We spent four days at Mount Crawford, camping in the State Forest. I've labelled this post "free camping" which it isn't, but close. It's $5/night for adults and $2/night for kids or $10/week for adults and $6/week for kids. There is no power or water, just a pit loo (which we didn't use so I can't say what it is like). You camp on the grounds of a pine forest plantation. We stayed at Chalks campground which is very open, grassy sites although the gate was closed so much of it was fenced off and there were limited sites for caravans. We had a nice secluded spot but it was gravel. On the day we left, we saw that some people had lifted the posts out of the ground to drive into the more grassy sites (d'oh!)
Just up the road is Rocky Paddock Campground. This is a much more beautiful site, hidden among the pine trees and rocky outcrops. This would have been a much better campsite but we needed the access to the sun for solar power.
Our time at Mt Crawford was kind of ruined by the weather. It was sunny, but cold when we arrived. The next day it rained and rained and rained. There was no sun and it was very cold. The third day was sunny but cold (3 layers, including thermals). and the fourth day it rained and poured and poured and we could blow steam out of our mouths all day! Fortunately we left the next day!!!
We went to Mt Crawford as it is one of the few areas where you can fossick for gold and gemstones in SA (and no, Greg doesn't have gold fever (according to him).... oh hang on, we're following him around the state while he fossicks lol!). I wouldn't mind the gold fever quite so much if we actually found anything worth something.
We spent Wednesday afternoon in the pine forest across from Rocky Paddock. It was such an incredibly beautiful place to be. The forest floor was covered in pine needles; the low hills sloped gently down to a dry creek bed. The weather was so horrible that I never took any photos, which is such a shame as I would love to remember how beautiful and serene it was. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the dry creek bed while Greg dug and I looked through his rocks for gemstones. We didn't find anything and it started to rain more than the light drizzle we had so we headed back to the van for warm baths and a yummy dinner.
Thursday afternoon we went to a different part of the State Forest. We started fossicking in an area of eucalyptus forest. It was a lovely sunny day and Rory had a great time throwing rocks, some as big as house bricks, into the creek. We didn't find anything there so moved back to a different part near the pine plantation. Here there was a small creek, flowing gently after all of the rain, with some mini waterfalls over rocks and (fairly) shallow pools. On the first pan, Greg found a flake of gold and I found a red crystal (about 1mm in size), most likely a garnet (based on the information provided on gemstones found in the area). So of course, we decided to spend some time having a good look here. It didn't take long for Rory to take his boots and socks off. Not long after that I had to take his jeans off as they were soaked and not long after that, he was filthy and sopping wet from the waist down. I gave up worrying by then and just let him play in his nappy,, singlet and shirt. He had a lot of fun, as he always does when outside. Tilda did some panning but didn't find anything.Despite that she had fun digging in the creek and playing around on the rocks.
Greg found a second speck of gold (we might have found a dollar of gold by now lol!) and I found 2 more very small red crystals. They are pretty to have but of no value as they are too small to do anything with, but it is the pleasure of finding them really.
Friday dawned wet and cold.... very, very cold. The kids were very interested in the fact that they could see their breath, especially Rory, as I don't think he's ever seen it before. He spent a lot of time huffing out so I could see "his air" (so cute!). We hung around as we were hoping the weather would get better as we had plans that Michael, Melissa, Willow and Sakari would come out to join us so we could have a fire for Willow's Birthday, which is what he really wanted. By the middle of the day the weather had become pretty bad and we were in the Adelaide region severe weather warning zone. We packed up everything outside and put the awning down in preparation for the strong winds, and settled into the van. Passing time with a 2yo when you don't TV and he won't colour in, draw or play any games is a pretty painful experience, but time passed and the weather cleared a bit, and we eagerly awaited our friends arrival.
We had 2 very happy kids when Willow and Sakari arrived. We set up in the shelter shed with its open fireplace. The fire worked OK but smoke poured out into the building, but my genius husband came up with a solution using aluminium foil and pegs. It stopped the smoke but also reduced the heat. BUT, the kids had fun, fun and more fun! Melissa had made a pinata and pass the parcel and all of the kids enjoyed themselves beating up the pinata with a big stick (it was VERY well made) and playing with the toys in the pass the parcel. The flying, flashing lighted UFOs were a great hit. We enjoyed a lovely red curry and birthday cake, all made by Melissa. The weather stayed pretty miserable and very, very cold. We were sad when they had to leave but it was getting late (around 7pm is late sometimes) and they had a long drive ahead of them and we were all cold and very smokey. We are all hoping that isn't the last time we get to spend together, but we will need to wait and see if we can do a little more travelling together.
So while our time at Mt Crawford wasn't particularly good weather-wise, which sure put a big dampener on our moods (no pun intended), I still have lovely memories of the place. My two main ones are the beautiful pine forest where we spent the afternoon fossicking in the drizzling rain and Willow's Birthday party.
And I also won't forget the miracle Melissa worked with her massage on my hip and back, which had had me walking all bent and stiff and crooked and in a fair amount of pain and feeling very grumpy.
Of course, the day we left, we woke to sunshine!
Sunday 29 May 2016
A day in the life of a traveller......
I've had a few people ask questions about what we do and how we structure our days, so I thought I'd write a post about it.
A Typical (School) Day
On a typical school day we all wake up somewhere between 6am or so (that's Greg) and 8am or so (that's me) and the kids are in between. I am spoilt rotten as Greg gives me a cup of tea in bed every morning. One of us will get breakfast sorted for the kids and then we get ready for our day (dressed, teeth brushed etc). We aim to start our day at 9am with one of us doing schooling with Tilda in the caravan and the other one takes Rory out. Whoever has Rory often uses this time for mundane things like clothes washing, grocery shopping etc or if there is nothing like that to be done, we take him to a playground. Tilda's schooling usually takes 2-3 hours. On days when we have a specific activities planned, like a hike or a visit to a town nearby, we will do less schoolwork on that day and more another, otherwise our day wouldn't start until around 1pm or so.
