Step 35 Adelaide - Clare Valley - Gladstone SA (216km's)

Saturday 5th February

Given we had “done” the Yorke Peninsula we had decided to head for Clare tonight so after a quick stop at the Telstra shop to try and sort out Internet connection we headed out of town. 

The drive out to the North was much more attractive than the drive West but the weather has certainly changed. It's overcast, quite cool and we have had spots of rain.

Not sure how many trains go through here in a day - but we got stuck at the crossing

As we approached Clare the cause of the rain became apparent – there is an outdoor concert on tonight. We had started to see signs advertising the INXS Day on the Green Concert tonight and our first thought was “I wonder if there are any tickets left?” As we got closer we passed the rapidly filling Annies Lane bush camping site. We then arrived at the rather congested Clare Caravan Park and realised that even if we could find a site it probably wasn't going to be a pleasant stay. Particularly if some of the crowd haven't realised that Michael Hutchence is dead or that INXS have had in excess of 5 lead singers. Anyway discretion always the better part of valour we moved on.

Next caravan park was at a little place called Gladstone – no not Gladstone Queensland. Along the way the storm clouds have been brewing and for the last hundred kilometres or so there have been large puddles bside the road. When we checked in the lady at reception told us that it rained heavily overnight but further down the road at Port Pirie and Port Augusta they have had even more and some roads are cut. 

We booked in for one night but may have to rethink that tomorrow depending on road conditions. The good news is that this is the cheapest park for the trip, at $20, and it is very pleasant and practically empty. Mind you the town is not exactly a bustling metropolis and it is a bit off the beaten track. 

I've noticed that no matter how small the town, they always have at least two pubs.
I think it's in case you get barred from one you at least have somewhere else to go 

Nonetheless I did have a very pleasant walk around and took in the sights, including the Gladstone Jail that now offers overnight budget accommodation. It used to be free to stay here but there was a 1 to 5 year minimum booking.

Watched the two part first episode of NCIS Series 3 before going to bed – good news Gibbs got retribution.

Step 34 Marions Bay - Adelaide CBD (again) 427 km's including tour of west coast Eyre Peninsula

Friday 4^th February

“Knock knock”

“Who's there”

“The dunny man, your dunnys done”

Yep Loo lotto followers it's that time of the week again. To be honest we probably could have lasted another day but in deference to the guests at the hotel we will be parking outside tonight we decided to go in empty.

Despite not making the trip into the National Park at Marions Bay we did encounter some of the local fauna on the way

It would seem the South and West coasts of the Yorke are a little more attractive than the West coast. Whiter sand and bluer water. But the tide goes out a long long way and it seems to be a very shallow drop.

Yep, that's a tractor - about 400 meters out to sea from the high tide mark

At Point Thurton it seems that it's mandatory to have: a large shed (or two); a boat (or two); a tractor (to get your boat(s) to and from the water) and three (or six) large water tanks.

Yep, the sheds are bigger than the houses.

Lunch at the Minlaton bakery was an almost obligatory Cornish Pastie.

Informational note: This part of the peninsula is known as the Copper Coast and in the 1800's many Cornish miners came here to work in the mines. They still maintain their Cornish heritage and all the local bakeries specialise in Cornish Pasties

Informational Note 2: There is no corn in a cornish pastie. Actually there's no cornish miners in a cornish pastie either. I think it all has to do with their origins Cornwall. (there is no corn in a Cornwall either).

Port Victoria - Home of the Windjammers, the multi masted sailing ships that sailed to England via Cape Horn & from England via the Roaring 40's. Amazingly they were  still plying their trade in the 1940's

Stopped for a quick break at Moonta Bay and afternoon tea. The Moonta Bay Caravan Park is actually right on the beach and is a potentially a reasonable spot to stop on a return visit.

Di took the wheel for the trip back to Adelaide and Steve took a valium. All in all the trip back wasn't too bad and the Friday night traffic as we got closer to Adelaide could have been worse. 

If Di is driving, then Steve is navigating right? Dublin ???

Given Marita was not arriving until 8:00 we made our way to the Ti Tree Plaza shopping centre with the plan of grabbing some nibblies at the supermarket and a quick bite at the food court. The plan was foiled because Adelaide shuts at 6:00 on Fridays. Well at least the shops and food court were closed, the supermarket was open.

