Nomading - Port Augusta Adelaide - 25 October - 8 November 2021

We left Ceduna intending to drive to Kimba to spend one night and then drive onto Port Augusta. We arrived in Kimba, photographed the silos and then drove around to the big Galah and took a few photos. Robb said he would prefer to drive on to Port Augusta than spend a night in Kimba, I wasn't surprised and was happy to drive on. We picked up a quick lunch and then back in the car and on our way. We arrived around 3.30pm, booked in and drove around to find our site, by four o'clock we were set up and I had prepared dinner for the night, we were having a roast chook and I wanted to get it in the Weber by 5.30pm. It was a beautiful day so we sat outside enjoying the weather and then an Olympic van pulled in behind us, I asked if they were part of the Olympic group and they said no, we chatted for awhile and then they went off to finish setting up. I put the dinner in the Weber and then we sat around outside the van until dinner was ready.

We would normally arrive in a new town, set up and then have lunch. After lunch we would do the bit of shopping we needed to do and then visit the Visitor Centre to pick up information to plan our next few days, because we arrived so late yesterday and we had that series of long days we thought we would rest for the remainder of the afternoon. This morning we were up at the normal time, I had washing to do because there isn't any water available while crossing the Nullarbor and the washing had piled up. We sat and had our coffee and a read at home waiting for the washing to finish, when it was hung out we drove to the closest supermarket for a top up and then onto the Visitor Centre in Port Augusta. The Visitor Centre is in the Wadlata Outback Centre, we had visited here before but we hadn't been interested then in visiting the outback display and because we had more time today we thought we would have a look through. This is an excellent display and I think both of us would recommend it to you, it focusses mainly on the outback but starts with how the continent of Australia was formed, you walk through the different eras and there are explanatory videos you can watch, there is a great video on the cycle of the outback through drought and flood and demonstrates the importance of the cycles with regards to supporting life of the desert. We read about the aboriginal stories of how the desert was formed, the arrival of Europeans, the explorers and how the pioneers tried to make a life here and were overcome by the conditions and then came back later and time and time again were discouraged from continuing trying to do something with the land. There were towns created along the way, some are still here but others have disappeared but it must have been a bloody hard life for the original settlers.

We woke this morning to thunderstorms and rain, we had half decided to drive to Port Pirie today, when I say half I wanted to go and Robb wasn't that happy, however, we spoke about it and decided we may as well be in the car as walking around the Botanic Garden which was our next and only other choice. I made our coffee for the trip and we took off, we drove through lots of rain but there were little moments in between where it stopped. Neither of us were too sure if we had visited Port Pirie last time we were in the area, we had researched what there was to do and there wasn't a terrible lot so we thought we would visit the Visitor Centre when we first arrived. As soon as we walked into the Visitor Centre I realised we had been here before, we asked for information on the historic train station which is now a museum and made that our first stop, we were really only interested in the building and train history but thought if we go through the museum we would see more of the building, I was also hoping we would see more on the history of train travel in Port Pirie as this was such an important part of the train line between Broken Hill and Adelaide in days gone by but there wasn't that much to see on the train activity at this time. We drove from here to the Jetty walk we didn't take it because of the weather but I took a few photos around marina and boat ramp. We headed off home from here as the weather wasn't getting any better and there was a bad thunderstorm coming through. We drove home making a short stop at Harry's Fresh Food on the highway, there wasn't anything there that interested us and we thought the prices were too high, particularly because I had just bought a bottle of pickled onions at Aldi for $3.99 and the same size jar here was $9.99, they would have to be damn good for that price difference.

We had new neighbours set up today and there were two little boys Sonny and Blue who were doing a dress rehearsal for Halloween, they were so cute and we had a lovely conversation and then Mum got dressed up in her outfit. We are not here for Halloween but I will pick up something for there baskets tomorrow when we are in town and hopefully they are still here, they reminded me of our two youngest granddaughters.

