Advertisement
Published: April 5th 2013
The sailing to Melbourne on the Spirit of Tasmania was very smooth and we were fortunate to have excellent recliner seats with uninterrupted views at the very back of the ship.
Our good friend Kyra invited us for a delicious full English breakfast at her place in Melbourne the next morning. What a treat. We then headed off to pick up our bikes from storage but unfortunately took the wrong turn and ended up travelling through the main city streets of the city in rush hour traffic!
We headed out west finally and it felt good to once again be on the road on the mainland, ready to explore the new route towards Adelaide and South Australia. Pete and I are still very keen to see as much as possible of this beautiful country and just as excited as the day we set out.
Port Fairy had some very old buildings plus Griffith Island, which we walked around, and a great place for a short holiday. We then moved on to Portland, heading into incredibly strong winds which pushed the van all over the road, so much so that the hinge on the side door broke off and
had we not stopped immediately we could very easily have lost the whole door! After applying half a roll of duct tape to the inside and outside of the door to secure it we, unfortunately, then had to make the decision to head for Mt Gambier to get it fixed before the close of the day, as it was the Thursday before the start of Easter. This meant that we missed out on a petrified forest that we had been keen to visit plus some blowholes on the way and also a boat ride through what we had been told was an amazing gorge. Anyway, at least, our hurried trip was not in vain as the door is now temporarily fixed and secure until we reach Adelaide and also the weather has been fairly cold with light showers so perhaps we could not have done the things we missed anyway.
Mt Gambier is quite a big city. set around several old volcanoes, with lots to see and do. Mt Shanks, a sink hole, which we climbed, was really impressive along with the Umphreston sinkhole situated very close to the city centre. The locals also have a fantastic area to
walk/bike or run at the Blue and Valley lakes, again situated very close to town. Next stop north-westards was via Beachport and Robe, two lovely coastal towns full of Easter tourists enjoying the local attractions. Beachport has a 700m pier full of keen fishermen and Robe has a very safe beach with lots of families enjoying themselves.
The coastal run up to South Adelaide is approximately 4 hours of continuous long flat roads with little to see other than scrub or small trees and only the small town of Meningie to break the journey and stretch the old legs. These long drives are far from boring as we always tend to chat to fellow travellers when we stop along the way. First off we met two English girls travelling around in their motorhome in Meningie and then upon our early arrival at our campsite we chatted again to a young German couple camped in their stationwagon next to us.
The weather again has not been the best, but it remained fine for the time it took us to drive down the coast to Victor Harbour where we were able to walk around Granite Island, exploring some amazing rock
formations caused by the sea pounding away over time.
Today we visited Hahndorf, a very German themed type of town, with a very long street with lots of offers to sample cheese, wine, fudge, german sausage etc so we very much enjoyed out time exploring the place. Moved on then to a winery with a restaurant attached where we enjoyed nice bottle of wine with our cheese platter amongts the vineyards.
Finally we arrived at our destination for the next 9 days in Adelaide where we will be pet/house sitting. Sharon and Kerry made us extremely welcome and put on a deliciouse BBQ for us and introduce us to their cute pets. There is Molly the beagle who typically loves food and attention, Boston the cat who is very curious, Keyto the cat who loves sleeping and Harry the turtle who is on the go in his tank most of the day. Sharon and Kerry have a beautiful home and we tried out their wonderful spa tonight and now feel very relaxed.
ps. It has been so good to receive so many comments from several friends and relations and not sure why my last blog caused this
sudden influx but please do keep them coming as it certainly helps me to continue and reassures me that there are people out there actually reading the blog and about our Aussie adventures.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.307s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 14; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0981s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
jacqui
non-member comment
trip
hi bet pete would like to fit that lobster on plate l o l