After school, we have lunch and then head off to do things, like drive to another town, explore the one we are in, visit an attraction and similar. Often a playground is involved, as is a lot of walking. Depending where we are, the days activities are either centred around nature (hiking, visiting the beach or headland, canoeing etc) or town (shopping, visiting interesting places and buildings etc).
We try to keep to a routine in the evenings, with dinner, bath and bed by around 7pm for Rory and 8pm for Tilda.
Weekends are more of the same, only without the school work so we have more time to explore. We try to go to church on Sundays. Sometimes that doesn't work as there simply isn't a church we feel comfortable attending.
A Travel Day
We try to get ready to hit the road by around 9am. This involves packing up the inside of the van so everything is stowed safely for towing, making sure the windows and hatches are all locked shut and making sure the awning is packed down and secured (plus all the other jobs that go in to packing up stuff from outside inside). A final check of the van an vehicle and we're off. Often we do a fair bit of the packing the night before so that there is less to do in the morning.
We typically drive around 1.5 - 2 hours and then have a stop, mostly because Rory is getting quite ratty by then. He used to sleep in the car which made our journey much more pleasant, but the last couple of travel days he hasn't slept and they have been PAINFUL (and then some!!!). Often we will have lunch at this stop and then travel maybe another hour. We have tried to keep our driving days relatively short for the kids.
When we arrive it usually the reverse of our pack down. I set up the inside, open up windows and hatches (those I can reach), and the most important thing of all... getting the TV set up and tuned :) Greg sets up the outside, things like levelling the van, putting the legs down, connecting water and grey water discharge (I do the power and get the fridge turned back on). Set up doesn't take too long as stuff just makes its way to where it needs to be as we use it. Pack down normally takes around 1.5 hours, or less if we have everything stowed the night before.
A (not so) Normal Day
On Saturday we travelled from Mt Gawler to Port Augusta, a trip of nearly 300km. We didn't get started until quite late as we had had a fun night on Friday night celebrating Willow's 11th Birthday and the kids were very tired. It had also rained all night, with gusts of wind and was very cold, so the kids all ended up in our bed and no one slept well. We were very keen to just get on the road as Mount Crawford had been very wet and very, very cold. Without power and no sun to charge our solar panels we were all well and truly over it.
We had to stop at Gawler Post Office as Tilda's teacher was sending some school work to her. Fortunately Gawler PO was open on Saturday mornings (we had checked) as we didn't want to hang around until Monday. We drove through Gawler but couldn't find anywhere to park with our car and van. It was incredibly busy! We stopped quite a few blocks out of town and had to all walk back in. We got to the PO, lined up for a while only to be told the school work wasn't there and they can't do anything about it. We had to wait until Monday to call customer service to get them to give us an official letter to get it forwarded on. Grrrrrr...... the frustration of trying to find somewhere to park, then walking miles to get to the PO only to have the parcel not there ad their staff unable to do the paperwork necessary for us to be able to forward it on was very, very large. We had a quick snack at a cafe there as Greg and I had skipped breakfast to get on the road quicker.
By the time we got back to the car it was 11am. We decided to drive for 2 hours and then have lunch. The drive up this particular bit of the coast, only an hour from the Adelaide Hills/ Mount Gawler (State (pine) Forest) area was fairly uninteresting. The road is long, flat and straight with only salt bush and scraggy paddocks to keep you company. The kids watched a DVD in the car and my hopes that Rory would sleep failed dismally. He talked and chatted and as the kilometres grew he became more and more silly, spouting all sorts of irrational nonsense and loud sounds. It started to drive us nuts.
On the plus side, we did pass some pink lakes at Bumbunga (yep, it really is!!!). You get salt from Lake Bumbunga. We really should have stopped to take photos as they truly were very pinky-purple and were an amazing sight. We just didn't find anywhere on our side of the road to safely pull over.
We drove through to Crystal Brook for lunch. It is a small town with not much open at 1pm on a Saturday. The kids had a good play in the playground there, which was pretty good for a small town, and we had a break from the driving. We had sandwiches in the van. I had gone to buy pizza but the pizza oven was broken :( so it was "boring" sandwiches instead (probably a good idea given that we'd eaten at a bakery that morning and ended up having Maccas for dinner).
We drove for another 1 hour 40 minutes (roughly as I didn't really notice the time) to get to the caravan park at Port Augusta. We set up the van, I took the kids to the playground (2 swings and an old metal slippery dip) for a while, went and got coins for the washing machine and all sorts of mundane stuff. Greg talked to a guy across from us, who it turns out comes from Newcastle, for about 45 minutes while I sorted the kids and van.
We went out to Maccas (yay... not!) because it had a playground and the kids had spent so much time confined in the car. When we got back, kids got bathed, we had hot showers (yay!!!!!) and then an early bed,
I was so very grateful to be connected to power once more so we could have a heater and TV, and to have showers that were super hot and great water pressure. I was also happy to have a washing machine and dryer as all of our clothes were either muddy, wet or smoky, or a combination of all three.
A Typical (School) Day
On a typical school day we all wake up somewhere between 6am or so (that's Greg) and 8am or so (that's me) and the kids are in between. I am spoilt rotten as Greg gives me a cup of tea in bed every morning. One of us will get breakfast sorted for the kids and then we get ready for our day (dressed, teeth brushed etc). We aim to start our day at 9am with one of us doing schooling with Tilda in the caravan and the other one takes Rory out. Whoever has Rory often uses this time for mundane things like clothes washing, grocery shopping etc or if there is nothing like that to be done, we take him to a playground. Tilda's schooling usually takes 2-3 hours. On days when we have a specific activities planned, like a hike or a visit to a town nearby, we will do less schoolwork on that day and more another, otherwise our day wouldn't start until around 1pm or so.