We started off this morning with a visit to the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens in Port Augusta. We called into the Visitor Centre before commencing our tour around the gardens. There has obviously been a lot of work put into these gardens and there is still a lot of planting going on. It was pleasant to meander around the different pathways and admire the plants. We left here and drove to the Matthew Flinders Red Cliffs Lookout which is just down the road. This is a lovely lookout area overlooking the red cliffs here, as the name suggests, and over the water into Port Augusta. We had planned today just to take a look around Port Augusta so we thought our next visit could be to the port area but unfortunately we couldn't get our GPS to cooperate with directions here, I think the whole Port Augusta Port reference may have been a bit too confusing. We had seen an area where fishing boats looked like they were launched from so we drove around until we found this spot, there is also a jetty here but it has been closed off for repairs. Opposite here is a beach and park and we made this our next destination, it was very pleasant here looking over the beach so we sat and finished off our coffees before moving on. We drove up and down the streets of the town looking at some of the interesting buildings of which there are quite a few but a lot are in disrepair. While looking around a gentleman approached me and asked it I had been to the water tank lookout, I said no but we had seen the water tank in the distance, he told us how to get there and said the views over the town are excellent, so of course we had to go and see. What he didn't say is that the climb up the water tank is a bit hairy but we managed it and the views from the top were excellent, I took lots of photos, however, I wasn't too comfortable up the top. We still had a bit of time left so after a very slow walk down the stairs we thought we would drive to Quorn to have a look around. Quorn is in the foothills of the Flinders Ranges which I am hoping to cover at another time, it it also where you can catch the Pichi Richi train for a short tourist ride, we have already taken this tour and would highly recommend it but we didn't think we needed to do it again. Quorn has some beautiful old buildings so we drove up and down the few streets taking a goo look around.

We moved on today from Port Augusta to Belair National Park Holiday Park in the Adelaide Hills, it was close to a four hour drive and the last part of the drive up the hills to the National Park was a bit hairy but we have arrived and it is a lovely part of Adelaide. We are here for ten nights thanks to a friend of ours who purchased this stay on Travel Auctions but because of Covid is unable to use the voucher and gifted it to us. We are both very grateful to her the park is lovely, we have good internet coverage and TV. We have quite a bit planned for the next ten nights and are really looking forward to being in one place for such a long time. We are currently organising catch ups with friends in the area and I want to give the van one final clean before returning home and then we have plans to visit the Barossa Valley, the Fleurieu Peninsula, McLaren Vale and also the Adelaide Hills, all places we have been before but there is such a lot to do I am sure we will find something we haven't done before.

This morning was one of our rare mornings where we had our coffee at home, usually we are on the road but it was nice just to sit and relax and have a read. After coffee I started on the long needed cleaning of the van and washing all our linen, it didn't take long but felt so much better to have everything looking, feeling and smelling fresh. So with the cleaning finished, the bed made back up with the fresh linen, dinner prepared for tonight I made up our lunch which we enjoyed outside the van with the partial sunlight. After lunch we drove to the closest Aldi to shop and then we went in search of a few items we needed that weren't groceries. Driving down from the park we had some fantastic views over to the city of Adelaide, unfortunately there wasn't anywhere to pull over to get good photos so I had to take them from the car as we drove down, we are looking forward to investigating this part of Adelaide Hills a bit more. Today hasn't been warm but when we returned it wasn't too unpleasant so we sat outside the van for a couple of hours enjoying the last of the days sunlight filtering through the trees, when we started to lose feeling in our hands we moved inside. We are both looking forward to getting out and about tomorrow, we always think we want a rest but then we both get bored very quickly.

