Our Virgin flight to Perth was chockers, all seats occupied! The lady on the other side of Tom was another Colleen, and she loved chatting! She was amazingly interesting though. Another person childless by choice and wow, what a life she has! She was on her way back home after a weekend catching up with her sister and nephews. The plane sure was cramped though. The piccolos of sparkling wine with our chicken chasseur dinner made it more bearable. When we got out at Perth we had to go to South African Airways counter to get our boarding pass for the sector to Victoria Falls. The lovely lady was making sure our luggage was booked all the way through. Apparently when they upgraded our fare it isolated it from the other sectors of the trip, making ... read more

After breakfast this morning we had one last drive around to the two lakes, and then set off on our long drive back to Adelaide. Our first stop was the Roman Catholic precinct in Penola, where Mary MacKillop of the Cross (one of our distant relatives) started her first school and set up the first convent for the Sisters of St Joseph. We then continued on our drive through the Coonawarra and Padthaway vineyards (so many hectares of grapevines) stopping again at Naracoorte for Tom to explore one of their many caves. They also had statues of wombats and kangaroos the size they were thousands of years ago. I had a latte in the coffee shop while Tom did his cave tour, and found many courageous blue fairy wrens hopping around on the tables searching for ... read more

Today was the most enjoyable day! A school friend whom I’d not seen for 43 years, but was pivotal in the most important and best decision of my life, picked up Tom and I, and along with his lovely wife Jennifer, took us out for the day. Walter was at Coffs Harbour High in some of my classes and chose to do the same courses at UNE. We both chose the cheapest accommodation college, and it became clear to us really early why it was so cheap (It had only just gone co-ed and the rowdy, drunken, violent behaviour had continued). I usually got lifts to and from home each weekend with Walter to avoid the loutish behaviour. Half way through the year Walter decided uni wasn’t for him, and I then decided that Wright College ... read more

Well what a lovely cruisey day! A sleep in to begin with! No need to be at the bus station till 8.45! What luxury!! We had a lovely little group with a mixture of international tourists and even locals. A Scottish official in South Australia was told to gather more settlers for the state, when he heard of a group of Germans who were being persecuted for their religious beliefs in their own country. Being a Scotsman, who had his kinfolk persecuted for their Catholicism, he could sympathise. The German settlers were invited over. They brought some vines with them, and picked up more at South Africa along the way. Following a very informative and picturesque drive we arrived at a little winery called TeAro Estate, set up four generations ago by a couple of German ... read more

Up with the larks again! 5.30am alarm so we can shower and have some cereal (that we bought in the local Coles yesterday) before being at the bus station across the road at 6.15am!! This touristing is a hard gig! We were put on a huge coach with 54 people for the drive down to Cape Jarvis, which takes a couple of hours. The scenery reminded of the New England area of NSW, golden yellow in colour rather than green, although the vineyards in the McLaren Vale area were green. They had some of their vines covered in netting to keep the grapes ? safe - must cost a fortune to do that, and taking them on and off would be such a hassle. I didn’t cover my vines this year and I only have five! ... read more