Day 19: Victor Harbor

Posted on October 29, 2016October 30, 2016 by admin

The morning started sunny and warm. Forecast top is 28 degrees. There was a local farmers market in town this morning, so that was our first stop.

Farmers Markets in SA (by Teresa)

The farmers’ markets in S.A. are buzzing with community spirit and passion. One of the best things about the markets is that they are in the open air, and so far, they are fairly small with about 20-30 vendors, so I can easily shop there and avoid people/stalls that are scented.

The local food has been a big highlight of the trip for me – I can connect with each area and community through it’s food, which is great since rubbing shoulders with the locals for long chats is not possible for now.

“Buy Local” is HUGE in SA. There is a campaign currently running, with coverage in different forms of media. Last weekend it was “Buy Local” day with a big competition run to entice more people to buy local with a prize on offer. I’ve been so impressed at how well signposted the food trail, and the tourist places of interest, are. Quite a lot of $$ have been spent to help tourists make the most of a holiday in S.A.

The whole state is plastic bag free. In practical terms that means that shops do not automatically give you a plastic bag – you have to take your own, or use a box. Lots of shops have taken the opportunity to sell special bags with their logo on it to people who have forgotten. Some shops do give out bags though – not really sure how they work around the system. The funniest thing is that Target in S.A. will give you a bag with your purchases, but in Victoria if you want a bag you have to pay 10c 🙂

Today at the Victor Harbor market I noticed that there is a membership program, where you get a discount on all produce at the market if you are a member. Brilliant idea, since locals can avoid paying tourist rates and the stall holders can prosper via local support in the off-season.

We have been able to eat like royalty on this trip thanks to the fabulous markets – we bought all local meat, and lots of fruit and veg as well. Having the kitchen in the caravan has been an amazing help, so we can avoid going to public restaurants and cafes. We have had 1 meal out on our wedding anniversary (Hahndorf), and will try to have a couple more if we can find places that have an outdoor area that is scent/chemical free.

It’s been years since I’ve been to a Melbourne farmers’ market, but from memory the Melbourne ones are very large, and I have avoided them because I cannot manage large gatherings for now. After this visit I’m keen to see if I can find some smaller markets to attend. The vibe, passion, and insider knowledge is incredible. It’s soul-enriching to spend time with people who are passionate about their produce and products – it is energising and I have found it has given me a wonderful injection of strength and life-force after each one.

Lunch

We came back to the caravan park for lunch. Teresa whipped up a scrumptious meal of salad with prawns (caught locally and purchased from this morning’s Farmer’s Market).

Murray Mouth Tour

Teresa needed to rest this afternoon, so I thought I’d take the famous Cockle Train to Goolwa. I rocked up to the station just before the scheduled departure time of 1:30 to discover everything closed. I then proceeded to read the timetable properly, and realized it only runs daily during school holidays. Right now, it only runs Sun and Wed. Maybe tomorrow.

So instead, I had seen a brochure for a across-beach tour of the Murray mouth which started at 2pm, so I headed to the information center to book. They were very happy to book me in except as it was 1:45, the online booking system was already closed. A quick call to the tour operator confirmed that there was a place available and they would meet me outside the information center. After paying, I walked out of the center to see the big red tour bus waiting for me. That’s great service!

I say bus, but it’s more of a hybrid. It used to do tours around Fraser Island before it was brought down here.

I was the only customer for the first leg of the journey (the bus picks up from Middleton and Goolwa on the way – there were 8 people total) so spent the time chatting to the driver. He was a fisherman for 20 years but his competition and the seals were getting to be too much for him. The seal population has increased dramatically over the last few years and he said they they like the liver so take a chunk out of the fish and leave the rest. So a lot of the fish they caught couldn’t be sold.

In the end, he sold to his main competition. He said his catch allowance (4 tonne from memory) was worth much more at ($350k) than his licence ($150k). He’s been working for Murray Mouth Tours for just over a year now.

The tour leaves the bitumen at the Goolwa surf lifesaving club. There is a track the takes you to the beach, and it’s very popular with owners of 4×4 vehicles.

