We arrived at my (Jodi’s) sisters house and were reminded of the size of suburbia. We squeezed the caravan into their driveway. Mandy and Christian then lavished the children with gifts and treats including Go-Karting and Warhammer figurines. After hours and hours of concentrated painting of the figurines, the boys were taken to a Warhammer game by ‘future-uncle-Christian’. Adelaide is a tired, pretty city. Not so busy. In map grid terms, the state is a perfect square, being 12 degrees longitude wide and 12 degrees longitude deep. this is unique to any sovereign state on earth. ….Adelaide is not only a square city, but it is constructed with its streets on a near perfect right-angle grid. (Australias 12 Sacred Places, Alan Whithead.) Ian had the opportunity to go gliding with one of Mandy’s workmates. A birdseye view of Adelaide.
We also got Jay a couple of violin lessons with a Suzuki teacher. Lisa was great with him and he learned a new (hard) song in two lessons.
We took a trip down to Port Elliot/Victor Harbour where we walked across to Granite Island to watch the penguins come in from their daily fishing. It was breeding season, so (in the filtered , red torch-light) the boys had some different visual experiences. We planned to eat dinner on the island after the tour (which went from 6-7), but the bistro closed at 6pm. The management kindly said they would feed us after the tour, which was fortunate as breastfeeding makes me go from not hungry to starving in an instant. The meal and the service were exceptional. We had the restaurant to ourselves on the penisnsula of an island …. devine.
On advice we camped at Port elliot in the Big 4. AAhhhhh! remarkable! a place to remember for us. The park was on the beach. Hills, sand, boulders, seals, and seagrass for landscape. Jay did his spelling in the sand and the boys had amazing adventures and imaginations around the rockeries. In fact, they both decided they were going to become architects (because every house they saw they could think of something to change) . They fantasised of the house they would build when they were 16 – design, build and decorate with lots of remote control things in it – and bounced around the point as they excitedly discussed it. It was relaxing and magical for all of us. The most amazing thing was that farmland ran right down to the ocean. Acres and acres of undevoloped ocean-front land. Very lucky sheep!
Port Elliot
A couple more days in my sister’s yard saw the end of Adelaide. The confinement of suburbia stark after the freedom of the ocean. I must say the company made it Ok, though.
Our final weekend we spent in the Barossa Valley. Mandy and Christian got the weekend off and we did a tour of the wineries together. Fun, fun, fun. We were treated like royalty at Rockfords as we had mail-ordered from them, which made us ‘Stonewallers’. That was pretty special. Of the 5000 wineries in the Barossa, we managed to bump into some friends from Samford in one of them! We are now camping with them in the Flinders …….. [see next entry]. The stone buildings and autumn landscape are a sight to behold. Years ago, my cousin bought a winery …. now I can understand why. Atomosphere. Whew.
One of the old winery trucks
Jodi, Mandy, Ian and Christian
Sculpture at St Halletts winery
Please sir can I have some more…………
The wine press used at Rockfords
Apple tree in the orchard at Rockford winery
Archive for May, 2008
Adelaide and outskirts
Leaving Dubbo for the West
After our short stay in Dubbo, we moved on to Max and Marg’s place outside Gillgandra. The property is now primarily a sheep station, though Max and Marg have run cattle and crop farmed in the past. The boys had the opportunity to ride quad bikes, look for opals from opal dirt, hold a lamb, shear a sheep skin and play some pool.
Zaac and Jay holding lambs
From Max and Marg’s, we head for the mining town of Broken Hill. We are surprised at the town services and cleanliness. For a small outback mining town, it provides all the services needed and many more. The RFDS has a base and the School Of The Air also service the outback regions of NSW. We visit DayDream Mine just outside Broken Hill which was in operation before Broken Hill’s resources were uncovered. The visit takes us underground and back in time. Operating in the late 1800’s, the mine still has the remains of the original township which had a population of over 500. Much of the labour used on the mines were boys as young as 8, they sorted the rock after it was removed from the mine and then sent for further processing.
Ian, Zaac and Jay go mining
The mine was barely large enough for me to walk through and the miners of old would have lead a very hard life.
We also toured the School of the Air and the Royal Flying Doctor Service bases. Both of these were well worth the visits. The SOTA now uses satellite communication and video conferencing rather than HF radio and the RFDS gives a full history on where the service has come from. After our time in Broken Hill it is time to push on to Adelaide.
The two day trip had us stopped at some road side rest areas and we were glad to arrive in civilization and hot showers and running water. We are now staying at Jodi’s sisters place and doing the sights of Adelaide which we will update down the track.
