Welcome 2023

May this year be better for everyone

I think it’s fair to say we haven’t done much exploring since my last post, though we have seen quite a lot of Adelaide city and its inner suburbs; enough to say, we really love Adelaide. It’s big enough to have everything you could need, but not so big to be busy or stressful. I mean, the afternoon peak hour runs from 5:30pm to 6pm, then that’s it. It’s done, and even then, it’s not that busy. Parking in the city is easy and cost effective. The whole area is filled with parklands, beautiful old stone houses, cottages, and mansions, and the Torrens River adds a touch of serenity as it flows through the suburbs and the city.

My mum (Jean) flew in from Port Macquarie to spend three weeks with us over Christmas and New Year. Because we couldn’t accommodate her in the caravan, and she refused to sleep on the roof rack (wuss) we all moved into the old farmhouse at Ryelands farm stay for two weeks. Ryelands Farm is nestled between the Barossa and the Clare Valleys. For those of you who don’t know, these are prime wine regions. So, you can image the country is filled with vineyards as far as the eye could see and is very pretty to drive through.

Apart from the vineyards, SA is prime agricultural country, grains, meats and dairy products, all farm fresh, delish and readily available to Mr. & Mrs. Joe public.

We had a good look around the area with mum and we were lucky enough to be able to visit the Shimmering Pines Sunflower Farm. It wasn’t as vast as we had expected, and the blooms were nearly spent, but it was still quite lovely walking through these happy flowers.

One of our country drives led us to Lake Bumbunga, at Lochiel. I had read that it was a pink salt lake, so I looked up some images on line and thought; “They have to be photo-shopped”. Guess what, they weren’t! The salt was such a vibrant pink in places, it truly was a memorable visit, as much for the wind as the scenery. To get to lake Bumbunga, we drove through Maclaren Vale, Mintaro, and Blyth. Blyth is famous because this is Mum’s and my hometown back in England.

After two weeks, we moved back to Levi Adelaide Holiday Park. Peter and I in the caravan which backed up to mum’s studio apartment. From there we were able to show mum a good time around the big smoke, a bit more of the countryside and a few of coastal trips.

And that about brings us up to date. We will be staying in SA for some months yet. I have to have regular check-ups back in Adelaide, but that gives us 6 week blocks to go and explore this beautiful state. When we leave Adelaide in a few days, we will be heading southeast, and that’s as far as our plan goes. It’ll be interesting to see how we settle back into nomadic life after being stationary for so long.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!