I started my Australian journey in Adelaide, a city I still regard as my “home”. Some of my oldest and dearest friends live there. It is also home for my in-laws, and it is far too long since I last caught up with them. So, I loaded up the newly re-designed van and headed west.
Bordertown was coming up and so was the fruit quarantine, so I pulled into a rest stop to eat up the last of my fruit. As I was chatting with some ladies who had parked just ahead of me, I noticed the metal line embedded in the road surface just a few centimetres from the front of my van . . .
I had parked almost directly on the border line between Victoria and South Australia. The boulder in the background has a metal plate with details engraved on it.
The rain stopped and the clouds parted just as I saw this lake from the top of a hill. It is one of several “Pink Lakes” to be found in S.A. It’s a pity Mount Gambier’s Blue Lake isn’t blue at this time of the year.
My Van’s Satnav Announcer (VanEssA) is crazy and she took me all through the Adelaide Hills to get to my friend, Dave’s house – in Adelaide. It was incredibly beautiful scenery, but had me rowing the 6-speed gearbox like a galley slave!
After spending some time with Dave, VanEssA took me on another cross-country jaunt instead of guiding me up the freeway, to visit Jan and Dennis, who live in the most breathtakingly beautiful spot that I have ever seen! This is what they see from their kitchen window every morning:
Lucky? Well, some fortune did smile on them, yes, but “Chance favours only the prepared mind”. They have worked very hard to turn a merely pretty place into a Paradise.
I just had to squeeze in one more photo:
A few days later, I loaded up and headed, once again, across country to my brother-in-law’s property, about an hour and a bit on the dirt road side of Gawler, in the town of Barabba. It’s a small place. This tin shed used to be their local post office from 1926 until the early 60’s or until 1972, depending on who’s telling the story. No matter when it was officially closed, it is still standing today.
But living out here has its perils. In last year’s savage bush fires, they were lucky to escape with only minor damage to fencing. Adjacent properties were not so lucky.
After a sloppy, rainy day at Port Adelaide,
I packed up again and headed home, making a brief detour at Old Tailem Town. I really did enjoy this stop. It’s a huge site, filled with an unsorted collection of antiques and historical memorabilia. Unfortunately, without a serious cash injection and an army of volunteer help, the collection is likely to decay into powder.
I am told that restoration enthusiasts are not interested in these old bodies because they are too far gone for proper restoration.
I spent several hours wandering about this place. It is much larger than “Old Gippstown”, but not so well organised. Pity.
And, finally, one head-on look at an old girl who will never again see asphalt:
