Teresa overdid it yesterday with walking 3 hours among people with perfume and regular washing detergent, so was feeling a little worse for wear this morning. On top of that the park manager started spraying roundup on the plants close by (before I noticed and asked him to stop – he kindly obliged). So she stayed in the caravan today while I headed for a day in Adelaide.
We were planning to visit the Adelaide Market, but since Teresa really wants to do that, we decided to instead move the van closer to Adelaide later this week and do the market then.
Haigh’s Chocolate Factory
So my first stop? Haigh’s chocolate factory for a free tour. The tour was quick, but they explained about the chocolate making process, as well as showed us the chocolates they were currently making in the factory. They are making the Christmas range to be in shops starting next week.
Our guide said the company was the oldest family-owned chocolate maker in Australia, and is still run by the fourth generation sons. They sell all around Australia and are gearing up for one of their two busy times: Christmas and Easter.
I enjoyed the tour, and bought some chocolate. My excuse? I need to compare the Melba’s and Haigh’s chocolates to see which one is better. The verdict? Haigh’s tastes better, but Melba’s is a lot cheaper.
Adelaide Oval
Next was a tour of the Adelaide oval, which was a lot better than I thought it would be. $22 for a 90 minute tour with a volunteer guide to take us all around the new (and old) grandstand.
The guide was very good and gave a lot of history of the place. Apparently the cricket and football boards were originally in disagreement as to how to run the ground and had a big fallout. Football built and moved to Football Oval in Adelaide in 1970.
Once the AFL became national in the 1990s, footy started earning much more money than cricket (who were losing money) so the SA government brokered a deal between the two for Footy to return to Adelaide Oval. The guide said footy got some really favorable terms including naming rights on some of the newer stands and the use of the oval for 7 months of the year. Cricket starts in November which is why they were installing the pitch while we were there today.
One of the main stipulations of the cricket board when the football code came back was that the original scoreboard and fig trees on the Cathedral end not be demolished.
I’m not normally one to keep older technology around, but I’m in favor of the old scoreboard. It adds a charm to the ground. It takes between 3 men (test match) and 7 men (20-20 cricket) to operate, moving around large steel plates with the cricketer’s names on them. Everything inside is still completely manual because the structure is heritage listed. Until recently the volunteers who run the scoreboard were unpaid, and while there is a waiting list to volunteer here, it’s so long you can’t get on it. They did recently get some mod cons. There is a microwave and toaster, and they recently installed some air conditioning (well, a fan).
The fig trees was a good story too – they were originally planted so the public couldn’t sit on the hill just outside the ground and watch the match for free. They are now listed too, so can’t be removed. When they rebuilt the ground surface (when they added the newest stands), they found roots from the trees had grown 40 meters in length under the surface.
Our tour kept walking around the oval, going inside the old pavilion. We saw the player’s changing rooms, their lunch room and the players box (where they sit watching the game). We walked down the raceway the batsmen use when they come onto the oval, as well as visited the chairman’s private box. The oval has a lot of memorabilia on display.
Overall, it was a fantastic afternoon. Well worth the entry fee.
They also have a roof climb (similar to Sydney’s bridge climb) which would be good to go on one day. I didn’t have time today.
Caravan Parts
By now it was 3:45 and I still needed to head to Gawler to pick up some parts for the caravan. We’ve been working on caravan tank water the last few days as the water pressure has been so high the hose has been pulling off the fitting. We’ve been getting around it by filling up the tanks once a day, then turning off the tap and using the water in the tank for the rest of the day. It has been an issue when washing because a load of washing takes over 1/2 a tank.
We’ve also had issues with the washing machine’s outlet. It doesn’t fit neatly into the pipe installed in the caravan, and because the flat-out hose we were using doesn’t allow the water to get away quick enough, it has been overflowing into the caravan. I bought a larger pipe today.
Both were purchased at a caravan shop in Gawler that came recommended by a couple of people at the campsite. They were very helpful and their shop is very well stocked.
I got back to the caravan about 5pm to check on Teresa. She said she’s still pretty tired but it was good to relax in the caravan all day today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for her.
And both caravan fittings work. No more switching water supplies to run the washing machine. Yey!
Two more vans left today. Current count: 2 permanents and three short term (including us).