Teresa has not recovered yet, so she stayed in the caravan today. I finished some work this morning then visited the National Motor Museum in Birdwood. We had passed it a couple of times on our travels the last few days but neither of us were into cars, so we weren’t sure we would go.
However, we had three people independently say it was a great place, so I thought I’d head over alone today.
I’m glad I did – there must have been a couple of hundred cars from all different eras: Australian and Imported. They had a featured section on some of the earliest Australian-made cars including a section on Tom Kruse, the famous outback mailman.
There were three large rooms in the museum. The largest room, below, housed an impressive collection.
I recognized some of the cars from my childhood – those gathering rust in the back paddock. As well as the Magna model before the one I purchased, and the Volvo model that Karen drove. There were plaques on every car giving a brief history the model, and that particular car. I didn’t know that the shape of Karen’s Volvo stayed the same for 20 years. It was originally designed so it wouldn’t date. The boxy design was loved by their target market (and hated by others).
They had one-of-a-kind cars like some pre-production cars where the model never made it to market. An eco-challenge car (3.7km/l from memory) and a car that was driven non stop for 80 days as a reliability challenge. They also had one of the two Land Rovers that was used by the Leyland Brothers for the first West to East across Australia crossing.
I thought I’d be there for only 30 minutes, but ended up spending over an hour just walking around reading all the information on the cars.
Tonight: Steak and Greek Salad with Strawberries and Cream
Almost everything in our meal tonight is locally grown. We purchased some lovely Porterhouse from Hahndorf, Feta cheese from the Barossa Valley Cheese Company in Angaston, Strawberries, cream and Tomatoes from the local farmer’s market, locally cured olives and local cucumbers. We’re going to enjoy!
Tomorrow: Adelaide
Tomorrow marks a week at Williamstown, and it’s time to start heading back to Melbourne. Our plan is to leisurely drive back via the coast as much as possible. We count probably 7 stops back to Cowes (Victor Harbour, Kingston, Mt Gambier, Portland, Warrnambool, Apollo Bay, Portarlington) but nothing is booked yet. Travelling every day means we’ll get back in a week, but we don’t want to do that. We plan to spend a day or two in every location, which means we’ll get back home mid-November.
However, since Teresa hasn’t seen the Adelaide market yet, we’ll stop a night in Adelaide tomorrow night in Windsor Gardens, a suburb pretty close to the CBD on the north east side. Then head to the coast.