Gwalia is a ghost town; a community that has the deepest love and respect for their heritage has preserved it. The Sons of Gwalia mine was a major part of the lives of the people of Leonora Gwalia, supporting a population of around 3000 in 1911.Many resident were migrants form Italy and Yugoslavia living in simple cottages made from bush timber, corrugated iron and Hessian. In December 1963 The Sons of Gwalia mine closed for good and the towns folks virtually walked away taking with them only what they could carry. In a period of 3 weeks the population went from 3000 to a mere 40. Today, Gwalia host a museum, with many interesting artifacts, a library and hundreds of old photos. Hoover House is now a bed and breakfast residence and has been fully restored, ... read more

It has been two weeks since we came home, and the end of the trip was uneventful, we lost 2 tyres on the van and we were very fortunate not to have had an accident, as I was driving on canvas on one of them. How can I sum up the trip? We had good time and bad times; the highlight of South Australia was, for us, the Barossa Valley, you don’t really need to be a wine lover to enjoy that part of Australia, it is beautiful. For the would be caravan travellers, I will give a brief overviews of the parks we visited while travelling, we had intended to do some free stops, but twice the weather did beat us. On the way to SA we had storms and cold weather, and on the ... read more

Up at 5AM today as we knew that the temperature was going to be very high. It takes me 2 hours from getting up to starting the ignition and be on my way, John is not doing very much now, and I am happy to see him looking after the water connection as well as the electric one. That means of course that I do the rest, any caravaners can tell you what is involved and I will not go into details, except to have a grumble about the sway bars, it had to have been invented by MEN!!!!! I need to have a crash course in weight lifting!!!! What a silly system….. I am going to look at changing for a Reece. We did not think that the temperature would soar to a scorching 47 ... read more

The 21st January saw us having very little sleep, having prepared the caravan the day before departure in the evening, we went to bed about 11 PM, not without setting the clock for 2.30 AM as we wanted to see the inauguration of Barrack Obama in the USA, this was a live program that started at 2.55 AM on ABC TV. by 5 AM we decided to have a coffee, and make the final prep before leaving for the ferry at 6AM. The Ferry to the Ayre Peninsula runs 4 times a day, however, because we needed to have a lift for John to reach the sitting area, we had to go on the early bird Ferry as it is the only one with a lift, and what a wise decision that was, the steps were ... read more

Today was very different we traveled to a well kept secret; The Whispering Wall in Cockatoo Valley, near Tanunda. And this is truly a magnificent piece of engineering, as from one end, you whisper something and it can be heard at the other end. I really wished that “The Choir” was here with me, splitting the parts at each end and be able to hear would have been some wonderful experience for everybody in the chorale. From there we visited Chateau Yalumba, then via Eden Valley to Hahndorf, and the Adelaide Hills. It is most interesting for me to note that, as I program Tom Tom, a GPS devise, I always ask for the shortest routes, and always avoid Highways and Motorways, but of course, this takes me via the very little known routes to the ... read more