Today we are driving to the Fleurieu Peninsula hoping to visit some of the food and wine outlets that we know are down there. We decide to drive to Victor Harbour and then work our way back and that is what we do. Victor Harbour is such a pretty town, we stayed in town for a week two years ago and loved our time spent here so revisited some of the places we particularly liked and then some we didn't find last time. We were very pleased to find there was a market on today and it was fun to walk around the stalls checking out the goods on sale. There were also a couple of good bands performing and we sat and watched them for a while. Back in the car and driving around the coastline for a look, we drive to Rosetta Head Wharf where we find a few people fishing, the outlook back to Victor Harbour is very pretty from this wharf. From here we drive to The Bluff and stop at the various points to take photos, the views around here are quite spectacular, our last stop is Kings beach which gives us another view of this coastline. We still want to make a few stops on the way back and it is getting later so we decide to set the GPS for home so that we can visit the outlets we want to stop off at, the first one is Alexandrina Cheese Co. where we know they have excellent cheeses and we are hoping to pick up a few to take back to the van but unfortunately they are closed until further notice. Our next stop was Mount Jagged winery where we stopped last time and had a lovely cheese platter while sampling their wines but they were also closed, We drove on further and saw a sign for Mount Compass Gin Distillery and thought we would have a try here and thankfully it was open, we really didn't need any gin because we had two full bottles in the van that we haven't even thought about opening yet. Luckily they also make a Whiskey and a Limoncello, we are the only people here and had a lovely visit with the owner and after a couple of tastings we came away with a bottle of Whiskey and a bottle of Limoncello that we will add to our other spirits that we are carrying around with us. Our last stop is Harvest the Fleurieu where you can pick your own strawberries and crikey they were good looking strawberries, we didn't do that as we had bought a heap at one of our other stops. They also have a large range of sauces, jams and relishes on offer, they make their own pies, pasties etc that they always have hot in store and they look good too. There is a small range of ice creams here too and they looked pretty good so we both decided to have an ice cream and sat outside in the sunshine to enjoy them, it has been a beautiful day today so it was very pleasant. We drove back to the park from here stopping off to pick up a container of sour cream that we needed for dinner tonight. Robb had bought oysters yesterday and he was having them tonight so we were just having nachos for dinner. It is Halloween and we are set up with our new spooky doorbell and we have chocolate frogs to hand out to the children in the park but unfortunately nobody calls in, bugger now we will have to eat the frogs.

We weren't travelling far today just to the beautiful little German Town of Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills where we thought we might have brunch at one of the cafes. We arrived and parked on the street and then went for a walk up one side and down the other and then chose somewhere to stop to eat. We chose the German Inn as it had an all day breakfast and Robb was looking forward to a brekky, he decided on the Eggs Royal which was an Eggs Benny with salmon and I chose the Eggs Benny, we had a cup of tea each to go with it. We both enjoyed our brunch and the service here was excellent. We left here to finish our walk up and down the main street before returning to the car, there is a large mix of shops in Hahndorf, a few fudge and ice cream shops, many cafes and hotels, a candle and a lavender shop, a German Christmas gift shop, you can buy cheese, clothing, wine and German sausages, everything you could possibly want but it is the buildings themselves that mostly attract us. The main street is very pretty with lots of trees and plants and basically, this is just a fun place to visit. From here we drove to Hahndorf Fruit and Veg Market which was on the way home, this is one of the best fresh food shops I have ever been into, the variety was amazing and the quality of the fresh produce was excellent, we spent a bit of time here wandering and looking at all the offerings. We have had a great morning and it certainly helped that the weather was so good.

We couldn't possibly be this close to Adelaide City and not drive in for a bit of a wander. We easily found parking in one of the parking garages which was the entry to Rundle Place which was perfect for us because it was a short walk down to Rundle Mall. We wandered up and down the mall visiting some of the stores but not making any purchases, when we came to Adelaide Arcade we turned off to take a walk down this beautiful arcade. We had seen pictures of the arcade in one of the tourism books and it did live up to it's reputation, it is currently decked out for Christmas but what caught our attention was the mix of shops here. I can't remember how they ran down the arcade but we had a button shop, a knife shop, high class watch distributors like Rolex, we saw a pen shop where you could purchase Mont Blanc Pens, a coin and stamp dealer, a wig shop, a chocolate shop (how ordinary), a lash and eyebrow beautician, crikey I am looking at this list and I can't believe it myself. Back into Rundle Mall and there was a musician in the centre of the Mall playing a Gehu, we could hear the music from this instrument as soon as we stepped into Rundle Place from the car park and then all the way up Rundle Mall, I could not believe it was coming from this single instrument, the music was quite haunting and just filled the whole space, we sat and listened for a short time before moving on. I was a bit concerned we wouldn't find our way back to the car but we had taken photos as we went and luckily we did find our car when we were ready to leave.