After school, we have lunch and then head off to do things, like drive to another town, explore the one we are in, visit an attraction and similar. Often a playground is involved, as is a lot of walking. Depending where we are, the days activities are either centred around nature (hiking, visiting the beach or headland, canoeing etc) or town (shopping, visiting interesting places and buildings etc).
We try to keep to a routine in the evenings, with dinner, bath and bed by around 7pm for Rory and 8pm for Tilda.
Weekends are more of the same, only without the school work so we have more time to explore. We try to go to church on Sundays. Sometimes that doesn't work as there simply isn't a church we feel comfortable attending.
A Travel Day
We try to get ready to hit the road by around 9am. This involves packing up the inside of the van so everything is stowed safely for towing, making sure the windows and hatches are all locked shut and making sure the awning is packed down and secured (plus all the other jobs that go in to packing up stuff from outside inside). A final check of the van an vehicle and we're off. Often we do a fair bit of the packing the night before so that there is less to do in the morning.
We typically drive around 1.5 - 2 hours and then have a stop, mostly because Rory is getting quite ratty by then. He used to sleep in the car which made our journey much more pleasant, but the last couple of travel days he hasn't slept and they have been PAINFUL (and then some!!!). Often we will have lunch at this stop and then travel maybe another hour. We have tried to keep our driving days relatively short for the kids.
When we arrive it usually the reverse of our pack down. I set up the inside, open up windows and hatches (those I can reach), and the most important thing of all... getting the TV set up and tuned :) Greg sets up the outside, things like levelling the van, putting the legs down, connecting water and grey water discharge (I do the power and get the fridge turned back on). Set up doesn't take too long as stuff just makes its way to where it needs to be as we use it. Pack down normally takes around 1.5 hours, or less if we have everything stowed the night before.
A (not so) Normal Day
On Saturday we travelled from Mt Gawler to Port Augusta, a trip of nearly 300km. We didn't get started until quite late as we had had a fun night on Friday night celebrating Willow's 11th Birthday and the kids were very tired. It had also rained all night, with gusts of wind and was very cold, so the kids all ended up in our bed and no one slept well. We were very keen to just get on the road as Mount Crawford had been very wet and very, very cold. Without power and no sun to charge our solar panels we were all well and truly over it.
We had to stop at Gawler Post Office as Tilda's teacher was sending some school work to her. Fortunately Gawler PO was open on Saturday mornings (we had checked) as we didn't want to hang around until Monday. We drove through Gawler but couldn't find anywhere to park with our car and van. It was incredibly busy! We stopped quite a few blocks out of town and had to all walk back in. We got to the PO, lined up for a while only to be told the school work wasn't there and they can't do anything about it. We had to wait until Monday to call customer service to get them to give us an official letter to get it forwarded on. Grrrrrr...... the frustration of trying to find somewhere to park, then walking miles to get to the PO only to have the parcel not there ad their staff unable to do the paperwork necessary for us to be able to forward it on was very, very large. We had a quick snack at a cafe there as Greg and I had skipped breakfast to get on the road quicker.
By the time we got back to the car it was 11am. We decided to drive for 2 hours and then have lunch. The drive up this particular bit of the coast, only an hour from the Adelaide Hills/ Mount Gawler (State (pine) Forest) area was fairly uninteresting. The road is long, flat and straight with only salt bush and scraggy paddocks to keep you company. The kids watched a DVD in the car and my hopes that Rory would sleep failed dismally. He talked and chatted and as the kilometres grew he became more and more silly, spouting all sorts of irrational nonsense and loud sounds. It started to drive us nuts.
On the plus side, we did pass some pink lakes at Bumbunga (yep, it really is!!!). You get salt from Lake Bumbunga. We really should have stopped to take photos as they truly were very pinky-purple and were an amazing sight. We just didn't find anywhere on our side of the road to safely pull over.
We drove through to Crystal Brook for lunch. It is a small town with not much open at 1pm on a Saturday. The kids had a good play in the playground there, which was pretty good for a small town, and we had a break from the driving. We had sandwiches in the van. I had gone to buy pizza but the pizza oven was broken :( so it was "boring" sandwiches instead (probably a good idea given that we'd eaten at a bakery that morning and ended up having Maccas for dinner).
We drove for another 1 hour 40 minutes (roughly as I didn't really notice the time) to get to the caravan park at Port Augusta. We set up the van, I took the kids to the playground (2 swings and an old metal slippery dip) for a while, went and got coins for the washing machine and all sorts of mundane stuff. Greg talked to a guy across from us, who it turns out comes from Newcastle, for about 45 minutes while I sorted the kids and van.
We went out to Maccas (yay... not!) because it had a playground and the kids had spent so much time confined in the car. When we got back, kids got bathed, we had hot showers (yay!!!!!) and then an early bed,
I was so very grateful to be connected to power once more so we could have a heater and TV, and to have showers that were super hot and great water pressure. I was also happy to have a washing machine and dryer as all of our clothes were either muddy, wet or smoky, or a combination of all three.
Monday 23 May 2016
Hahndorf (Strathalbyn Part 2)
We actually made two trips to Hahndorf and so it gets its own blog post. The main reason we visited twice was there were so many shops we wanted to look in, and a 2yo gets "over it" very quickly, so we couldn't see all the shops we were interested in the first day.
Hahndorf is interesting (I seem to say that about a lot of places I mention, but let me explain why...).
Firstly a bit of history - the town was first settled by people primarily from Prussia in 1838, and much of that Germanic heritage is still prevalent and obvious today. It is the oldest surviving German town in Australia. There are beautiful old buildings dating from around the mid 1800s and many have a German influence.
