Adelaide and surrounds

Well sincerest apologies for the lateness of this post, maybe we should go to fortnightly, we might stand some chance of being on time!!  It has not all been due to our laziness and finding like a thousand other fun things to do, but we have been to lots of places with no internet/phone coverage!

So what have we done??? 

Well Tash found another great spot to camp.....NOT!!!

We had an amazing 5 nights in caravan park luxury (my how our lives have changed!!!) at West Beach in Adelaide (not far from Glenelg).  

It is on the bay (and not really a beach as I keep getting told, as there is no surf!!!) with extensive seafront walking/cycle paths going in both directions up the coast and along the River Torrens into Adelaide central.  

We cycled in all directions, but I quickly realized that I need to curb Lyndis spending as trying to cycle up hills on narrow cycle paths whilst carrying 6 bags of shopping is a little challenging!! 

We had an amazing time at WOMADelaide and got to see friends and some amazing acts including Buika and Tin Pan

Orange.  

The time just disappeared and we were soon off again, this time to the Clare Valley (another wine region, and the heart of Australian Riesling).  Settlers from England, Ireland and Poland first moved into the region in the 1840’s and established a rich and varied heritage.  There were so many wineries to choose from including Annies Lane, Pikes, Kilikanoon and Tim Adams, but we chose to have a look at Sevenhills.

It was established in 1851 by Jesuits, who were fleeing political and religious persecution in Silesia.  They bought land, planted vines and named it after the 7 hills of Rome and provided sacramental wine for Catholic parishes all around Australia. They now produce table wine, as well as still supplying sacramental wine, but it is the only Jesuit owned winery in Australia!  The grounds were so beautiful and peaceful.  So we bought a couple of crates of Riesling!

From here we headed into the Yorke Peninsula with its distinctive ‘boot’ shape.  It’s got some magnificent surfing beaches and jagged shorelines and loads of farmland and shipwrecks!  Copper was discovered near Kadina in 1859 leading to a mining boom (which attracted skilled Cornish copper miners, who still have the biggest Cornish festival in the world each year!).

 

We had an overnighter in the little fishing village of Ardrossan – home of the blue swimmer crab. Off we went down to the jetty and picked a couple of blokes we thought looked like swimmer crab “pros” and stalked them for the next 3 hours with Tasha getting expert tuition, alas nothing was caught but a great day out was had by all.

We then drove right down the bottom to Innes National Park.  It was here that we learnt our first very valuable lesson …….. do not drive a vehicle laden with water and petrol through sand!!!! Unless it is 4 wheel drive it will not go!!!! After a lot of digging and a little word upstairs we got out and then took the rest of the day to de-stress. Other than that the park was beautiful, very barren had great surf and incredible winds. Also Tash got to eat the best scallops she has ever had.

We are off to the Flinders Ranges tomorrow and so will be out of phone/internet range for another while xxxxx

South Australia

Well we finally managed to move on from Merbein Common, but only because we ran out of food and beer!!!! We were pretty sad to move on as this was our nightly view, 

and our neighbours were amazing fun, but before we left however I caught a fish and had it for tea, which was super exciting, well not for Lyndi, and I saw a cool blue tongue lizard.

And so from here into the “Riverland” area of  South Australia around Renmark where they take their fruit fly very seriously, and so every vehicle has to pull over on the border and a nice man asked if we had anything to declare!!! and then proceeded to check our cupboards, fridge and freezer for anything fresh.  Fortunately we have our chillis and limes frozen, but he did give them a squeeze to see how frozen they were!!

Our stop here was just on the outskirts of Berri, at a place called Martins Bend.  The camp was great, lots of space, close to the water and only a short cycle into Berri itself.  Berri is taken from the Aboriginal word ‘bery bery’ meaning bend in the river, and it’s the commercial hub of the Riverland area. 

We loved it here, I am not sure if it had anything to do with a flushing toilet or not!!!  There is lots of history and there is a large mural under the bridge depicting the Aboriginal heritage of the area …

and an installation that stands in tribute to Australia’s famous Aboriginal tracker Jimmy James. 

They had an amazing salvos store in town where we purchased our new favourite game ‘petanque’ and we bought a squid jig in preparation for our squid fishing on the Yorke Peninsula!!!!

After 4 days here we moved on to a tiny little place called Swan Reach, where the road ends and you have to cross the river on a ferry and then continue your journey on road.  It was a free camp right on the river, but was super windy!  We couldn’t sit outside so we watched a DVD and Lyndi got her first of many viewings of ‘The Goonies’ ……she loved it!

Then to wine country and the Barossa valley, Lyndi did some tastings whilst I drove (well it is renowned for her beloved Shiraz and it only seemed fair).  The countryside was beautiful with vines seemingly growing on every available inch of land!!  We parked up in Angaston for the night, which we thought was the prettiest town, but Tanunda was the more interesting for us. 

This morning we left there and visited Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, which is a picturesque little village and the oldest surviving German settlement in Australia, built by a tight-knit group of Prussian settlers in 1839 fleeing religious persecution in Eastern Europe.  Dirk Hahn was the captain of the ship and hence where the place got its name.  There are shops selling cheese, wine, beer, german sausage and art!!  There are many old buildings and with all the leafy trees, it reminded me of England a little bit.  We drove from here 27 kms into Adelaide and are staying close to Glenelg where we will be till Sunday 9^th as we are going to WOMADelaide, we are both very excited!!!!