May 1, 2013 - Preparing for Home

Today we're preparing for a change of pace as we put the motorhome into storage for a few weeks and fly back home. The reason we're breaking our round Australia trip is to celebrate my mum's 90th birthday which she will be celebrating in Canada where dad and mum live. Dad is 92 and We are going to take them to New York for a week prior to the 90th birthday. The trip journal will still continue and we will be updating it every few days. The day is beautiful and we've done our packing and are ready to go. We fly back in the morning. We have...

Apr 30, 2013 - Having a Stirling time!

Today we're visiting new friends Alan and Rosie. We parked overnight in the Apex park car park close by and in the morning it was increasingly difficult to get out as the car park was small and people were coming in but by sheer brilliance we managed it!! Stirling is very beautiful and old worldy but the roads are very narrow and there's not much room to park. We looked for a park and drove down the road through Aldgate and then found a place to turn round and came back. We ended up at the top of Mt. Lofty which has very amazing views....

Apr 29, 2013 - Christies Beach

The beach is so beautiful with not many people on it. Most of them are walking their dogs. We went for a long walk right on to the little harbour with the boat ramps. It's interesting using up everything in your fridge and We had an onion, potato and carrot pie made with a sheet of pastry in the freezer. It would have been better to make my own pastry but the pie was quite nice. Bike riding up hills is not my best activity and it became too steep and I crashed to the ground hurting my ankle and leg. A very kind man let David know who was...

Apr 28, 2013 - The Hills

After breakfast we went with Forbes and Annette to visit a branch of Margaret Court's church in one of the suburbs. The people were very friendly and we enjoyed the service and worship although I think we were all a little tired. We went back to the house and had a barbecue which Forbes cooked and a refreshing salad. Spending time in the hills of Adelaide is very peaceful and pleasant sitting outside enjoying the sunshine. We enjoyed a barbecue lunch and a visit from their daughter Melinda. It was great to see her again and see her...

Apr 27, 2013 - Heading to Adelaide

It's a lovely day but very windy. We're so glad we went out on in the boat yesterday. David has done all the jobs around the motorhome and I've done the inside plus the washing. We went out for a bike ride into Goolwa but its very windy and it almost blew us over. We left about 3.30 pm travelling through the mountains and pretty country to The hills of Adelaide to visit Forbes and Annette. We arrived just after 5pm and it is so good to see our friends who we haven't seen for a number of years. We enjoyed an excellent meal, great company and...

Apr 27, 2013 - On the road

These reports will probably be short and sweet. After spending a bit of time with Steph's brother Owen and his wife Jo over the last few days we left Alice Springs around 7.30am Saturday and headed south towards Port Augusta. We traveled 882 kms and stopped at a free camp called Bon Bon station around 8.30pm. The next day we headed of towards Port Augusta, got there around midday.

Apr 26, 2013 - Secret Women's business!

5 am is pretty early when it doesn't get light till about 6.45 am but we were awake and getting ready because this is the day we're going out on the boat and the day is turning out to be very beautiful. We wheeled the boat to the boat ramp and after a few false starts headed slowly up and down the creek looking at the bird life. We cruised around to the next inlet and visited Rodger and June who we met at Clare and who live nearby. He has made his own boat and he has done a really good job of it. The creek opens out on to a very large...

Apr 25, 2013 - Goolwa

We woke up this morning to the most amazing sunrise and David went out there to take fabulous early morning shots of the sunrise and Hindmarsh Bridge. Remember the secret women's business of the 80's? We had parked near the steam train railway station and the cruise boats and as we were parked along the front who should come along but Rodger who we had met in Clare. He invited us to pop around when we're out in the boat. He's the one who told us about this place, Goolwa. We like it very much. Later we got the bikes out and went for a good...

Apr 24, 2013 - Visiting old friends

It was rather relieving to leave Black Point as we were only six meters from the edge of the cliff which made me very nervous. It looked like a 30 meter drop to the beach! At Port Wakefield We Visited old friends Raelene and Paul also Thea visiting from Queensland. It was so good to see them again after so many years. We picked up a cornish pasty and a pie from the bakery and stopped to eat them at a rest area down the road. afterwards heading to Adelaide and to the Fleurieu Peninsula and Goolwa. We arrived after dark and found a spot...

Apr 23, 2013 - Dolphin's playground

This morning we left the caravan park and drove to Stenhouse Bay in Innes National Park. We walked the historic walk to the top of this former mining town. It used to be a gypsum mining town, now its a historic ruin. At the end of the walk we went down to the jetty where there were a lot of people fishing. As we looked across the water to the cliffs we saw quite a few dolphins playing. It was so beautiful to watch. We reluctantly left there and drove right down to the Pondolowie surf beach. It was quite a walk over sand dunes on a board...

Apr 23, 2013 - Coober Pedy to Mambray Creek, Mount Remarkable

Day 27 of our Joy – Tuesday 23 April 2013 Coober Pedy to Mambray Creek, Mount Remarkable Today we went to the Visitor’s centre and filled up with diesel then got on the road. We stopped at Woomera which is a very interesting town that used to do rocket, missile and nuclear testing. They would make the rockets and put it up in the air and see what things worked and not. They did this here as there is lots of space. This town also used to be a town where the illegal immigrants used to have to stay. There was a building that the government...

Apr 22, 2013 - Arckaringa Station (Painted Desert) – Coober Pedy

Day 26 of our pleasure – Monday 22 April 2013 Arckaringa Station (Painted Desert) – Coober Pedy Today we packed up along with an unbearable amount of flies. We went back to the Painted Desert and did the walk through it and up to many look outs. It certainly had beautiful views. I said a couple of days ago that I suspected that we would have no more dirt roads but that information was wrong, we headed on more dirt roads to get to Coober Pedy. We drove through Moon Plains, which is just really flat land of nothing. We also drove through...