Nuriootpa SA, Coultard House, Chateau Barossa, Tanunda, Australian Grand Prix, Schild Winery

Nuriootpa SA March 31 2015

Short run up into the Barossa Valley this morning, but a really awful drive battling gusty buffeting winds. We are staying in Nuriootpa itself in a pleasant enough van park, right next to two large ovals, where of course they are training for AFL : The Might Nuriootpa Tigers!

At the entrance to the van park, they have a 1932 Dodge caravan on display, looks just like a little house on wheels. Mum, dad and 3 kids went from SA right up to the top of Queensland in this, and before any maps and signposts, let alone sat-nav.

1932 Dodge caravan. Nuriootpa SA

We went out to Lyndoch to see the 30,000 roses but found a new winery there instead called Chateau Barossa. The roses that we saw were all well past their final blush for the year, something to do with never being watered in this otherwise barren dessert.

Chateau Barossa. Lyndoch SA

We were actually looking for a ‘platter lunch’ but theirs didn't seem too special so we went to the next place on the map, which had stopped serving lunch platters during the week. Not a problem, there are two more within cooee so we went into the Schild winery, which was really a shop front in town, and after Judy finished sampling the liquid offerings we sat and ate the platter for two: cheese, various meets, pickled things, dried things, chutneys and bread and crackers. Rather pleasant actually.

On the way back I left Judy snoozing in the car while i checked out the Tanunda Museum, which is in the original Telegraph Office, the front of which is a bicycle shop. A reasonable collection but a bit dull, oh well what can one expect for two-dollars?

After a bit of a rest back at the van, I wandered up into town via the ‘Linear Park’ across the road from us. I have no idea why its called Linear, but I was interested to find that the park and Nuriootpa were the home of the 1949 and 1950 Australian Grand Prix.

Linear Park. Nuriootpa SA

Linear Park. Nuriootpa SA

On the way back I grabbed a snap of this poor fellow falling of the balcony of Coulthard’s House

Coulthard House. Nuriootpa SA

Adelaide SA, Moana SA, City of Adelaide, Henley SA, Queen Mary II

Adelaide March 30 2015

Ah, a rest day. Didn't bother getting up until late. Ate a  late breakfast, wandered down to Brighton and wandered around the pier and beach and coffee shops (they have about 20 that we could see in the near vicinity). Had a nice coffee and an uninspiring bun with apple init. Judy reckons her Vanilla slice was ok, not quite Beechworth standard but okay nonetheless.

From the pier we could see a big boat on the horizon, just coming out of Port Adelaide, which must be 20km north. It has to be the QM2.

Pier. Brighton SA

Pier. Brighton SA

Sculptures.  Brighton SA

Later on after we had driven further down south to look at the beaches such as Seaford and Moana, we could see it much closer on the horizon, so i zoomed in and grabbed a few snaps. I had to digitally zoom in on these to get the picture shown, and isn't it odd, it looks like a mirage at sea, the row of lifeboats appears to be mirrored and the boat looks as if its above the water. Very strange.

Queen Mary II. Brighton SA

After lunch we turned north, I just had to have another look at the clipper ship, the City of Adelaide, but we stopped at Henley beach on the way and took a few more snaps.

Pier. Henley SA

Pier. Henley SA

City of Adelaide. Port Adelaide SA

and then there was Rod Stewart...

We have just come out of the Rod Stewart concert in Adelaide, and i have only 1 thing to say about that....

It was bloody brilliant!!!!

make no mistake, this was a really really good show. None of that soppy American Songbook stuff, just full-on rock and roll, high energy, high volume, 100% effort and entertainment

I know my children will be sniggering behind their hands as they read this, but let's be honest, you have to stand up and applaud talent and showmanship when you see it, and following right on the heels of an abysmal Australian support act, you can just tell that this was the real deal.

He was scheduled to come on at 9pm. He came on at 10 to 9 and belted it out for 2 solid hours, one hit after another. Fabulous. Included three costume changes and a cast of 17 support stars. Perhaps the highlight of the night was Forever Young, which included the usual showcases of the other talent on stage while he took a wee break and changed costume. While he was off-stage the drummer amped up into a full-blown drum solo, There's just something about a drum being played properly, it's just so primitive and pure.

