Adelaide to Yorke Peninsula

After Adelaide it is decided to head for Yorke Peninsula. Again it was a trip with games such as 'spot the tree' for five points or an even harder was spot the hill for ten points (All up 10 trees and no hills, Nah! only joking we did see a rise that could be considered a hill.

The arrival evening at 'York's' now we are locals!!! thats what they call it anyway. The landscape is very harsh on the toe (end) of the peninsular (Innes National park) but the ocean and beaches are beatiful and very inviting. Once again my swell mojo is absent and the famous waves were absent!!! very frustrating.
We had our first bush camp for several nights with no power or water on tap. We were very well prepared, yet the suggestion from Leah to take shampoo to the beach was a bit odd!!!!

The photo above looks like a good wave but its two foot!!!!!!

A photo of Leah, Jarrod and me (doing a Chad Morgan impersonation by the looks of the hat), at one of the light house points. The views of the coastline were amazing as was the weather.

Leah and the kids threating to jump!!!!!!!

My attempt of a panoramic shot of the coastline from the lighthouse.

Just to prove that Leah had a swim in South Oz waters. (notice no sharks!!!, probably put off by her shampoo).
All in all very worth the visit with amazing coastal scenery and sand dunes for the kids were like dreamworld without the cost. From here we are onto Port Augusta (to have a shower, if Leah hasn't used all the shampoo at the beach!!! and restock supplies for the desert invasion. ( AHHHHH!!!! No Waves for 2 months. On the positive though there is plenty of sand to remind me of whats just around the corner )

Adelaide

Glenelge with Lorna and her lovely Grandchildren; Ayesha 8 and Ethan 2.

Lorna and her husband John have created in their backyard at Clapham an amazing 

play area for the Grandkids; Ayesha delighted in giving Jarrod and

Claire the grand tour of her fabulous home grown playground.

Ayesha and Claire; last time they were together both were around 4 years of age.

At that time Claire pipped Ayesha in height; not anymore!

Jarrod and Claire outside Maritime Museum; a really good interactive Museum both kids

loved it and spent about an hour and a half  exploring and enjoying all it had to offer.

Haming it up for the camera.

The Aviation Museum was OK; but Jarrod and Claire said that they enjoyed

it as much as the Maritime Museum. You can never tell what will tickle

their fancy.

Yep we are ready for take off!

And so is Mike!

Cape Jervois Gawler & The Barossa Valley

On Wednesday before we left Port Elliot Mike discovers a plumbing problem; in very

clean language Ooh Darn! Three plumbing/irrigation shops later and Mike has saved the day; we have

water again. Good on you Mike!

We chose to drive along the coastal route into Adelaide; very pretty!

We stopped for Morning Tea at Cape Jervis

Cape Jervis is the take off point for the Ferry that transports people and their

cars and caravans to Kangaroo Island. It was very breezy as you can see

the kids are looking a bit cold [hurry up and take the picture Dad, so we

can get back into the car].

The Ferry coming into Cape Jervis.

It was huge!!!

On Thursday much to the kids delight [not really]; Mike and I chose to visit

The Barossa Valley and check out the wineries. Our first stop was at The Jacob's Creek

Visitor Centre; very geared up for tourists and suprisingly kid friendly.

There was a nature trail to explore and an animal enclosure with Kangaroo's and Emu's.

Surprise surprise the winery is built along Jacob's creek.

Actually the area of land that The Jacob's Creek Winery occupies is vast

in The Barossa Valley.

We also drove past Wolf Blass, Penfolds and Mount Pleasant Wineries.

Jarrod Man: wow lots of vines in South Oz.

A very small section of the Jacob's Creek Winery.

This was fantastic; two tractors made entirely out of hay bales.

Very kid friendly.

So what do these grapes actually taste like?

Dad frollicing around the vineyard with his Hairy Clairey.

The Lads!

Mike feeling a bit romantic!

Mike and Jarrod were blown away by this tree; it's age is 450 to 550 years old.

This tree was a home to a married couple for about 5 years; mmmm big

housing problem obviously.

Victor Harbour (Port Elliot)

Mike is getting aquainted with his new best friend.

These Clydesdale horses are amazingly strong; they transport

people back and forth to Granite Island every 20 minutes.

