Today we met up with an old friend for lunch. She used to visit Jeff Carroll from time to time and we enjoyed her company very much. She insisted on paying for today’s lunch as she feels we had her to dinner many times when she was visiting Perth and it was a chance to return to hospitality.
She doesn’t come into the city very much, so finding a place to eat was a matter of luck. We chanced upon a Thai restaurant which happened to have a Thai chef, the food was excellent. Glenys chose to try a whole fish, which she and I shared and Stephen finished off, we also had a salad and Stephen had steamed brisket.
Afterwards we found a quieter place for coffee and cake. We talked the whole time about our lives – by 4.00 p.m. we were getting a little hoarse!
The Brunelli CafeStephen and Glenys making the all important decision about which cakes to buy. Two between the three of us.
Before and after meeting with her, Stephen and I took the free circular bus to get a feel for the city. There is an inner circle and outer circle, and we were on the one that went to a stop in North Adelaide, which is about 1.5 kms from here.
Crossing the river in the busThe circle bus in the morning
It was a beautiful sunny day, but became quite chilly by 5.00 p.m. when we were walking home.
We had a busy morning, changing all the linen and doing washing, then washing the floors. All done by about 11.30.
We walked to the Botanic Gardens. As it was World Environment Day today the Gardens were thick with groups of school children – covering just about every surface, marching along in lines and being photographed by parents and teachers. They appeared to be having a good time, but we gave up after about half an hour and walked a bit further into the city.
A place the children hadn’t found
We had a look at Ayers House, belonging to the man that Ayers Rock was named after. He was a prominent businessman. His house started out quite modestly with nine rooms, but gradually expanded over the 40 years he was living there. On his death it went through lots of different purposes, but is now run by the National Trust as a museum.
Outside Ayers HouseA small drawing roomA bedroom with very dark furnishingThe nurseryThis was called the Summer Sitting Room. It was in the basement, for coolness we assume. There was an ‘airwell’ next door which probably helped to keep it feeling fresh
We walked further into the city, had lunch and did some errands, then caught a tram to Glenelg. In the inner city, the tram behaved like a tram, stopping at all stops, but as we left the city behind, it became more like a bus, only stopping when needed. Unlike a bus, it travelled in pretty much a straight line, but still took about half an hour to get to the beach.
Arrival at Glenelg
the beachTwo towers, a pillar and a moon
At this stage we wanted refreshment and found a lovely place with specials on coffee and cake. We paid a little bit extra for Stephen’s chai latte.
Then it was a straight through run on the tram to the Adelaide Railway Station, then catching our bus towards the Paradise Interchange (or bus to Paradise, if you prefer).
Stephen on the tram
We checked the washing, it felt very cold, but appeared quite dry. We are airing it in the van before putting away.
We had a lazy start, waking up around 7.30 a.m. and then spending a long time having our first cups of tea and reading our iPads. We have free wifi here at the caravan park. It is slow, but I only notice when I try to upload photos. Everything else works quite well.
It is discount day at the movies today, and as rain was forecast, we thought it was a good day for visiting the Art Gallery and seeing a movie. We enjoyed the Art Gallery, which is housed in a really beautiful old building, with a very good collection of art.
The movie we saw was The Viceroy’s House, set at the time of independence for India. The director was Indian, with very good actors. We found the love story a bit distracting as the history of what happened was very interesting. But, overall we came out feeling that we had been on a journey, which is the feeling one should have after a good movie.
There was an IGA store right behind the Cinema complex, so we picked up some supplies and arrived back at the Winnie by about 5.00 p.m. We were feeling pretty tired.
Yesterday and today I’ve been taking photos in the city, but so far don’t feel I can do justice to it. There are many lovely old buildings in the area where we have been walking and we are finding Adelaide to be a very attractive city. The people walking around seem to be mainly quite young, students from the University perhaps, which helps with the lively atmosphere.
We are booked into this caravan park until Sunday. We will catch up with Stephen’s friend John again on Thursday and he has offered to take us on an excursion, perhaps to the Barrossa Valley. We showed him the Winnie when he dropped us off after dinner last night, so he understood why we might not necessarily want to drive around the city in it. Especially as our washing is hung around the place.
