Bendigo, Yack, Home, The End of The Trip!

We keep going until we hit Bendigo. It's been a massive drive today. This city looks positively European with all of it's old buildings, and tram down the middle.

Got up, went to the local pool. The hotel has a pool membership. Gary the owner says that it's a lot cheaper than building and maintaining their own one. Louis went on the slippery slide. That was awesome. We went into town for some Japanese. The boys stayed in the room, while me and Marie went to the Bendigo Pottery. There was a glass model maker, a soap maker, and some locally done chocolate, so we picked up some of that as well as some bowls etc.

Went to the night market, and bought some Bendigo alco fizz pops for home.

Left: camels at the night market.

20th - it was very hot, we left early. First stop Benalla, Main St cafe, no vego option bar a salad turkish sandwich. Stopped to get 3kg of cherries just before Shepparton, no stopping there as it looked kinda borin.

Dropped in on Lib, Hugh, Cam, Row, Ben and Angus. It was about 40deg C so we stayed indoors, pulled out some beer, alco fizz pops (Spritzer) that we bought in Bendigo, boys went nuts, we played 500 once again. The girls beat the pants off the boys. They scored a free stray cat that is very cool. They tried to find the owners via Facebook announcements and the local pound, but no takers, so she's staying there. She has no name except for Miao Miao. Always a pleasure. Good feed, good conversation, good wine, good swing, kids were v entertained.

Finally rolling at 11am, and we've got a long way to go! Lunch was fast at Gundagai - some pies, then back on the drive. As we get closer, clicking into the notification about the fire in the Southwest says the Hume Highway is closed. Is that right? Is it current? The winds are strong. It's hot and dry. The fire is out of control. Google maps agrees - the highway is closed. We're off down to Wollongong to get around it. There's a smash on the Macquarie Pass, so we have to go even further around - via Jamberoo. Heading to Robertson, fire trucks speed past, in the direction we're travelling. Smoke is thick. Are we heading into a fire? We listen intently to ABC radio, people ringing in to pinpoint where the multiple fires have reached. One guy says the flames are about 50m away from his house. Anyone who thinks climate change is not real either has their head in a bucket, or are being wilfully ignorant. They will get converted one disaster at a time.

Picture right: welcome home! Once you get into the traffic, it's like you never left.

Eight hours later (should've been 6) we arrived where Vonne and family live. My brothers and sisters are in Perth but we've just been there, so it didn't make sense to go, then have to drive 4000kms back. Doing the last 1500 odd has been tough enough.

We sent her an SMS selfie of us out the front of their house. Holly saw it and yells 'Ted and Marie are outside our front door'. Vonne yells 'Outside our house??' then they all come out to see us. What a surprise!

It's nice to be home. We went to see our house, which is just an endless stress. Let's not talk about it. Other chores include shopping for gifts, food etc. We've been cleaning Evonne's house down for the Christmas get together. Today is Christmas! The boys were pretty stoked with their goodies - Lou got Zombicide, a board game, and Ollie got a laptop.

Long story short - that's the end of the trip folks!

Nhill

We rolled to Nhill for the pinball museum (like what I did there?). The curator (with Lou, picture left) is full of energy for them! The boys had a great time.

 

Pinballs started as gambling machines with pins hammered into a wooden board. The ball bounced around until it popped in a hole. Then you'd get money accordingly, like on roulette. They were big in the prohibition era.

It's a hit with us all. They have all kinds of pinball machines to play.

Pinball wizard.

Even outside has big flippers and a rebound thing.

The road to Bendigo. We did a big day's drive.

Kantjinwald (Port Elliot)

So now we're staying in Port Elliot in the Big 4 caravan park. The local beach is tiny surrounded by rocks, will check out more tomorrow.

This place is a real surprise - lots of beautiful architecture and well preserved heritage. The beach is a bit seaweedy, plus fairly cold. On the second day, me and Ollie went into the surf for a while. It's not too bad at all once you're used to the temperature.

The birds start screeching around 5am when the sun is half up. The tree over our tent is overrun with white cockatoos which bite off branch chunks that thunk on the tent. The car is caked with birds poo. On day two, we move it from under the tree. I had a go at scraping the windscreen, but it is just too hard to move it all.

Kantjinwald aka Port Elliot has a few beautiful streets of grand stone buildings.