I turned on my phone’s GPS track for this trip.

I took a quick shot through the front of the van of the cars sitting on the beach – it’s been cropped a lot so the quality isn’t great.

People make a day of it and take an awning, chairs and even tables. Lots of fishermen too. The guide said there is lots of fish to be caught just off the breakers.

I did consider taking our Landcruiser onto the beach just to try it out, but when I asked the guide about it, he said he would not take any new car onto the beach. Sand gets everywhere along with the salt water and it’s almost impossible to get it all out.

Along the way, the guide pointed out the location where Storm Boy was filmed. There are only a couple of poles left of the shack now… time and weather have taken their toll. Storm Boy celebrates it’s 40th anniversary this year. I remember watching the film when I was growing up, and loved it.

The trip to the mouth of the Murray took about 45 mins. We stopped there for 1/2 hour – plenty of time to take lots of photos, although it was hard to capture the beauty of the scene since we were so close to the water. We could definitely see the brown water of the Murray draining into the ocean, and mixing with the pristine blue ocean.

View of the beach just before the mouth (left of photo)

They are continually dredging the mouth to drain as much water as possible from the lakes in preparation for the flood waters from Victoria and NSW in early October – due to hit here soon. They pipe the sand they dredge onto a cordoned off area of the beach, and then every couple of months cart the sand away in trucks (otherwise with the right wind direction, it’ll all just settle back where they dredged it from).

Although you can see the water moving slowly out, looks are also deceptive. Our guide said the depth increases dramatically – just a few feet off shore it’s 15 feet deep, and the water rushes out.

Pippies/Cockles are popular to catch on this beach. It’s just coming to Pipi season (1st November-31st May) so we couldn’t catch any yet (that’s part of the tour in Summer), but he showed us where you could see them on the beach. They come in for the high tide; stay on the beach for a couple of hours; then leave when the tide recedes.

We got back just before 5pm. It was a great trip, and I enjoyed it immensely. Definitely chose the right day too – it was the warmest day we’ve had in SA so far.

Campsite

We’re loving our campsite. The park is empty enough that the back part where we are has only two other vans. The front part is quite busy this weekend, with not many free spaces. We’ve extended our stay in Victor Harbor another couple of days. There is a lot here to see, and a windy change is expected tonight and tomorrow morning which would make towing the caravan hard. So we’ll now leave Tuesday morning and head for Mt Gambier (stopping one night on the coast somewhere).

Steak and Mash

We considered going out for dinner, but figured on a Sat night there will be too many people. We’ll wait for tomorrow or Monday night. Instead we fired up the Weber. In Mildura we bought the correct Gas connection so we can hook the BBQ directly into the caravan. Much easier than needing to connect to one of the gas bottles on the front of the van.

Teresa cooked a lovely local Angus steak with mashed potatoes and peas. Satisfied, and tired, we turned in early.

Day 18: Victor Harbor

Posted on October 28, 2016 by admin

First on our list this morning was Mercato. We wanted to visit, and still leave before the 10am park checkout in order to get to our next stop, Victor Harbor, as quickly as possible.

Fortunately the store opens at 7:30, meaning we had plenty of time. We got there around 8am and Teresa spent a lovely hour perusing their wares. She was happy because she had the whole store to herself! They were a little more upmarket than the Italian stores we usually buy from in Melbourne. We bought some staples, plus some sliced meats from the very well stocked Deli.

We packed up the caravan and left spot on 10am. While packing up, I met our neighbours – a retired couple who had been travelling in a caravan for years. They have a laminated map of Australia on their caravan showing where they’ve been. They’ve driven on almost every major road all around the country. I asked them their favourite place, and they answered WA. The laminated map is a good idea. We’ll organize something like that.

The Drive to Victor Harbor

It took a while to get out of Adelaide. Although Google Maps i’m sure takes us the quickest way, it seems to always find the hilliest route – which isn’t perfect when towing the Caravan. If I were to make two alterations to Google Maps, it would be: 1. Follow a level track and 2. Keep to main roads.

