Adelaide

19th – 23rd April 2017

Wednesday 19th

Chilled out most of the day. Went for a great bike ride from our campsite along the bike path beside the Torrens River to the city and beyond to the weir, and back again. A very enjoyable ride, which will only get better when Adelaide finally finishes all its road works.

Thursday 20th

Cousin Terry and Greg have invited us to stay at their place a couple of days earlier than we’d planned so we can dog-sit for them tomorrow and Saturday. In the meantime we have much shopping to do – back to Central Markets and another enjoyable shopping experience.

We checked in at Terry and Greg’s and spent a lovely evening chatting.

Friday 21st

Busy day today. We ordered the meat for the next few weeks (to be cryovacced), then went to visit our friend Julie at West Beach. A good catch-up over a cuppa, then back to the tyre people to check the valve on one of the new tyres. Yes it does need replacing, no it can’t be done today – come back Monday! (Not happy).

Back to Terry and Greg’s and the big cook-up started! Because much of the next 3+ weeks travel will be fairly remote I’m preparing about half the meals and freezing them, the remainder will be either from the refrigerated cryovacced meats or ‘pantry’ meals (eg tinned tuna base, etc). Exhausted by the time Terry and Greg got home from work!

Saturday 22nd

A good, fun day today. Greg’s away on a work trip today so Terry, Steve and I went out for brunch at Semaphore. From their home we walked along the beach to the pier and to a delightful cafe where we enjoyed our meals. Terry filled us in on the sites and history as we went.

Interesting sculpture, which looks much more interesting and not creepy at all in person, and the Semaphore Tower in the background. The ball, which you'll see at the base of the pole on top of the tower, used to to raised to the top and dropped at 1pm every day which could be seen by the ships in the harbour.

Interesting sculpture, which looks much more interesting and not creepy at all in person, and the Semaphore Tower in the background. The ball, which you’ll see at the base of the pole on top of the tower, used to to raised to the top and dropped at 1pm every day which could be seen by the ships in the harbour.

Back home Terry took us for a drive out to the Port (via Costco for a bit of shopping). Terry works for Defence who are building three new guided missile destroyers for the Navy. Nuship Hobart (it can’t be called HMAS Hobart yet because it hasn’t been commissioned) is nearly finished having already done a few trials and will be delivered in 6 weeks. Nuships Brisbane and Sydney are well on the way. They’re pretty impressive ships and look awfully mean – don’t attack Australia, you really don’t want to mess with these ships!

Terry, with her ship Nuship Hobart.

Terry, with her ship Nuship Hobart.

Sunday 23rd

Today we had a fabulous time in the Adelaide Hills with Terry and Greg as guides. First stop was the Stirling Markets. These are huge markets where we wandered aimlessly for a couple of hours and didn’t see more than half the stalls there – interesting stalls too with lots of local-made crafts, and food.

Autumn colours in Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. Terry and Denise

Autumn colours in Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. Terry and Denise

From here we travelled along the range to Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard, then on to Pike and Joyce, and Andersons to sample their wares.

Doing a little wine tasting at Mt Lofty Ranges vineyard and restaurant.

Doing a little wine tasting at Mt Lofty Ranges vineyard and restaurant.

The drive was beautiful, winding around the range and through the valleys, made all the more stunning by the trees covered in their autumn leaves. Each of these vineyards has panoramic views down across the vineyards where the leaves are yellowing. Lots of cherry, apple and stone fruit orchards up here too. A truly delightful place to visit.

Vineyards at Mount Lofty Ranges. Beautiful autumn colours.

Vineyards at Mount Lofty Ranges. Beautiful autumn colours.

Back at Terry and Greg’s for our last night we return to Largs Pier Hotel for dinner.

For more photos from our stay in Adelaide with Terry and Greg, CLICK HERE.

Easter in Adelaide

15th – 18th April, 2017

Saturday 15th

The big excitement today is the arrival of James and Rachael. This morning we headed for Adelaide, had a brief stop at the Central Markets, checked into our Air B&B house and headed for the airport. It’s so good to see them again and get to spend a few days with them.

Our Air B&B is just perfect. It’s centrally located in Gilles St, and is set up with everything we could possibly want; groceries, wine, fresh fruit, shampoo, etc, etc, including a couple of bars of Lindt chocolate – definitely my kind of rental. And it’s a beautiful little cottage that has been renovated with a lot of class.

Our Air B&B, Adelaide

Our Air B&B, Adelaide

Dinner tonight we’ve booked in to Madame Hanoi, a Vietnamese fusion restaurant in the Adelaide Casino.

Easter Sunday there’s not much in Adelaide that’s open, but all the vineyards are. James was keen to go to the McLaren Vale vineyards. We happily sampled wines at Alpha Box & Dice, Coriole, Shingleback and D’Arenburg. At Shingleback we’d booked in for lunch. Chef Horst takes a select number (10 today) and discusses the food with us while he cooks it. It was beautiful food and the experience was well worth it.

