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).
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