The scenery was stunning though – particularly once we got to the hills and could see the sea in the background. You would think after spending a week in the Adelaide hills, we’d be sick of mountains, but not so!

Victor Harbor

We arrived in Victor Harbor around midday and checked into a lovely caravan park called the “Victor Harbor Breachfront Holiday Park”. They kindly set is up away from the amenities. Actually, away from everyone else! We’re in a lovely grassy area at the back of the park. The closest van is about 50m away.

We setup the caravan and I took Leo for a walk around the caravan park and the beach. While it’s a protected beach – most of the large waves crash offshore – I don’t think it’s as good as our beach in Cowes. It will do though. I think Leo recognized sand, because he lead me towards the water as soon as we stepped on it.

Next we headed out to see what was around. Teresa wanted to look at the op shops here, and I wanted to visit the information center to see what was on this weekend. There are lots of activities, but most of them, unfortunately, are indoors or inside transport which makes it hard for us to participate. There is a farmers market tomorrow morning which we will definitely go to, then we’ll play it by ear.

We have booked for 2 nights here (2 night special – 20% off!) so will have all of tomorrow. However, we both really like the park and what we’ve seen of the town so far we may decide to stay here a little longer. We’d like to stay a week, but that will cut out Great Ocean Road trip more than I’d like too. There is so much to see!

After dinner, we went to The Bluff which is an outcrop of land at the end of the bay. From there we were able to see the whole bay, as well as the next one. We timed out trip to be close on Sunset to make use of the best light for photography. I used my good camera to create a panorama and will stitch the images together for posting tomorrow.

The temperature should warm up tomorrow. It was a very pleasant 22 degrees today, but will reach 28 tomorrow with some wind before a change and showers on Sunday.

Day 17: Adelaide

Posted on October 27, 2016October 27, 2016 by admin

Another 7am start to pack the caravan. Our plan is to move the caravan to Adelaide in the morning, then checkout the Adelaide Market and Gaganis Bros in the afternoon.

We said goodbye to our lovely mountain caravan park and made the trip into Adelaide via Gawler. I drove the direct route into Adelaide on Wednesday and had already decided there were too many bends in the toad to take the caravan. The route via Gawler is a little out of the way, but a much better road.

We were originally looking at a park on the beach, but in the end decided on a park closer to the city at Windsor Gardens. It had good reviews on Wikicamps and has a Telstra Air (read: Free Internet) close by.

We reached the caravan park around 11:30am. Unfortunately, it’s not that suitable to us. There are a lot more caravans around, and the van next door to us had clothes hanging on the line when we arrived (and they use a really scented washing powder). Also, we are at the other end of the park from Telstra Air’s free Internet, so that doesn’t work either. We’re only staying one night, so we’re using 4G, have all the windows closed and the air purifier running.

Adelaide Market

Another place on Teresa’s ‘must see’ list is the Adelaide market, and Jamface (Poh’s shop there). We arrived around 12:30pm and the plan was for Teresa to walk around the market first, while I take Leo for his walk.

I thought the parks around the city would be a great walk location, and they were. I was impressed that in the 30 mins on the walk, we passed two children’s play areas, 3 sports ovals, and lots of benches under shady trees. We made our way to the market where I changed places with Teresa and spent 10 mins walking around myself. Lots of good stalls there, but I don’t think it’s as good as the Vic Markets.

I bought a pie for lunch (Steak and Kidney, which was chunky but a bit heavy on the pastry) and met Teresa outside again for another dog-swap. I then headed to the car while Teresa picked up some final few veggies and meat. We don’t need that many as there are lots of markets in the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Gaganis Bros

During our first few days in the Barossa, Teresa mentioned a number of times how she could easily live there as the food was all local and sold freshly picked. But she did notice there was no ready supply of Italian staples like Prosciutto. Probably since a lot of the area is German settled.

One of Maria’s friends has a daughter who lives in Adelaide and recommend we look at Gaganis Bros – sort of like a European Costco. They had lots of herbs Teresa has never heard before. A massive kitchen department. Lots of barbecues including real charcoal and the chimneys for starting the coals (only $15, but Teresa said I would not have been happy if she bought one as they were bulky). Their deli was a little different to what she was used to, but was really well stocked and had a huge selection.