So why interesting???? Well, the very first shop we saw when we got out of our car was a Nepalese restaurant. While the town has quite a few old buildings, and many of the newer ones remain true to either an historic or a German theme, the old is interspersed with the new in a slightly jarring way. Many of the shops cater specifically to the tourist market, which means overpriced and/or cheap stuff made in China that is Australian themed and therefore overpriced. Having said that, there are also shops that do have a genuine authenticity about them and these are what make it a town worth visiting.
We enjoyed strolling through various gift shops, (supposedly) traditional German shops, cuckoo clock shops and checking out the menus at the various pubs and cafes. One of the shops we really enjoyed was a gem and mineral shop (not the opal one). They had a wide range of gemstones and precious stones to look at and buy. They had ones from not just Australia, but throughout the world which was pretty cool as we are unlikely to travel overseas to see some of these gemstones. Tilda was fascinated by some of the crystal specimens they had and I think we all learned a lot. I had a good chat with the lady working there who gave me some good advice for the Jupiter Creek Gold Diggings (like watch out for the deep shafts and never let Rory roam off the path). We bought some small polished stones from there - obviously ones not worth anything but Tilda and I chose them based on how much we liked them. The lady's father then told us what we had chosen, which included a smokey quartz, a garnet, an agate from the Mediterranean, two blue chalcedony and one we didn't get the name of.
We also enjoyed some authentic German meals. We had schnitzels at the Copenhagen, which were OK, and a very delicious meal of Bratwurst, German potato salad and red cabbage, followed by apple strudel, at The German Bakery. I definitely recommend this cafe as a place to eat. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was lovely too. The cafe was full of decorative plates, cuckoo clocks and beer steins which provided a feast for the eyes (and a distraction for the kids) to complement the food and atmosphere. Despite being quite busy (it was pouring so tourists were flocking to inside the shops), it wasn't too noisy to hold a conversation and was lovely and warm.
Hahndorf is interesting (I seem to say that about a lot of places I mention, but let me explain why...).
Firstly a bit of history - the town was first settled by people primarily from Prussia in 1838, and much of that Germanic heritage is still prevalent and obvious today. It is the oldest surviving German town in Australia. There are beautiful old buildings dating from around the mid 1800s and many have a German influence.
So why interesting???? Well, the very first shop we saw when we got out of our car was a Nepalese restaurant. While the town has quite a few old buildings, and many of the newer ones remain true to either an historic or a German theme, the old is interspersed with the new in a slightly jarring way. Many of the shops cater specifically to the tourist market, which means overpriced and/or cheap stuff made in China that is Australian themed and therefore overpriced. Having said that, there are also shops that do have a genuine authenticity about them and these are what make it a town worth visiting.
We enjoyed strolling through various gift shops, (supposedly) traditional German shops, cuckoo clock shops and checking out the menus at the various pubs and cafes. One of the shops we really enjoyed was a gem and mineral shop (not the opal one). They had a wide range of gemstones and precious stones to look at and buy. They had ones from not just Australia, but throughout the world which was pretty cool as we are unlikely to travel overseas to see some of these gemstones. Tilda was fascinated by some of the crystal specimens they had and I think we all learned a lot. I had a good chat with the lady working there who gave me some good advice for the Jupiter Creek Gold Diggings (like watch out for the deep shafts and never let Rory roam off the path). We bought some small polished stones from there - obviously ones not worth anything but Tilda and I chose them based on how much we liked them. The lady's father then told us what we had chosen, which included a smokey quartz, a garnet, an agate from the Mediterranean, two blue chalcedony and one we didn't get the name of.
We also enjoyed some authentic German meals. We had schnitzels at the Copenhagen, which were OK, and a very delicious meal of Bratwurst, German potato salad and red cabbage, followed by apple strudel, at The German Bakery. I definitely recommend this cafe as a place to eat. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was lovely too. The cafe was full of decorative plates, cuckoo clocks and beer steins which provided a feast for the eyes (and a distraction for the kids) to complement the food and atmosphere. Despite being quite busy (it was pouring so tourists were flocking to inside the shops), it wasn't too noisy to hold a conversation and was lovely and warm.
Strathalbyn Part 1 ("Strath" to the locals)
We set up camp at Strathalbyn for a week. Initially we made the decision to stay a couple of days but we realised it is actually quite a central location for exploring the surrounds and into Adelaide, so rather than pack up and move, we stayed a week. The caravan park is next to the football oval, which wasn't a problem at all except for football training being rather noisy and keeping Rory awake. Facilities are limited (amenities and a basic playground) but it is very close to town and is clean and quiet, which is good.
From Strathalbyn we visited Hahndorf (a German town, established in 1839), Victor Harbour and Adelaide. Strath itself is a pretty town, with a mix of old and new buildings. There is a Commercial Street that has shops like Woolworths and chemist etc and then there is High St, which is probably the original main street, as all of the buildings are old, and it is full of many interesting antique shops. If we weren't travelling, and didn't have a 2yo, we probably would have spent more time there browsing all of the unique and interesting items in the many shops but 2yo and antiques don't mix and we can't buy anything anyway! If you are interested in antiques and are in the area, I thoroughly recommend taking the time to explore this lovely town and the collection of antique shops.
Jupiter Creek Gold Diggings
We visited the Jupiter Creek Gold Diggings with our good friends Michael, Melissa, Willow and Sakari. Any day spent with these guys is good, but this had the added benefit of a unique and new experience. Jupiter Creek is an historic gold mining area, complete with tunnels, shafts (some of which are fenced off) and the many varied mounds from alluvial gold mining. One of the more interesting finds of the day was the Phoenix Adit. As we discovered, when hiking around the trails, this tunnel actually travels 80m underground (horizontal, not depth) and you can climb out the other end. There was no information about this that we found so it was purely by chance that we discovered it. We weren't prepared so we didn't go through the whole tunnel. The 4 kids and I just went in a little way, maybe 4m.