Packing the nibblies and an overnight bag it was off to the hotel in MM. Parking was a little scarce by the hotel but we managed to get parked on the other side of the park and ventured down the road to Hungry Jacks for a quick bite. Now I don't want to appear uppity

but

The clientel were interesting to say the least:

       the girls from the local “Ho's R Us” on their break

       two older guys who may or may not have escaped from a somewhere

       a guy wearing a “free hugs” t-shirt trying to engage the security guard in an intellectual discussion      

       about the implied humour and wit of the message on his t-shirt

the fact there was a security guard in a fast food place at 6:30pm was interesting in itself

but the burgers and fries were nice

Arriving at the hotel before Marita, we managed to check in with no problems and took full advantage of the facilities and revelled in the luxury of showering without thongs on.

Also managed to move MM to the front of the hotel, which  allowed us to check on Herb's repair job on the roof. Nice work Herb.

Despite the Do Not Disturb sign we had placed on the door Marita burst through the door not long after we had settled in. Luckily for Marita's mental health the days of the Do Not Disturb sign actually meaning something are passed.

With the cheese and biccies, Sparkling Shiraz (from Padthaway Estate); Shiraz, Baileys and chocolates suitably consumed and with the clock ticking three hours past our normal bed time Toodles and us toodled off to bed.

Editors Note: I did request that Marita might like to bring her trolley dolly friends back to a party in her room but: one was her boss and that didn't seem appropriate; one had gone off to stay with family; and the male attendant didn't fancy me from the photo she showed him. Oh well at least my fantasy of staying in a penthouse suite in Vegas with twins came true. Albeit not quite the way I imagined it.

Saturday 5^th February

In a sign of the relative consumption of the goodies last night, Di awoke with a craving for Panadol and Steve & Marita did not. Or maybe it was just that Di didn't cope with sleeping in an air conditioned room. Enough said.

View from our balcony

Buffet breakfast in the hotel set us up nicely for the day and the cappuccinos finished it off beautifully. Marita nearly missed her pick up for the airport when the fire alarm went off while she was up in the room grabbing her bags. She did miss out on the 6 hunky firemen in reception.

Before she left we got to meet the rest of the crew in reception before they left and the male attendant is now kicking himself for not coming to the party back at Marita's room last night.

Step 33 Adelaide CBD – Marions Bay (The Yorke Peninsula) 324 km's - with comments

Thursday 3^rd February

Leaving Adelaide 

Di took 3 shots of Scotty but still can't work out whats under the kilt

The plan was to stop at Ardrossan on the North East corner of the peninsula overnight, but to be honest I didn't get a warm feeling about the place based on my Adelaide friends reaction to the news that we were planning to stay there. Ardrossan didn't disappoint then, because it was disappointing. The countryside is very scrubby and uninviting and the beaches are tidal flats and also very uninviting.

Continued driving down the East Coast of the peninsula but still didn't really get a warm feeling about it. 

Edithburg - so so

Ended up stopping the night at Marions Bay. After checking in we walked down on to the beach and it was to be honest relatively pleasant although there was quite a lot of smelly sea weed on the beach that took the edge off a bit.

Did get a little bit of entertainment watching a a kite surfer trying to launch himself. I'm guessing it was another Christmas present job because after 20 minutes he had managed to move about twenty feet trying to get his feet into his board and had managed a beautiful face plant into the shallows.

Good news and bad news.

Bad news – we finished Series 2 of NCIS tonight and it was very sad. Well Steve cried anyway.

Good news – Marita is overnighting in Adelaide tomorrow and we are going to catch up with her there.

Even gooder news Marita has upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite and we get to stay in a hotel. Yep inside a real building, in a real bed and with a proper bathroom. Marita is the Golden child again, sorry El.

Step 33 Adelaide CBD – Marions Bay (The Yorke Peninsula) 324 km's

Thursday 3^rd February

Left Adelaide and headed off for the Yorke Peninsula. My Mum says if you haven't got anything nice to say don't say anything.

So the Yorke Peninsula -

Step 32 Christies Beach to Adelaide CBD 37 km's

1^st February

Because it was so hot last night I forgot to put the awning in. Predictably in the early hours of the morning the wind got up. Shortly afterwards so did I, to put the awning away to stop the annoying flapping noise. Even more predictably shortly after that again, the wind dropped.

Narrowly beat the 10:00 exit deadline thanks to the chatty neighbours next door. Mind you I now know that if I have any problems with my digestive system and or excruciating stomach cramps in the night leading to lethargy and fatigue – I should try switching to a gluten free diet. It certainly worked for our neighbour.