No Prosciutto either. However, upon talking about it tonight, Teresa gave me the name of a dedicated Italian supermarket called Mercato. I looked it up, and it’s only 10 minutes away from the caravan park we are staying! So change of plan… we’ll head there first thing in the morning for a look before we pack up.

We finished at Gaganis Bros around 3:30 and headed back to the caravan for a quiet night. Another busy day tomorrow. Victor Harbor is our next stop – about 2h away.

Day 16: National Motor Museum

Posted on October 26, 2016October 26, 2016 by admin

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.

One of the first Dodges made in Australia. The chassis number was 178

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.

4×4 conversion used in the original Mad Max film. This one was driven by Angry Anderson.

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.

Day 15: Adelaide

Posted on October 25, 2016October 26, 2016 by admin

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).

Day 14: Hahndorf, Melba’s Chocolates and Mt Lofty

Posted on October 24, 2016October 26, 2016 by admin

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).

Almost empty caravan park. Our van is right in the center of the panorama.

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!

Day 13: Seppeltsfield, Maggie Beer, and the Great Bread Caper

Posted on October 23, 2016October 26, 2016 by admin

We headed off early to the winery recommended to us by our neighbour at the caravan park. He said their wine is reasonably priced and they have a good tour.

Google got us there okay, but decided to take us via a number of dirt roads. We didn’t mind – it gives Tiny our 4WD a chance to at least get dirty (if not use all four wheels). We even had our first ‘water crossing’ (about 10cm of water over a creek).

When we arrived at Seppeltsfield, the place was packed. They had a “Hunt for Red in October” promotion and a number of busses were there wine tasting. I tried a few times to find more information about the tour, but everyone seemed to busy to want to talk to me, so we left them to their busy crowd. Winerys are not our favorite thing – and besides… we have boxes of red already in the car.

Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop

This was the main reason we came to the Barossa. Teresa really wanted to visit her farm store and checkout their produce. We first looked around the farm a bit. They have a couple of male peacocks that looked quite tame. There were also cages of more exotic birds like quail and pheasant.

The store contained preserves, ice cream, pates, sauces and her famous ver juice. It was all quality stuff – no filler/junk. Teresa was in heaven!

We picked up some pate (a new range not yet available in shops – duck, orange and ginger), cheeses, some lemon curd and olive oil (freshly pressed!). We thought we’d pick up some fresh bread on the way home and try a bit of everything.

Where’s the Bakery?

Finding a bakery should be easy on a weekend in a tourist location! Well, no. The closest bakery was Tanunda Bakery but Google said they were closed on Sundays. I figured that couldn’t be true as the weekend should be a busy time, so we drove down there. Yep. Closed.

Next we thought Nuriootpa should have a bakery, so we drove there. None open either. Finally, in desperation, we went to Angaston and found a bakery/cafe that had some lovely crispy bagettes.

By the time we got back home, it was about 2:30 and we were starved! Well worth the wait. Lunch was delicious.

(Yes we could have purchased bread at any supermarket, but we wanted a crusty French or Italian style bread we could enjoy with the cheese.)

Hot Rod Festival

The local oval was host to a hot rod / classic car festival today, so after lunch, I went to take a look. There were some wonderfully maintained cars for show, and quite a crowd too.

Our park has been slowly filling up over the last few days with some of the owners of the cars. We hope they’ll depart sometime tomorrow – we like our secluded paradise!

Day 12: Exploring the Barossa and Markets

Posted on October 22, 2016October 26, 2016 by admin

The day started bright and sunny, if a bit on the cool side. Minimum temp here in the mountains was about 3 degrees. Expected max today is 15. At least it’s not raining.

Our first plan of business was to visit one of the local Farmer’s Markets. We had heard about the Mt Pleasant one so planned to go there, but this morning I met our neighbor. He’s a permanent here and is a local tour guide. He recommended we go to the Barossa Farmer’s Market in Angaston instead as it’s much better (“Most of the chefs in the area shop there”). He also suggested we hurry. We quickly bundled into the car and drove the 30 minutes to the shed where it’s held every Sat getting there around 8:30.