And even more exciting..... we found quartz crystals all over the ground in one area! We probably wouldn't have discovered it except a small boy from another family showed us the crystal he had and his dad told us where they found it. The kids had a great time fossicking the site and seeing what could be discovered and it was really simple; you just walked around watching the sun glinting off the crystals and followed the shine to pick it up. Loads of fun for everyone, and Rory was just happy picking up (and throwing) rocks. We're not going to get rich from quartz crystals, and most of them were broken, which we assume is because this is just mine workings that were brought to the surface and dumped as part of the historic gold mining operation, but hey, it was fun and the kids had a blast!
Victor Harbour
We drove to Victor Harbour for the day as well. We also really liked this town. There are some old buildings here, which are always pretty and which I find very appealing. I think the kids are finally getting used to me pointing out all of the old buildings and houses, although I'm not sure Rory understands as he will often point to a house of any age and type and say "I want that one".
Granite Island is a nice walk. The smooth granite rocks lining the island are so different from the rugged limestone coast of Robe. Tilda got a bit of a geology lesson from her (only slightly more knowledgeable) mum. It is such a change from the limestone coast and also very different from the coastline where we come from. You can see penguins, seals, dolphins and whales from the Island, although we saw none of these (being there in the middle of the day doesn't really lend itself to finding these animals).
Of course, the kids did get to play at (yet!!!!) another playground. This one had a real train! It is a fair compromise because they don't necessarily enjoy the travels and scenery that we do.. and I often use that time to give a friend a call for a catch up while supervising, so it all kid of works out. Although I am kind of very sick of playgrounds at the moment :)
Mt Barker is also not far away, which is great as Michael and Melissa were staying there so we could catch up with them (yay for "new friends"). The time is coming soon when we will part ways and I think everyone will be pretty sad at that. It truly has been wonderful to have a lovely family to hag out with on this journey and to share the fun and not so fun, the good and the frustrating. Mt Barker also has important things like Aldi and K-Mart for much needed supplies.
Adelaide
We also did a day trip to Adelaide. We had a 2 hour park and that is all the time we spent there, not because Adelaide is bad but because Rory's behaviour was horrible. He cried, whinged and tantrumed for the whole time we were there. I was worried he would wake up sick the next day as his behaviour was so far out of the ordinary but we think he was just overtired and overstimulated from the fun day at Jupiter's Creek. So we saw Rundle St Mall and that was about it. We did do a drive through north Adelaide, as we were told we should, and it is a very pretty place full of old, very large houses that were nice to see. I think it would be good to have more time to explore Adelaide but it just wasn't part of our plan/schedule and certainly not with the kids. On the plus side, we did find The Map Shop which made Greg happy as it stocks these books that are the "bible" for people who tour England on canal boats (his next adventure apparently - just gotta figure out how to finance it).
From Strathalbyn we visited Hahndorf (a German town, established in 1839), Victor Harbour and Adelaide. Strath itself is a pretty town, with a mix of old and new buildings. There is a Commercial Street that has shops like Woolworths and chemist etc and then there is High St, which is probably the original main street, as all of the buildings are old, and it is full of many interesting antique shops. If we weren't travelling, and didn't have a 2yo, we probably would have spent more time there browsing all of the unique and interesting items in the many shops but 2yo and antiques don't mix and we can't buy anything anyway! If you are interested in antiques and are in the area, I thoroughly recommend taking the time to explore this lovely town and the collection of antique shops.
Jupiter Creek Gold Diggings
We visited the Jupiter Creek Gold Diggings with our good friends Michael, Melissa, Willow and Sakari. Any day spent with these guys is good, but this had the added benefit of a unique and new experience. Jupiter Creek is an historic gold mining area, complete with tunnels, shafts (some of which are fenced off) and the many varied mounds from alluvial gold mining. One of the more interesting finds of the day was the Phoenix Adit. As we discovered, when hiking around the trails, this tunnel actually travels 80m underground (horizontal, not depth) and you can climb out the other end. There was no information about this that we found so it was purely by chance that we discovered it. We weren't prepared so we didn't go through the whole tunnel. The 4 kids and I just went in a little way, maybe 4m.
I definitely recommend a hard hat (don't ask how I know....)
And even more exciting..... we found quartz crystals all over the ground in one area! We probably wouldn't have discovered it except a small boy from another family showed us the crystal he had and his dad told us where they found it. The kids had a great time fossicking the site and seeing what could be discovered and it was really simple; you just walked around watching the sun glinting off the crystals and followed the shine to pick it up. Loads of fun for everyone, and Rory was just happy picking up (and throwing) rocks. We're not going to get rich from quartz crystals, and most of them were broken, which we assume is because this is just mine workings that were brought to the surface and dumped as part of the historic gold mining operation, but hey, it was fun and the kids had a blast!
My finds (top 2)
Tilda's finds
Victor Harbour
We drove to Victor Harbour for the day as well. We also really liked this town. There are some old buildings here, which are always pretty and which I find very appealing. I think the kids are finally getting used to me pointing out all of the old buildings and houses, although I'm not sure Rory understands as he will often point to a house of any age and type and say "I want that one".
Granite Island is a nice walk. The smooth granite rocks lining the island are so different from the rugged limestone coast of Robe. Tilda got a bit of a geology lesson from her (only slightly more knowledgeable) mum. It is such a change from the limestone coast and also very different from the coastline where we come from. You can see penguins, seals, dolphins and whales from the Island, although we saw none of these (being there in the middle of the day doesn't really lend itself to finding these animals).