Took the short drive up the coast to Glenelg and got out for a wander around. I think I could live here, very pleasant indeed with all the apartments and town houses along the front. Stopped off at Maccas to try their frozen coke (on the recommendation of Amelia from Chapel Hill Winery). To be honest she did say the Hungry Jacks frozen coke so maybe that's why we didn't enjoy it so much, but it is cheaper than two iced coffees at a cafe. Anyway it gave us a chance to read the papers. The world seems to be coping alright without us.

Headed on over to the Adelaide City Caravan Park and checked in for two nights. On the way we even managed to drive round the very edges of the Adelaide CBD with no dramas. The park is very nice and situated just across the road from the Adelaide Zoo and Botanic Gardens and only a 30 minute walk, on the pathway beside the river,into the CBD. Mind you they certainly make the most of the space they have available. This would have to have the smallest sites of any park we have stayed at. There are some sites that are literally a car space. Like Byron though the average age is considerably less than other parks and there is a large proportion of European back-packers. The average age is somewhat raised by the German couple next to us who are in their 70's. Amazingly they have been coming to Australia for 18 years, for 3-4 months at a time and travelling around in a campervan. We struck up conversation because their van had a sticker from Southern RV, where we bought MM. Small world ey? They said they bought their van in Geeeeelong because as English was their second language it was easier to understand the people there because they speak slower.

Editors note: OK that appears like a gratuitous cheap shot at Geeelong and I apologise profusely to the majority of our readers who are actually from Geeelong. To those readers who are not from Geelong and are laughing, please stop now. To be fair I think we should all be blaming the German guy not me though.

Our internal debate about whether to walk all the way into the city was resolved when the bus pulled up just as we got to the top of the street. Apparently Adelaide looks after it's full fare paying passengers better than Bathurst (refer earlier blog) and we managed to get away with a $1.90 fare each. We also got a very entertaining ride with the couple behind us having an animated discussion that involved, family, kidnaps, threats of and actual physical violence as well as some colourful language that encourages us to give up travelling by bus when we get home.

Spent a pleasant afternoon strolling the main streets of Adelaide (both of them) and noting yet again that other capital cities seemed to have protected their older buildings much better than Melbourne.

One of the older buildings they have looked after in Adelaide is the old railway station, which is now also the Casino. Ever the fans of old architecture, we ventured inside. Imagine our surprise when we discovered it was full of gaming tables and pokies. So shocked were we that we had to sit down. At a pokie machine. But not for long because it was nowhere near as generous as the NSW club ones. However by signing up for the Casino Rewards program (ok, I know we won't be coming back, but I felt sorry for the trainee they sent around to sign people up. And no Vicki, it was not a young girl in a short skirt, it was a guy). Anyway that entitled us to to two free, very small, soft drinks each from the dispenser.

While we were there we witnessed the start of the poker tournament. Organised mayhem, with about 80 entrants sitting down for about 12 hours of poker. Well actually only 2-4 of them were going to last the 12 hours, some of them were out in the first 15 minutes. It was nowhere near as organised or glamorous as on the TV.

After that excitement we jumped on the free City Circle bus narrowly avoiding a rather irate phscho woman who was ready to fight the world because of family problems. She may or may not have been related to the earlier couple. But at least Di remembered the golden rule: “do not make eye contact with nutters” and we boarded the bus safely.

Travellers tip: do not board a free City Loop bus at the height of peak hour, it takes longer and you potentially miss some of the view while sandwiched between commuter buses.

Given the traffic we walked back to the van park through the Botanic Gardens narrowly avoiding another “incident” when Di, sensibly, declined Steve's advice on a “short cut”.

No honest Di - if we cut through these trees on the left it will be quicker than following the path

Wednesday 2^nd February

In a flashback to my working life the day consisted mainly of a very long lunch. We were catching up with a colleague, and his wife, who I met over 12 years ago when I was working on a project in Adelaide. Lunch at the pub followed by iced coffees at the cafe district filled in the afternoon beautifully.

Spent the evening on Skype with El working on the plans for the UK leg of our trip.

Step 31 Victor Harbor – Christies Beach 134 km's

Monday 31^st January

Predicting 40 degrees again and it's already hot by 9:00am so on our way out of town stopped for 2 casks of water and 2 casks of Pinot Grigio (just to be clear the water casks were bigger than the wine casks).

Fully provisioned we set off on the tourist trail. Unfortunately we had set off to early because the Cheese factory that was to be our first stop wasn't open when we got there. Bugga. So it was on to McLaren Vale and the winery district. Amazing view as we crested a hill and the vineyards were spread out directly in front of us with the sea in the background. This Fleurieu peninsula is becoming a favourite.