(He also recommended Seppeltsfield as the best winery in the region to visit. We plan to go there tomorrow.)

Teresa headed on in for what she called ‘an hour of bliss’.

There were a huge variety of stalls. Outside, there were a couple of fresh food vendors (strawberries, tomatoes, avacados, fruit, eggs). Inside there was a baker, several cured meat stalls (including Maggie Beer’s daughter, Saskia, where we bought some chorizo), local dried fruit, cakes, chocolates, coffee. There were also vendors for meat: chicken, pork (we bought a shoulder to roast, bacon, Italian sausages and cream – he has cows to produce milk to feed the pigs) and beef.

Teresa loved talking to the genuinely passionate vendors – they know their product and love talking about it. She appreciated the market was relatively small as well as having good ventilation so she didn’t need to rush out. There was a lively passionate vibe – everyone was smiling!

They cook a magnificent breakfast too (we heard too late… we’d already eaten). There were long lines for food, which I guess is an indication of how good they were.

Teresa’s most memorable comment: “I left flying and grinned for the rest of the day”

Because we had the dog, we couldn’t go in together. Instead, I took Leo on a long walk around the local countryside for the 50 minutes Teresa was shopping, taking artistic photos of grapevines, and reading some of the history of the area on the rail trail billboards.

Angaston

Next, we headed to Angaston and visited the Barossa Cheese shop. Teresa picked up a few cheeses to try. She also checked out the nearby Foodworks which was surprisingly very well stocked.

South Australia has a no plastic bag policy, which surprised us when we first encountered it at Renmark. Fortunately we had some spare bags in the caravan, and have been using those ever since.

Barossa Sculpture Park

Not yet wanting to head home (it was only around 10am), we decided to do some more sight-seeing. Teresa had picked up a brochure of the Angaston area and we found a photo opportunity – the Barossa Sculpture Park. These are stone sculptures created during a sculpture festival in 1988 that have been moved to this magnificent site on top of the hill.

By this time it was almost noon, and we thought we’d be able to get to the other market at Mount Pleasant by the time they closed. We made it, but just – they were packing up. We made the right choice – the Barossa Farmer’s Market was the better one.

We swung by Birdwood and a supermarket before heading home for a relaxing afternoon.

Day 11: Whispering Wall / Adelaide

Posted on October 21, 2016October 25, 2016 by admin

Wow, this park is amazing! The toilets are first class – recently renovated and cleaned often. There aren’t too many other vans and the managers are very nice.

Teresa was fine today, so we decided to extend our stay here for a whole week. We’ll move on next Thursday 27th. There is a hot rod show on this Sunday, so the park will likely fill up over the weekend.

It rained half the night and most of the morning, so we took the opportunity to rest. I still can’t get a good night’s sleep with rain on the caravan roof yet, but I guess that will come with time. Teresa slept right through.

Once the weather cleared after lunch, we headed out to the Whispering Wall. The Whispering Wall is a dam wall finished in 1902 to provide water for Gawler and other northern country areas. It’s called the Whispering Wall because the dam wall has a parabolic shape so sound waves travel easily from one side to the other (140 meters).

Whispering Wall. If you look closely, you can see Teresa at the other end of the wall.

We happened to be there at a time when almost no one else was there. I walked across to the other side to try out the effect. Teresa apparently had thought a lot about what to say, and chose a quote from a Sci Fi TV show I like called Red Dwarf. Unfortunately, the quote was too obscure and I didn’t get it.

It was quite amazing hearing Teresa’s voice come seemingly from the wall in front of me. We definitely didn’t need to talk loudly to hear each other. Normal voices were fine – although I suspect a whisper would not have been heard.

I had read that you shouldn’t tease a dog by calling to him via the wall, so of course I had to try. Teresa had Leo over the other side and I called to him. He excitedly tried to find me where my voice was coming from, but because I wasn’t there, he figured I was up top so tried to scramble back up the stairs. Teresa calmed him down pretty quickly.

