Mount Gambier

We left Victor Harbor and considered driving all the way home, but it would have been another epic drive, so instead we decided to stop at Mount Gambier, Troy's stomping ground for about a year while he worked on the hospital there some 20 years ago. Along the way we stopped at Naracoorte for a lovely pub lunch, drove through yet another wine region, apparently SA soil is only good for grape growing. Well, that and sheep farming! We arrived at Mount Gambier and set up camp for the final time, almost on the same site in the same park Troy had stayed in, before heading off to explore the town. 

Troy showed us where he played baseball while he stayed here, as well as Blue Lake, Mount Gambier's water supply and main attraction!! 

It wasn't very blue on this winter's day, but we got the idea! We went back to the park, where the kids enjoyed their last bounce on the jumping pillow for this holiday, before we headed out to dinner at the local Chinese restaurant. The food was good, but Turtle Den is better!! 

We finished the night with a family selfie, and bed!

Our Last Hurrah at Victor Harbor

This morning we awoke to a sunny yet chilly day. We packed up camp and set off for Victor Harbor. We travelled through Adelaide's suburbs, it's quite a big place really, then past McLaren Vale and on to Victor Harbor. As I was checking in to the caravan park I noticed brochures advertising whale watching tours. I hadn't realised whales came this far around the coast, however the park manager told me they hadn't seen any whales yet this season. Hopes dashed, we went and set up camp before heading in to town. We went to the whale centre, and were told two whales had been seen off the coast, so we were off in search of them. We firstly found a seal, basking around in the shallows just off the coast around the Bluff.

We then travelled around to Petrel Cove, and there they were. Two whales frolicking around just off the coast. It was amazing!! We stayed and watched them for ages. 

A few thousand photos and about an hour of video footage later, the family finally dragged me away, and we went back into town. There was a small carnival for the school holidays, and we also saw the Steam Ranger Cockle Train. We then grabbed some hot cinnamon donuts and walked over to Granite Island. We missed the horse drawn tram with Jay Jay the Clydesdale.

The island was nice, with lovely views of the town.

Now after seeing whales we are totally happy for the holiday to end, and went back to the park for dinner and to plan our return home. 

Adelaide

This morning we packed up quite early and set off for the Barossa Farmers Market. There was only local produce, most of which was organic, and very tasty! We sampled and bought plenty, salami, cheese, dukkah, fudge, fruit. It was very enjoyable.

We then headed for Adelaide. The closer we got the worse the weather got, very glum and dark when we arrived. We checked in to a caravan park, and then took off to explore. We headed firstly to Glenelg. This place was very nice. The kids found a great place for some exercise,

While Troy and I picked out our next piece of real estate!! And matching boat!!

We then headed to the Rundle Mall, and shopped until Troy had had enough, which didn't take too long!! We went back to the park, via some lovely suburbs of Adelaide, and settled in for dinner and a movie.

Seppeltsfield and Nuriootpa

This morning we awoke to an overcast day. Not only has the warmth gone from our holiday, but so has the sun it seems!! Troy is ready to pack it in and drive home, and I am trying to hang on as long as possible!! But it is very hard when it is so cold!! Longing for central heating and my winter wardrobe!!!!

We set off for Seppeltsfield Road, where the Seppelt Family started the development of the Barossa region back in the 1800's. We visited the family mausoleum, which had a great view of the area.

We then went to the Seppeltsfield winery, gallery and cellar door. This was a great place that had a few resident artisans that create some amazing artwork. The knife maker and leather worker were onsight, and we were able to watch them at work. Also I found that this was the winery that Para liqueur was from, and I remembered this bottle from Mum and Dad's wine collection. As it was a little early in the morning we didn't taste any wines here, but the kids really liked their cordial!! 

We then continued on to Hentley Farm, the winery that Troy's brother Matthew works for. We may have a little family bias, but this winery was amazing. 

From the atmosphere of the 1850's cellar door to the wine itself, we enjoyed this place so much. 

Brendan, the vineyard manager, gave us a quick tour of the vineyard, cut short by a burst of rain, then we settled in to the comfy armchairs in the cellar door and sampled some wine by the open fire, served by Leeanda. Brendan settled in with us too, and we sat and chatted for ages.

Although we have previously sampled a few of these wines through Matthew, we enjoyed all of them, especially the Quattro fortified wine. Been keeping that a secret, hey Matthew!

We left Hentley, then travelled into Nuriootpa in search of Linke's butcher. Apparently this butcher does excellent German small goods and Troy was very keen to sample the fare! We sampled and purchased the mettwurst, the pepperoni, and the lachs schinken. We then travelled on to Linke's bakery and had a late lunch, before continuing on the winery trail to Penfolds. Again, not sure if it was family bias, but this winery was the total opposite to Hentley, with an almost sterile atmosphere, and far less superior wine, although the Grange was not on offer for tasting!! 