You have to keep in mind that RS is 70 and he's been doing this for at least 55 years, so toward the end of the two hours when is voice started to give out , we forgave him.

I for one, and Judy for certain, really enjoyed it and if we never see a show again, then we'll be happy with this

One interesting thing about the night: no compere, no pleas for phones top be turned of and no restriction on cameras. Just as well Judy had hers with her

Rod Stewart. Adelaide SA 2015

Rod Stewart. Adelaide SA 2015

Rod Stewart. Adelaide SA 2015

Rod Stewart. Adelaide SA 2015

Rod Stewart. Adelaide SA 2015

Adelaide SA

Adelaide SA March 29, 2015

Another early start and a transport section through to Adelaide via Tailem Bend where we stopped for a drink but found absolutely nothing open except the toilet, which we made use of.

Made it into the Big4 at West Beach and grabbed our spot. looks like the kiddies are on holidays and they have all come to the beach. Can't blame them really, can you?

We had to make a bee-line for IKEA after lunch to grab our drawers that they don't have in Sydney anymore. Judy has been on tender hooks for weeks: they had 30 when we left home, 15 two days ago and 11 according to their website this morning. We found only 3 left, so we grabbed our two and headed for the door, after a lap or two of the store, of course.

Time now to spruce ourselves up for our big night out with Rod, Stewart that is.

Naracoorte SA, Penola, Mary McKillop, St Josephs

Naracoorte SA March 28, 2015

Jumped out of bed early and got on the road by 8am, bound for South Australia. In may ways, this feels like the real start of the journey and we’re both keen to get on with it.

After a slow start wiggling our way through Geelong, we finally got going and headed up toward Hamilton. It’s an odd thing, but out here all the towns are named after places in Sydney… Penshurst, Mortlake, Camperdown, Hexham (ok so that’s Newcastle but may as well be Sydney). I wasn’t concerned about having taken a wrong turn, my trusty navigator was keeping us on the straight and narrow B140 all the way to Hamilton. Pretty good roads all the way actually

As we were on a roll, we pushed on until the car started bleating about needing fuel, so we cruised into Penola with our eyes peeled for the nearest servo. The car suitably replenished, we fed ourselves, and took some snaps of the lovely building in Penola.

Penola SA

Penola SA

Penola also happens to be the place that the newly created Saint Mary McKillop spent a far bit of time, so we spent a little time as well and wandered down past St Joseph’s church, which is where The Sisters of St Joseph got started with one Mary McKillop as the Mother Superior.

The current church, built in 1924, is the plainest thing, bordering on downright ugly, they should have kept the original one! 

St Josephs, 1850's style, Penola SA

St Josephs 1920's lack-of-style. Penola SA

Anyhow, they’ve got this whole big glass and steel interpretive centre which we didn't go into and the schoolhouse in which she taught for a short time. We went into the school and got abused for not paying the $5 entry fee into the aforementioned interpretive centre before coming into the school. We were nonplussed and kept our hands in our pockets and she went hurrying off back to her desk or wherever, leaving us to poke about the 3 small rooms. 

First schoolroom, Order of St Josephs. Penola, SA

Frankly, the whole place is bare, sterile, characterless and lacking in any sort of atmosphere and in short time we found ourselves back on the frog ’n toad heading for some place called Naracoorte.

Now a funning thing happened as we turned into the street that the van park is in, we both almost cried ‘jinx’ as we both realised at the same time that we had actually been here before - last year in fact!

Fort Queenscliff, Bendigo bollards, Queen Mary II

A quickie tonight as I'm tired and we have a early start tomorrow - heading out toward Adelaide

First, I went and did the tour of Fort Lonsdale, built from 1860 to protect the second richest port in the world from the marauding Russians, who had the richest gold port, St Petersburgh and may well have fancied our gold as well. Anyhow it got built complete with umpteen canon, a 20ft wide and deep ditch all around it and communications with Fort Nepean on the other headland guarding the entrance to Port Philip Bay. Needless to say, like most of these things in Australia, it never saw active service and never fired a round in anger and was turned into a school for budding Generals in 1945. Since then the Army have kept it and used it for various bookkeeping jobs but don't really want to spend anything on its upkeep.