Of course, the kids did get to play at (yet!!!!) another playground. This one had a real train! It is a fair compromise because they don't necessarily enjoy the travels and scenery that we do.. and I often use that time to give a friend a call for a catch up while supervising, so it all kid of works out. Although I am kind of very sick of playgrounds at the moment :)
Mt Barker is also not far away, which is great as Michael and Melissa were staying there so we could catch up with them (yay for "new friends"). The time is coming soon when we will part ways and I think everyone will be pretty sad at that. It truly has been wonderful to have a lovely family to hag out with on this journey and to share the fun and not so fun, the good and the frustrating. Mt Barker also has important things like Aldi and K-Mart for much needed supplies.
We also did a day trip to Adelaide. We had a 2 hour park and that is all the time we spent there, not because Adelaide is bad but because Rory's behaviour was horrible. He cried, whinged and tantrumed for the whole time we were there. I was worried he would wake up sick the next day as his behaviour was so far out of the ordinary but we think he was just overtired and overstimulated from the fun day at Jupiter's Creek. So we saw Rundle St Mall and that was about it. We did do a drive through north Adelaide, as we were told we should, and it is a very pretty place full of old, very large houses that were nice to see. I think it would be good to have more time to explore Adelaide but it just wasn't part of our plan/schedule and certainly not with the kids. On the plus side, we did find The Map Shop which made Greg happy as it stocks these books that are the "bible" for people who tour England on canal boats (his next adventure apparently - just gotta figure out how to finance it).
Thursday 19 May 2016
Robe, South Australia
Robe is certainly smack bang in the middle of the limestone coast and a very interesting place to visit. It is on the coast, on the southern side of Guichen Bay. It is hard to imagine the landscape without having seen it. It is dramatic and rocky and rugged and definitely worth seeing for how different it is to where we come from.
The area is made up primarily of limestone, which is very prevalent as a building material, and so very different from home. Adjacent to the caravan park was a very short (2 minute) walk to a lake. The photos need to be seen to be believed - the lake isn't surrounded by sand, in fact I don't think there is any sand at the lake at all. Instead it is surrounded by very lumpy, craggy, bumpy rock. I wondered if it was either a sinkhole or a part of an extinct volcano, as the area used to be volcanicly (I think I made that word up) active a long time ago.
The kids had a great time playing with the foam that had been whipped up by the wind. It was really weird as when you rubbed the foam on your hands, it was like rubbing them with liquid soap. I guess it was because of the minerals in the water. I can't imagine what it would be like to swim in there. I don't know if people do, but they do use that lake for water skiing so I guess you could.
The town is quite old and you can see the historic nature of it in many of the houses and buildings.We visited the Old Gaol, which is really just a bunch of limestone rocks outlining the layout of the old gaol.
Rory loved the obelisk on one headland. It really is quite classic in its red and white colours. It is all fenced off and you can't get too close to it any more as the coast is eroding and they expect that it will one day fall into the sea. There is a lighthouse (which Rory really loves) just a bit further around the next little bay. I didn't get a photo of it as it was built in the 1970s and is really a stunning (stunningly bad) example of 1970s architecture. It was a star shaped concrete structure with a base about 3.5m wide and the top was 5m wide. I thought it was hideous but Greg thought I was too harsh saying that.
We also saw two seals feeding in the water off the headland near the obelisk. We have now seen seals in the wild 3 times but this is the first time we've seen them doing something other than sitting on rocks.
The kids loved riding their bikes at the "mex" track and skate park. I thought it was quite clever to locate it right next door to the ambulance station, which we fortunately didn't need. Greg decided to relive his youth and rode Tilda's bike on the big kids BMX track and the skate park. Tilda and Rory discovered that the skate ramps are actually quite slippery and you can slide on them (head first, on your tummy, if you are Rory).
There was quite a funny conversation in the back of the car one day. It went like this - Tilda "it's a pyramid" Rory "it's a obelisk". I never thought a 2yo would be correcting an 8yo on the term obelisk.
I was just thinking how different this blog would be if we were travelling either without kids, or with older kids. It would probably give you a review of the different places to eat and the interesting shops we explored, rather than the parks, playgrounds and lighthouses we saw.
Robe is a nice town and was a nice stop for a couple of days. Being off season it was very quiet, and the weather was blowing a gale yet again so even the locals stayed hidden I think.
The area is made up primarily of limestone, which is very prevalent as a building material, and so very different from home. Adjacent to the caravan park was a very short (2 minute) walk to a lake. The photos need to be seen to be believed - the lake isn't surrounded by sand, in fact I don't think there is any sand at the lake at all. Instead it is surrounded by very lumpy, craggy, bumpy rock. I wondered if it was either a sinkhole or a part of an extinct volcano, as the area used to be volcanicly (I think I made that word up) active a long time ago.
The kids had a great time playing with the foam that had been whipped up by the wind. It was really weird as when you rubbed the foam on your hands, it was like rubbing them with liquid soap. I guess it was because of the minerals in the water. I can't imagine what it would be like to swim in there. I don't know if people do, but they do use that lake for water skiing so I guess you could.
The town is quite old and you can see the historic nature of it in many of the houses and buildings.We visited the Old Gaol, which is really just a bunch of limestone rocks outlining the layout of the old gaol.
Rory loved the obelisk on one headland. It really is quite classic in its red and white colours. It is all fenced off and you can't get too close to it any more as the coast is eroding and they expect that it will one day fall into the sea. There is a lighthouse (which Rory really loves) just a bit further around the next little bay. I didn't get a photo of it as it was built in the 1970s and is really a stunning (stunningly bad) example of 1970s architecture. It was a star shaped concrete structure with a base about 3.5m wide and the top was 5m wide. I thought it was hideous but Greg thought I was too harsh saying that.
We also saw two seals feeding in the water off the headland near the obelisk. We have now seen seals in the wild 3 times but this is the first time we've seen them doing something other than sitting on rocks.
