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.

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).