On Friday morning we left the Adelaide Caravan Park and headed out to the Largs Pier Hotel to meet with an old friend of Stephen and his wife. The old hotel is very lovely. We didn’t have a chance to explore or walk along the pier as we had a few things to do when we arrived. Still, I bought a coffee at the little beachside cafe.

We spent hours talking over lunch, because we won’t see them again for probably some years and we have a lot in common, we were a bit reluctant to part. A consequence was that we had to drive around Adelaide in peak hour traffic as it was getting dark, and then up a very steep and winding road to the Belair Caravan Park. We booked this one for three nights, an unpowered site.

Yesterday morning I did a big load of washing, then we hung it on the line for the day. We walked down and up hill to get to the nearest railway station, then caught the train for one stop in order to meet with our other friend at a cafe in Blackwood. Again, we spent the afternoon chatting, and she drove us home, with a bit of a tour of the local area. It is really beautiful here, although we are on the edge of a national park (Belair National Park) the area is quite suburban.

Building here must be a bit of a nightmare as there are multiple steep hills, but it appears to be a wonderful place to live, with lots of pubs and cafes, parks and streams running through the valleys. Our friend told us that it doesn’t get too hot in summer. She has lived here for most of her life and although she is planning the next stage, of moving from her three bedroomed over 55’s house to a smaller unit (husband is at the stage of needing a nursing home), she is hoping to stay in the same general area.

Both days of socialising were exhausting, but satisfying as well. We would not have lingered so long on both days without having that sense of shared values. In the case of Stephen’s male friend we had to allow them time to talk by themselves as they knew each other when they were very young and have lots of shared history.

Today is a bit more of a rest day, though Stephen went the to have a shower and wash his hair in the shower block and I am doing a meal in the Instant Pot, this time using it as a slow cooker as I don’t like using the pressure in our small van, just in case of an accident.

We had Friday and Saturday as mostly sunny and pleasant days, but today is grey and overcast, with some light rain. Still, we will try going for a walk later to enjoy the beautiful forest.

Because our friend bought us home we knew for sure that we don’t have to go down the steep and winding road that we came up on. I think we were saved from some of the anxiety we would have felt because we couldn’t see over the barriers on the side of the road to the valleys below in the dark. But, we are not sure that the other road will be less steep, so driving in manual and choosing second gear will likely be necessary to get us down the hill.