Thursday 17th November 2011

Hi Everyone, Well we have crossed the border into Victoria and the days just seem to be going quicker.

Here is where we have been lately:

Day 83   Warren Gorge (outside Quorn)
Day 84   Rawnsley Park Station (Flinders Ranges)
Day 85   Gulnare
Days 86 to 92 Adelaide
Day 93   Kingston SE
Day 94   Dartmoor
Day 95   Hamilton

Driving back from Coober Pedy was a long drive as we had already driven the road, but we kept going to get closer to the Flinders Ranges and ended up driving 600kms (we did plenty of stops). We stayed at a lovely free campsite at Warren Gorge outside Quorn, which is a lovely old town, which has had a few films made there (gallipoli). It is a good day to be in the car as it is 36 deg and in the late afternoon a wind comes through then it looks like a storm and then it cools down. It is very strange!

There is a lot of history in this area and we stopped to see the ruins of an old homestead which was amazing

We are looking forward to the Flinders Ranges, but because we have the dogs, we can't go in to the Wilpena Pound, but we can go outside the national park, which is fine.

We stay at Rawnsley Station which is about 100 acres and has great views. When we were having our evening 'beverage' we were lucky to see a rainbow and a slight shower, which was beautiful.

Next day we drove through the ranges and through a little town called Blinman, it has a coffee shop and a corner store and a couple of houses and not much more. so of course we had to help out the local society and stop for coffee and a biscuit.  The drive across to Parchilna was beautiful it seems we were stopping every 10 minutes to take a photo.

At Parachilna, there is only 7 residents and I am sure they are all at the Prairie Hotel. On this trip I had read a book about Outback Women and this lady had brought this pub back to life by serving Feral Food (emu, croc, roo etc)& Fargher (their surname) Larger, so we had to stop and try the beer and ended up buying a 6 pack to take with us!

 The pub is in the middle of nowhere!

Driving closer to Adelaide, the towns just started to get quicker and every 15 minutes we were going through a little town until we hit the main highway and then the traffic. OMG I was having panic attacks. I think we had been out of circulation for too long!

In Adelaide we stayed at a Carvan Park just 7kms from the city and did day trips as everything is so close (once you get out of the traffic.

To lovely Glenelg, which is very scenic and 'touristy'' but the dogs loved having a run around on some grass and saying hello to the people on the street. It is like having little pop stars as everyone wants to have a pat and say how cute they are.

We decided as it is getting warmer to get the dogs clipped at Dog City Day Care and this also enabled us to have an afternoon to do some things without the dogs.  Well you would have thought that we were leaving children behind. When we dropped the boys off, they went into a big playpen with about 20 other small/medium dogs and you should have seen their faces, they came running up to us (we were behind a viewing screen) and their eyes just screamed MUM DON'T LEAVE ME, I had to leave quickly.

But then I thought what dogs, when I gave Paul the street address for the Haighs Chocolate Factory, which we were going to see the free tour and chocolate tasting...as I said what dogs??  Of course we enjoyed it and had to buy some!  We also went to the Adelaide Central Markets, which is like the Vic Markets in Melbourne, so we enjoyed having a good look around and treated our tired muscles to a chinese massage. A good afternoon out on all accounts!

Next day we went to Hahndorf which is only about 50kms from Adelaide. It is a tourist destination a bit like Montville, but is very pretty. Paul was looking forward to his German Sausauge and Saurkraut in a roll!

Of Course we had to see the wine regions, so we headed south to McLarenVale, the area is so pretty and also went to some markets at Willunga and stopped at Normanville to have a walk along the beach. We drove to Cape Jervis which is were the ferry leaves to go to Kangaroo Island (we could see it in the distance) and enjoyed lunch at a Pub at Victor Harbour. They are very dog friendly in South Australia and are quite happy to have dogs at cafes/pubs.

We drove to Goolwa which is where the Murray River meets the ocean. To be honest, it was a bit of a let down, it was more of a small sandbank, but we can say that we have seen it.  We ended up driving the scenic way back to Adelaide on all the back roads through the Adelaide Hills and it was very pretty.  I did try driving for a while to give Paul a break and lasted about half an hour. It is the strangest feeling, my eyes just wanedt to close and my focus goes, so I pulled over and let Paul drive again. I think I am going to have to get some practice in before I hit the streets of Brisbane!

I did try going to the local shopping centre one morning as it had a Myers and I had a gift card and I thought I would buy Paul's christmas present. Well I lasted about 2 hours and then the crowds and screaming children got to me and I had to ring Paul to pick me up...I must be well out of practice!

We also went to the Barossa and have a lovely time going into Jacobs Creek, Grant Burge and some small other wineries. It is such a lovely place and of course we had to go to Maggie Beer's to try some of her products while we were in the region.  Needless to say we stocked up on some more wine and champagne to keep us going for a while. But diiner that night was Pate and Bread and a bottle of wine! perfect.

Finally driving out of Adelaide and it was a lovely place, except for the traffic. We drove through Murray Bridge, Tailem Bend and then headed down the coast to Meringie.  We stay at a free campsite next to the Beach outside Kingston SE and saw the most beautiful sunset (probably the best so far)

We took the dogs for a walk on the beach next day and Paul was giving Floyd a bit of a rev to go in the water and chase the Cormorants, well he did, he ran all the way down the beach until we couldn't see him anymore (I am sure he is part greyhound) Paul had to jog to go and get him! Barney just kept looking at me to say I'm not running all that way!

Kingston is known as the rock lobster capital of Australia, it is funny we have seen many places with the same claim to fame, so I had to have my photo taken with the Big Lobster. We also bought 1/2 a lobster for dinner.

We drove into Robe, which is so pretty, it is right on the ocean but it is very 'old world' so we stopped for a walk around and also to find the local bakery!

On the way to Penola, which is where St Mary MacKillop used to live. I thought it more important to us to visit Wynns Winery at Coonawarra Region, to find more wine!! and down to Mt Gambier which has a lake next to the town which changes from dark to a bright blue colour in summer, it is amazing!

And then a short distance to the Victoria Border

We finally stopped at Dartmoor at a free campsite, which is close to a river where Major Mitchell stopped on his expedition. It was a lovely place to stop except for the sound of Male Koalas grunting when the sun went down!

Even though it is a very small town there was some amazing carvings all around the main street

Finally to Hamilton which is the closest carvan park to the Grampians which allows dogs. It is only an hour to get to the Mountains and they are beautiful and very rugged. We can't let the dogs out as it is all National Park, but it was still nice to drive through. We even saw a fox and a deer crossing the road (not together or holding hands) ha ha!

And finally I had to take a photo of this front hedge of this property, it looked beautiful

Until next time, take care xxx