Stopped at the Info Centre to pick up another couple of kilo's of brochures and then stopped in the main street for the obligatory iced coffee. As we had stopped at the Blessed Cheese Shop we also picked up some Adelaide Hills Blue cheese to take away.

McLaren Vale is home to, a lot of, wineries but Samuels Gorge had been specifically recommended to me by an Adelaide native I know in Melbourne. Unfortunately he forgot to tell them I was coming so they were closed. 

Fear not though, right next door is Chapel Hill set not surprisingly in an old Chapel. 

They are of course famous for their Vicar, Bishop, Devil range of wines and ports so in deference to the Reverend Barnett in Sydney we stopped in to sample their wares. Yep, definitely going to come back here when Di gets a job.

Editors note: Amelia at Chapel Hill said they are very close to vintage and that may be why Samuels Gorge is closed. Make sure to check before coming back for the next trip.

It's getting hotter so headed for the coast. Stopped at Sellicks Beach for a late lunch in MM. Unfortunately for Di, Tom wasn't home.

Editors note: For younger viewers, Tom Sellick is an actor famous for his role in the TV show Magnum PI which was set in Hawaii and involved Tom spending most of his time shirtless and in inappropriately short shorts. It also involved Di sitting in front of the television for longer periods of time than normal, breathless

Di misread the sign - she thought it said Sellicks Shorts

With Di sulking in the passenger seat, we left Sellicks Beach without Tom and followed the coast road through Aldinga Beach and checked in at Christies Beach Caravan Park. The park is nicely laid out and right next to the beach, but we got one of the last sites available and ended up squashed into the corner. However given the temperature we didn't worry about that and headed straight down to the beach where Di hit the water faster than she has done for a very long time. The water was surprisingly warm but still refreshing.

Animal Update: Todays story involves a mother and daughter taking their dog for swim.

On a “pool noodle”.

Unfortunately it wasn't a poodle – Poodle on a Noodle sounds cute. Except in Korea where it sounds like an Entree

Haven't got a photo of the dog - so here's some seagulls instead

Step 30 Strathalbyn – Victor Harbor 195 km's

Friday 28^th January

We have a winner in Loo Lotto – Mrs I Hadapee, of Mt Waverley – 28/01/2011

Big start to the day actually, emptied the loo, filled the flush tank and emptied the grey water. Could it get any more exciting.

Once all that was over we headed back into town for Di to do a bit of supermarket shopping and Steve to take the photo's we would have taken yesterday if I had remembered to take the camera.

Drove on down to Goolwa and did a Fabulous Phil Fabel Tour of town (that is, we didn't drop below about 60km/hour).

We did however stop at Middleton, to take a couple of photo's in honour of our soon to be Princess Kate.

This street has been here for awhile - How did they know???

Steve - curtsying in respect

Port Elliot, next on this whirlwind tour of the Fleurieu Peninsula (I think it's pronounced Fler ree err ree err eee err eee err, but I could be wrong). Anyway, Port Elliott was a very nice little town and we had a bit of a walk around and checked out the beach but the van park didn't look that inviting to us. It was kind of big with not many amenties blocks, so it looked like if you were in the right spot it would be alright but it had the potential to disappoint. Also it was still very full so we decided to move on.

Ended up checking in to the Beachfront Holiday Park at Victor Harbour for two nights and remarkably managed to stick to our plan and have a quick lunch and then take off on a tourist run in MM. We cut across the peninsula to Normanville to start with and parked by the beach for a quick squizz. It seemed impolite not to stop off at the Surf Life Saving Club to pick up an ice cream so we didn't not stop (that means we stopped. It's called a double negative but what it really means is we broke the diet again).

 While eating the ice creams we ended up have an entertaining half an hour watching a guy try to load his boat onto the trailer on the beach. So when we arrived, he had his 4 wheel drive and trailer backed into the water and his wife was trying to keep the boat straight as the waves tried to push it side on to the trailer. Now I don't know whether the guy got the boat as a Christmas present but he clearly didn't have much experience (or idea) about getting it on the trailer. Luckily for him his wife seemed to have been working out in the gym and was doing a great job (wo)manhandling the boat. Unluckily for him, his wife had been working out in the gym and I think when she got him home she was going to inflict some pain. Halfway through the procedure we started talking to a local guy who reckoned he had been watching them trying to load the boat for half an hour before we turned up. At one point, while the guy was trying to connect the winch cable, the two kids that they had with them somehow managed to bounce the spare tyre out of the back of the car, which then rolled down into the water and knocked over the wife. I'm fairly confident the kids won't be greeting a new younger sibling anytime soon. We did discuss with the local guy about heading down on to the beach to help but we all decided it was providing so much entertainment to the crowd gathered along the front that we would just leave them to it. Eventually, and without outside assistance they managed to load the boat, and to be honest the consensus was that he would now get the four wheel drive bogged on the sand. To the crowd's disappointment however he manged to get off the beach and headed off into the sunset. Mind you as they drove off his wife did seem to be engaged in “hearty” conversation with him.