We had a beautiful day yesterday weather wise so we were surprised today when we awoke to rain and heavy fog. Our first stop was to be the Belair Railway Station which is beside the Belair National Park so just down the road from us. We drove in and parked, this railway station still seems to be operating and is very scenic. The station originally was a stop off for people to access the National Park and was a very popular stop and there is a very large covered shelter to hold the crowds returning from the park. I must say the photos I took with the heavy fog in the background came out really well. From here we drove to Mount Lofty Summit but unfortunately when we arrived there was still far too much fog to take advantage of the views so we left and we may return another day. Our next stop is to be the small town of Stirling which we find as advertised very picturesque, we wander up and down the streets and in and out of the laneways, there are lots of trees in the street and the pavements have been planted out with very pretty gardens. We had never heard of Stirling but after visiting I would certainly rate it up there with Hahndorf but I suppose it doesn't have the German influence that Hahndorf does. From here we drive to Beerenberg Family Farm which is on the outskirts of Hahndorf, there is a lot of work going on in the building, it was hard to tell if it was being renovated or it was new and still not finished. There is a large variety of jams, marmalades, relishes, pickles, dressings and chutneys here and the prices are excellent so we walked out with a small box of items. They also offer the option of picking your own strawberries here and it seems to be quite popular as there were a few people with the picking boxes walking towards the fields. Moving further on through the Adelaide Hills we put the Steam Ranger Heritage Railway Mount Barker into the GPS but on the way we passed the Prancing Pony Brewery which I also had on my list, we did a U-Turn and came back to the brewery. We purchased a tasting paddle here that we shared, the beers were more to Robb's taste but it is always fun to share a paddle, we didn't purchase anything on leaving but enjoyed the experience. Once again back in the car heading towards the Railway Station. It was easy enough to find so we parked and walked in to enquire about the tourist train trips they do, they have a few full day trips but we weren't interested in that, the trains don't run all the time but you can pick up a schedule for the year of when they are running and you can also search dates on the website. The only trip available this weekend is the cockle train which is a 45 minute trip, probably enough for us, I will try to book something in for Saturday for us. The station itself was not as picturesque as the Belair Station but still interesting. Our last stop for the day was to be Cheese Wrights in Woodside which was a little bit further on, we finally arrived here and found that Melba's Chocolate factory was next door so we called in here first and we were both very pleasantly surprised. We were only going to call into the chocolate factory if we passed it on our way to somewhere else, our experience with chocolate factories has been that they have all there homemade chocolates that you pay $6.00 per piece and the chocolate is not very good but this was not the case here. If I can describe it at all it would be to say it was like the old Cadbury factory before they closed the shop, even for someone like me that doesn't eat chocolate I was like a kid in a candy shop. We came away with a large pack of seconds and another large pack of rocky road but I could have picked up many items that looked interesting to me including clinkers, chocolate licorice and fudge that is also made on site. We walked next door to the Cheese Factory, I can't say I was as impressed here, they had a few specials that we purchased but they mainly had soft cheese, however, no blue cheese which is the only soft cheese I like, I bought a cheddar just for the sake of it, we didn't stay long here. It was getting late by now so we drove on home.

We had a lunch date today with our friend Judy who lives in Myponga and we were meeting with her, Monica her Mum and her sister Annie at Oscars in McLaren Vale, Judy had booked the restaurant when we contacted her about catching up. We had shopping to do first and after this we drove directly to McLaren Vale, we knew we were going to be early but we wanted to have a look around before we met up. We put the address for the restaurant in the GPS so that we could see where it was situated and then we drove around having a look at the town. We called into the Almond Train, we had been there before but thought it was worth another visit. After the Almond Train we visited Tintara Winery where we walked around the various rooms reading about the history of the winery before we drove over to the restaurant to wait for our friends to arrive. We had a fantastic catch up, I haven't laughed so much for a long time, we have been friends with Judy for over 40 years and living in different states we don't catch up often but we always have a good time when we do. We sat around chatting until 4.00pm so we didn't get back home until after 5.00pm with the peak hour traffic.