We are also going to catch up with another friend whom we haven’t seen for a few years. She will meet us in town on Wednesday.
Our last day will likely be spent getting in supplies of food and filling up our water containers and fresh water tank ready for heading off on Sunday.
Our bus stop. We have free travel on weekends and out of peak periods.A rather striking sweetshopA Telsa car on display in the Meyer complex
Here we are at the Adelaide Railway Station. Stephen wanted to catch up with a friend who lives here and he and his wife have asked us over for a meal. We had a quiet morning at the caravan park, then caught the bus into town for lunch. We’ve been walking around getting a feel for the city. We also spent some time at the Adelaide Museum. We were able to have our usual Sunday FaceTime session with Matt. We enjoy being able to see him as well as speak with him.
It is cold here. Matt told us it is very pleasant in Perth at the moment. He and his friends spent time out in the park yesterday, and they were sitting outside when we rang.
Not much to say about today, but we like this city. They have some really beautiful old buildings.
Soon after leaving our campsite at Eucla we arrived at Border Village. We fed the Winnie, did a little shopping and used dump point. Today we have been driving through a coastal heathland, with some small trees. We had the sea beside us, sometimes visible, sometimes not. The earth has gone from red to chalky white.
We are feeling a bit confused by the time changes and probably had lunch quite early compared with breakfast, but we wanted to make our destination at 4.00 p.m. South Australian time to give us time before sunset. It’s very easy to set up when we are free camping, we just turn on the gas, put on the kettle, light the fridge and push the slide out button.
We pulled in at the Nullabour Roadhouse where we stayed on our previous trip to phone Matthew. We remembered that when we came here in 2015 a light aircraft pulled in for get fuel in front of us, meaning we had to back the caravan out.
Matthew wasn’t home, so we left a message to say that we weren’t sure if we would have a phone signal at our overnight stop, if not, we would phone him tomorrow. In fact, we have quite a good 3g signal here and he will contact us later to ‘Facetime’ if possible, or just have a voice conversation if not.
We made sure we had plenty of water this morning so that we could free camp tonight. We are now camped in a designated campsite on the Head of Bight road, ready to go to the Whale Watching Centre in the morning. If there are no whales we will continue on our way.
We are not sure where we will go tomorrow night as it depends on how long we spend here tomorrow. We are only about 260kms from Ceduna.
The camping area is like a big parking lot, fenced on 3 sides.A selfie, sort of
Our overnight at Madura was quite pleasant, despite the fact that we were close to the generator running all night. We got away just after 9.00 a.m. according to my watch, but 45 minutes later according to Stephen’s. Oddly, our watches are now in sync. Mine, of course, gets it’s setting from my iPhone which automatically takes into account time zone changes. This is a bit puzzling.
We decided to have a short day of driving and go to Eucla 180 kms away. The caravan park overlooks the plain leading out to the sea. As well, it has excellent showers and toilets.
We had a stop at Mundrabilla, then through to Eucla, arriving around 1.30 p.m. As we were quite early we were able to secure one of the places with the best view. Slightly unnerving as we are facing the ocean and not that far from the cliff. We’ve put the brake on very strongly and Stephen put out the chocks. We seem to be on a slight downward slope, but have avoided a side to side imbalance.
Before we left Madura it began to rain slightly. After our stop at Mundrabilla the rain became pretty heavy, and it confirmed our idea of aiming for a closer destination and having the afternoon to rest. It has been quite lovely here. Other vans came in, but no one has camped next to us.
Our view at EuclaAround 4.15. The sun is setting behind us.
As the best view is from the cab we had our drinks and nibbles sitting there instead of at the dinette. It was too cold to sit outside.
Geowiki said there was a dump point here, but the staff have confirmed that the nearest dump point is at Border Village. I’m going to have to correct Geowiki once again! Since our free overnight camping site, I’ve gone off the idea of using dump points at free camping sites where there is no water to wash things down. Nuff said about that, I hope.
