rasen78

And so, the final chapter - apologies again for the delay!!


ADELAIDE

We arrived at our destination, Mount Barker. We were staying at the caravan park in a small chalet; basic, but perfectly adequate for our needs. There was a small play area and BBQ area, laundry and across the way, a public pool which we could get in with a discount. It was rather warm when we arrived….41oC!! It was mid-afternoon, so we went to the local shopping centre to get some supplies. Our first BBQ was the order of the day!! Prawns, sausages, burgers and kebabs. Yum!! The air-con got a battering that first night, and we both had a chortle when we also discovered a small fan heater in one of the wardrobes. Surely we wouldn’t need that!!

Next day was Sunday and we wanted to take advantage of the local New Build display village being open, so we planned on going there. We were also meeting Wendy in Stirling , so had a drive around to see what the areas where like, then went to Stirling to meet her. Stirling was such a pretty village. There was a market on when we got there and it was quite atmospheric, with beautiful tubs of flowers everywhere and the main street in Stirling was very nice.

After meeting Wendy and enjoying a lovely warm scone with jam and cream, we returned to Mount Barker to investigate the new build houses. Sad I know, but we both spend rather a lot of time perusing realestate.com.au. They certainly gave us food for thought with certain designs, but some things did strike me as, um, strange. The exceedingly short baths, the HUGE baths in en-suite (a massive waste of space IMO), and the poorly designed kitchens.

The rest of the week was spent exploring Adelaide and the surrounding areas, mostly within the Hills. A couple of lovely afternoons were spent at Glenelg and we had a couple of forays into Adelaide city. Somewhere very much worth going to was Cleland Widlife Park, where we got to cuddle a koala, feed the roos, spot echidnas, and lots of other wildlife – a lovely day spent there, and next time, hopefully, we will stop the car and check out the views form Mt Lofty!

The Biggest Rocking Horse in the world, at Gumeracha, was a surprise. The Rocking Horse was well, a rocking horse, and we made ROMFT do the climb to the top, him being used to ladders in tight spaces . What was the surprise, was the small animal park there, where you can feed roos, goats, llamas, sheep etc, all for the princely sum of nothing!! Yup, to go into the animal park is free. You can buy food and make a donation, and to climb the Rocking Horse, is $2 per person. There is a cute little toy factory there too. Well worth an afternoon’s visit.

We didn’t get to investigate the cellar doors. Being with the kids, it didn’t really seem fair on them, but there are a couple I have my eye on for when we go back

The weather was very changeable. 41oC when we arrived, then 2 days later, it was 16oC and raining. And there is a definite difference in temperatures between the Hills and Adelaide and the beaches. Rainy, overcast and cool in the Hills, 30 mins to CBD or the beach and it was sunny, dry and warm!!

Our impressions of Adelaide were good. It is such an easy city to navigate and we loved the fact that it is surrounded by parks etc. We didn’t see a huge amount of the architecture etc, but what we saw certainly left us wanting more. I am so looking forward to the various festivals that happen. The beaches we saw (even during torrential rain) were clean, easy to get to and attractive. For us, Adelaide seems to have a lot to offer.

But the Hills have stolen my heart . From when we first got to Mount Barker, my interest was piqued. But driving round and visiting places such as Hahndorf, Stirling, Aldgate and driving through the Hills to McLaren Vale etc, my mind was set. This was the place for us. After a day or so, ROMFT agreed with me – the Hills have it!!

The Return Journey

And so, it was time to say au revoir to Adelaide and the Hills. We were driving back to Sydney cross-country, via Hay. The weather reports were not good and we had seen the reports of torrential rain and flooding in NSW, pretty much where we had to drive through. We set off for Hay, not knowing if what we would find!

Not much to say about the drive. The road was very straight, the vista was very flat and the rain clouds were constantly following us. Our overnight stay in Hay was uneventful, although we did find a surprisingly good eaterie there. The locals seemed to like it too as there were rather a lot of them there that night!!

The next morning, we set off for the long drive back to Sydney. The weather at that point wasn’t too bad, but the further west we drove, the wetter the surrounding land got. It was easy to spot the flooded lands, and we spotted several groups of sodden emus around!

