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Published: October 6th 2007
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Staying with The Gavin family We caught the train to the airport for our Qantas flight to Adelaide. After a nice, short flight we arrived at the airport to be greeted by Duncan, Joanne, Katie and Amy. It was really nice to actually be met at the airport by a familiar face, and it was great to see them all again, looking very well indeed! Especially Dunc's little Pale Ale belly. We stopped off at a beach for a lunch-time picnic on route to their house in Silver Sands, Aldinga. The house had a lovely balcony with a stunning view of the beach and you could hear the waves crashing on the shore. Jase and Dunc took Lucy the Labrador for a walk along the beach and then we bought pizza for dinner, where Dunc hilariously ordered a pizza minus the cheese! Apparently a post-traumatic stress response to being force fed milk as a child. We picked up some special gravy for Joanne from a quaint little store-cum-deli place and washed it all down with Carlton Draught and Coopers Pale Ale. Jase helped Katie transform a beer box into a Bender from Futurama costume.
Dunc and Joanne had invited a
Jase and Bender
Katie in her Bender costume few friends around for a party as our arrival coincided with their 1st anniversary of emigration to Australia. We met a mixture of friendly POMs and locals, including Dunc's real Aussie mate Paul, and enjoyed lots of stubbies on the balcony listening to tales of his adventures at his cabin on the Murray River. Needless to say, in true kit car show style, it was a late night. We decided to call it a night but nearly woke the whole house up laughing when Dunc came into the kitchen in flannellette Garfield pyjamas!
The Morning After Jase and Dunc were feeling rather worse for wear the next morning but only Dunc revisited his breakfast (getting old - can't take the pace!). A walk along Silver Sands beach with Katie and Lucy blew the cobwebs away and freshened everyone up. In the evening, everyone had recovered so we enjoyed a steak BBQ for dinner (but in fleeces because the sunshine had disappeared).
The Murray River On Monday, we dropped the kiddies off at school and drove off into the bush for a day of adventure! We drove through beautiful scenery and caught the car ferry at Wellington to cross
Boob Eyes
Amy with her boob eyes the Murray River. We decided to take full advantage of Dunc's 4x4 and de-toured along some unsealed tracks. As we bumped along we stopped to say hello to some friendly blue-tongued lizards. Then as we went flying along another track, we nearly ran over a huge snake. In true Steve Irwin style we madly reversed back and dived out the car to take a closer look at a King Brown Snake, notoriously the second most venomous snake in Oz. It hung around for a few photos and then slithered off into the bush. All excited we drove off to hunt for more snakies! We found a large green one, but it soon shot off seeing us coming. Down another dirt track, we found lots of melons sitting in the sandy verges. Curious we cut one open and it looked like a juicy melon, so Rach volunteered to be guinea pig and try one out. Unfortunately, these Paddy Melons were really sour and she soon spat it out. Instead, we feasted on a picnic in the sunshine, at the lookout point of Big Bend, where Paul has a holiday home by the river. Later that afternoon, we made our way to
Party Time
Enjoying a few stubbies with Paul and Dunc Aldinga and spotted three wild kangaroos grazing on the grass by the Kaipo forest. Mission accomplished: we had seen wild roos in Australia! Our wildlife encounteres finished later that evening, when the resident rabbits played on Dunc's front garden in the moonlight.
Our flight back to Sydney was scheduled for the afternoon, so we took Lucy for a walk along Willunga Beach. Katie collected rocks and pretty shells as we sauntered along and enjoyed the views. We made our way back to the airport, taking the long way round as bizarrely the one-way motorway was outbound only from the city in the afternoon! As we said goodbye at the airport, Katie gave us a pretty shell and Bratz picture that she'd coloured as a memento. With heavy heart, we left the Gavin family to their fantastic new lives in Australia, hopefully to return one day in the future.
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