I had a call from Regis yesterday about Mum smoking where she shouldn’t. Basically I told them it was their problem and we would support whatever plan they come up with (though we want to know what the plan is). No phone calls for me today, but Marie has also been contacted about a financial issue, at least they are sharing the worry around. We think the financial issue is resolved, but the first payment has not yet come from her account, so we may hear from them again.
Just a quick post on my iPad from the Madura Pass Lookout. We are spending tonight at the Madura Roadhouse which may not have a phone signal. This morning we said goodbye to the only caravanners left at Baxter Rest Area who happpened to be our nearest neighbours. Stephen befriended them when we arrived there yesterday. We had lunch at Cocklebiddy, for old times sake, and noted the sign to the Eyre Bird Observatory on our way past.
The featured image above is a view from the Summit walk.
Today we travelled from Fraser Range Station to Baxter Rest Area. This is a free 24hr camping area. We’ve driven in far enough to be well off the road. There are lots of caravans here, but mostly not too far off the road. There is one caravan out further than us with a generator running, it’s very quiet from here fortunately. We arrived at about 4.00 p.m. and it was easy to set up – no hookups to worry about.
We are fairly close to a repeater station and have better internet than at Fraser Range, if not quite the facilities.
We rang Matt at lunchtime and talked with Scott as well as Matt. It was the OT Scott who Matt was with yesterday. They are still working on his new chair. We were able to get Matt to talk a bit, mainly to the ‘robot’ (Stephen pretends to be a robot, which Matt finds funny). Then Scott and Matt shared a joke and we could hear Matt cracking up with laughter.
Fraser Range Station – signs to Summit Walklunchtime rest arealunchtime rest areaFirst things first – drinks and nibbles at Baxter Rest Area
I did a bit of hand washing at Fraser Range this morning. I thought the dripping would be annoying in the shower recess, but we couldn’t hear it with the bathroom door shut. It was hung out on a tree for a while after we arrived.
Evening light at Baxter Rest Area
Although we like being able to take a leisurely pace crossing the Nullabour we do miss chasing down the little gold Honda. We stopped briefly at Balladonia today and remembered catching up with Eversley.
Today has been a day of enjoying being in this location. I took some photos soon after sunrise, even before my cup of tea!
Glorious
Then I did all of our washing in one load and hung it on the line. Check.
We did a few things, for example, we had found when having our showers last night that the Winnie was tilted so much that the water was banking up on the opposite side to the plug hole. This morning we unplugged everything and moved it slightly to make things more level and checked that water would go out of the plug hole. Check. Then I emptied the toilet cassette. I had been worried as it was an odd looking dump point, but it was actually quite easy. Check.
By then Stephen was ready for a walk and I was ready for a rest. So, we did that. When he came back we made an easy lunch, slices of cheese between bread (no butter) and muesli bars and did the Summit Walk. We spent quite some time there as it was lovely. We saw lots of kangaroos, and they saw us as well. If we felt we were being watched, we were. However, we didn’t mean each other any harm.
We tried phoning Matt as we had a good signal at that height, but he was out with Scott. Scott said that he wanted to take Matt shopping for clothes, so I imagine that that is what they might have been doing. We had another try at reaching him after 3.00 p.m., but there was only one staff member on and she was new, so we gave up and left a message that we would ring him tomorrow.
We had a rest after our walk to the Summit, then a cup of tea, then brought in the washing. It seemed to be completely dry. Stephen went for another walk, but I felt reluctant as it was cloudy and windy. When the wind died down about 4.30 I went out along one of the other walks until sunset.
Watching you
We’ve had drinks and nibbles whilst I’ve been processing photos from the day. I was trying to come up with a definitive photo for the day, I miss being able to upload quite a few. I’m preparing this blog in Word because WordPress did not seem to be working. I’m guessing the signal isn’t strong enough.
We’ve booked in for a meal tonight for a treat.
As we half expected, the meal serving were huge. Quite good, simple food. We were sitting in a barn like place with long trestle tables. We had an enjoyable time talking caravan/motorhome travels with our neighbours, then staggered back to the van.
I attempted to upload quite a few photos, but have decided to go with these three, it was taking a long time and I often had error messages.
