Point Turton – Clare – Adelaide
Kilometres 27187 – 28025 km
It was another lazy start to our week as we attuned ourselves to the
lifestyle of the Yorke Peninsula. The kids had a small amount of school work to
do on Monday before we headed out for another sightseeing drive. We headed
south through the golden fields of wheat. Many of the farmers in this area are
working from dawn to dusk 7 days a week in an attempt to harvest their crops
before any heavy rains make their paddocks unusable. On numerous occasions we
stopped by the road to watch the big combine harvesters slash the wheat or
tractors and semi-trailers cart the wheat off to the bulk storage facilities.
We bounced along the coast from one fishing town to the next. Many of the towns
looked like ghost towns with the majority of them being holiday havens….. At
one point we stopped at a massive wind farm where 50+ wind turbines generate
electricity for much of the peninsula. At another point on the peninsula we
stumbled upon the grain terminal of Port Giles, here the semi-trailers queued
10 long waiting to unload the wheat while ships were loaded for overseas
export.
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| Golden fields |
On Tuesday it was sadly time to leave the Yorke Peninsula, we’d fallen
in love with this area, its relaxed lifestyle and beautiful vista were hard to
leave. We headed north towards the wine region of Clare Valley. Along the way
we detoured into the small town of “Snowtown” which is synonymous for the 1990’s
“bodies in the barrel murders”. Having read the book we soon spotted and
stopped outside the bank in question for the typical touristy gawky photo of
this morbid crime. Pressing on we were soon arriving in the picturesque town of
Clare, this part of SA is the home of Riesling wines and our base for the next
few days. We grabbed some info on the region and a few supplies before checking
into the nearby van park where we once again caught up with some of our
traveling companions who’d come from the Flinders Ranges. We spent the rest of
the night swapping tales of our recent travels.
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| Wheat harvesting |
As we’d planned a day of wine tasting on Wednesday there was no urgency
to our morning. I don’t know about anyone else but drinking wine before lunch has
all the wrong conjugations so we waited till just before lunch to head out. Our
first stop was one of the yummy bakeries in town. From there we visited a one
or two lookouts and a few wineries. The heat of the day meant we spent more
time trying to find relief in the shade than tasting so by mid-afternoon we
were back at the vanpark using their pool. A few hours by the pool proved much
more relaxing and a nice way to finish our day.
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| Wind Farm - Wattle Point |
On Thursday our friends Karen and Stuart and their boys moved on
leaving our kids fumbling for play mates. The weather was a lot cooler so we
headed out to sample a few more wineries and on a number of occasions we walked
away with a bottle of their finest red or white. Throughout the day we visited
some of the other delights the Clare Valley has to offer, all the time being
surprised by how localised this wine region is, a kilometre either side of the
valley meant we were back out in the wheat country.
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| Welcome to Bodies in the Barrels |
All too soon it was moving day (Friday) again, but this time there was
an “air of excitement”. This was our 3rd capital city of the trip
and we were all looking forward to spending an extended time in the one place.
We’d scored a last minute deal with our booking and were happy to be situated
on the coast in suburban Adelaide. Just after lunch we were setting up, Sam was
super keen as it was her job to put up the Christmas tree and many of the other
decorations she’d made, the solar lights were strewn all over the annex and for
the first time it started to feel like Christmas….. The kids quickly made
friends in the park and we had a big game of caravan cricket happening out the
front. While the kids played some of the parents enjoyed a festive happy hour.
We finished our first day in Adelaide with some homemade pizzas as the van park
had 2 pizza ovens for use.
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| Sevenhills Winery - Clare |
Saturday dawned as our first full day in Adelaide and after a slow
start we headed out to make a dent in our Christmas shopping. We headed into
Rundle Mall where I’m sure everyone else in Adelaide had decided to go, or was it
that we hadn’t experienced any Christmas crowds to date. Either way, we got the
one gift that we’d had on hold and headed out to find a suburban Westfields. It
was here that we battled the car park crowds for 30min simply trying to find a
spot to park. We both wondered was it really worth the effort but eventually we
joined the hordes of other shoppers as we browsed the shops for a good few
hours. Obviously with the kids in toe we didn’t get too much but we now have a
list of things a mile long…. Returning to the van we had a quick bite to eat before
I took Ethan out to watch our first A-league soccer match. While we were keen
to see Western Sydney win, Adelaide were too classy and we quietly blended into
the crowd not wanting to show our true colours.
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| Adelaide United V's Western Sydney Wanderers |
Sunday turned out to be one of those days where there was never enough hours in the day. We joined other geocachers at the Adelaide Geocachers Xmas party, the kids got some lollies from Santa while I got to catch up with a few old caching friends and an old school friend who is also a fellow geocacher (small world). From there we headed to Mt Lofty witnessing the spectacular views of the city where once again we met up with another school friend who I hadn’t seen for 30+ years….. After an all too brief catch-up we were on the move again, we headed across town for dinner with some friends we’d met back in Perth and Albany. They’d been home for a few weeks and were keen to hear of our travels, the kids played like they’d known each other for years and we all enjoyed a beautiful bake dinner (our 1st in 5 months)….. The day’s activities had been a lot of fun with us not returning to the van till late in the night.
Ciao
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