Night 126 - Adelaide

Today we drove into Adelaide and had a look around. Amazing that we parked in the middle of the city for 85 cents per hour! We walked up and down Rundle Mall, Ive been a bit excited to shop here because I had a ball shopping here years ago with my mum. I did pick up a few bargains too and Ive had my retail therapy until we get to Melbourne!

I really like Adeliade... its like a smaller, cheaper version of Melbourne. Its really pretty with lots of parks and trees. I like that we are only staying 20 mins from the centre of the city but you would think we were hours away.

The kids have never been on a tram before so it was another new experience for them. Pretty happy to find out that the trams are free if you stay within the city.





After lunch in Rundle Mall we drove down to Glenelg Beach for a look around. It wasnt a beautiful sunny day but the beach was still packed. The town is great, its exactly like Manly with the corso area, cafe's and Norfolk pine trees.







After dinner it was time for more koala spotting, found a few more.

Night 125 - Adelaide

We had a fantastic day today despite the rain! Went to Adelaide Zoo which was lots of fun. So exciting to see the only Giant Pandas in the southern hemisphere, Wang Wang and Funi. When we got to the zoo they gave us a ticket to view them at 11:45, they only let about 50 people at a time to view them. They were out and about exploring their new enclosures and they ate non stop.

Pandas...









We also saw a red panda fast asleep in a tree



Other pics from the day...














Apart from the Pandas the highlight of the day was being invited into the animal hospital to watch the vets monitoring a pregnant wallaby. The zoo has this big glass window (like a maternity ward) that you can stand outside and watch them operate. We were standing in the rain and the vet opens the door, feeling very sorry for us, and invites us in. The rock wallaby was under anesthetic and the vets were checking its weight and also the joey. The vet tells us to come closer and he opened up the pouch so we could see the joey. It was a month old and about 5cms long. He gets out his torch and shines it inside the pouch so we could see the joey sucking the milk. Kai, being a bit squeamish, was a bit grossed out....I hope the vet didnt see the look on his face. What an experience though! We only wished we had remembered to take some photos.

We got back to the caravan to put our feet up, it was another long day.

Night 124 - Adelaide

We packed up this morning as quick as we could. Craig went over to help some oldies with their awning as they were struggling, they told him they were staying there until christmas. Good luck to them, dont quite know how they will put up with the flies. Not very relaxing.

We drive only 80km's or so into Adelaide and as we have the van attached we try and avoid the city. We head to Belair caravan park which is just outside the first ever national park in S.A named Belair National Park. Its absolutely beautiful, this is what we want in a caravan park. Peaceful bushland setting, nice and quiet, pool and park for the kids, great amenities and koalas up in the trees!









We set up and have a bite to eat then drive up to Hahndorf in the Adeliade Hills. This is such a cute little German inspired town, plenty of cafe's and restaurants and craft shops. We head to a bakery to try some traditional german treats and then to the Hahndorf Inn for a cider.









We then walked the main street, past the puppet shop...





the fairy garden...



and the ice creamery...



Back at the caravan park the kids met some other kids their age and they played together all afternoon while Craig and I relaxed with a few glasses of vino!

Night 123 - Parham

Woke this morning not to the sound of waves crashing but of big blow flies (or bushy's as they call them here) buzzing at our window. We really just cant escape the flies, S.A is the fly capital of OZ.

Ive had enough but we are staying another day so the boys can go crab hunting again. Ellie and I stay holed up in the van and the boys head off. They were gone 2 or more hours and again came back with an esky full of crabs. Im thinking of all the money we are saving on dinner and Im trying not to watch Craig boil them up in all of my vegetarian pots! Poor little things!




Its hot and sticky and the clouds look like they are brewing a nice storm to cool us down. It doesnt really come though, we get a few drops but not enough.

Kids did some school work and watched a few videos and that was the day done.

Tomorrow....Adelaide....cant wait.

Night 122 - Parham

Got up nice and early and went for a jog along the beach.

Left Port Broughton and drove south down to Port Wakefield where we stopped for lunch. Found this great little bakery just like the Upper Crust in Collaroy. Picked up some petrol for $1.12 which could have been the cheapest we have paid so far.

We still really hadnt decided where to go tonight so while having lunch I saw that Parham on the coast is Australia's Blue Swimmer Crab capital.....decision made in a flash!

We arrive at the free camp and its pretty good. Right behind the beach and its not too crowded. First I consult with our closest neighbour (Ray from Campbelltown) how to get amongst the blue swimmers. He said walk out to the tidal flats and take a rake and bucket and flush them out. The boys and I head off walking about 1km before we get to ankle deep water and Ray decided to come with us to show us how its done. We walked around in the knee deep mud and weeds and we started to see the crabs straight away. There were about 10 others out there doing the same thing and the boys had a ball. We were out there for 2 hours and we got 12 in the end, came back and cooked them up for dinner. Pretty sensational!

Pretty nice sunset here tonight

Night 121 - Port Broughton

We left our camp today and drove up to Port Augusta. We drove through it about as quickly as we did 10 years ago! Nothing to see here.

