys found a tree to climb in a car park.

Leaving Adelaide behind

After nine days it was time to leave and Warren went against the GPS, she likes to take us through the quickest way and some of the roads in Adelaide were a little narrow. Luckily Warren's recall of Adelaide streets was working well and we were out of the city in pretty short time.

We took a short detour to the St Kilda Playground for the kids, being a school day there were only young kids there and not the crowds that there was on Sunday.

We arrived in Kapunda and set up, its a great park and most sports are around this area. We were disappointed to find that the NAB cup (AFL pre season comp) was not televised but we walked over to the local ground and watched the local team do their training. I'm sure they were wondering who and what we were doing but we enjoyed seeing a bit of footy.

Sheri and I went shopping at the local shops and both got some meat bargains. The meat that we have bought in smaller country towns have been really good so looking forward to our pork chops tomorrow. I bought sliced chicken that needed to be cooked tonight, I did a stirfry with vege as well, it was good.

Caravan and Camping show Adelaide

Five days of sales for vans and everything connected with caravans and travelling.

We had the Jeep booked in for a service today and we took ourselves us to the show, anyways seems to be something that one needs.

Firstly, we had to set the alarm as being on holidays, there is no real need to get up but we were required to have the car there by 8.45 am.As we had been in the habit of waking late then checking emails etc, often breakfast wasnt being taken until about 9am or even later.

Dropped the car, it was like a shopping centre car park but all the cars had numbers on top, my goodness, they were busy, it had taken all week to get the Jeep booked in and then I think they squeezed it in as we we moving on tomorrow. Very nice staff and they arranged for the yard van to take us into the city and they would have collected us as well but we said we would make our own way back. (Which we did by way of Son in law)thanks Chris.

Oh My Goodness, what a lot of nice vans we saw, many of them were way out of our price range but its nice to look. Interesting to see what is included now as standard features, very few did not have a shower and toilet and then for those it was roughly $12 to $15000 more.

We went to the tourism people and have a lot of brochures to study for our next few weeks which is good. We cant hope to see even half of what is on offer but at least we can make some informed choices.

Breaking Brakes

While attaching the chains to the car last week to leave Mannum, there was a trang sound and I saw a wire on the ground. It was our brake, it had fractured and given way. I had visions of having to stay there for a few days until it could be fixed.

Warren assured me that it was the brake for when the caravan was stationary not while driving so he tied it up with some bright yellow rope so that the cable didnt drag on the ground and we continued.

The park here in Adelaide is fairly level but he did need to choc the wheels until he could get to a hardware store.

Now we have a shiny new shackle? and all is well, ready for the next adventure.

Hahndorf and Woodside

Years ago travelling to Adelaide we always whizzed through the little towns that were in the Adelaide hills, today we visited two of them. Things do come to those who wait!

Hahndorf was a German settlement and as such has a German flavour. German pantry and bakeries were in the main street but we couldnt go past the farm produce for lunch,  sitting on the side walk. Coffee cups were dipped in chocolate and we were told that it was fine to lick the cups that everyone else does. I used my spoon to scrape the chocolate off. (more walking required tomorrow)

It has become the place to go on the weekends from Adelaide and has lots of little shops, heaps of eating places and galleries. I am so glad that we are in the caravan as even though I am tempted to buy things, the lack of space and extra weigh is a very good deterrent.

Although I was a little naughty today and bought a jacket off a sale rack, very pretty blue, unfortunately I had to go inside to pay and oh my lordy, what a treasure trove that was and the lady was a very good salesperson, yes I bought another top as well. She wasnt pushy just very helpful.

There was a German shop selling all types of German merchandise from small wooden toys to massive grandfather cuckoo clocks, stunning.

This was the tree lined road out of Hahndorf and on to Woodside and surprise surprise, the GPS lady actually said them correctly!

Woodside had a chocolate factory and a cheese tasting side by side, what more could anyone want (well maybe a nice wine and there was plenty of those in the area too)

Alongside the shop were areas that customers could watch the chocolate being made. Very good marketing as very few people would go to see without buying any and yes, we did buy a few samples.

Getting ready for Easter, these rabbits were about fifteen inches tall, 35cms.

After the chocolate came the cheese and yes, we did buy a couple of blocks of cheese too.

Driving back to the freeway, fuel was advertised at 99.9cents a litre, what a good buy and we did need fuel so a plus for us.

