A big day today.
We awoke this morning to the sound of most of the vans in the park packing up. By the time we headed out, there were only 6 vans in our section, and two of those are permanent. We now have a lovely empty space all around us! (Late news: no new vans arrived today either, so it looks like this caravan park follows the same ebb and flow of Mildura with busy times over the weekend).
And we finally had some warmth return. After the 15 degree days of the weekend, the forecast top today was 22 degrees.
Today we decided to go south and visit Hahndorf, Australia’s oldest German settled town. We got there via Melba’s Chocolates and Woodside Cheeses. Melba’s was started in 1990 and has grown to be a large tourist attraction in this area. They had a huge range of chocolate (even more than Panny’s on the Island) and all reasonably priced. I picked up some chocolate I hadn’t tried before: Chocolate Chilli and Rum and Raisin. Plus a malt covered chocolate ball I suspected was a Maltesers clone (on later consumption, we agreed they were better than Maltesers! We are glad we tasted them after we were well away from the store, or we would have gone back for more!) The cheese shop had cheese tastings. I loved the buffalo cheeses they had on offer. Teresa bought 1kg of buffalo fetta and a small packet of brie dipped in ash.
Hahndorf was next. It’s essentially a tourist town w ith one major street 800m long full of touristy shop. A lot of the shops celebrate the town’s German history. Celebrate is probably too strong a word… They are using the German heritage to sell German-themed trinkets and gifts (read: junk).
There was a clock shop though that I thought Dad might be interested in. Next door was a leatherworker with belts and even saddles that Karen and Mum would like.
We, of course, were more interested in the food options.
There are 3 sweet shops in Hahndorf, and I suspect Melba’s sells white label to these shops. All packages we saw in the shops were very similar to what we saw in Melba’s – just with the store’s packaging, smaller quantities, and a higher price! So we skipped any purchases.
Lunch was at the German Arms – there were three pubs in town, but Google told us this one serves an excellent Schnitzel. Delicious!
Overall, we were very impressed with Hahndorf. We spent about 3 hours walking the main street and seeing the sights.
Leo was a trooper, not getting up to too much mischief. He loved the stimulation of lots of people and things to smell. Of course, still being a little puppy he flopped into his crate in the car and fell straight to sleep.
Mt Lofty
We went home via Mt Lofty. Similar to Mt Dandenong in Melbourne, it offers stunning views of Adelaide and the coastline.
The panorama above doesn’t do the view justice at all. I could see from Cape Jervis on the left (the peninsula out to King Island) to Port Adelaide and almost Gawler to the north. Unfortunately as we needed to get back, we only spent a few minutes here. I would have loved to stay a while and soak in the vista.
Normally you should pay for Mt Lofty parking… funds go to the maintenance of the park and facilities. However, there was a sign saying “Due to the theft of parking meters, there is currently no charge for parking”. At least they’re honest!
Bed and Biscuit
Our final stop for the day was a place with a great name. “Bed and Biscuit” is a dog kennel close to our camp in Williamstown. We asked the camp managers if there was somewhere we could leave Leo for the day while we head to Adelaide tomorrow, and they recommended this place. While the place looked really good, unfortunately they use lots of essential oils so Teresa couldn’t go inside. We know from experience that Leo’s fur will soak in the smell so upon his return she won’t be able to stay in the caravan while he’s there. Not so good for our holiday (or her sleep). So we’ll need to keep Leo with us tomorrow as we head into Adelaide.
We got home around 6pm and sampled the locally purchased cheese and pate while cooking a wedding anniversary celebration dinner of pork purchased from the Farmer’s Market on Sat, with a fennel/orange (local) and olive (local) salad. Delicious!