Jarrod and Claire waiting to hitch a ride on the Clydesdale Tram.

Jarrod Man: Dad says my foot is big; not anymore.

Hairy Clairey: Clydesdales tend to spit alot. Also they wear a "poop bag"

so that the tram stays clean.

These cute little Fairy Penguins were waiting to have a feed.

Their numbers have come down from 2000 to 146.

Not sure of exact cause; volunteer rescue and rehabilitators say

that it could be lack of fish stock [Penguins Food] and increase in numbers

of NZ Fur Seals [Predators].

Hairy Clairey: Fairy Penguins are the cutest Penguins in the world; especially

when they eat. However Charlie was a bit bossy because he would not let his

wife Nellie out to feed when he was having a feed.

On the road 16-18/4/11

Into South OZ we go

On Granite Island off Victor Habour

Breaky in the Taj Mahal

Leah's caravan'er wave

Seal on rocks out front of van park in Port Elliot

Well we're finally on the road, departing at 6.30am on Saturday morning. First stop was to see one of the famous BIG monuments "THE BIG M", thats right Maccas at Yass,mmmmm. Once all our belly's were full we proceeded down the road to Gundagai where we were greeted by the 'dog on the tucker box monument'. A dud but the story behind it quite interesting. From here we went to Wagga Wagga for a morning tea beside some dam and then onto Hay. This part of the journey was very, very lifeless with hardly a tree to be seen let alone a hill, guess that's why its could the Hay plain hey!!!!. One of the positives of this part of the journey was that Leah had finally developed her 'travelling van wave' photo to come!!! We got to Balranald at around 3pm to a van park on the Murrumbidgee river, first fish coming up!!!! However after talking to the park owner I was told that all the Murray Cod died with the 'Black Water' that came down with the floods around Xmas. No disappointment though as we were all very exhausted from the trip and the week leading up to departure. The park was blissfully quiet and beautiful. Dinner in the van was rice,tuna and corn. Make mental note 'nothing open in outback Saturday arvo'!!!!!
  Woke reasonably early and had some breaky, we hit the road by 8 for another big drive to Victor Habour. Again we stop every few hundred km's for a nibble and driver change. The outlook did vary (although only slightly) in the country side. Trees we're making a regular appearance and so were hills, more like slight undulations really. What was very noticeable was that in every hole was water from such a good season of rain, much to the delight of the farmers I'd say. Again after a very long drive we crossed the great Murray River, and we arrived at Victor Habour, well Port Elliot actually, as I forgot the name of the van park I had booked the night before and we liked the one we turned up at. It's a Big4 and well appointed and very well located to explore the surrounds, it's also a surfers dream with heaps of points, bombies and beaches to check out and maybe tempt a dugong to get wet. We think we might hang here for 3 days maybe even 5 as we aren't due in Adelaide until Thursday Night. (swell is due Wednesday for all in the surf realm!!!!!).
Kids have been brilliant to say the least and are travelling better than I could have wished for [Mike].

Now it's my turn; not much left to say really except that I am delighted with the weather and how we are all travelling. I am blown away by how well Claire is travelling. Claire moans and groans with a 2.5 hour trip to the beach so we were WORRIED to say the least. The big guy is doing another amazing miracle as Claire is already looking like a seasoned traveller. Jarrod is keeping our brains very stimulated with crosswords; family genetics in play here thanks Pop Nicholls and Nanny Roz. Mike is getting more relaxed with my driving; he is now no longer asking me every five minutes what speed are you doing. Well done Mike. Hey Wiki those travel pillows are simply fabulous THANKYOU! An important mention to Nanny Nicholls your cookies sustained us for the first couple of days YUM! Every dog we see has us think of Molly Moo [Leah].

Hairy Clairey; so far we have been travelling very well apart from every now and then I get a bit funny in the tummy. My favourite thing so far that I have seen were two kookaburra's on the electric wires [jumping up and down with their pants of fire ha,ha,ha]. I love the scenery here at Port Elliot.

Jarrod Man; I have learned three things so far. Number 1 Australian is really flat. Number 2 do not bang around in the caravan. And the most important thing of all DO NOT mess with Dad at night.