Some snaps:

Fort Queenscliff, Victoria

Fort Queenscliff, Victoria 

Fort Queenscliff, Victoria 

Fort Queenscliff, Victoria

After 1hour 45 mins in the howling freezing gale, I came back to the park and picked up Judith and went into Geelong proper for a look at some real shops before we head out into the untamed outback wilds of western Victoria. After a coffee and a few bouts of retail therapy we drove down to East Beach and drove about taking some snaps:

Geelong Victoria

Swimming enclosure Geelong Victoria

Geelong Victoria

While I was on my tour of the Fort, the guide told us that the Queen Mary II was due out through the heads tonight about 9pm, so after a pizza we thought we'd be clever and go to the best lookout early to watch it go through the heads. Ha! 10,000 others thought the same thing and it was packed. I banged off a few snaps, only one or 2 come close to being sort of alright - I must put that tripod in the car....

Queen Mary II Point Lonsdale Victoria

Flower Show, Carlton Gardens, Melbourne, bromeliad, fuchsia, oncidium

Carlton Gardens March 26, 2015

Today we had set aside for a visit to the International Flower Show held at Carlton Gardens in Melbourne. Its a hundred km or so but a pretty easy run through Geelong and up the M1 to the big-smoke (pretty easy for me, Judy was driving) and follow the GPS into the parking area under Etihad Stadium. Great plan; for $18 you get to park all day and a nice man drives you up to the show in a big orange bus, and brings you back again. Hard to beat.

Anyhow, the flower show was as good as the last time we were here a few years ago, at least Judy was feeling a whole lot better than then. What can one say about flowers? There are heaps of them to see, all the favourites: fuchsia, bromeliad, oncidium and the like. They even had tulips and stuff a la Floriade style.

Its just as well we are heading to WA, where they have this disposition at the border regarding fruit, vegetables, flowers, food etc and delight in taking it all of you, or else we'd be overloaded with new flowers and bulbs and seeds.

Part of the show is the gardens they make for the various competitions, the one that took our fancy was modelled on the Arid Desert garden in Alice Springs. It was probably too far out for the Melbournians as it didn't win any prizes, which went to the conventional concrete/water/outdoor room style.

No more to say, here are some snaps:

Water feature. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Lake. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Bromeliad.  Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Bromeliad. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Bromeliad. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Arid garden display. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Arid garden display. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Arid garden display. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Paint pots pouring. Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Vic

Queenscliff, Victoria, The Rip, Port Lonsdale, New Holland Honeyeater

Queenscliff Vic March 25, 2015

Set out cross-country style to get from Bendigo to Queenscliff, using all the A, B & C roads we could find. Fairly pleasant trip actually and we saw a bit of the country and a few little towns like Gisbourne and Bacchus Marsh. Didn't really see them as such, just drove through, didn't even stop for coffee as they are old style towns with no place to park a car and van.

Made it into Queenscliff and back into the same spot we had last time. While we were eating lunch we took some snaps of cute little birds in and around the bottlebrush tree. 

Look at this cute little guy. Queenscliff Vic

Even smaller little yellow bird, but not the same as the one above. Queenscliff Vic

No points for naming this bloke! Queenscliff Vic

After lunch we took the obligatory run down to the Point to see if the ferry was in and stare at the big boats negotiating The Rip.

Boat. The Rip, Port Phillip Bay Vic

Boat. The Rip, Port Phillip Bay Vic

I was having a play with the new borrowed toy, Roman’s 100-400mm lens. Takes a bit of getting used to but if you keep the aperture open and the speed up you start to get decent results. A snoozey seagull strayed into my optic range and got snapped as well

It's a tough job.

Wandered around to Port Lonsdale to check out The Rip going into Port Phillip Bay, the wharf, a few stray Fur Seals and a long shot of Fort Nepean over on the other headland, about 3 1/2 km away

The wharf at Port Lonsdale Vic

Bird. Port Lonsdale Vic
 

Port Lonsdale Vic

Oh! What a big one! Brian playing with toys. Port Lonsdale Vic

The Rip. Port Lonsdale Vic

Fort Nepean taken from Port Lonsdale Vic

Needless to say after such an exhausting schedule we had to have a coffee and do the gossip crossword in some dodgy magazine. We asked the 3yo who was serving us who the 'star' in the picture was....

Judy pondering 9 across. Port Lonsdale Vic

Back at the van, I made use of the best indoor pool-in-a-van-park, its heated, and has a proper spa and I stayed for an hour or so.