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!!!!