I don't really have much that is positive to say about South Australia, well except for the wine - which I needed to get me through severe depression at having moved here.
We
lived in Jamestown and Edithburgh for 6 months each as hubby scored a good job
with Green Corps doing various environmental projects with groups of unemployed
people assisting them to gain valuable experience to improve future job
prospects.
We
were all pretty much glad to move on when the projects came to an end. We have some interesting memories from our
adventures here. If you are thinking of
visiting SA, do yourself a favour and don’t bother.
Adelaide
is a small town with a church on every corner.
The only good thing Adelaide has going for it is a German town called
Harndorf in the hills and the Claire and Barossa Valley.
FUNNY STORY
Hubby
arrived in Adelaide about 3 weeks before us. When the kids and I flew in hubby had arranged
a weekend stay for us in the hills. We
had a quaint English looking cottage with a cosy fireplace.
Hubby
got the fire going but didn't open the flue to let the smoke out through the
chimney. It wasn't long before the house
was full of smoke and then the alarm went off. So embarrassing. Luckily the owner was just a phone call and
block away and was fine about it all. It
happens often he said. Phew!
~~oOo~~
JAMESTOWN
Jamestown is about 2 hours north of Adelaide. It's just a small country town with a pub on
each of its 4 corners.
The
only good thing about Jamestown was the school cookbook. The kids thought it was great that we had a
lemon tree in the back yard. Lemons are
so expensive. I don't know why. But my
children knew that and it wasn't long before they were bagging up those lemons
and selling them around the neighbourhood to buy lollies from the garage next door.
They had learnt at a young age to be
money savvy. Come to think of it, they
probably learnt that back at the caravan park in Hastings Point. When hubby caught an abundance of fresh fish we
went around the caravan park selling them to the tourists.
There was a stream here in Jamestown where the kids loved to feed the ducks.
It was here in Jamestown that I woke up one morning to hear that
princess Di had passed away. So sad.
We
never did the Barossa wineries but we did get to a few in the Claire Valley
which is half way to Adelaide.
Annie's Lane and Jim Barry are my favourites here. Fine red wine and good Port.
~~oOo~~
It was here in Jamestown that a farmer gave is a cute little cross
border collie/kelpie puppy. Patches was with us for the next 14 years and travelled
with us twice across the Nullarbor and then flew with us when we relocated from
Sydney to Perth.
In memory of our dear
Patchy ❤
~~oOo~~
FLINDERS RANGES
One of the projects took hubby out to the Flinders Ranges. He enjoyed it so much that he couldn't wait to
take us out there. Nice scenery along
the way with the odd abandoned house and red outback Aussie dirt.
There's a place out there called Wilpena Pound
which is a huge natural amphitheatre. Looks
like a big old volcano but apparently it's not. Anyway, it's quite impressive.
~~oOo~~
EDITHBURGH
Located on the Yorke Peninsula directly opposite Adelaide with a
stretch of water in between. The desolate, windy bottom of the world.
Edithburgh
is a little fishing village with a rugged saltwater pool amongst the rocks on
the sea front. Most afternoons in summer
the whole town would be down at the rock pool after school closed. There were a few days in summer when the
temperature went over 38c. Yes we were
surprised about that being way down the bottom of Australia and a hop skip and jump from Antarctica. Anyway
for those couple of hot days the school knocked off early and everyone met up at
the pool.
Wasn't
much else to do here except squid jigging off the jetty. Thank goodness we were not staying in
winter!
The
beach a bit further down however was usually deserted and had pure white sand. When
the tide was out, it was way out.
FUNNY STORY
I
don't drive. That's a good thing because
hubby and I have saved a lot on not having the expense of 2 drivers and cars
plus 2 overheads etc. I dont know how
some families do it.
Anyway the kids and I had bikes. I doubled our youngest Janine
on my bike. I was very fit back then. The bike ride into York the next town was
quite a way. We had been out for the
day. Coming home we were all exhausted. That was when I had a bright idea.
We
had at least 2 k's to bike home, but the back of our home was directly across
from us, across the wheat field. So we
took a short cut. Only I wasn't planning
on being stopped by the wheat. It wasn’t
long before we had to hop off our bikes and start walking. Then the grass grew taller and we were
pushing the bikes harder. This wasn't
supposed to go like this. It felt like
a dark nightmare, only it was real. Very
real.
We
were hot, we were tired and everyone was complaining, I had
to piggyback young Janine, and my arms felt like dropping off. I could not see above or through the grass. Were we still headed in the right direction or
had we strayed off course? This was bad.
Finally
we emerged from the nightmare and found our way home. Ever had a run in with wheat? Nasty stuff. We had scratches and were picking it out of
our clothes for days after. I threw the
kids socks away. And they haven't let
me live that story down since!!.... lol.
Even though both hubby and I have had what we feel are good
jobs, we have not earned nearly as much as a lot of other people. That has taught us to budget well. In fact you could call us scrooges. I don't waste money on private health and
schooling. I have never paid a cent for
giving birth to 4 children or for any operation I have had. I don't see the sense in paying for private
health cover and then having to pay the excess if I want to make a claim. That has never made sense to me. When private health cover came out I couldn't
understand why so many embraced it. You
get your own doctor they say. All of the Docs I have had in the public health
have been excellent. No problem. Insurance itself is another money waster. I don't do house contents insurance. If I lost the lot, I wouldn't be too
bothered. I am sad that Medicare does
not cover teeth. Having teeth fixed is
dreadfully expensive. Why?
So hubby and I go to Kuala Lumpur. Why pay $10,000 for an implant here when you
can get one in KL and pay just $2,500?
Anyway,
what I am getting at is that I have learnt to budget real tight. When we lived in the resort in Hastings
Point, things were tough. We would live
from pay to pay. The bills got paid
first, I would write my list of weekly meals and forecast the shopping list
with approximate $ amounts so the total wouldn't go over our budget. There's nothing more embarrassing than being
at the checkout and your card is declined.
So
here we are in our mouse infested house in downtown Edithburgh and hubby got a
good pay. Finally! I get to splurge on the groceries without
having to budget. We spent nearly
$400!! That felt real good. Young Dylan here is showcasing our full
fridge.
~~oOo~~
YORKE PENINSULA
The Yorke Peninsula is the funny little bit of coastal land
opposite Adelaide. The coast is quite
rugged and surrounds fields of wheat and farming pasture which is flat and
uninteresting. If you find a nice bay
area surrounded by steep granite rocks, please be aware of occasional huge
coastal surge. Looks can be deceiving
here. The waves may look ok but every
now and then you'll get a huge wave roll in unexpectedly.
That
happened to us and I had to run at top speed screaming at young Dylan. Luckily I grabbed him and outran the huge
wave! That was scary.
~~oOo~~
Finally we were on the move again. All packed up for our long trip across to the
other side of Australia on the long straight stretch of road called the Nullarbor.
Please follow along next blog.
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