Lunch at Shingleback with Chef Horst preparing our meals.

Lunch at Shingleback with Chef Horst preparing our meals.

Monday we drove around Adelaide, Glenelg, back to Largs Pier Hotel for dinner (we’d told James and Rachael how beautiful it is) and finished the evening with a game of 500. Altogether a good day.

Sadly Tuesday morning we farewelled James and Rachael, back to DC for them. We packed up the Air B&B and headed off to the Adelaide Caravan Park where we get serious about planning for the next month or so of our travels.

For the photos of our Easter with James and Rachael CLICK HERE

To Adelaide

8th – 14th April, 2017

Saturday & Sunday 8th, 9th

We can’t get our tyres repaired until Wednesday in Adelaide so we’re just moseying slowly in that direction. Bowman Park outside the little town of Crystal Brook was recommended to us and it is a lovely camp spot. In 1847 it was appropriated from the indigenous peoples for use as a pastoral lease. A stone cottage, gardens and stables remain – the rock-wall enclosed garden is being renovated and cared for by a community group. There’s also a function hall here and a lovely grassy oval where local families picnic, etc. Several walking trails showcase interesting parts of the property.

We spent a reasonably quiet night only disturbed by some rustling in the drawers and Steve claiming, very indignantly and noisily, that a mouse ran over him while he slept.

Sunday moved into Crystal Brook which is a lovely town with many beautiful stone houses and a really good cafe in what was once the bank – the vault now holds jewellery and antique giftware for sale.

We parked in the free camp which just happens to be alongside the railway line. During one hour while we were chatting with friends and family about 12 trains went by!! Despite this we lazily decided to stay here the night and not return the 5km to Bowman Park’s peace. Luckily there was only one train overnight that barely disturbed us. We did, however set a mouse trap that caught a rat!!  Steve is becoming a little disturbed now about this visitor to his bed last night!

The famous Ghan. Photo taken from the door of the motorhome in our campsite, with very little zoom!! Crystal Brook

The famous Ghan. Photo taken from the door of the motorhome in our campsite, with very little zoom!! Crystal Brook

Monday 10th

Moving a little closer to Adelaide we travelled down the eastern side of Spencer’s Gulf to Wallaroo. Wallaroo is a comparatively big town with large port facilities for grain as well as a vehicular ferry that crosses the gulf to the Eyre Peninsula and a very expensive-looking canal housing development. We lunched here before crossing the peninsula to St Vincent’s Gulf. Despite needing to do some grocery shopping we eschewed all the big stores here deciding to shop in Port Wakefield, which looks quite big on the map. 

Note the swimming pool , with the protective float around it - in Spencers Gulf at Walleroo. Great idea!

Note the swimming pool , with the protective float around it – in Spencers Gulf at Walleroo. Great idea!

Not so – Port Wakefield does not have even one store that sells fresh groceries. Moving on we’re now settled into the recreation reserve at Mallala (pronounced mal-lar-lar) which does have a small general store. Lesson learnt!

Tuesday 11th

Today we go to Adelaide. Wow – big city lights, and traffic! We’d nearly forgotten what it was like.

We haven’t previously seen much of Adelaide but the one thing we do remember from quick trips down is the Central Markets. We spent a happy few hours here revelling in the variety of foods available – such a treat! From here we went to cousin Terry and Greg’s for a catchup and great free camp for the night. Dinner tonight was at the very beautiful and historical Largs Pier Hotel. This hotel was the primary port of call for new immigrants to Australia between 1882 when it first opened and 1892. More recent history has seen it as a popular music venue. In the 1970s and 80s it  was the breeding ground for Australia’s rock music scene with rockers and bands such as Jimmy Barnes, AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Split Enz, Mississippi, Skyhooks and Little River Band performing regularly. It’s been beautifully maintained and restored. Food was also delicious.

The very beautiful and historic Largs Pier Hotel.

The very beautiful and historic Largs Pier Hotel.

Wednesday, Thursday, Good Friday 12th, 13th, 14th

It’s our wedding anniversary today (Wednesday) – 42 years! At last, we’ve got the answer to life, the universe and everything!

After getting the tyres fixed and rotated we headed down the Yorke Peninsula to Moana Beach where we’ll stay until Easter Saturday. It was good to just set up camp and sit back and relax. The campsite was spacious and not many here … until Thursday night when they started rolling in, and by Friday lunchtime it was packed!

We went for a drive to McLaren Vale township and had a general look around one day and especially enjoyed a bike ride along the beach cliffs from Moana north on another day.

Late afternoon bike ride at Moana Beach.

Late afternoon bike ride at Moana Beach.

To see our photos from this part of the trip CLICK HERE.