We returned back to the park after purchasing some steak from a local butcher that Leeanda had recommended, which we cooked up for dinner while watching the Hawks. It was delicious! Sadly the football match was not so!!

Barossa Valley

We packed up camp in Leasingham, and set off for a bike ride to Auburn. 

The glossy brochures said there were heaps of cafés in Auburn and we thought we'd try one for breakfast. While the 20km return bike ride along the Riesling Trail to Auburn was lovely and very scenic, it was slightly down hill, and we didn't notice the tale wind until we turned around to ride back!!  Upon arrival we realised we were sadly misled about the eateries, and rode back to the car very hungry! 

We set off for the Barossa Valley, stopping in Kapunda for lunch. By this stage we were quite famished, so when we saw a sign saying "10min Pizzas" we were there!! The pizza selections were excellent, and we chose two different pizzas and a bacon and egg burger for Ronan and sat down at the only table in the store. About 20min past and we were wondering where our 10min pizzas were. Both staff seemed to be busy doing something, we assumed they were preparing our food, they were opening and closing fridges, and appearing at the counter, so must have seen us still in the store. At about 30mins, Troy had had enough of waiting, he pushed back his chair and as it scraped on the tiles, one of the staff came out saying "Have you finished?" Troy said "You need to be served the food to have finished it!" They were quite embarrassed and compensated us with not only great pizzas, but dessert as well! It was quite amusing! 

We continued on to Tanunda, and set up camp in the only caravan park in town! The kids were pleased as it had a jumping pillow! Once established we ventured in to have a look around the town. It was another quaint little place, I very impressed with the stone work of the buildings, particularly the Lutheran Church. 

We wandered though the shops, then headed back to the park for dinner and bed. 

Clare Valley

This morning we awoke to another chilly one, and after packing up camp, we were sent off by an amazing view of the Flinders Ranges in the mornng sunshine and some gorgeous emus!

We drove through some quaint little towns today, stopping for breakfast at Orrooroo, which is also home to the giant gum tree. 

We drove on to Clare Valley, stopping for the night at Leasingham. This was very near Annie's Lane winery, and we felt obliged to go for a tasting!! 

We also went to Knappstein's winery and had a sample there too! 

Having power, we settled in for a toasty warm night tonight!!

Wilpena Pound

This morning it was so cold when we woke up our breath made condensation in the caravan!!! It was really fresh!! We got moving and warmed up by doing the short hike to Arkaroo. It was a great walk, and the artwork was.....there. 

We hiked back to camp, and deciding to stay here another night, we unhitched the car and set off for Wilpena. We reached the information centre, got some information about the local hikes, and set off, intending on doing a short 6km hike. 

Troy then decided he would prefer to do the outer rim hike, a 14km one, so we changed course to that one. Along the way we saw Grug!!

It was a medium grade hike til we reached the vertical climb!! We made it up though, and enjoyed the views from the top of the pound. 

We then set off for what we thought was the right track to finish the circuit, but it turned out this was a different trail, only 12km back to Wilpena!! On the way down we saw Hills Homestead,

And some kangas!!

All up we hiked about 20km, and the hot chocolate we had at the end went down a treat!! We bought some marshmallows and snuck a shower at the campsite before returning to our camp, just in time to find some firewood before dark. 

We had another great fire with marshmallows and damper, a Stella speciality, before bed. 

Another Epic Drive

This morning we left Coober Pedy before sunrise, and drove and drove and drove!! The northern part of South Australia is very sparse with not a heck of a lot to see! The kids got through a few movies while Troy and I counted down the k's between towns. We got to Port Augusta at around lunch time and stopped for a bite to eat. We continued on through Quorn and Hawker, and being quite late in the day, decided to brave a powerless free stay at Arkaroo Rock. 

This is a place with a short walk to some Aboriginal art, but Wiki told us it was also suitable to stay overnight. 

We drove in and found it very scenic with some great camping spots complete with fireplaces, so we set up camp and went looking for firewood. We got a great fire going, thankfully, as the temperature was fresh!!! 

Once we burned through all of the wood we snuggled up for a cold night!

The Hole.......In The Ground!

We had a very relaxed start to the day today. Once we were up and at 'em we headed to the Breakaways. Along the way, we marvelled at all of the holes in the ground, which are all mine shafts. We stopped to take a few photos and found all of the shafts are uncovered. As opal is generally found at about 30m below the surface, these shafts are generally 30m deep. How dangerous!!

The Breakaways were about 30km out of town, and so not worth the drive! We took a pic for evidence and returned back to town. 

We went to an art gallery that also had kangas that they had rescued and now looked after. We got chatting to the owner, who is also an opal prospector, and he was saying there is about 4 million mine shafts in the area. 4 million!!! And only a small percentage of those are active mines. Surely they should be making these people back fill the mineshaft if they stop digging it. That would save a few rescue missions!! 

