Through and Around Adelaide

Our overnight stop at Langhorn Creek was ‘damage free’ due to the careful ‘parkup’ plan.  We stayed well away from the trees and had a relatively peaceful nights sleep.

Tuesday morning we received an early morning phone call from the Australian Caravan Company to say that our replacement satellite dome had been delivered the night before. A great service from FedEx – a four-day delivery from Auckland. We booked the fitting of the dome for Wednesday.

The big lobbo at Kingston

Because of the fitting we decided to stay reasonably close to Adelaide for the next few days. We departed Langhorn Creek and headed for the ‘lobster’ town of Kingston. Kingston is at the entrance to the Limestone Coast Region of South Australia with its commercial activity centred on the lobster, aquaculture and the fishing industries.  Farming, radiata pine production and a brilliant wine industry also have a significant input in the region.

After a short stop to pick up groceries and have a look around the town, we made our way towards our next overnight stop – Port Parham. Port Parham is on the St Vincent Gulf on the south coast of South Australia and about 60km west of Adelaide. Our friends Bruce and Lyn who we last saw before Xmas were also at Port Parham so it was great to catch up with them again. We had no cell coverage in Port Parham so our apologies if you could not get hold of us or we could not answer your emails.

The boys off crab gathering

The beach on which we stayed is very tidal but is famous for crab hunting. We bought ourselves a ‘crab rake’ and over our stay we tested our crab hunting skills. We initially wore our boat shoes in the water but we were told the ‘toughies’ over here go in with bare feet and when the crabs attach themselves to the toes, they lift their foot up and grab the crab!!  We had seen the size of the crabs so were not too keen on trying that. The boat shoes turned out to be a bit of a hindrance in the mud so it was ‘off shoes’ and into bare feet. You certainly knew when a crab was onto your foot but it was great fun and a real laugh.

Success – are they big or what? And they hurt!!

On Wednesday we took the trip back into Adelaide to get the new dome fitted. The guys at the Australian Caravan Company were super helpful and had the old dome removed, the satellite system vacumned and cleaned and the new dome fitted in 20 minutes – all for the princely sum of A$20. Again, thanks very much guys for a great service.

Thursday morning Nick and Elizabeth, who we had met at Wrights Bay, joined us at Port Parham. If you could see our set up today we are similar to a circle of ‘chuck wagons’ waiting for the Indians to attack. I have a feeling the next few days are going to be very social.

Dinner at the Parham Sports and Social Club
From Left: Dearne, Rod, Bruce, Lyn, Nick, Lizzie

On Friday night we took a leisurely 800 metre stroll up the dust road to the Parham Sports and Social Club. The Club pays many of the facilities at our beach camp so we decided to return their hospitality by visiting the Club. We had a relaxing social evening with a great meal and were treated very generously by the members. They even shouted us a glass of port before we departed. It is a great little Club and we are glad we made the effort to visit.

Speaking of Elizabeth, some months ago she developed an excellent Budget Tracker for travellers using Excel as the base software. Over the past few weeks we have been working with Elizabeth to refine the programme to reflect our expense streams and how best it can meet our needs. It is a brilliant tool and it certainly gives us a better idea of our spend over here on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. Elizabeth is selling the tool as a customised product. If you are interested talking with her, please email her on lizzienic5@gmail.com .

We departed Port Parham this morning (Saturday) and are driving north to Port Wakefield, having lunch and a bit of a look around then heading inland to Clare, across to Burra, east to the Murray River and then following the river back into Adelaide in time at attend the South Australia Motorhome and Caravan Show on the 19 February.

Our plan is to stay at Clare tonight.