Merry go Round - Misery

Bad Weather.

Out by 10am we arrive at the train station for a ride on the steam ranger train. we by our tickets and then as we are about to leave the ticket booth i mention to the woman behind the counter that this will be the first steam train ride for the kids. the woman explains to me that the steam train is not running because of repairs and so t is a diesel locomotive. i hold her right there and ask for a refund. why would i spend $50 to ride a shitty old diesel engine. No Go! i want the kids to experience a true steam  train ride... i guess we will have to wait for it further along the trip. So we go for coffee and prep for our long drive ahead.
   We steer for a place called Parhnam which says it is a free camping ground just north of Adelaide.
  Along the way we decide to have lunch by the ocean and let the kids play on some swings etc to loosen up a little. Finding a spot near Adelaide ocean line was just about impossible. even the round abouts in the area were testing me with the limits of size etc. Certainly not for a fully laden 25 foot caravan with NSW travellers inside. After what seemed 30 minutes of undecided entry points we found a roadside type of carnival. But as luck would have it South Australia was putting on its normal state of weather for us "rain". shitty bloody rain. everywhere we go it raining. hoe do people live with such a shitty ,gloomy outlook over everything. the beach was bitterly cold with icy winds and raining. crap crap crap. we are beginning to think SA will have one less travelling family and head straight to warmer weather.
Victor harbour had no tram service which we wanted to do. The Steam train was broken, and now the carnival has packed up as we arrive due to no-one participating. Awful time so far for all of us. We did mange to pop the girls on a Cool Merry go Round and we were the only ones on it. pretty sad place in general. but i put it down to weather related let downs. To cold for any more activities we watch the kids on the swings for 20 minutes and a push on their scooters and then back in the "warm" truck to soldier on.

Warning! This video may contain negative material

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As we finally arrive at the destination it is the spookiest little town we have been in so far. unusual vehicles all around that the locals have hand made and when i walked down to see the beach it was 1 meter high in kelp ribbon seaweed. like a huge mattress on the shoreline. This area held nothing visually exciting for both me and heather. there was nothing for the kids to do or see. no Internet. no phones. Forget it. Sorry girls we are not stopping here. lets keep looking. 20 minutes more in the car on endless Flat as a pancake roads in the middle of dreary weather to places that looked like they needed some life pumped into them. How people live in these towns is beyond me. Ugly, lifeless and in need of a face lift. we spot another roadside stop on the map but this is just a gravel side road and again nothing here to see or do. it is getting late so we decide a van park it is.

We find a little park in balaclava. it is very quiet very  clean and just nice enough for $23. Done we are all feeling better with the stop here.

More excitement tomorrow as we push through these very average areas on our way to Port Augusta.

balaklava Van Park

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Victor Harbour

Victor Harbour

All set up in a BIG 4 caravan park in Victor Harbour. We have met a young couple on a similar trip to ours. they pulled in next to us as we arrived and they have 3 kids similar ages to ours and a dog, all in a 16 foot little Millard Caravan. That will test them I'm sure. They told us about the penguin centre out on Granite island so we thought the kids would like to see it. off we go but this time we are walking to the island and leaving the car behind in the park. The walk is about 1 kilometer to the beginning of the jetty, the jetty is about 500 meters long. It normally has a horse drawn tram that gives you a ride across everyday but they were working on the pier this month and so no go for us on the authentic tram line. This means the kids are going to feel it by days end. After what seems hours of walking we finally arrive at the penguin centre. Not much to speak of, just a cage around some poor orphaned little black and white birds with a young girl feeding them for us to see. We shot some video and photos and headed onward to walk around the island, the girls complaining of sore legs.
   This was all we did this day due to tired limbs from the big walk. We leave tomorrow but before we go away from Victor Harbour we are taking the girls on a steam train ride along the coastline. seeing as though we missed the puffing billy steam train at Frankston earlier in the holiday.

