Hopetoun

Well a lovely Christmas party was had by all at Hopetoun on the weekend. The wind could have stayed away but at least the sun was shining and quite a few were sporting some bright red sunburn, ouch. The lakeside park is a gorgeous spot with powered sites one side and freecamp the other. As the boss was paying for everything we had a powered site and a great time. The spit  roast pork, beef & lamb were cooked to perfection, salads very yummy and a mountain of drinks for every taste. A big thanks to all the hard work behind the scene to organise a great time.

As you can see it is a beautiful spot and great for fishing, yabbying and water skiing.

Everyone starting to arrive and plenty of boats in tow.

The bird life were very used to people and this Noisy Miner didn’t take long to find something to eat.

Bethany spent ages cruising round in the V8 speedboat having a great time helping the skiers. The faster the better as far as she was concerned.

After others had their turn she decided to give it a go. At least she had fun trying but didn’t manage to get up on the skis. I forgot the camera at the time so was reduced to using her phone camera lol. Of course she had it set on the lowest quality.

Half of the group rocked up the next morning ready for a lovely hot breakfast of bacon & eggs. The rest crawled out some time later looking very seedy and tired. I hope they pick the same spot for next year, it was a great time.

Adelaide

We headed off for Adelaide last Tuesday morning with the weather warming up to 30C. Got to the lovely McLaren Vale CP about 3.30pm and set the van up. We were a bit tired after the long drive so spent the afternoon relaxing. Woke the next morning to rain and cold wind, you can’t win lol. So day 1 we decided to have some retail therapy in the city. The new camp chairs were purchased, some life jackets for the boat and show Bethany round this beautiful city. The old buildings look dwarfed by the large modern concrete office blocks.

Thursday was worse in the weather department so off to the city again for a drive around Port Adelaide and hunt down some nice lunch. Friday we were due to have lunch with friends but unfortunately they were ill so we went for a drive down to Cape Jarvis where the ferry to Kangaroo Island comes in. It was a wild wind blowing and I wouldn’t have liked to be on the ferry even though the trip is reasonably short.

On the way back we drove in to Rapid Bay which was much more sheltered. It’s a beautiful spot and I can see why it’s a popular campground. Bethany satisfied her need to throw rocks into the sea.

The local wildlife were not fussed with tourists pulling up to take their photo. Miss eagle eye spotted these two kangaroos in a paddock.

Saturday was school holidays and the AFL grand final so the park was full and noisy. We decided a day at the zoo was a good idea as the weather was settling down. Bethany’s favourite animals, Pandas and meerkats, were on display. 3 hours saw us walking our feet off and having a lovely time seeing all the animals.

This cheeky fellow was on lookout duty.

It was a lovely break even if the weather was awful. Plenty more to see next time we drive over there. Next stop Houpton at the end of the month.

Life is good.

Days like today really make you love life. Rusty has been hard at work converting our beer keg firepot into a potbelly for the patio. All finished and installed today so guess what the weather did? Yes it warmed up to a lovely 20c. Rusty fired it up anyway and we had a wonderful happy hour or 3 sitting round the fire.

You can just see my lovely Clivia flowering away in the background. It thinks it is spring already.

The Corellas and Galahs decided to visit en masse. Do they ever make a racket and a mess digging up the grass. I’m glad it wasn’t my grass lol.

We finished the day with a sumptuous meal of Ocean Trout with fresh coleslaw, potato salad and crusty bread. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Green granite and prehistoric mammals!

I do love the June long weekend, a good chance to escape before winter really sets in.

We headed down to Edenhope, about 2 hours from here, for the long weekend. Having never been there it was nice to explore somewhere different. On the way there we passed Mt Arapiles, a favourite with the rock climbers. We will have to do quite a bit of exploring around this mountain as it looks spectacular. Natimuk is only 10km from there and looks a lovely spot near the lake to base from. The lake started filling last year and is beautiful now.

 

Edenhope is a lovely quiet town and the caravan park is right beside Lake Wallace.  After a quick setup we set off to explore the town and take a drive out to Baileys Rocks. This outcrop of green granite rocks is only one of two in the world apparently? The other is in Canada. The boulders are huge and the area is quite eerie with no birds to hear. We spent quite a bit of time there exploring amongst the boulders. Bethany was in awe of the size of them and commented that some looked like huge marbles.

 

 

On Sunday we headed across the border into South Australia to visit the Naracoorte Caves. Hubby and I had been before but Bethany hadn’t. The first stop was the huge statue out the front and the obligatory photo with her arm in its mouth. Once inside she was in awe of the setup there. The thunder & lightning was very lifelike and the bush sounds combined with the dramatic lighting and moving creatures certainly set the atmosphere. We thoroughly enjoyed it all over again.

All in all a great weekend and we look forward to seeing more around the area.

Yabbies

Yes its still yabby time and we finally caught some.
Rusty took the nets out with a nice chunk of ham that was ready for the bin, the yabbies loved it. Went back a couple of hours later and there were 16 in the pots.

He is now outside cooking them for a snack before dinner. We will leave the pots out overnight and I’ll get the job of cooking the next lot tomorrow.

Nearly the long weekend so we might head down to Edenhope and do a day trip to Naracoorte caves while we are there.