Kristy 2

Kristy 2

Victor Harbour – Flinders Rangers

 

There are several points that make this trip so different to the last time we headed around Australia.  Most noticeably, the kids eat so much more.  I seem to be shopping every day, I think I’m going to encourage a hunter gatherer mentality from now on, if you want to eat it, go hunt it!  Secondly the kids are all that much smarter now, this renders me completely useless during maths lessons, thankfully I’ve still got them covered in science and history.  Finally, the most heartbreaking difference is that they all miss their friends, Tamsyn in particular has suffered terrible homesickness.  With this in mind Sue and Jordan Acker and I had been trying to hatch a plan to get Jordan to join us for a week or so while we travelled.  Unfortunately as time progressed flight prices became ridiculous and we agreed to abandon the plan, that was until I suggested that he just come now.  SO within 48hrs Jordan was on a flight to Adelaide.  Chris snuck out at the crack of dawn and drove 80km to Adelaide to pick him up.  He returned two hrs. later and snuck into the van.  Of course, as is always the way, Tamsyn chose this morning to sleep in.  I was bursting with excitement.  My impatience finally got the better of me so I shook her tent and asked her to come in and start her maths work.  She grumbled.  Ten minutes later (I seriously almost burst) I called again, she marched towards the van scowling at me and continued to grumble.  She took one step into the van and almost fell out the door.  Priceless.

 

Victor Harbour appears to be home to Australia’s biggest Bogan population but that aside the town was quite cute.  Encounter Bay provided the history lesson for this part of the trip being the meeting place for early explorers Cpt Flinders and Cpt Baudin.  It was hard to get the kids to do any school work this week with the excitement of our new visitor so we put the books away for a while and spent the days fishing and sightseeing.  The horse drawn tram across the causeway, the historic coastal cockle train and penguin searching were all highlights.

After watching Jordan and Ry pack a tent together I did send Sue a message informing her that Jordan would need to stay on with us and learn to pack properly (Chris was going grey by the second).  The trip to Adelaide was uneventful and we pulled in to a Big 4 caravan park which we rarely ever do (have you ever noticed that the number 4 on a keyboard has the $ sign above it?) to be greeted by a rude cow who increased the price we were quoted because the Clipsal Race was coming up (we had left before race day). Putting our dodgy welcome aside Adelaide was beautiful.  We celebrated Chris’ 40^th birthday at the Adelaide Zoo which is tiny in comparison to Melb but houses Australia’s only giant Pandas.  Dinner that night was enjoyed at the Adelaide sailing club where we dined on beautiful fresh food while watching the sun set from the balcony as dolphins frolicked in the bay beyond.  Perfection.

After a quick stroll through Glenelg we took Jordan out to the airport, yes tears fell and I wandered if we’d done the wrong thing, (sending him back, not bringing him over).  Soon enough we were back on the road and heading to the stunning surrounds of the Barossa Valley.  Now our visit here is purely on selfish grounds.  Twenty years ago I took off from home to backpack across the country, one of my first stops was the Barossa where I purchased a bottle of white port that I packaged and sent to my Dad for his birthday.  The ungrateful old bugger put the bottle in the cupboard and left it there until last year when Mum found it.  Together Dad, Brenden, Chris and I drank the entire bottle while camping and it was the holy grail of ports.  We discarded the bottle, all of us being too drunk to remember the label and went to bed.  Sadly the rubbish was collected the next morning and we never saw that bottle again.  So we set off on a quest this year to find once again the Holy Grail.  As it turns out only a couple of wineries in the Valley produce a white port so you can only imagine our rapture when we stumbled upon Bethany Wines at our second tasting.  Not only did they have our port but they also offered testings of it as a slushy.  God smiled on us today!  The experience only got better, winery to winery tasting little sips of heaven.  The kids became restless so Mum suggested that we take her and the kids back to the van for a swim while Chris, Dad and I extended our quest to find the best boutique beer.  It was at this time that we found Maggie Beer’s Farm, woo wee.  Free samples at every turn, stunning setting, beautiful coffee, truly foodie’s heaven.

 

 

Nursing a slight headache the next morning we bid a teary farewell to Mum and Dad.  Some people might say that our kids are unlucky to have lost their Nanna and Poppa at such a young age and certainly that’s true, however it makes me appreciate the incredibly unique relationship that they have with their Grandma and Grumps.  A mateship and respect that I’ve never seen in other children, it’s unique to the Millburn’s and Pentland’s.  Sure my kids take it for granted, they have nothing else to compare it to.  It seems so fitting that amongst the beautiful backdrop of Tanunda we bid farewell to Mum and Dad.  Thanks so much for joining us, now go forth and become Nomads.