Moving along we ended up watching the ferry pull out of Cape Jervis, headed for Kangaroo Island. Mind you the wind was blowing a gale off the water so we didn't stay long. As a side note, we have decided not to go across to Kangaroo Island on this trip. A lot of people, including Vicki & Herb, say how lovely it is out there but at this stage I don't think we will do it justice so we will save it for another time.

Given the wind farm on the other side of the hill I am guessing that the gale blowing off the sea is not an uncommon occurence

Back to Victor Harbor in time for Wine o'clock and cheese and dips.

In a minor miracle tonight we managed to book our flights to the UK to visit Elke. QANTAS, Australia's favourite airline and employer of some of the most attractive “trolley dollies” in the world came through with a special fare that worked for us and more importantly a web site that worked for us so we are on our way.

Saturday 29^th

Another touristy day, but on foot today. A little warm but a cooling sea breeze made it quite pleasant.

Walked into town along the beachfront to the Granite Island Causeway. 

THE attraction is the horse drawn double decker tram that takes you out to the island and back. Did feel a little bad for the single horse pulling the rather large tram full of rather large people but it was either him or me walking all the way out there. Granted I wouldn't have had to pull the tram but never mind we paid our money and got on the tram.

The island's other claim to fame is a fairy penguin colony but given the distinct lack of Japanese tourists we decided it couldn't be as good as Phillip Island so we didn't pay to have a look. We did however circumnavigate the island on foot (and we walked all the way round too). Halfway round we decided the sea breeze wasn't as cooling as we thought and that the sun was getting a little burny so we picked up the pace to get back on the tram.

Back in town it was straight into Wendy's for one of their non-fattening Chocolate Thick Shakes. (I wonder what it is then that's stopping us losing weight?)

The walk back to the van park was made bearable by the thought of jumping in the pool so it was very lucky that we didn't see the “Pool closed” sign until we go there. A quick check at the office, where we booked in for an extra night, revealed that “a younger guest has had an accident in the pool and we are hoping to re-open later this evening.” I think that's polite, legal, speak for “a kid has done a poo in the pool and now we have had to pour in 200 litres of chemicals to make it fit for human use.”

Editors note: I don't want to appear a overly sensitive but I am going to want to see a lot of water going through the filter system and a report from the health department before I get in there this afternoon.

Happily the cool breeze picked up so it was relaxing afternoon sitting outside and we finished the evening watching the last two sets of the Women's tennis final from Melbourne in the TV room at the van park. Now I mean this in the nicest possible way, but given the more than passing resemblance to Princess Fiona from Shrek, was it really a good idea for our Kim to wear green?

ANIMAL UPDATE: It would appear that not everybody shares my concern about overloading animals. A couple today were moving their camping trailer from one end of the park to the other and hooked their dog up to the A-frame husky style. Now granted they didn't sit on the trailer and shout “mush” but I still  think they might have overstepped the mark.

Sunday 30^th January

Phew, much hotter today, the wind has swung around to a Northerly so there's no cooling sea breeze. Probably in the best spot though because it's hotter all around us, with Adelaide expecting 43 degrees.

Unfortunately as we have nothing in the van for tea we had to walk up to the shops. However it all became worthwhile when Di found her hair product she has been looking for everywhere we have shopped. Yes, I know you will all be relieved and you haven't even had to hear the “I can't believe that they have stopped selling this stuff. It's so good and it's reasonably priced and it does my hair just how I like it and you used to be able to get it everywhere. Every time I find a good product they end up taking it off the market. It's a real pain. Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to rub it in that I have hair and you don't. I still love you babe.” story.

Proof readers note here

In a double bonus it was available at Big W and Priceline. For those of you following at home – it's cheaper at Priceline.

After lunch Di made an adjustment to our (Patent Pending) fly screen door to MM by attaching the fishing sinkers to the bottom. A brilliant addition to the already brilliant creation.

Still damn hot so we risked botulism and went for a swim in the, now, poo free pool.