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Published: March 6th 2011
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We have finally arrived in Adelaide, and are staying at the most amazing caravan park. In fact, it could be better described as a resort; green, spacious, by a most beautiful beach, jumping pillows, playgrounds, heated pools, even a restaurant if required, and glorious weather to boot! We arrived here on Thursday, and spent the first two days just relaxing at our resort - heaven. The boys needed some down time, particularly William and Quinton who both had managed to catch a cold.
We are also just pleased to be here, caravan intact. We left Port Lincoln as it was windy and very, very cold. I am sure it is a beautiful place, and I do feel we did it a bit of a disservice by leaving so quickly (though the boys did visit Memory Cove at Port Lincoln National Park where they saw wild dolphins, kangaroos right by the car, emus, and the most beautiful scenery) but our fridge appears to have packed up again, and with a freezer full of meat and fish, we wanted to get to Adelaide quickly to see if we could get the fridge sorted out, as we were running out of space.
Anyway, reason for my heading is that, somewhere on the Lincoln Highway, we lost one of our windows. I had mentioned it was windy (very, very windy) and it appears I had not latched one of the windows properly (though all windows were definitely closed). A strong gust of wind must have managed to wrench open the window and send it flying. We only noticed it as we stopped for lunch - fortunately I had to go into the caravan, and noticed all this dust flying around! Closer inspection revealed the missing window. We then decided not to spend the night at this isolated beach people had been telling us about, and instead, to go straight to Adelaide. We did however have to spend a night at a small caravan park on the highway as otherwise it meant driving at night, which we have no intention of doing (kangaroos are a serious road hazard around here). It was here that somebody noticed our window and told us we were bloody lucky our caravan hadn’t exploded due to the air pressure inside!!
Next day Paul made an improvised ‘wind stopper’ and we drove to Adelaide (Paul in the caravan for
the first few km’s, to check out its effectiveness!) with much trepidation. We arrived in one piece three hours later and headed straight to a caravan repair place. There we met the owner, Andrew, a former South African, and he has been incredibly helpful. He also told us we were lucky that, a) the window had not done any damage to the outside of our caravan as it flew on its merry way and, b) that the caravan hadn’t exploded!! I think we were saved from this traumatic outcome as the window which blew off was on the left side, ie not facing the inside lane and therefore not exposed to the tremendous wind gusts of passing road trains (of which there were many!). Anyway, Andrew has managed to source the exact same window and will squeeze us in next week, and is sorting out the insurance for us, and can replace the fridge (not covered by insurance, unfortunately!) if necessary but had one of his guys fiddle around a bit, so our fridge is on trial for the weekend.
Good news though, is that we are going to be living the high life (relatively speaking) for a few
days. With the caravan in the workshop, we effectively have no home! So, on Tuesday we are catching the ferry to Kangaroo Island and Paul has booked us into a self-catering unit with two (yes, two!) bedrooms. I can’t wait!!! Paul originally wanted to camp for the four nights, but a look at the weather forecast (rain, from Tuesday) prompted him to do some additional research. Incidentally, we were all just sitting in the caravan getting ready for bed, with Paul giving them their bedtime story (in fact, he is squeezing in a history lesson, as the story is about WWI and WWII in a nutshell - gotta get their schooling in where we can!), when we looked around and realised that not one room at Ridge Road is smaller (or even the same size) as our caravan, but we are managing, and are in fact quite comfortable. I still however, am looking forward to my two rooms at Kangaroo Island - and an inside toilet! Oh, the small pleasures of life.
On Friday night we did venture out of our paradise to catch our first AFL footy match - Port Adelaide vs Geelong. A former Port Adelaide footy
star - Michael Wilson - gave us these complementary tickets. Michael is the wife of Leah, who we ‘cyber’ met in 2009. They, together with four-year-old twins Tom and Charlie, seven-year-old Lucy and eight-year-old Noah, and two dogs, embarked on a year-long trip around Australia in 2010. Paul found them on the internet while researching for our trip. Anyway, they survived! We caught up with them today and they are still talking to each other, kids have adapted well to school life again, and they are even thinking about taking off again in a few years, in a caravan. It was really nice getting together with them and hearing their stories.
Today we went into Adelaide to do some exploring, and discovered the Arts Fringe Festival. We saw some great street performers, including Barbie, who had spotted, believe it or not, Michael, in the crowd and chose him to be her assistant. It was hilarious, and amazing that, as we know a total of six people in SA (ie the Wilson’s), they happened to be in the same place we were.They were on the way to the airport and decided to pop in and see a bit of the
festival. A stranger also highly recommended one particular performance, so on a whim, we bought tickets for the 5.30 performance. It was a circus come comedy act, and it was great. It was nice to get a bit of culture in with the kids as well. The atmosphere was really cheerful and light, and it was a great afternoon. We also caught up with Chris, a family friend from when we lived in Sydney back in the early 70s, now living in Adelaide with partner Oriana.
Tonight is our first balmy evening in ages - it is glorious to be able to sit outside and not freeze. Tomorrow we are going to go out to Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, a town which claims to be the oldest German town in Australia. It is supposed to be very pretty.
Just a small anecdote to end this blog, an ‘ag shame’ one. Our Mighty Quinn is still a little bit confused about living in a caravan. He is trying to understand, and accept his new life, but he keeps wanting to save things (usually perishable items) for Charlie Brown and Gemma, or for the horses at Granny’s farm, etc.
When we start packing up to move on, he asks with hope, are we going to Africa now? And, when the caravan is hitched, every stop we make, whether it be a petrol station, or an ugly rest stop on the highway (a wee stop), asks with enthusiasm, “Will we be living here?”
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Gillian
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Gill
What!? Not even one sunset???