The kids loved riding their bikes at the "mex" track and skate park. I thought it was quite clever to locate it right next door to the ambulance station, which we fortunately didn't need. Greg decided to relive his youth and rode Tilda's bike on the big kids BMX track and the skate park. Tilda and Rory discovered that the skate ramps are actually quite slippery and you can slide on them (head first, on your tummy, if you are Rory).
There was quite a funny conversation in the back of the car one day. It went like this - Tilda "it's a pyramid" Rory "it's a obelisk". I never thought a 2yo would be correcting an 8yo on the term obelisk.
I was just thinking how different this blog would be if we were travelling either without kids, or with older kids. It would probably give you a review of the different places to eat and the interesting shops we explored, rather than the parks, playgrounds and lighthouses we saw.
Robe is a nice town and was a nice stop for a couple of days. Being off season it was very quiet, and the weather was blowing a gale yet again so even the locals stayed hidden I think.
Wednesday 18 May 2016
Mount Gambier
We all found the environment of Mount Gambier to be very interesting. There are many interesting spectacles to see and we only just skimmed the surface of the area. I think the main thing Mt Gambier is famous for is the blue lake, which is in an extinct volcano and supplies the town with water. When we were there it was more of a steely blue, rather that the really turquoise blue it can be in the warmer months of the year. Rory and Tilda were both fascinated that it is a volcano.
The whole area is built on limestone and apparently there are limestone caves running underneath the town. There are two sinkholes that you can visit for free, both of which are pretty amazing. You can also tour one of the underground caves (for a price), but we didn't want to do that. We didn't really need to, as we had plenty to see and do in the two days we were there.
One of the sinkholes is located in the town centre. It is a nicely sculpted garden that provides a serene and peaceful place. There are viewing platforms along the path, so you can get a good look at the hanging garden, the waterfall and the water that flows who knows where underground. The waterfall only flows after rain, so that is one of the up sides of all of the rain that we have been " enjoying". I was quite disgusted at the amount of rubbish that is at the bottom of this sinkhole. Given that there are bins located close to the paths to the sinkhole, there is no excuse and I can't believe people could be such filthy pigs and so incredibly selfish, that they would rather spoil such a beautiful garden than walk a couple of steps to a bin. Humanity seriously has a lot to answer for that people would think that is appropriate and OK. At night they run a movie that you can view from the gardens. We didn't get to see it as it starts around 8:30pm which is just too late for Rory.
The other sinkhole we visited in the Umpherston Garden, so named after the man who bought the land that the sinkhole is on and built a garden there. In the early days (can't remember if it was 1800s or early 1900s) there was still water in the sinkhole and they would row a boat about on it. The idea was to create an oasis of greenery and cool in the midst of the land. You can go all the way to the bottom of this sinkhole and enjoy the hydrangeas and other plantings. It is truly amazing to stand in the bottom of a sinkhole.
We went back to the Unpherston Garden at night, as I had read on WikiCamps that possums live in the holes in the rock during the day and come out at night. I had fruit to feed them, but we forgot to take it with us. It is a very surreal experience at night. As we approached the steps down into the garden, 4 possums and a couple of rats came hurrying up the steps towards us. We all paused, feeling almost threatened by them all, especially as we had forgotten the food. We were wondering whether to continue or not, leaning heavily towards not because... rats, ewwww!... but another family arrived. They had bread and offered to share with us. While I know bread isn't great to feed the possums, it was almost like we needed to pay them in order to get down the stairs. The sinkhole is beautiful at night. It is lit up softly, which just adds to the feel and lots of possums come out of the holes in the rocks and walk along the ledges. They're not scared of people at all, instead they are so used to being fed they almost demand it. There were adults and babies and it was magical. (The rats weren't magical though, although I did see a couple that didn't look like your typical suburban rat. There was a cute little black one, whose shape was all wrong for a rat, but I don't know what it was.) Tilda and Rory were both scared at first, and I must admit, being mobbed by a group of possums is pretty intimidating, but they soon overcame their fears and happily fed the possums. There were three other families there while we were and the possums received a wide assortment of fruits and bread.
As a town, Mount Gambier was OK. There was an interesting mix of old and new buildings, and most of the old buildings are made of limestone because it is so readily available. I still love the old buildings and houses, and I love seeing all of the variations on them in different towns. I would have liked to have a bit more time, as there was still lots to see and do, including a drive or two to some other craters and further exploration of the region.
Sunday 15 May 2016
Best of.....
Seeing we've been on the road for 3 months I thought I'd do a round up of "best bits" so far.
Best caravan park:
Greg - Halls Gap because the scenery from the caravan park was amazing plus the wildlife
Therese - Omeo was by far the prettiest but just way overpriced for what you got
Tilda -
Best free camp:
Bendeela... voted best by all of us because of the wombats, river and nice grassy sites
Best cheap (<$25/night) camp:
Greg - Swifts Creek
Therese - Swifts Creek and Genoa
Tilda - Swifts Creek
Best place to see wildlife:
Bendeela (NSW) for wombats
Halls Gap (VIC) for kangaroos and emus and deer
Apollo Bay (VIC) to see the seals at Marengo
Best paid activity:
Greg - Enchanted Garden Adventure Park and Sovereign Hill
Therese - Peninsula Hot Springs or Sovereign Hill
Tilda - Sovereign Hill
Rory - Werribee Zoo and Thredbo Chair lift
Best free activity:
Greg - walking to the start of the Snowy River
Therese - all of the walks we did at the Snowy River area and beach combing in general (no particular beach)
Tilda - Pods and Acorns playground at Canberra Arboretum
Rory - playground
Best eat out or takeaway meal:
Greg - The hamburgers at The Durham Hotel at Kingston in Canberra
Therese - the hamburgers at The Durham (eat in) and the burgers at Orbost (takeaway)
Tilda and Rory - Papadinos Pizza at Katoomba
Best playground:
Greg - Warrnambool because of the giant flying fox and slides adults can go on
Therese - any playground that is full fenced with only one gate in and out, and Warrnambool adventure playground and Rye
Tilda - Pods and Acorns at Canberra
Rory - any with a pirate ship, like Rye playground
Any other "best of" requests??
