We said our goodbyes to Debbie
and her girls and family this morning and pushed on to the big smoke. We had a bit of time on our hands along the
way so made a special stop just for Josh – at the National Motor Museum,
Birdville. Thankfully, there was
something to keep the kids amused while we were here; it was a sheet where they
had to find a range of about 10 small cardboard cars inside the 300+ real cars inside
the museum – difficult but fun. I got a great photo of Sami pretending to drive Josh in some old beat up car - it epitomises the future - it won't be the girls requiring a lift home but still Josh (he'll never grow up). Further
along our road trip, we pulled into the town of Hahndorf, which claims to be “Australia’s
oldest German town”. The weather was
crap, it was cold and raining but we couldn’t help but stroll along the
streets. It was a really cute town with
some fantastic little shops. The girls
favourite was a puppet shop and mine was a clock shop – could have spent ages
in here! After making a bit of lunch in
the van, we pushed along in the miserable weather to Adelaide so that Josh
could buy a pair of shoes. Half hour
parking across the road from Myers and we were back in time without being
booked – Josh is a great shopper; in and out in no time! It was getting late so we headed for West
Beach caravan park (on the coast of Adelaide) which we had already booked for a
few night’s stay. We were right next to
the amenities block, the playground and the pool – it was fantastic except for
the planes flying overhead.
It was a big day today as Josh
was flying from Adelaide to Melbourne to discuss work options. We dropped him at the airport (so much easier
than Sydney airport) and then headed back to the van. Josh might have had a fun day out but we
spent all morning in the caravan doing school work. The girls worked pretty hard at it this
morning but only because I promised to take them across the road to Harbour
Town if I thought they’d achieved enough… fortunately for them I was in a good
mood (and had had enough of school work myself). After lunch we went shopping for a few
hours. In the meantime, Josh had phoned
to say he was done and was trying to get an earlier flight. We had fun at the shops and didn’t spend too
much money – and then picked Josh up around 5pm. We had lots to discuss and some big decisions
to make. Thank goodness for that
playground being right next to our site.
Saturday was spent investigating possibilities
and then we had plans to catch up with more travelling friends. Graeme and Sharon Crase we first met at Banka
Banka (on our way north to Darwin), then Daly Waters pub – and, by coincidence,
again at El Questro along the Gibb River Road.
They had invited us over for lunch and we jumped at the chance to catch
up with these lovely people again. They
only live about half hour south of Adelaide so it was a short trip day. Sharon had made some lovely salads and
desserts to die for – scrummy home-made pavlova and a chocolate
cheesecake! We had a lovely afternoon
swapping stories and chatting in general and by the time we left, they nearly
had to roll us out the door – and gave us a doggy bag for later. We decided that we may not have time to see
Adelaide properly so headed into town for a quick run-down of the city. After stopping so that Josh could do a quick
inspection of CMI Toyota (the biggest Toyota dealership I’ve ever seen), we
parked around the corner from St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral and went to
inspect. There was a mass being held but
I still wanted to see the inside of this monstrous place so I wandered in and
sat about five rows from the back with the kids in tow. Josh had no choice but to follow – but that
didn’t last long – he was up again in under two minutes ushering us back out; embarrassing
with so many people in the church! The
kids were meant to be studying beliefs for school so I thought it could have
been a good idea to sit in on mass but Josh had other ideas. We wandered through the main streets of the
city going past the Town Hall and along Rundle Mall. The kids had fun playing with the “mall’s
balls” and the Rundle Mall Pigs. I was
really surprised that there was an actual multi-storey Kmart in this mall. We wandered around doing some window shopping
seeing as though most shops were closed and passed the Adelaide Fire Station on
the way back to the car. As we wandered
past, the alarms sounded and firemen and trucks raced out of the
buildings. We made one last stop on the
outskirts of town at St Peters Cathedral and the Adelaide Cricket Ground
(currently under renovation even though the second Ashes Test is being played
here). The cathedral was lovely but we
couldn’t get inside as there was a function of some sort being held here.
The weather forecast for Sunday
was around 33 degrees – typical though, the hot weather didn’t arrive. We woke up to cool weather and showers which
weren’t great seeing as though we invited the Woods’ and Clarke’s over for a
day in the sunshine. They all arrived
safely, even Mick who rode his bike some 100+ kms from Mannum, and the kids had
a hoot all playing together while the adults hung about and socialised. After a bbq lunch, Josh used his negotiating
skills to obtain buggies for each of them for a bit of fun. Later in the arvo, while it was still quite
cool, we walked down the beach (as we hadn’t seen it yet). The kids had a few races along the way before
returning – just as the sun was finally beginning to appear. Back at the caravan park, we took the kids to
the pool for an hour or so to finally get a swim in; but as it was getting
quite late, and our guests still had long drives ahead of them, we packed up
the kids and went to the local fish and chip shop for dinner together. It was here after dinner that we farewelled
them all and encouraged them to visit us in other parts of Australia in the
near future… sad to say goodbye again!