But, we hit a roadblock. The main highway through to Wagga Wagga was blocked, so we had to do a detour, which took us north to Cobar, then trhough to Nyangana and down to Dubbo , back into Sydney over the Blue Mountains. And it rained, and rained, and rained. My gosh, it was bad. Driving through some of the flood waters was a tad hair raising and certainly got our hearts pumping!! And driving back into Sydney, in the dark, in torrential rain, in road works, was, erm, interesting. And I am a seasoned car driver with 20+years driving in all sorts of conditions. Which reminds me. ROMFTs aunt thought it very strange that I do all the driving. She thought ROMFT was being remiss, until I pointed out that I HATE being a passenger, and ROMFT more often than not, has no choice in the matter!!

Anyhow, we got back in one piece, 12 hours or so after we had started, and with a 400+km detour under our belt. We slept well that night!!

Our final few days were spent touring the Aquarium, Darling Harbour and The Rocks. ROMFT and I went for a lovely meal in Darling Harbour, just managing to miss getting soaked. When ROMFT saw his credit card bill when we got home, he had a mini heart attack!! We said our goodbyes to Aunt and Uncle and left Australia happy that we had been and excited about the next chapter.

Within 48 hours of arriving back in the UK, we were planning our return and booked the flights 7 days later!! 28 August, we touchdown in Adelaide for the next instalment of our lives!!

abi31

wow - fantastic tales - sounds like you had an amazing time - we're going to Perth but definitely gonna do that drive at some point - didn't even know you could do it so fast (for some dumb reason thought it took about a week to drive from Sydney to Melbourne - durr it's big but I guess not that big )

Would be brill if you could do a similar update when you move over - it was very entertaining and am always interested in other people's lives (nosey moo! )

carolinephillips

Thank you for telling us about your trip - even though I've been in Aus for nearly 4 years, I haven't ventured far from Sydney, so it has given me ideas of where to go and what to do.

Sorry about all the rain. We haven't really had a summer here in Sydney.

ROMFT_WO2RN

You could take as long as you want for the drive We were in "weekender", mode and pretty much just drove straight through

rasen78

The back garden of ROMFTs Aunt and Uncle's house was like an Irish bog They have lived in Sydney since 1965 and kept saying they had not seen a summer as bad

Don't mind about the weather really. At least we have more of an idea of what we can expect. And the UK has just gone from the warmest March, to 1 foot of snow (ooop North) in the space of less than a week

Sydney was a lovely city - Darling Harbour, The Rocks etc were gorgeous. But I couldn't live there. Even out in Oatlands, I just didn't get a 'feel' for the place IYKWIM. A great place to visit for a weekend though, especially without the kids

ANd thanks to everyone for the kind replies. We did have a wonderful time and are on countdown to 24 August. Busy sorting out our things, what we are taking, what we are not etc. And looking forward to visiting Singapore - think a trip to Raffles for afternoon 'tea' may be in order

carolinephillips

If you are in Singapore with youngsters, I highly recommmend the night zoo trip.

Bernieboy

Esp weds night when they feed yer kids to the lions

Pollyana

Bit of a shame to pay for their flights to Singapore just to feed them to the lions on arrival - isn't there anywhere nearer?

rasen78

ROMFT has told me all about it and the shows. Too many snakes for my liking

RedT

We did the night zoo in July last, don't particularly remember many snakes?? And any they do have are tucked away behind glass, nice and safe It's a fab experience, really recommend it

rasen78

Bloody great snake at one of the shows and one at the exit (2009)

Posted by ROMFT as file attachments not playing on my login

rasen78

putting snakes on MY thread

One of those :shudder: was under the seats in the show too. THAT's why we won't be doing the night zoo

Pollyana

Awwwww he's gorgeous!!!!


( I mean the snake of course! )

RedT

Ooh, we didn't see any of this when we were there? Granted we didn't the animal show thingy coz we wanted to explore for ourselves and do the little tram thingy. So you can do the zoo and not see snakes quite easily!

Wendy

Glad you all enjoyed your visit, and hope that the move across is hassle free.

We will definitely have to do that cellar door tour when you get here