Chasing the sun!

Most of our days seem to revolve around sunrise and sunset.
And Interesting clouds, lizards on the road, birds flying into our windscreen.
And breakfast, lunch and dinner.
However, we usually have lunch so late that dinner seems purely self indulgent. Instead we just say goodnight with a few pieces of Top Deck or Marble.
Not self indulgent at all :P

Speaking of, we hit Coober Pedy and decided to stay in an underground hotel. Now, this wasn't an easy choice. We don't have much "funds" for this trip. And the money we did save last year is still saved up for our next overseas adventure and we kind of don't want to use that. So, we're being pretty cheap. Eating things like MiGoreng noodles and canned lentils and no-name pasta for lunch and dinner. Oats for breaky, always. Nothing especially fancy. But we decided that the use of a shower, a kitchen (OVEN!), a washing machine and the novelty of staying underground was well worth it. H figured that saving money by not staying in a hotel wasn't worth the countless times I was probably gonna say something about wishing we had stayed underground… 'Cause I do that kind of thing.

Coober Pedy is strange, but the people were friendly.

We stayed 6.5m's underground and we're thrown out by the fact that the sun wouldn't be waking us up.



We baked brownies and cooked pizza and spent way to much money on groceries :P

Loved it.




We only stayed the one night and explored the surrounding area a bit the next day.
Deciding to give the car another go at an unsealed road, because all the websites/forums told us it WAS possible.




11km takes us a long time along an unsealed road, but we made it. Relatively unharmed, but extremely dusty, to The Breakaways.


This was probably the furthest we've been away from our car in a long time.

Anyhow, we hit the road again, and the engine overheated not long after our "off road" experience. Is it possible to shake the coolant form the radiator?? Well, something like that happened.

H fixed it, 'cause he's a strong and able manly man. And we drove on North towards some funny clouds. They reminded me of Super Mario and we sung the theme song a thousand times along the way.




Tonight we stayed at a Rest Area, all red dirt and gum tree's. Kicked back with our home made warm, spicy, apple cider, played a few games of Domino's (Thankyou Mike McCarthy for the inspiration!), saw a stunning sun set in the distance and decided we didn't really need dinner, seeing as we pretty much just had lunch :)




We're on our way to Uluru and surrounding areas.
See you there :)
xo

Since Adelaide...

We didn't fall in love with Adelaide, sorry Guy Sebastian.
But we did get what we needed from them, and that is a good thing.
We found a sneaky place to camp in the middle of the city suburbs for our last night there, instead of driving for an hour out of town. They had toilets and a river and everything. It was great. But it was even greater the next day when we left for the Barossa Valley and beyond.

We visited the Whispering Wall at the suggestion of some friends and, let me tell you, we are not immune to the novelty, that is for sure. We stood on either side, in the rain, talking to each other for AGES! It was cold and wet but too crazy not to keep playing with.




If you haven't been there, google it. It's this crazy wall. Built to hold up a massive damn full of water. But it just happens to be at the perfect acoustical angle to carry a whisper all the way along the 140m long wall! You stand at opposite ends and… well, whisper. It sounds like the other person is talking into a cheap microphone with a speaker hiding somewhere close. But, alas, no speaker. It's wild :)

After our little Barossa Visit we drove on up through the country, beeping at sheep and admiring the view.
H says,
"one day we'll be able to say that we've beeped at sheep in every state of the country!!!"



We found a hitchhiker along the way!
Now, when we were getting this van ready to go, we were determined to have spare seats for hitchers along the way. We didn't want to be that person who just drives past. So we kept the three back seats, instead of turning them into an actually comfortable bed, or some more storage. And this was the first time we got to use them.

Hitchhiker no. 1 was named Felix and was from France and wanted to go to a town called Melrose to go camping in the mountains. He carried only a backpack with him. Neither he, nor we, realised how far away Melrose was. Nearly 400km. And along a different route than I had planned [P.s. I'm the navigator] But we were so excited to give someone a lift that we took him straight there.

Then we stopped on the side of the road and camped there. Next to a huge unused paddock. Next to some old ruins. And we saw a beautiful Sunset and woke to a stunning Sunrise.




We enjoyed the sun for a while, then drove on, 'cause that's how we roll.



Now the aim was to go to the Flinders Ranges National Park, and go bushwalking for the day. I even packed a lunch for us. But… you know how I'm the navigator right…? Well, we ended up taking the wrong road and driving for 2 hours along it before realising that this was not the way… Sometimes these things just happen.

I was pretty sad because I really wanted to get up close and personal with the Flinders, I spent the drive reminiscing on my primary school project on Australian Explorers and everything! So, I spotted on the map a "main road" up ahead that was leading into the Ranges :) There are a few options. Main Highway,Main Road, Unsealed Road, 4WD only road. Well, this one looked pretty good.

It said the road was 30km's long so we turned onto it, and alas, it was unsealed. It was completely unsealed and bumpy as hell. Someone told us that when driving on a graded road in a 2wd it was best to just speed up and skip over the top of the bumps, so after going cautiously for a little while we decided to just try it.
Rev, rev rev and woah!
We were shaken like a paint tin at Bunnings.
H couldn't even hold the wheel anymore, the car was sliding out and everything on our dashboard was flying around the car. For a second, or maybe half a second, all of ours and the cars atoms seemed to separate and then come back together. It was incredible. And we're lucky the car didn't fall apart around us.

We turned around, and crept back to the Sealed Main Road, verbally encouraging map makers to be a little more specific about the state of their roads, and laughing the whole 2 hours back.