Ellie now has the car trip sorted, she gets out the stable table and colours.



What is it with S.A and the street signs, or lack of street signs? We have been lost many times because we cant find a street. Plenty of maps but no signs, weird.

We arrived in Port Broughton after lunch and checked into a caravan park. I got straight to it and did 10 days worth of washing while Craig filled up all water containers and the van tanks. A real shower and toilet was heaven after the cold water showers at the last stop. The kids went off for a swim in the pool and a played on the jumping pillow. They also met some other kids of the same age so they enjoyed playing with them. That will wear them out! Its funny the questions they ask us now....are we free camping or are we staying in a caravan park? Do we have electricity or solar power tonight? Are they flush or drop toilets? Do we have internet (always from Kai)? They really are getting used to life on the road.

This is a really nice little coastal holiday town, Im sure many people who live in Adelaide would come up here for a weekend as we are only 200kms away. Its got a liitle main street and a long jetty over the mud flats. Heaps of people go mud crabbing here although Im not sure we will have time for that today. Craig may have to wait until tomorrow for that as we have a few jobs to do. The town is surrounded by cereal crops on one side and the bay on the other. Its really hot again, the winter clothes are back in the cupboard for now and the boardies are back.

Night 120 - Lowly Point

Another day on holidays!! What to do.......

Wake up......walk down and have a fish......a few more KG Whiting

Back for brekky. Take the kids for a scooter ride around the breakwall. Check out the "Cleans Seas" crew restock their barge with feed for the cages full of Kingfish that are down in the bay. A couple of years ago a large shark bit through one of the cage nets and let about 20 thousand kingfish into the bay......needless to say the locals had some fun around the shore!!

Got the rods sorted out, lunch then off for an arvo session with some more KGW taken back. The wind was offshore with blue sky all day and it was great sitting back and relaxing.

Kai, Ellie and I had a drive around town....saw the lighthouse....that`s all there is and were back in 2 mins!! Just behind the town over a hill is the Port Bonython tanker wharf and refinery.

For dinner I won the kids over with my battered whiting fillets for dinner.....poor Lisa doesn't know what she's missing out on!!




Our view here

Some of the other 'free-campers' just behind the small harbour

Night 119 - Lowly Point

The blue sky didnt last long, grey is back. Craig and I woke up this morning staring at about 20 mozzies on our roof. The kids are absolutely covered in bites, they look like they have chicken pox. They even got bitten through their pyjamas. Needless to say we are not staying here another night.

So we drove into Whyalla to pick up some things from the supermarket before driving north 35km's to a little town called Lowly Point. Whyalla isnt a particularly nice town, its another working town with plenty of bogans! We stopped at a park for lunch as usual and then kept driving.

We arrive at Lowly Point and the camp is packed with grey nomads. Its only a small space here but its right by the ocean with great views of the Spencer Gulf and it has a park for the kids. We squeezed into a space and Craig and I start setting up and of course Craig gets bailed up by some old guys, there goes another hour! Some of them have been here for 10 days, some look like they live here. We have met plenty of 'Judy and Tom's', 'Dawn and Bill's', 'John and Beryl's', 'Pat and Doug's'.....still searching for Paul and Marcia though!

In the arvo the kids head off fishing and I get some time to myself! Bliss!







They came back with some whiting (which looked barely legal to me!) for lunch tomorrow. Tonight Craig is cooking up the squid from last night's catch. Dinner, movie, bed...

Night 118 - Port Gibbon

Finally we have blue sky!

Craig caught a few fish this morning so dinner is sorted. We packed up yet again and stopped in at Arno Bay for lunch. Its another cute little fishing town with a population of 250 people. Its where the Clean Seas Tuna company runs their breeding program. They farm tuna, kingfish and mulloway here. Its also famous for its offshore fishing. Craig walked out to the end of the wharf to see what the fisherman were catching, they had some luck with squid and Tommy Ruff Salmon. Craig will be back!



After lunch we drove north a bit more to our next camp at Port Gibbon. This place is pretty nice (apart from the blow flies!), its on private land and there is a donation box for camping fee's. The beach is long ans straight and the cliffs are pretty impressive. They have a toilet, a camp kitchen and water and a hobo's beer garden.

We got talking to old mate who suggested we go down the beach a bit to have a look for sea lions. We were pretty excited to find 3 sunning themselves. None of us have ever seen sea lions in the wild before so we were slightly nervous as we hear they can be pretty agressive. We crept over to take some photos, we had a back up plan if they decided to turn on us! Craig would grab Ellie and we would head for the sand dunes! We spent ages with them but they couldnt care less that we were there. Occasionally one would lift its head, look at us and then go back to sleep. They had a pretty nice soft bed in all the seaweed. One of them heaved itself off the seaweed and went for a dip in the ocean.











Afterwards the boys had fun jumping off the massve sand dunes...






We cooked up some dinner before Craig drove back into Arno Bay to catch some squid off the wharf. He returned after 9pm with 2.....lunch for the boys tomorrow!