Once more around the block - clockwise

---

The wheels are rolling again.



Well after a few delays caused by events beyond our control – Geoff’s infected tooth and Marg’s onset of a case of Shingles; we finally made a bolt for it on May 1^st.



Our first day was a bit windy, but the new anti-sway bar (designed to stop the van fish-tailing worked a treat.) The first stage of this trip is purely a transit stage so we pushed on and got to Dimboola. No, we did not see Muriel, but we did see all her mates out on the road-works that have been a feature of the journey so far. We pulled into an overnight stop and cracked a beer; end of day one, or so we thought! After dinner it started to rain, not too heavily, but rain nevertheless. We took ourselves off to bed and Marg awoke a few hours later to the sound of drip, drip, drip. On investigation her feet became wet and she received a drip on the head in the ensuite and discovered a leak through the hatch above the toilet. Geoff got out of bed (very grumpily) and thought we should leave it until the morning. So back to bed. About half an hour later there was a torrent of water pouring into a strategically placed bucket so up we got again. Geoff hung a wet towel into the surrounds of the hatch which absorbed the water and then dripped it neatly into the bucket. Marg had to get up again later to check on things, so it was a very disturbed night without much sleep. In the morning Geoff admitted that he had drilled through some silicone up there to insert a wire for the GPS tracking system he installed. The rain had stopped so we took off on the next part of the trip to Murray Bridge. At Bordertown we stopped and bought some silicone and fruit and veg, which were hugely expensive. Hey let’s make money out of the tourists who have to throw out their Coles/Woollies bought fruit and veg just the other side of the border and then sell them the same items from our Coles/Woolies. When we stopped for lunch the sky was looking threatening so Geoff got out our ladder and put a great glob of silicone over the offending wire and we hope that is the end of the drip saga.



By Murray Bridge we were glad to pull into a caravan park and go to bed early. We tested our Winegard TV antenna and found that it worked. This is the first time it has been used and we were happy to know that it works, because that bloody satellite dish is causing some hassles. Mainly that it doesn’t work here in the Clare Valley, or perhaps anywhere else for that matter. Update on that… it seems that the trees were thicker than Geoff imagined and blocked the satellite signal sufficiently to cause the problem.



Yesterday was a pleasant trip through the back blocks of SA from Murray Bridge to Clare Valley, apart from the last 50km when we got stuck behind a car that went from slow to slower and had to brake when there was an oncoming vehicle or a corner. Needless to say Geoff was getting more and more agitated and eventually roared past him just as we passed the caravan park we were staying in! Bloody lucky not to receive a 4.5 ton metal enema I think (G).



The park is very pretty with huge ghost gums everywhere. We will be staying three nights here. They light a big fire in the bbq shelter every afternoon and people gather there for happy hour from about 4pm onwards. We took a beer and a wine down there and joined in for a while.



Did we mention the weather? The first night wasn’t too cold, just wet (inside and out). Murray Bridge was about 4 degrees over night and last night was about 1 degree. Geoff had to wear a beanie to go to the loo before bed.



We are going to do a bit of sightseeing today, maybe a few wineries and see if we can get the bloody satellite to work. OK, we did get stuck in Pikes Winery and bought a couple of bottles of their reds, but not a lot… Oh and we got the satellite to work. Paid a man $50 to move it and set it up so that the trees weren’t in the way!



Moving on, we travelled over to the Yorke Peninsula and decided to stop at a ‘free camp’ at Black Point, which is just south of Ardrossan on the Eastern side (free camp in this instance means low cost as it turned out to be part of a new unit complex by the beach). We chose a site overlooking St. Vincents Gulf and paid an extra $5 to set up in South Australia’s best wind tunnel. Someone, and I will not name her insisted on setting up the awning AND end panel and front panel. (This was to provide some shelter from the rain and wind that was blowing directly into the caravan door.) At 4.30 am when it looked like we might sail back to Adelaide, we got up and pulled the awning etc. down… Anyway, the weather has abated and we have driven all over the peninsula looking at potential (real) free camps. The search has not proven very fruitful and tomorrow we will be heading out of the peninsula and further west, probably to Port Broughton.



Until next time.

---