The starting point

The starting point

Wednesday 25 April 2018

22/4/18 Change of plans

 Time to pack up and move out to Silverton for a few days , that was the plan , the wheels started to fall off as we packed up - our bedroom slide out wasn't working correctly !!!!!
 Time to do some ringing around - one place in Broken Hill do repairs and also sell caravans , so we headed down there - dipped out there , the guy who owns the store was away on holidays till the following week - hmm . Okay , rang someone in Ballarat that does repairs - can't fit us in till the end of May - hmmm . Ah well Adelaide is only 500 odd kilometres away so we rang one dealer , but they couldn't do anything - it's their busy season . We ring another dealer , same deal again , nothing could be done till the end of May - hmmmmm getting frustrating .
 Finally we got a recommendation for another place , another phone call , success , they could have a look when we get there , so off to Adelaide we go .
  The countryside from Broken Hill to Peterborough is all new territory for us and was quite stunning. It's all outback , saltbush and not much else apart from the odd kangaroo , emu & goat . One section of the highway goes through a huge valley and there's a house & sheds out in the middle of it .


 The rail line to Adelaide runs beside the road as well . Further down the road it just gets flatter & flatter , with some hills off on the horizon .



 One little town is Mannahill , this is it's railway station .


 There's not much more to Mannahill so we didn't stop , continuing on to Peterborough . There was the compulsory stop at Oodla Wirra at the Quarantine Station , where they check to make sure you're not bringing any fruit & vegetables , honey , potatoes etc into South Australia . We were good and had a cook up on the side of the road after leaving Broken Hill ( a bit reminiscent of our crossing into WA in 2015 , where we did the same thing !! ) You can take any of that if it's cooked - except honey!! The inspectors go through your van and check , they gave us a new booklet as ours was 3 years out of date - the new one dates back to 2016 , ours was 2013 - the new one has the same cover and looks exactly like the old one - pretty clever !!
  From Peterborough we headed to a little town called Yongala - there are some great examples of the architecture from days gone by , with old buildings lining the main street , very little new ones , oh and a pub . We caught up with Frank & Margaret who also own a van like ours , and we camped with them overnight in the recreation park at the end of the street . It was also Frank's birthday , so we dined out at the pub with more of Frank's friends - we had a great night .


 After a good night's sleep , breakfast and chatting with Frank & Margaret , we headed off to Adelaide to get the repairs done . The company is busy and can't fit us in till the end of the month but that's okay , we'll amuse ourselves for a week or so , no problem !!
 We were greeted with a great sunset , here's a few photos of it .




 Next day we headed in to Semaphore and got the bikes out and rode 5 klms up to Port Adelaide , had some lunch and headed back . This is the beach looking north from Largs Pier .


This is the magnificent building of Largs Pier Hotel .


 After the ride we headed toward Glenelg , finding Glenelg Boat Harbour , these are the views from the road bridge .



 Down the road a little further we were in Glenelg , well it was Sunday , but the people - it was packed , cars everywhere - we turned and headed back out - ridiculous !!


 Another nice sunset finished the day off .


   We're both battling a nasty cough - it usually hits in the middle of the night and doesn't want to let go - we'd gladly give it away !!
 Here's a map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=11FaYa0_-R-kTjiXV8N4Ff8YiBibXL-8Z&usp=sharing














1 comment:

  1. Bad luck but hope it's repaired soon and you're back on the road. Good luck with the coughs too, hopefully they'll be gone soon too

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