Today, because of 'predicted weather', we went for a tour in the air-conditioned comfort of the car, summer has come with way too much vengence for this Central Vic couple and dog ! Heading south again, we headed to Stansbury, situated on the East Coast in the shelter of Oyster Bay. Another picture post card town with an incredibly uncanny resemblance to Port Vincent. Black swans can be seen on the south side of the towns beach, weird ! The Oyster farms supply fresh local oysters straight from the sea so we called in to the local bloke and purchased oysters at $7.50 a dozen (oops, sorry, promised Trish I would not say that), so lunch had been settled for the day! We then headed inland to Minlaton, known as "Barley Capital of the World". What's ... read more

After surviving an amazing electrical thunderstorm overnight we left our great campsite at Yacka ($15 for power/showers and toilet!)and headed south to Snowtown, known for the crime scene in which a number of bodies were found in barrels in the disused local bank vault. A movie has now been produced about these events. Snowtown is the main service centre for small towns in the area. Historic public buildings, again all stone, and businesses provide an interesting browse. A huge wind farm now also sits on top of the surrounding Hummocks Ranges. Driving further south through Lochiel we headed to Balaklava for our coffee stop. Finding a parking spot outside one of the 6 churches in the town, we were greeted by Shirley who promptly invited us back to her place for a chat. Balaklava is the ... read more

Today is the day we part company with Faye and Neil, very sad as we have had such a really great time together, lots of laughs and lots of drinking (both Coffee and Alcohol!). After packing up we left Mt Barker and travelled to Woodside, another pretty town in the hills. This was to be our final coffee before Faye and Neil headed across to Mannum and we continued North up the Barossa. Leaving Woodside we travelled via Lobethal to the Eden Valley. Along the way we went through Mt Torrens, Birdwood and Mt Pleasant before coming to Springton and the Herbig Tree. The earliest known european settler that settled in Springton Friedrich Herbig lived in a hollowed out red gum which still stands in the main street. Herbig was a German tailor and he arrived ... read more

Neil and I did 'Boys stuff' in the morning. We finished putting together my water pump which will supply our shower and general wash up water tanks with water when we need to refill these tanks from rivers, dams, tanks etc. What a brilliant gadget if I do say so, based on a 12V spray pump it will deliver 6Ltrs a minute, details available, (at a small fee payable into my B/acct) , when requested..just ask me! We also attacked Neil's van's sink outlet, the TV aerial bracket on both vans plus a few other jobs and importantly found a brilliant shop called "The 12V Shop". anybody with a camper or van should know about this place...just google them, brilliant! The Girls went shopping in Mt Barker village where they found some lovely shops and of ... read more