Well, we've had a great week. We left the houseboat Thursday morning after staying the last night in Berri just outside the pub. We moved on to Mannum to visit with some old family friends who we have known since we were little tackers - John and Jan Doughty who used to be our neighbours when we lived on the farm in Echunga.
We had a great time visiting with them and caught up on 30 years of gossip! They live on their housbeat and are currently caretakers for the place they are going to be putting the new marina for Mannum.
On Friday they very kindly offered to babysit Boris for us so we could go and visit the Monato Zoo where they keep African animals. I have always wanted to go on safari in Africa but of course could never afford it so I reckon this is the next best thing! We had a great time and I reckon the price is pretty good for what you get. You pay $22.00 per person and you get to go on a coach tour with a commentator who tells you all about the animals. You drive right through their paddocks and they come up to the bus - it was great - especially the giraffes. There are walking tracks so you can walk around and see them all yourself or there are shuttle buses that take you around and drop you off and pick you up. It was a great day out.
I just love how they build houses around here - there are so many gorgeous old stone houses, outbuildings, etc, etc built out of stone and they are just fantastic - love them!
The next day we said goodbye to Jan and John and headed for Hahndorf followed by Echunga - my old home town via Birdwood - Ross wanted to go to the National Motor Museum - of course. He reckoned it was just ace and I sat in the car babysitting Boris and doing some work on the computer. When he came out, I asked for fish and chips so while I finished up my work Ross walked across the road to Cafe Blumberg and got fish and chips - I reckon they were just about the best fish and chips I had ever had!! YUMMY!! If you ever go there you have to get some. I went in and told the owner how good they were and she said that they go to a lot of trouble to get them that way and do all sorts of special things to make them the best - I was pretty impressed!
I hadn't been back to Echunga for about 30 years and I was only 10 when I left so I didn't remember all that much. We walked around Hahndorf for a couple of hours - a great touristy place that is an old German town and has heaps of great shops - I reckon the best one was the candlemaker - I reckon I could have taken half his shop home with me!
We drove around Echunga which still looks exactly the same as it did when I was a kid! We then went out to our old chicken farm which has definitely changed and then walked around the old gold mines that we used to play in when we were kids - it's a bit different now - they have fences all around the mines and they didn't when we were kids - if you want to know a funny story ask one of my family about the guy who fell in one of them on his motorbike!
We camped the night at the parking area for the gold mines and are planning to walk up and see the people in our old farm to see if they remember us!
Sunday 5th April
Ross wandered around the gold fields again while I did some work, there was a big tunnel that you could go down that we spotted yesterday but you needed a light, so he went back this morning to check it out and guess what? He forgot his light! He went through anyway but didn't see much of course. When I finished working we both went back and took torches this time - it is about 80 metres long and it was pretty interesting. Following that we went down to our old farm to introduce ourselves. The people who are living there now are the Van Doorns? (something like that) and they had been there for about four years and didn't know too much about previous owners. Nevertheless we had a great conversation and I told them about what used to be where, etc. The farm has been broken up and there is an extra house further down the hill where one of the chicken sheds used to be and I think there is only one or two sheds left, all the others had been pulled down (or fell down).
After that we headed off towards Adelaide as we want to go to Adelaide tomorrow sometime so we wanted to find a place to camp nearby. We stopped at McLaren Vale at a little roadside stop near the information centre that had free BBQ's and toilets, etc.
We had a great time visiting with them and caught up on 30 years of gossip! They live on their housbeat and are currently caretakers for the place they are going to be putting the new marina for Mannum.
On Friday they very kindly offered to babysit Boris for us so we could go and visit the Monato Zoo where they keep African animals. I have always wanted to go on safari in Africa but of course could never afford it so I reckon this is the next best thing! We had a great time and I reckon the price is pretty good for what you get. You pay $22.00 per person and you get to go on a coach tour with a commentator who tells you all about the animals. You drive right through their paddocks and they come up to the bus - it was great - especially the giraffes. There are walking tracks so you can walk around and see them all yourself or there are shuttle buses that take you around and drop you off and pick you up. It was a great day out.
I just love how they build houses around here - there are so many gorgeous old stone houses, outbuildings, etc, etc built out of stone and they are just fantastic - love them!
The next day we said goodbye to Jan and John and headed for Hahndorf followed by Echunga - my old home town via Birdwood - Ross wanted to go to the National Motor Museum - of course. He reckoned it was just ace and I sat in the car babysitting Boris and doing some work on the computer. When he came out, I asked for fish and chips so while I finished up my work Ross walked across the road to Cafe Blumberg and got fish and chips - I reckon they were just about the best fish and chips I had ever had!! YUMMY!! If you ever go there you have to get some. I went in and told the owner how good they were and she said that they go to a lot of trouble to get them that way and do all sorts of special things to make them the best - I was pretty impressed!
I hadn't been back to Echunga for about 30 years and I was only 10 when I left so I didn't remember all that much. We walked around Hahndorf for a couple of hours - a great touristy place that is an old German town and has heaps of great shops - I reckon the best one was the candlemaker - I reckon I could have taken half his shop home with me!
We drove around Echunga which still looks exactly the same as it did when I was a kid! We then went out to our old chicken farm which has definitely changed and then walked around the old gold mines that we used to play in when we were kids - it's a bit different now - they have fences all around the mines and they didn't when we were kids - if you want to know a funny story ask one of my family about the guy who fell in one of them on his motorbike!
We camped the night at the parking area for the gold mines and are planning to walk up and see the people in our old farm to see if they remember us!
Sunday 5th April
Ross wandered around the gold fields again while I did some work, there was a big tunnel that you could go down that we spotted yesterday but you needed a light, so he went back this morning to check it out and guess what? He forgot his light! He went through anyway but didn't see much of course. When I finished working we both went back and took torches this time - it is about 80 metres long and it was pretty interesting. Following that we went down to our old farm to introduce ourselves. The people who are living there now are the Van Doorns? (something like that) and they had been there for about four years and didn't know too much about previous owners. Nevertheless we had a great conversation and I told them about what used to be where, etc. The farm has been broken up and there is an extra house further down the hill where one of the chicken sheds used to be and I think there is only one or two sheds left, all the others had been pulled down (or fell down).
After that we headed off towards Adelaide as we want to go to Adelaide tomorrow sometime so we wanted to find a place to camp nearby. We stopped at McLaren Vale at a little roadside stop near the information centre that had free BBQ's and toilets, etc.
0 comments:
Post a Comment