And a railway crossing in the middle. This railway was one of the first in the state.

Victor Harbor - some nice streets, one big ugly shopping centre though.

McLaren Vale

Saw a couple more in the morning, packed up, got rolling to McLaren Vale, a slightly weird town with no centre, but a does have a shopping centre with a big car park. We found an Aboriginal artist's shop. She talked us through all the pieces. We got a Coolamon that depicts the mining taking all the water, the riverbeds go dry, no more life. The back is how it was before. People getting cut off from their traditional lands.

First stop the Surfing Brewery for lunch, Kay Brothers for tasting with the Danish dude who has his own winery but works there Sunday, the place by Dave Hardy (or something) with the B&B owner who works there Sunday, the Italian place with the Italian guy from a small village somewhere near Venice and Bologna, and finally Hugh Hamilton with the nice girl who told us about Port Elliot.

Adelaide

Walked around the city. 

Got the tram home.

Popped into nut and fruit shop, then lolly shop. Went home to watch some episodes of "Nailed it!" which is just awesome.

Outside the lolly shop.

Adelaide Gaol

Went to gaol - seems all the old jails are spelt Gaol. Adelaide gaol has not very high walls, topped with loose bricks. The idea is the inmates would bring the bricks down, making some noise. At least one set of guys made it out by standing on each others' shoulders.

Ollie the inmate.

Near the entry, visitors could talk to their loved ones via a double mesh. We did the same, just like in the movies. The old setup simply had a bar, so everyone would be shouting over everyone's conversations. Must have been difficult for personal topics or say meeting with your lawyer etc.

 The gaol was used until the 80s roughly.

One of the inmates was in for a short time, but was an artist, so put up some amazing paintings straight onto the wall.

All the gruesome details of how it was done here.

There was an inner set of walls and buildings surrounded by a corridor with one more wall to make it over. Seems pretty secure to me! Security cameras were recent.

This is inside the tower.

A collection of home made knives.

Courtyards for exercise.

There were two places were executions were done - a beautiful old tower, pictured on the right here.

There were two rooms, one for the prisoner to sit and think about things for two hours prior, and one for the executioner to pull the lever to the trapdoor. It's a very uncomfortable feeling to see these things. Not sure how people could set it all up and pull the lever.

Executions were at 8am, so the prisoner would have gotten in at around 6am, then sit in the room next to the scaffold to think about life.

Adelaide

Got to Adelaide! We are staying in Glenelg, but somehow ended up 2.5kms from the beach. This AirBNB thing is completely hit and miss if you don't have time to fire off prior questions. It's a bit industrial, but nice inside. Me and the boys went for an evening walk to see the cycle path, and big grassy strip in the middle of one of the roads.

Today walked into Glenelg and the beach. Got Metro cards for the local trams, bus and train. Walked around eating and viewing. Louis and Marie went on the ferris wheel. Caught the tram home.

Kids day off - Ollie and Louis had a lazy day on devices while me and Marie went to the city. 

Adelaide is a well designed city that hasn't been destroyed too much.

Stopped for a coffee, went to a vintage second hand and upcycled clothing shop - chatted to the mother of the owner for about an hour, then I ran off to get a pair of boots direct from the Rossi factory. 

The Adelaide Arcade

After we chatted to the lady at A Rare Notion.


I ran off to get some boots. Missed a train from town as it rolled off the platform, next one was 36 minutes later, argh. Got to the factory eventually. Marie searched around and got a haircut. Asked for layering, but ended up with a straight bob. Not a bad relaxing day.

Clare Valley

11th drove from Wallaroo and the Copper Coast Hotel. Many wide open wheat fields with little tree protection, but they seem well covered all the same. 

Arrived Clare Valley, the book lady told us about how fire started - angle grinder sparks, a lawn mower hitting a rock, back burning not fully exitinguished and causing a lot of damage which had to go to court. If they miss the evacuation, there aren't many places in town, but there are several escape roads. 

Went to a couple of very nice wineries. The boys loved it as they stayed in the car on devices.

Left: Sevenhills is a Jesuit winery for whatever reason.

Nice church at Seven Hills winery.

Mintaro is a state heritage area, stone buildings everywhere from like 1850 or so.

Mintaro is in great original condition.