So here's what we saw of the Flinders Ranges.




Everything was shaken, except for Lego Man, who stood true and strong throughout our hardship.



We have decided to come back with a 4WD one day.

When in Adelaide... Run for the hills!!!

So, we have found that there is not much going on in Adelaide.



Sure, they've got an abundant gallery, a beautiful garden, old buildings and lots and lots of mediocre shops… But we found it best to go elsewhere.

It's hard trying to find gold in a place where you have no trusted friend as a guide.
But incredibly easy when you trust God and easy enough when you trust facebook friends :)

We did enjoy a beachside lunch (in the van 'cause it was so chilly) and we also found a lovely cafe to have an omelet in.

It's an organic grocery/cafe where the food they cook and sell comes from their very own farm. The owner has a lovely vision that I would love live out in my future. One day…



Their are heaps of old buildings.

HEAPS.

Heaps, like they way my grandpa HEAPS sugar into his tea. It's an astonishing kind of "heaps".

And to bore you with photos of them would be pure self indulgence, especially considering that I will post photos from Hahndorf which are mainly photos of old buildings anyway… Hmm… Anyone else have a thing for old buildings?

So here is a bit of Adelaide, and Hahndorf - a town that came well recommended (thanks Leischke's and Cath-Faff). Where we wandered around, ate a punnet of their strawberries and enjoyed a stick of their fine caramel/choc Fudge.

Three Things.

1.
For some reason, entering in and out of Adelaide I have seen countless Chicken trucks… You know, the kind that's full of thousands of live chickens, squished into hundreds of pallets? Drives in full and drives away empty?

So… got kind of used to seeing that.

But this morning I saw a Sheep truck, full of live Sheep, packed all on top of each other. One of the sheep had it's leg caught in the cage and it was hanging out the side of the truck.
This was not a good thing to see and it encouraged me in my vegetarianism.
Wanna know about it, just ask me.

On a lighter note :)

2.
Since trying this beautiful brand of beverage a couple of months ago I have heard friend after friend try to explain it to me. It seems that almost everyone has tried it, and loved it. But no one knows how to say the name! It's an alcoholic cider, with amazing flavours. And I thought, hey- I'm gonna blog this, just incase someone reads this who hasn't tried it yet!!!

"Rekorderlig Cider"

My favourite is the "serve hot or cold" Winter Cider, served Hot, of course :)

It is alcoholic, so for those who say no to that kind of thing I'd totally encourage you to buy some Non-alc Apple Cider and add your own fruity flavours and winter spices, heating it over the stove!! Get some heat in you belly through these last days of Winter :) And deliciousness. Lots of deliciousness!

3.
So, most of you already know and love this album. As do I.
But just incase you haven't heard it yet, here it is.

Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues.

It's perfect for driving all day, because we never get sick of it. It's good for every season and definitely worth listening carefully to. It is full of gold, honesty and has secret alcoves of wisdom hidden throughout. I feel like it's got God all over it.

"Sunlight over me no matter what i do"

Campside :)

Some people wonder,

"where do you camp every night?"

Well, firstly, it's not like "camping" is pulling out a tent and setting up tarps and stand-in kitchens and all the stuff you'd do if you were camping at Patonga or somewhere like that.

It's more like, parking the van somewhere we won't get bogged in the morning, and, when the weather suits, pulling out our gas stove and cooking dinner. Otherwise, we do that inside the van. Then we wash up and set up our "bed" in the back of the car and settle in for a night of reading, or talking, or making music. Whatevs. Just kicking back.

All the universe has to help us with is finding a place that doesn't have a "no camping/no overnight stays" sign. Then we're sorted. We don't pay to stay anywhere, we simply let Australia provide :)


Places we have camped the last 2 nights
=
On the very top of Mt Barker. Where we fell asleep and woke up to the view of the amazing Adelaidean Countryside.



And at a very well chosen "recreational area" of Norton Summit Road that lead us winding through breath-taking, stomache-sickenning heights, through very "sound of music" countryside. This rest stop sat in between rows and rows of vineyard and provided us with an amazing rainbow to look at as the light rain came and went.

Careful now...

This morning the earth seems so carefully made.
Every rolling hill, every sprawling tree, every pocket of sand,
every running wave, every floating cloud.

It's amazing.

When in Robe.

Robe
=
friendliest little sea-side town, ever.

We are just about to spend our third night here, under the generous roof of our friend Lauren who, since we arrived a little later than polite on thursday night, has been our wonderful host and tour guide and friend and chef and barista :)

Tomorrow morning we drive on up towards Adelaide, not knowing how far we will get before a new little town takes our fancy.

So, here is Robe.


Early morning beach walks in the icy breeze.


Local look-outs.



Sea side adventuring.






The famous Obelisk. (!?!??)


Sneaking into historic buildings…




The most bizarre church I've ever been inside of!!!





Drinking mulled wine with our lovely host.



H wore SHOES to the pub!!!


Hanging with new friends :)




A town where it is safe to leave keys in their holes...


Strangers who let you drive their car.


Sneaking into "closed" coffee shop for hot chocolates and sticky buns :D


Mice-killer task force. Registered cats, employed by business' to keep their shops rodent free. They have free range in the workplace, and their own door so that they can come and go as they please.
Smug little things :)


Book-shop coffee's and life stories.


Walking the dogs.




Nature walks.


Overall,
Happy chappy's.



You should go to Robe too :)