It is cold outside, and I am sitting in the lounge by the fire, so I will try to get the blog up to date with the rest of our trip........
After a very cold night at Glendambo, we were heading south towards Port Augusta, although not sure just how far we would get that day......
This is Lake Hart, which would be a lovely place to camp with the view of the lake. The railway line travels right at the edge of the lake.
The road kept going south, very flat, with little vegetation, and no trees...........
...............then we saw some hills in the distance...................
.............as we got closer to Port Augusta, there were more trees..............
...........and then the Ranges View Rest area where we stopped for a look. There were many vans pulled into this area.............
..............and the countryside here was very bare as you can see.................
........further south we could see the Flinders Ranges to the left and the pipeline that takes water to areas north of here...................
..............and just south of Port Augusta there are many wind turbines............
Instead of travelling south along the Princes Highway, we decided to take the inland road to the left of the ranges.................to Wilmington and turn south towards Clare from then. We had decided to head for the Barossa and catchup with family for a few days............
.....................the view of the flinders ranges on the left.............
....and then heading through the ranges through Horrocks Pass..........which was a rather windy, steep road through the ranges.........
...............until we reached Wilmington and then headed south again......
....the weather was getting stormy, and we saw a rainbow.......
.the countryside is very different to what we had been through and featured large gum trees and green grass...........
...and then we found the rain, the first we had seen during our whole trip........welcome back to South Australia and goodbye to blue sky and sunshine!! At least the car and caravan had some of the red dust washed off.
We decided to call a halt for the day at Laura, which is a pretty little town in the Mid North of the state.
The caravan park is a community park................
.and Barry was very happy to receive a complimentary plate of scones, jam and cream as he booked in for a night.........
It is a well kept park, with a few quirky decorations in the park........
From Laura we were heading further south.....................through green crops...........
..............and through Clare............
and through Kapunda, which was famous for copper mining and here is a statue of a miner...............we did not stop and do the tourist thing................
and here is our site at Nuriootpa Caravan park where we were booked in for the next 5 nights. We had been having a few hot water issues in the shower, and the water was not as hot as it should be.....so after some investigating...............
...............Barry found the culprit was this part, a tempering mixing valve had a blocked filter, and it was soon fixed and the water was HOT again.
I did more domestic duties and found the laundry as I had not done any since Alice Springs. We went to the supermarket for supplies and found this when we returned to the car...........
Fortunately Barry is still flexible enough to get in the passenger side, clamber over the fridge in the centre of the seats and get into the drivers' seat and move the car. We may have been waiting awhile for the owner of the green car to return???
We enjoyed an evening meal with DS and family, and gave the kids some glow sticks ...........
.........................and watched Miss Olivia doing her somersaults...........
We enjoyed lunch at the Chocolate Factory at Tanunda with DD2 and family...................
I loved these domes at the venue, although we did not use them, they were all fully booked.
While out walking one day, I found the Barossa Bush Chapel, which was a very peaceful place............
We attended the Hope Valley Church with friends on Sunday, and enjoyed lunch following this. We visited some of Barry's friends that afternoon. DD1 and family cooked the evening meal for us, before we returned to the caravan again.
One night the winds were very strong and we wondered what damage would be done to trees and housing....thankfully we were safe......and the next day the rain set in again, so we stayed put for the day and I spent time on the computer getting my bookwork up to date for the accountant, who I had an appointment with soon after getting home.
On the Monday I had an appointment in Adelaide for my 16 year check, which thankfully was all good. Come back in 2 years I was told. We were early for the appointment, so went for drive up to the hills at Skye, and I took this photo of the view of Adelaide......
..............and then we drove to Waterfall Gully, and you can just see the waterfall in the pic below. We did not have time to walk into the falls, so maybe this is a tourist thing we can do another day??
After the appointment we went back to the van at Nuriootpa for the last night of our trip...... Next morning we headed south again, with a stop at Murray Bridge to see Mum.
Here we are 113km away from Bordertown...............
................and before we went home, we visited the car wash for Barry to get all the northern bugs off the van, and it did take quite a few coins to do this.................
We arrived home about 5pm, after 39 days on the road......................an amazing experience that I enjoyed very much................9,690km!!
We were back to reality, and loads of washing and the unpacking and cleanup to get things ready for the next journey. There are plans in place, but not sure when. We need to do a few things around home for a little while and maybe Max needs to get some quilt done??
Since we arrived home, we have had 2 trips to Naracoorte, moved more furniture around, and are preparing for a birthday party this weekend. Cooking and cleaning is on the agenda. Like I said, reality!!!
Be back soon, with more newsfromjude.
Blessings, From Jude