Best caravan park:
Greg - Halls Gap because the scenery from the caravan park was amazing plus the wildlife
Therese - Omeo was by far the prettiest but just way overpriced for what you got
Tilda -
Best free camp:
Bendeela... voted best by all of us because of the wombats, river and nice grassy sites
Best cheap (<$25/night) camp:
Greg - Swifts Creek
Therese - Swifts Creek and Genoa
Tilda - Swifts Creek
Best place to see wildlife:
Bendeela (NSW) for wombats
Halls Gap (VIC) for kangaroos and emus and deer
Apollo Bay (VIC) to see the seals at Marengo
Best paid activity:
Greg - Enchanted Garden Adventure Park and Sovereign Hill
Therese - Peninsula Hot Springs or Sovereign Hill
Tilda - Sovereign Hill
Rory - Werribee Zoo and Thredbo Chair lift
Best free activity:
Greg - walking to the start of the Snowy River
Therese - all of the walks we did at the Snowy River area and beach combing in general (no particular beach)
Tilda - Pods and Acorns playground at Canberra Arboretum
Rory - playground
Best eat out or takeaway meal:
Greg - The hamburgers at The Durham Hotel at Kingston in Canberra
Therese - the hamburgers at The Durham (eat in) and the burgers at Orbost (takeaway)
Tilda and Rory - Papadinos Pizza at Katoomba
Best playground:
Greg - Warrnambool because of the giant flying fox and slides adults can go on
Therese - any playground that is full fenced with only one gate in and out, and Warrnambool adventure playground and Rye
Tilda - Pods and Acorns at Canberra
Rory - any with a pirate ship, like Rye playground
Any other "best of" requests??
Halls Gap, The Grampians
We had dreadful weather at Halls Gap, so we really didn't get to enjoy the place very much. It rained, drizzled and poured most of the time we were there and there were horrendously strong winds for much of it too. After the tree branch fell on Rory's head at Omeo we are very careful not to be out among trees in the wind, and in all honesty, sometimes the wind was almost terrifying, it was gusting that strongly. While the weather was disappointing for us, it is so very good that the area was experiencing so much rain, as farmers just out of the mountains (at Stawell and Ararat) have been selling off their livestock due to drought.
The rock formations are amazing - so rugged and different. We were camped at the bottom of one section and the view was breathtaking.
We drove up to Mackenzie Falls as it really got talked up as a great waterfall, but I am guessing the serious lack of rain the area has been experiencing for years has affected it, as it was not overwhelmingly impressive. We had hoped to do a couple of bushwalks but weren't able to because of the wind and rain. We did a 100m walk to the Grand Canyon at the start of the walk to The Pinnacle, but couldn't go any further because of the steep climb and the shocking weather. Still, we did see a very pretty creek which was flowing very well thanks to all of the rain.
We drove to Stawell on the only sunny afternoon we had, primarily so Greg could check out a creek for gold, but with all of the recent rain it was flowing too fast to be able to pan. We found a working underground gold mine at Stawell, which everyone found very interesting... even Rory as he could watch the diggers loading the rock into the crusher and Tilda really did enjoy reading and learning about the underground mining operation.
Our caravan park was full of roos, sulphur crested cockatoos, long beaked corellas and emus ranged just outside the camping area. This was fun for the kids. One afternoon there was a large kangaroo just outside our van. He looked cold, wet and very bedraggled and I felt sorry for him, so I decided to give him some food. What I didn't realise was just how tame they are! He came right up to the door and took the food from my hand, before I could even step out of the van! It would have been OK except I thought he looked like he would come inside for more... and he was a BIG boy, bigger than Tilda, so a bit over 4 foot high. We spend the next 15-20 minutes trapped in our van as he wasn't leaving and Rory insisted on locking the door so he couldn't come in!
The rock formations are amazing - so rugged and different. We were camped at the bottom of one section and the view was breathtaking.
Mackenzie Falls (from the lookout so it doesn't look that big. It would probably look much more impressive from the bottom, but the weather was too horrible to do that walk)
Locking back towards Halls Gap (this is what most of our time there looked like!)
The water is very stained with tannin
Rock hopping across a creek in the rain
I fell on my butt to get this photo so it had to be included :)
We drove to Stawell on the only sunny afternoon we had, primarily so Greg could check out a creek for gold, but with all of the recent rain it was flowing too fast to be able to pan. We found a working underground gold mine at Stawell, which everyone found very interesting... even Rory as he could watch the diggers loading the rock into the crusher and Tilda really did enjoy reading and learning about the underground mining operation.
Tilda and Rory standing on the 1 million ounce gold bullion replica
(to give some indicator of just how much gold had been mined)
Our caravan park was full of roos, sulphur crested cockatoos, long beaked corellas and emus ranged just outside the camping area. This was fun for the kids. One afternoon there was a large kangaroo just outside our van. He looked cold, wet and very bedraggled and I felt sorry for him, so I decided to give him some food. What I didn't realise was just how tame they are! He came right up to the door and took the food from my hand, before I could even step out of the van! It would have been OK except I thought he looked like he would come inside for more... and he was a BIG boy, bigger than Tilda, so a bit over 4 foot high. We spend the next 15-20 minutes trapped in our van as he wasn't leaving and Rory insisted on locking the door so he couldn't come in!
The "standover" guy in the background, after he'd moved away a bit
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