Tag: williamstown

Day 11: Whispering Wall / Adelaide

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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.

Random Stream

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

Fluffy needs a haircut

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

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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.