Surprise Stream

Teresa wanted to pick up something from Target and I wanted to go to Bunnings, so we headed for Elizabeth next – a northern suburb of Adelaide.

Google Maps directed us to a dirt road that looked like a fire track, but was fairly frequently used as we saw a number of cars driving on it. We thought “We’re in a 4WD, let’s go for it”. Lucky we did, as we came across a beautiful stream under the road.

And of course, while outside, we needed to take photos of fluffy.

Elizabeth / Gawler

We made it to the other side of the fire track and shopped in Elizabeth and Gawler. Nothing really interesting to report here – seen one shopping center, seen them all.

The trip back from Gawler was quick – around 20 mins. We ate the last of Maria’s supplied meals tonight. Tomorrow, we start to cook in the caravan proper. So first stop will be a farmer’s market. We’ve seen there is one in Mount Pleasant, so that will be our first stop tomorrow.

Bonus pic: Our current caravan site.

Day 10: Mildura to Williamstown

Posted on October 20, 2016October 25, 2016 by admin

Today is moving day. Our plan is to leave Mildura at 10am and travel to our booked caravan park in Williamstown on the southern part of the Barossa Valley.

We woke up early and started packing the caravan. Interestingly while we normally wake up at 8am at home, we usually wake around 7am in the caravan. Must be because we go to bed earlier because we’re tired from the previous day.

Maria and Michael arrived to say goodbye just before 10am and we left pretty much spot on time. It was sad to leave Mildura – we had a great time there over the last week. We do know that with the caravan, it won’t be another 7 years before we return.

The journey from Mildura to Renmark was uneventful. Lots of scenery to see (if you like desert) and plenty of small towns once you cross the border into SA. Today was a hot day – got to 32 degrees, so we were thankful for the aircon in the car. Once we got into SA, we stopped at a supermarket to buy fruit and veg, and also stopped for lunch (kindly supplied by Maria).

We’re starting to enjoy having a fridge with us on the road, and being able to stop in a rest spot, stretch our legs, and have a nice lunch sitting down at a table.

Found another problem with the caravan today – the fridge doesn’t work from the car battery like it should. I’ll need to investigate this when we get home. Maybe a wire isn’t connected properly.

Barossa Valley

We crossed the Murray River again at Blanchetown then started working our way up the mountains towards the Barossa. We were thankful for the extra power of the Landcruiser towing the caravan up the long hills. I’m sure a Prado or other smaller car would have struggled.

I was also thankful for the stability a larger car brings. Because we were travelling slower than the speed limit, I let a lot of trucks pass us. They can sure generate some wind gusts when overtaking.

We turned left at Nuriootpa and onto the Barossa Valley Highway. This passes directly through the Barossa and has some wonderful old buildings and trees lining the road. It’s obvious they want this main thoroughfare to look great for tourists.

Lots of grape vines on the side of the road, plus wineries with tastings. Although we’re here for the food not the wine. In fact, Teresa remarked as we headed through the valley, we are probably one of the few people to be bringing our wine INTO the Barossa, with the bottles of Robinvale sitting in the boot!

Williamstown Caravan Park

We arrived late afternoon and immediately loved the caravan park. It’s a council run park just beside a football oval and nestled between trees and a lovely stream. The park wasn’t full when we were there – we had about half the sites to choose from. We asked for somewhere as far from the amenities block as possible, so they set us up on the far side.

We are concerned about the pine trees, so paid for only one night. If Teresa is okay, we’ll extend to early next week.

We have an even better Telstra Air connection in this park. We are about 100m from the public phone box with their antenna and unlike Mildura, there is no major highway between us and the box, so the signal won’t briefly cut out every time a truck rolls past.

Our first evening is a balmy 28 degrees and when we open the windows, we hear a lovely babbling brook outside.

Rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow as well as a cool change. Time to get the winter gear out for another few days.

David and Teresa Holidays

Adventures with Tiny and Bailey

Category: Mildura/SA/Ocean Road