Friday we had another catch up day this time in Tanunda in the Barossa Valley. We love this area of the Barossa and probably would have stayed here but we had an offer we couldn't refuse to stay in the Belair National Park. We have been so happy with our stay at Belair, we could not have been more central with regards to visiting the tourist areas that particularly interest us, we have had something purposeful to do every day and have loved every minute of our stay at this beautiful park. We drove the hour and a half down to the Barossa Valley and to the Blackbird Coffee House in Tanunda where we had organised to catch up with our friends from our caravan group. Thankfully the coffee was good here because we are a bit fussy about our coffee and we were more than ready for a cup by the time we arrived but better still was the time we spent with Jack and Judy. We discussed lots about our various trips, we shared information and Robb and I picked up lots of little gems about travelling into areas we haven't tried yet. More than anything though is the fact we appreciate that people will take time out of their busy lives to sit and have a coffee with us, thank you so much we both really enjoyed our time with you. From here we drove to Maggie Beer's Farmhouse, I wanted to purchase a hamper to send to a friend to show our appreciation for her generosity and with that organised we walked around to the restaurant but unfortunately it was booked out again as it was last time we called in here. We did think about returning to the farm shop and having a cheese platter but Robb wanted something a bit more substantial so we drove into town and stopped at the Valley Hotel for lunch. After lunch we drove on home as it was getting late by now and we wanted to avoid the peak hour traffic.

When we were last in Victor Harbor we had missed out on taking a ride on the Cockle Train by two minutes so with nothing else to do today we thought we would take another trip down to Victor Harbor to take the train ride from there to Goolwa. We planned well and arrived in ample time to purchase our tickets and board the train. Leaving Victor Harbor we had some nice views around the coast but after that there wasn't really a lot to look at but we enjoyed the trip for the sake of being on the train. When you arrive at Goolwa there is a 30 minute cross over before the train returns so we walked around a bit, We had actually visited Goolwa when we did the peninsula trip a few years ago, we walked to the end of the station and then the rain started so we sat under the passenger waiting area until it stopped and by that time they were calling us back onto the train. One of the volunteers from the train service sat with us on the ride back and she gave us lots of extra information on the area which was good. We enjoyed the ride and we are glad we did it. From here we drove to Melba's Chocolate Factory to pick up some more of their excellent rocky road and then on home for lunch.

We are on our last day in the Adelaide Hills and neither of us can believe we have already had nine nights here. Our tradition for our last day anywhere we have stayed at for a while is to go out for lunch, and I thought we would go to the Bridgewater Mill the only place left we have not been to yet that I had on my list. Today is a bit cloudy and we are expecting a top of 19 degrees so we thought we would wear long pants, I had read the information on the Bridgewater Inn, thinking I was reading about Bridgewater Mill, the information for the Inn said it is a family friendly restaurant so we dressed accordingly. I realised when we parked what I had done but we still thought we would go to the Mill for lunch because I really wanted to see the water wheel. We thought we would walk around the back way to the Mill along the creek because it was quite pretty and I wanted to see the access to the water wheel from the creek. We didn't get far because they had a lot of rain recently and the path and grass areas were soaked through, the path was covered in mud so I didn't want to walk through there because I had thongs on and I knew I would slip over so I walked through the grass only to sink into a mud puddle and when I recovered my foot mud flew everywhere, all up the back of me and over both feet. I asked Robb how bad it was and he said not too bad, never believe your husband when he is hungry and he knows you will go home if you know the truth. I didn't want to walk any further around so we headed back towards the Mill. We walked around to the back of the Mill to see the wheel which is absolutely huge and very impressive, there is an outdoor eating area here that was empty of customers but there was someone packing up all the tables apart from two that were under umbrellas because it did look like there was a possibility it could rain. We asked if we could get a table and she said sure we could have one of the outside tables but they couldn't fit us inside because it was absolutely chockas and even if the worst happened and it did start to rain they couldn't do much about it except for us to hide under the umbrellas, we said we were happy to take the chance. It didn't take us long to realise this restaurant was very La Di Da and we soon discovered there was some type of opera event taking place inside and everybody turning up was dressed up in their Sunday finery. So here we are in this white cloth service restaurant in our holiday clothing with my feet covered in mud and splashes of mud all over my legs and back and we even found some mud in my hair. I have to commend the service here at no time did we feel out of place, they even had a laugh at my story about being stuck in the mud and asked if I needed anything to help clean up, they gave me an extra splash of wine in my glass to help with the shock. As it turned out the weather was beautiful, Robb was a bit cool but not too uncomfortable, the food was fantastic, their menu focusses on sharing meals which we love, their suggestions and help with the size of the meals was spot on and our lovely waiter was most attentive. What a way to finish up our time in the Adelaide Hills and what a classy restaurant. We will be sorry to leave this park, it was gifted to us by a friend I hope we have done our visit justice for her because she was unable to take advantage of the stay, tomorrow we move onto Millicent to catch up with our friend Annette.