They like it Big in SA

Dave and I are all about doing things big. From the big banana to the big Lobster at Kingston SE. We love all the nation’s big icons. We travelled along the Limestone Peninsular heading for the big apple they call Adelaide down here. We came head first into a Steam Train (which the troppy one) to the best German places in Australia. A touristy town of Hahndorf is the oldest German town in the country so without hesitation we explored and went the whole way; to the oldest pub and with a Stein of beer for Dave and a 300ml Ale for me (cheers to Thomasu in Germany) we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. All we needed was more beer and those German girls with their jugs.

We spent two nights at Hackney Caravan Park which was a 20 minute walk to the city. This place was a major introduction to the local Adelaid’ians. The guy who owns the CP drove everywhere in his golf cart and expected everything his way when he asked very directly “how long is your vehicle exactly?” without a hello or any sort of acknowledgement. I said roughly 5.5m and a little more for the ladder. So he seemed pissed off about the length and then even more so when we couldn’t fit into his preferred site. To truly understand how precise he was we needed to record it but under the pure shock of his attitude and correctness we forgot. If anyone has met my father, think how he uses numbers, directions and figures and times that by 10 with a grumpy attitude. After he directed my reserving in the site to the exact angle he wouldn’t let me out of the car until I heard the 10 commandments of the park. The full on drill! Once he left, we got talking to this lovely couple Julie and Daryl and soon realised it just wasn’t us he add an attitude towards, laughing in disbelief. So maybe this Adelaid’ian needs some better social skills.

The next day our new friends were lovely enough to give us a lift into the city;it was all about going shopping...for farm boots. The highlight for me was having a nanny nap on the river and Dave’s was meeting Jamie Cox the Australian cricket selector/opening batsman for SA and AUS the day Ricky Pointing chose the step down. Dave missed his opportunity to asked who the next captain would be...good one.

Day 2 - Great Ocean Road and more

Some of the most iconic land formations were the highlight of the day. I'm obviously talking about the 12 Apostles and the London Bridge. I'm sure everyone knows what these formations look like and what is expected when you’re on this part of the Great Ocean Road and honestly, everything went perfectly to plan unlike most days when either the weather is horrible or we’re running late/being lazy. 

12? Huh?

Nice try

We checked out a few port towns along the way and made camp at a place just outside Portland. It was a few kms off the main track but worth the travel when we saw at least another 30 campers in a massive shady area. When we drove in, it seemed like there was an unspoken rule of where you should camp; as one area had all caravan’ers while another had mostly tents. We needed a good sleep that night so instinctively we camped near all the caravans.

 However, late that night just on nightfall a SS Commodore Ute and a Pulsar with neons rocked up and camped ridiculously close to us. So I’m thinking...”thats ok..I guess... just as long they don’t make too much racket”. So getting to sleep was fine but....always a ‘but’, at 1.58am I woke up to an axe and a saw cutting through these huge pieces of wood. Not only that but also them digging out the wood pylons that separate the camping areas. I was so close to getting up but the chick yelled half drunk “that’ll do babe...I’m tired, come to bed”. Thankfully I didn’t hear anything else that night.

Petrified Forest

We got up early to check out Portland and found it pretty bland but found Cape Bridgewater a little hide away secret. There we could get within a fence distance from a windmill (frick’n huge), walked to this volcanic/limestone formation called the petrified forest, and got to walk for 2 hours to briefly see Australian Fur Seals from 50m away which only looked like a speck. 

Sigh, sometimes you can win but mostly you lose.

The best part of the day was yet to come! Dave and I had our first bakery item in 2 months! When basic meals and hardly any snacking are involved, the slight idea of a bakery item makes us salivate. We took at least 15minutes to gorge ourselves and enjoy what luxury we had before 3 months of isolation.

Quarantine was our next stop before entering a new state. Luckily we timed our meals right and had little to bin but annoyingly the thought of wasting perfectly good vegies and fruit had its limits. We may not have binned everything.

The first SA town we were introduced to was Mt Gambia. This town is known for its high water table and the abundance of sink holes and underground caves. I’d say it’s a town hovering over a hole. The sights were worth the visit thankfully. The Blue Lake, which is slowly filling with all the extra rain, and Umpherston Sinkhole which has a beautiful flowering garden inside. So the visits were limited therefore our time was as well. We stayed not far up the road on the edge of a lake for free...we may have bypassed the self registration both. 

Dave insisted