July 23

Our last blog post said we were heading for Broken Hill, but that turned out to be a lie!  After checking weather roads etc, it seemed that we had a huge chance of driving a very long way and not getting to go on the roads we wanted to because all or part of many of them were closed due to the pesky rain.  So, we reluctantly came to the conclusion that it was not sensible to press on regardless, so we took a right turn and headed south instead.  Spent a couple of lovely days in Clare, wandered through Gawler and checked out all the beautiful old buildings.

We decided that we should call into Maarten and Evelyn's in the Adelaide Hills seeing as we were so close, which ended up being perfect as their niece and her husband, Sara and Keon, were staying with them.  They spent some time with us a few years ago on a previous trip out from Holland and are a lovely young couple (Sara's dad, Maarten's brother, was another of the Aussies we met in the Wimbledon house, although he then met and married a native Hollander and returned to live there), so it was lovely to catch up.

On Wednesday we drove across to Wellington, where we took the ferry across the Murray and drove down through Meningie  to the Coorong and were impressed with all the water in the lakes and then the lagoons.  Saw very few birds, apart from lots of pelicans.  An impressive sight was to see them returning in large numbers to one of the islands in the lagoons which are pelican rookeries.

Camped Wednesday night in one of the Coorong National Park camps.  It was absolutely freezing, although sunny, on Thursday morning.  Set off towards Robe, stopping in Kingston for a bit of a walk, where we checked out the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse.  It was relocated from the Margaret Brock Reef in the 1970s and was regarded as a marine engineering feat as it was the only Australian lighthouse with quarters for a keeper 'built in'.  We are a bit 'hamstrung' at the moment, as the injury Murray sustained to his his 'good' knee whilst clambering up Mount Ohlssen Bagge in Wilpena is still bothering him  (I look like an Olympic athlete beside him at the moment), so we are not doing huge walks or lots of steps.

Next stop was Robe and whilst we had passed through here before, we had never stayed.  It is a beautiful spot and definitely somewhere to come back to when the weather is warmer.  Mind you, we have had two lovely days here with lots of sunshine.  We took the opportunity to explore the Little Dip Conservation Park yesterday, with its amazing  limestone rock coastline, with beautiful white sand beaches between rocky headlands.

 Whilst driving along the 4WD track which follows the coast, Murray got a bit excited about the photo opportunities and left the track at the top of a beautiful beach, because there were other tyre tracks a bit lower down.  Bad move!!!!  As you can see in this photo, the sand was of the bottomless variety and it was soon painfully obvious that we were well and truly bogged.  

After a bit of inspired digging, which did not help resolve the situation, Murray decided he had best hot foot it back to the previous beach, where we had passed a family (with a Land Cruiser) playing in the sand dunes.  I sat on the edge of the track trying to convince myself that the tide was going out and that even if those people had nicked off, we would have plenty of time to get assistance.  The sense of 'oh dear!' was compounded by the complete lack of phone signal, so I was also plotting about whether a climb to the top of the nearby sand-dune would help.

After what seemed like an interminable time, Murray re-appeared with Fergus and his Land Cruiser (plus son Oscar and dog Webster).  The real bonus was that Fergus knew what he was doing and with our trusty snatch strap and his vehicle and expertise we were rescued.  The same thing had happened to Fergus in his wife's vehicle a couple of years ago so he was not even judging us (not out loud anyway) as dopey tourists!

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying sitting in the sun with our various books, drawing materials and knitting - not much possibility of getting into trouble doing this. 

Woke this morning to the sound of rain.  Rats - was not meant to arrive until this arvo!!!  Will now pack up and drive down towards Millicent and Nelson, thus finishing our look at the Limestone Coast.  Not sure whether we will divert through Penola and take a look at the bottom of the Coonawarra wine area - again will depend on the weather.

Don't know when we will be home - if the weather packs it in, we will travel home quite quickly.  It has been a funny holiday - so dependent on the weather, although it has been much easier to make decisions to leave bits rather than go just because that was what we had decided, knowing that we can go back later when things dry up a bit.  As Py philosophically said the other day, it is not as if we are wasting our annual leave - now we are free agents we can do what we like and when we get home I can go back to playing with our new kitchen and finishing all that off, which will be quite nice.