Tuesday 19th April 2005

Today started out with the weather turning out perfect for a drive down south of Adelaide to the Fleurieu Peninsula. After washing out the small car fridge due to a frozen can of Pepsi Max that exploded, and a few other necessary preparations such as getting lunch ready to take with us, we set off at about 9:45am.

First we headed off down the hills into Adelaide and on toward Glenelg, turning south on 'Main South' Road after fueling up the Patrol at a Woolworths Service Station. The journey south took us through the southern suburbs of Adelaide, down past McLaren Vale and on to Yankalilla.

We stopped in Yankalilla as this area was the home of the Roads Family in Australia back in the 1800's. Judy (Roads) wanted to see what she could find relating to the Roads in the area, having read the family book 'Roads Across The Ocean'. Our first visit was to a little old cemetery on the East side of the town where we located about 8 headstones with various members of the Roads family on them.
Next we called in to the Visitors Centre from which we were advised of the location of a couple of old churches and another cemetery.

The Anglican church was a revelation to Judy as one of the stained glass windows was dedicated to two early members of the Roads family. Then a visit to the second cemetery revealed a good number of headstones with the Roads name on them. There were many photographs taken of the graves and the headstones so they can be studied at a later time.

We then drove on to a great little beach at Normanville where we sat in the Patrol over the water and enjoyed our lunch with a cup of tea and muffins.

After lunch we continued south to Second Valley where we called in to the beach, or at least ocean front and jetty. There was not a lot of sand on the beach but it was a rather beautiful spot and would make a great little holiday location that we may visit next time we come this way.

Our next stop was at Cape Jervis, where the Kangaroo Island Ferry departs from. The drive from Yankalilla to Cape Jervis was through some really scenic hilly country that was quite amazing and would be even better when it was green in the spring time.

From here came the return journey across the bottom of the Fleuerieu Peninsula to Victor Harbour, then to Goolwa and up through Strathalban and Echunga to Hahndorf, arriving at the caravan park at about 4:50pm, just in time for the girls to get ready for Booze O'clock.(Jude's name for drinks time).

Wednesday 20th April 2005

Not far to travel for our sight seeing trip today but we did get under way by about 10:30am. Our destination was Adelaide City and surrounds.

Once more we made the journey down out of the Adelaide hills and still consider it to be a rather scenic drive. Our first destination was the Glenelg area where we stopped near the marina and strolled down the avenue where there were several million dollars worth of floating craft moored close to their owners homes. This is only a block away from the ocean itself and the city beaches.

From Glenelg we made our way up the coast, calling in to several of the beaches on the way. Many of them had jetties jutting out into the water, however as the water was pretty shallow, any boats the jetties originally serviced (if they ever did) must have had reasonably shallow craft.

When we stopped at Henley Beach we took the time to walk out to the end of the jetty where a dad was fishing and crabbing with his two little girls, however although they told us what they had caught, they were far more interested in what was for lunch and also the movie they were going to in the afternoon.

We continued up along the beaches until we came to Port Adelaide, then turned back and made our way into Adelaide City. After a couple of laps of the city block, we found a parking spot right beside the river, not far from the city centre.

The first task as far as the girls were concerned was to find somewhere to eat and that was achieved quite quickly. Thanks to Judy, lunch was enjoyed sitting at a small restaurant overlooking the park area and Torrens River near the Adelaide Concert Hall.

There was then time to walk into the city centre past the Old Rail Station which is now a casino and along the mall, including a deviation into the Myer Store which was advertising a one day 20% off sale. The walk continued up the mall to where the 'pigs' are, then back to the Patrol via a few other statues and sites worth a photograph or two.

On the way back to Hahndorf we took a side road off the freeway that climbed up into the hills past the 'Eagle on the Hill' hotel/restaurant. We then stayed on the side roads and found our way up to Mount Lofty, which has a lookout, restaurant and a visitors centre. The view from the lookout is quite spectacular, although in the afternoon the sun makes it a little difficult to get good photographs of the city and surrounds.

We finally made it back to the caravan at about 4:30pm where we settled in for our last night in Hahndorf and out last 'Booze O'clock' before we head off in the morning on our way to Mount Gambier.