Finished off the day by having dinner with a couple of nieces and one hubby. A good day. 

Trees

I love South Australian trees, they are so massive! Every time we came back I realise that they are something that I miss seeing.

This is one that is in our caravan park.

It is called The Monarch of the Glen and is reported to be over 400 years old. Apparently aboriginal families used to live in it. It is still living and is behind a gated and locked fence.

St Kilda Adventure Playground

A free adventure playground for kids of all ages. It was a cool day today and we had talked about going out somewhere for a picnic lunch so we combined the two.

Jordan is up the top among other kids.

Warren and Aidan came down this but I think I missed them.

It was about 45 minutes away from the caravan park but well worth it.

On the way we drove past Scotties motel. Love Scotties ever since we went there to stay for a night soon after we were married, yep! That long ago!

Warren had stayed there once for work and they all pigged out on oysters kilpatrick, work was picking up the tab!

When we stayed there a year or so later, he suggested I try them, yum! love them but unfortunately Warren cant eat them any more because of the soy and his gluten stuff.

Miss Fisher's clothes

At Ayre house today and until Sunday 14 Feb is a display of her clothes/costumes that were made for the show including hats.

There were about six or seven rooms with the costumes and telling which series they were used in.

In front of the dresses was an explanation of who made it, there were four main dressmakers for the show, what episode they were in and most times a swatch of material that could be felt. Many of the fabrics were silk as she does play a well to do miss.

Much of the beading and lace work has been hand sewn. I bought one of the DVDs and was watching an episode yesterday when I heard about the display, so pleased to have been able to see it, even though I am def not a fashionista as such.

Adelaide the city of Churches

There really are some beautiful old buildings in Adelaide, some of them are Churches.

We were going to the city today by bus,well that fell in a heap as we couldn't get into the shopping centre to buy a ticket for the bus, then we couldn't find anywhere to park to walk to the shops. Warren says stuff it we will drive to Hindmarsh square, about eight kms away and then walk to North terrace.

Found a park, with a big 3, no problems then I read the sign more closely, darn, 3 hours was on weekends, one hour was for Mon to Fri. Buggar, thats no good to us. GPS, find a parking station, ha! only 110 metres, only trouble was it was full. Finally we found one reasonably close and wound our way up to the top. ducking our heads in the car as it was low! One metre point nine five, not sure how high our car is but it couldnt have clear it by much.

Walking to Ayre House we saw that the museum had an exhibition on Coober Pedy, whoops did a swift left turn and paid a visit. Excellent showing would run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for all the opal that was on display. There was even a mock up of an underground mine, not sure if photos were allowed but I didn't take any, it was amazing.

Lunch was pretty good. Think we blew the budget today but did see two unusual exhibitions.

The Art Gallery, we did step in here as we had been told that there had been an aboriginal art display unfortunately it had finished. The building was pretty impressive though. 

 

Riding the Tramways in Adelaide.

We drove to Glenelg this morning to catch the tram into the city.

It was a beautiful day around 32 degrees, the sky was blue and the sun was out and so were a lot of people.

Two and three year olds had been running thru the fountains, just lucky to get a time when they were all out (I dont like to take pics of little kids)

This was the tram we caught.

I wanted to have lunch in the mall but there didnt seem to be many places to actually eat so we went downstairs to the underground food mall. OMGoodness what a choice, we went to a Japanese eating place and I got sushi.

Our lunch.

Mall entertainment but this guy was the best and boy was he working hard.

Birdwood National Motor Museum.

We couldnt go past this the other day. I was surprised at how big it was and the amount of cars and bikes that were displayed. I also loved the building that it used to be in which had been an old flour mill.

Inside the museum.

and the bikes

It reminded me of a Chinese shopping centre but these were all different. Warren went looking for his bike, didnt find it but did find a bike he was given a ride on, it was a 1100 something.  I remember him saying after the ride that it went from nothing to 70mph with no effort at all. Much bigger than anything he had ridden before or since.

I remember seeing this one one at the Olypmics, it was a real phone and the athletes could ring home for free.

There was also a pursuit car with Detroit Police Dept on it which seemed a little out of place until we read the info on it. Apparently the cars were designed and produced in Australia for the Northern American police force as they had a long wheel base, I did not know that. Strange that GMH would export cars to America but that was what it stated.