We then went to do our own noodling! The term noodling came about as people used to go looking for opal nodules, which became noodles. We just liked the idea of going noodling!! Sadly it is basically sifting through other peoples diggings to see of they have missed any opals. Quite a dusty and dirty activity really!! 

It kept the kids amused for a bit, Ronan even found a few shards of opal vein, so he was pretty stoked! 

We then returned to the kanga park for feeding time. There were four big kangas and they were also caring for five joeys, one of which he bought out to show us. He was sooooooo cute!! 

We returned to the park to find a gazillion people had arrived while we were gone. They squeeze people in like sardines in this park that's for sure! 

Coober Pedy

We left the border this morning, another chilly one, bound for Coober Pedy. We knew we were getting close when we saw all these mounds of dirt scattered all about the place! 

We checked into the caravan park, set up camp and went into town to explore. We started at the Old Timers Mine and museum, only because this was the number one thing to do in Coober Pedy on Trip Advisor. There are so many mines, museums, opal stores and underground houses to visit that we had no idea where to start!! The opal mine was quite interesting, Troy enjoyed the audio guide while the kids and I explored it ourselves. 

As well as the mine, the original owner of this mine had also dug out a house for his family, so we were able to see an underground house too. 

The museum gave some history of the town, the overland telegraph line and of outback South Australia. Overall this was quite an interesting place. We also went to see the big winch.

From here we went to a hotel that was partially underground too. This also had a whole lot of information about opals, and about Coober Pedy. 

We then went to an underground restaurant for dinner. Once seated, it was hard to tell we were underground.

The food was excellent, and we had an enjoyable night.

SA Border

This morning we had a sleep in, well deserved after our last few days of go go go!!! The last few mornings have been very cold, but then it's blue skies and warm sunshine, today being no exception. We have lucked out with the most awesome weather on this trip, just a few rainy days, although we are expecting a few more getting closer to Victoria and all!!  We packed up camp and headed into the community of Yulara to have a look around, to see the market stall, yes stall not stalls!, and also for the spear and boomerang throwing demonstration. There was audience participation, and Troy, Graeme and the kids gave the spear throwing a good go, nearly hitting the stick they had set up as a target. 

We then went to listen to some bush yarns, a Traditional Owner sitting by the fire telling stories of his ancestors, that contradicted all the other stories we have recently been told! 

We then said our goodbyes to the Sydney crew and set off, destination SA border. The drive was pretty uneventful, although we did stop at Erldunda and the kids got friendly with some emus!

The scenery turned more barren the closer we got to SA! We arrived by late afternoon and set up camp in a free stay right on the border. 

The kids got a fair amount of homework done tonight, as there wasn't a whole lot else to do!! We were off the grid again, so absolutely no idea what is happening in the outside world, not that we've had much of an idea for quite some time!! We cooked dinner and snuggled up against the cold, closer to home once more!!

Kata Tjuta

This morning we woke early and drove into the National Park to see the Rock at sunrise. It was very chilly, Stella stayed wrapped in her blanket while we walked to the photo point along with the hundreds of others all here for the spectacle! It was the least impressed that I have been with the Rock, not nearly as good as the sunset. The area they allocate for the sunrise doesn't actually get much sun!!  

We later realised that the point where the sun does come up over the Rock is a sensitive area that the Traditional Owners don't want photographed.

We then went to a ranger guided walk around the Rock. Ranger Mick took us on a very cold journey around the base of the Rock, pointing out bits of interest and giving us a bit of history about the area and the Traditional Owners. It was quite interesting.

We then jumped on our bikes and rode around the base of the Rock. This was great fun, and gave us some great views of the rock. 

It is certainly not the smooth surfaced rock I have seen in postcards. There are heaps of holes and ridges from water running down the surface. It is so impressive, I am completely in awe of it!

We then went to have a look at the cultural centre, and although the bike ride had warmed us a little, a hot chocolate was just what we needed!! We also had a bite to eat before heading to Kata Tjuta, or the Olgas. The Olgas look like they are similar to Uluru but on closer inspection, they look like they are made up of lots of smaller rocks all crushed in together, whereas Uluru looks like one big rock, which it is!! 

We started the Valley of the Winds walk, but decided to turn around after the first lookout and go to Walpa gorge. This walk was excellent and very scenic. 

We returned to town, and went to watch a Traditional Owner dancing demonstration. This was quite entertaining.

We went back to camp to freshen up before heading out for our last dinner with the Sydney crew. Tomorrow we head south and they are heading back north, lucky buggers!!! Dinner was great. While most of us chose a meal that was cooked for us, Troy ordered a raw T-bone he had to cook himself. He was very impressed with the BBQ's they had there, and thoroughly enjoyed his meal!! The kids enjoyed a few games of pool, before we headed back to camp for our last round of 500 with Sue and Graeme. Til next time anyway!!!