Victor Harbor Beachfront Holiday Park

Even the bins are excellent features throughout Victor Harbour

Thirsty little walkers

All aboard

LocaL park scene

Granite island

Natives to the island

Mia cuddles the penguins

Town fountain

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Germany in Australia

Hahndorf - ( 1 video)
We were told about this little town and not to miss out on it.
Hahndorf is a small town about 30 minutes drive out of Adelaide, South Australia along the South Eastern Freeway (Princes Highway). The town was settled by Lutheran migrants largely from in and around a small village then named "Kay" in Prussia, many of whom were aboard theZebra. The town is named after Danish Captain Dirk Meinhertz Hahn, who was captain of the Zebra.



With a van this size you can't just drive down the main street of any town, you have to sus it out first and check your widths etc. We just fit in with this one. WOW! what a scene from a different country. Mixed businesses from Ice creamery's to art and craft store. All German influence. we spent quite a few hours and i took several photos of the streets scenes.
  Otto's bakery provided some well earned lunch and then we upped anchor for Victor Harbour. Only an hours drive. 

Germany in Australia

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Puppets of Hahndorf

Plenty of these for sale

Local stores , German architecture

Shopping time

Street view

Ice cream soda

Bear on a Rock

Bear Rock. South Australia ( 1 video)

When we woke up it was breaky as usual. the next thing we hear is a horn like tune. Open up the doors and there in front of us is "the Murray princess" a huge paddle steamer paddling its way down river. The whole campsite had people running for their cameras to nick a shot. Ducks of all colours are our friends at the door of the caravan and the girls have learned the art of making a piece of bread go a long way.
   Under a friends recommendation we hear of a town called Hahndorf. An early German settlement within the hills of Adelaide winery country. Off we go. On the way we wanted to capture a photo of Bear Rock. This little town and i mean little has a population of 80 people and the rocks around this town for about a 5 kilometer stretch are the most amazing thing we've seen so far with regards to natural scenery.  There is one rock in particular that gives this little town its name of Bear Rock. See photo. Someone has painted it white to stand out from the crowd. we also saw 2 frog rocks, a turtle rock and of course a cock rock.
   After photographing a few rocks we headed for Hahndorf.


 The entire area is covered with round shaped rocks that run for about a 5 kilometer stretch. Apart from the deadhead graffiti on it, the place is so unusual.

Bear on A Rock - video

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Bear Rock

vFrog Rock on the right Turtle rock on the  left 

Rocky Outlook

Our van in the background

have a guess what this is named

Off to Hahndorf

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Our Rainbow Connection

Adelaide day trip -  ( 1 video)
During our trip we have been trying to get Mia booked into a specialist to look into her medical problems and the only day to see one is today at the city of Adelaide. About an hour and a half drive and the GPS decides to take us along the windy road through the scenic locations and wineries. Everyone is feeling quite carsick by the end of the drive and Adelaide is a welcomed relief.

Grape vines 

We found this fella on the side of the road

The 'Worlds'  largest rocking horse

Streets of  Barrossa valley township

Mia & Mummy go on into the doctors while me and Lily check out some sites around. One of them being the St peters Anglican church that is nearby. It is a mixed school day here and there are school kids by the hundreds. we popped inside to take a couple of photos and Lily loved this little excursion with daddy.

Lily's photo of the local colour 

School children visit to one of the local churches.

Smile Lily

Adelaide street view

   Mia was cleared of any major problems and we jump back into the car to head back to Mannum. We will definately come back to Adelaide for some sightseeing of this well organised town. There are plenty of churches in Adelaide so we may church takes some great photos of what makes this town renowned.


We are driving back to Mannum and it starts to rain, producing one of the best rainbows any of us has ever seen. the end of the rainbow was literally 100 meters away. You could throw a stone to it for sure. A few photos and some video needed to be taken.

Our Rainbow Connection

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Full arch rainbow

Almost a double arch at times

Before leaving Mannum i dropped off the van to a Trye mechanic who will rotate the wheels for me to let both sides of the tread wear evenly on our trip. For $36 it was a bargain and he even let us fill up on water from his town water tap.. I filled both tanks to keep us in plenty of showers while camping in the no water areas. Tonight though we moved up river a little to another free camp site. Definately not as good as the first but we are just digging in for the night so no sights are being missed.