On
The Road To Adelaide.... From Port Lincoln
we travelled up the Eyre Peninsula and stopped for coffee at Tumby Bay,
44 km up the road. This is another small fishing town with a couple
of beautiful hotels in the town. Then onto Cowell for lunch before
heading for Whyalla and Port Augusta. Not a lot of interest in seeing
the sights of Whyalla which is mainly an industrial centre so we kept on
moving towards Pt Augusta. 
We
really had no plans as to where we would stay when we saw a sign to Mt.
Remarkable National Park and as we had not stayed in a national park for
some time, we decided to spend the time in the bush again. It was
there that we met up with a very friendly and hungry emu who kept us amused.
There were a number of emu's in the park none of whom had any concern with
the campers and freely wandered in between the tents and caravans searching
for snacks. Up early the next morning to partake in one of the many
walks that the Mt Remarkable National Park has to offer. The walk
we chose offered us a good look at this national park as well as great
views of Spencer Gulf and over to Whyalla.
It was then
a morning drive into Adelaide where we went and stayed at one of our old
haunts of 20 years ago - West Beach Caravan Park. This park is really
well maintained and here we stayed for 4 nights. A visit to Glenelg
saw some huge changes. Big apartment blocks have been built on the
beach frontage which reminded us of Port Melbourne and Ackland Street,
St.Kilda. Glenelg seems to be the "in place" to be especially at
weekends and during school holidays.
We had to visit McLaren Vale and one of our favourite wineries down there, Scarpantoni's. We enjoyed tasting their reds, so much so we could not resist purchasing a dozen which will will certainly enjoy when we get home. There are plenty of wineries to visit in this region but we kept our selection to a few of the lesser known wineries. We enjoyed lunch in McLaren Vale which has changed very little since we were there many years ago. Seems to be in a bit of a time warp.
An arrival in a capital city always sees you visit the city self, so
we caught the bus and wandered around along with big crowds due to school
holidays. After travelling around for 5 months and mainly visiting
much smaller towns, or being in quite remote areas, it takes a bit of adjustment
to adapt again to the hustle and bustle of crowds of big cities.
Adelaide we continued our journey eastward with our next stop being Hahndorf,
about 30 km from Adelaide in the Adelaide Hills. Hahndorf
was settled by Lutherans in 1839. Having emigrated from Eastern Prussia
to escape religious persecution by the King, they arrived in South Australian
on December, 1838 on the "Zebra". Captain Hahn out of concern
and admiration for his passengers helped them search for a site suitable
to establish the village which was subsequently named Hahndorf.
As a result of its heritage has a strong German flavour. There are many
restaurants, gift shops and food shops selling German foods, beer and wine.
This is really a lovely region in the Adelaide Hills and would be a great
place to spend a weekend if you were an Adelaide local. As it was
a long weekend in Adelaide decided to move on from Hahndorf before the
crowds moved in.
Almost
Home.... A few hours of travel saw us
arriving at a roadside stop just east of Bordertown and right on the border
of Victoria and South Australia for our second last night before arriving
home. With only one more sleep before we arrived home, we decided to visit
the Halls Gap in the Grampians. We pulled into the caravan park and were
greeted by someone asking if we would like a coffee. On checking,
it turned out to be Lynton from Bendix Mintex who was with his family,
along with Alan and his family and Bob and Cheryl - all from Bendix Mintex
in Ballarat. We ended up spending an enjoyable night with them
with Lynton entertaining us singing and playing his guitar. What
a small world. Sunday saw us pack up and head towards Ballarat.
It was wet, windy, overcast and the temperature was not much over 13 degrees,
probably the coldest and most wintery day we had experienced on our entire
trip, but it was nice to arrive home. We have travelled 22,000
kms, visited every State in Australia in the year 2000, experienced so
many wonderful highlights and had arrived home safely. It will definitely
take some time to settle down and reflect back on our 5 months travelling
this fantastic country of ours.
Another easy decision. Our trip down to McLaren Vale visiting the wineries. This really is a lovely area with some great wineries, our favourite being Scarpantoni's. It is interesting that although there has been an increase in the number of wineries in this area it has not been overdeveloped with tacky tourist attractions which means it still has an old style charm.