Wine, cheese and rellies

Since leaving the Remarkables, our next leg has been an absolute blast. On the way to Clare we drove along the coast, stopping first at the coastal town of Port Germein. The unassuming town had a rich history and we enjoyed reading about the bustling old days. While driving down the main street, we noticed a rogue looking Vietnamese van attached to a house. Despite it being 10am and neither me nor Rein being hungry, we just had a feeling that this place would change our lives so we pulled over and ordered a Bahn Mi each. We popped them in the car, telling ourselves we would save them for lunch and headed to an op shop. We returned to the car, opened the doors and BAM, were struck by the most mouthwatering smell. Rein looked and me and I looked at him. We were both thinking the same thing, there was no waiting until lunch to tuck into these. And my god were they as good as they smelt.

We pulled through Port Pirie next and checked out the Saturday markets. Rein walked away with some beef jerky and I got some funky home made shorts. We had a chuckle at a church which had been converted into a fish and chip called “the church of fish and chips”.

Clare was a quaint place and we spent our time browsing art galleries and heading to the pub for dinner and to watch the Olympics.

The next day we headed to Burra, a historic mining and farming town. It was your typical farming town but with a twist, at the visitors centre you could grab the keys to the city which let you open a host of historical buildings around the town. We had a great day cruising around the town exploring historical mining infrastructure, crawling through old brewery tunnels and holes dug out of the river bank.

From here we made our way to the Barossa, staying at our first caravan park in Tanunda. It felt like an absolute luxury especially as we were in for some warm days and the park had a pool. We had a boozy couple of nights in Tanunda, going to wineries and distilleries. Our favourites were Turkeys Flat which did an amazing rose and the famous Chateau Tanunda.

Then we were in the Adelaide hills and while driving around we kept seeing signs for a safari park in the hills. We did a quick google and decided that we must go. The park had 13km of walking tracks and a bus that looped through the park and drove into the massive enclosures. We walked the park first then hopped on the bus to go into the enclosures. Each animal had a massive enclosure, far bigger than any zoo we’d been too. But the ironic thing was that even though the enclosures were huge, we saw the animals more up close than in any other zoo! Overall it was a fantastic day and I’d highly recommend the Monarto Safari Park.

Our next three nights we spent in Adelaide, staying with Rein’s cousins. The start of Fringe was on so the four of us went to see the Umbilical Brothers show (remember the Upside Down show the used to do?). It was fantastic and so funny. Rein found it a bit shocking to see his childhood heroes making some rude jokes as well. The Central Market was another big highlight for us and made us wish Perth had something similar too. Overall we thought Adelaide was a very funky city and really enjoyed our time there (and the chance to do some much needed washing).

Our next plan was to head to Deep Creek National Park for two nights but this plan was derailed due to a fire in the national park. Luckily, Gran left me a list of friendly faces across the country to call on and we were able to stay with Mum’s cousins in Victor Harbor (via the amazing Hahndorf!) It was so great seeing some distant rellies who I haven’t seen since I was a kid. The Victor Harbor area is so pretty with so much to do. Sharna and Brenton gave us the true local experience and took us to the local pub to eat at the salad bar and play on the pokies (Perth - where are our salad bars!!). It was my first time on the pokies and I really didn’t understand what was going on but had a great time nevertheless (me and Rein lost everything lol).

It’s been a very full week with too much to write about it all! We spent last night at Rapid Bay and at the time of writing, we are sitting on the ferry bound for Kangaroo Island for the next leg of our journey.

Side quests update:

Flys swallowed

Rein = 4

Tanya = 0

Jetties walked

9

Big things captured

6

Artisanal goods purchased

5

Summits reached

1

Pooped on (by birds)

Tanya - 2

Rein - 0