The Tour

Saturday 15 - Tuesday 19 January 2010

On the way to our next camp spot we stopped off at the town of Keith to restock on supplies. We couldn't find out who Keith was...but his town park has a great playground with a monorail. The kids loved it.

We arrived at Pendelton Farm Stay just up the road from Keith at lunch time. This place usually hosts school camps but school is out at the moment so we had the place to ourselves. There is heaps of room and lots of animals to feed.

 

 

One of the funniest moments that unfortunately we didn't get on film was when one of the emus was accidently cornered by chatting people. With nowhere to go it jumped over Luke's head. The look on Luke's face (& the Emu's face) had us all in stitches.

 

 

There were lots of games for the kids to play and most importantly there was room to ripstick.

 

 

On Monday we left the farm and made our way to Long Point on the Coorong - where the Murray River forms an inland lake, separated from the ocean by a thin peninsula. The Coorong is an important fish and bird breeding area. Unfortunately with the reduced Murray River flow the area is not what it once was but is still impressive. We saw lots of pelicans and swans. We also drove through lots of dry salt lake areas.

 

 

Tuesday 19 - Sunday 24 January 2010

We caught one of the many ferries across the Murray River, this one at Tailem Bend and drove on to a shady camp spot at Langhorne Creek (we were very relieved to find it was shadey because the rest of the countryside is not - very barren and dry). This area is an award winning wine region - the camp spot was surrounded by vineyards so it was great to see the grapes growing up close.

 

The kids decorated the picnic tables beautifully for lunch.

 

 We spent Wednesday chilling out at nearby Strathalbyn while the car had some wiring work done...nice town.

 

We were all really excited about the next few days though. We timed our arrival at this part of the country very well in that the Tour Down Under (for the uneducated this is a cycling race - the only pro event outside of Europe) was on in and around Adelaide and Mick, Nik, Loz and Tom were also in town to see it so we were all really looking forward to catching up with them.

 

 On Thursday we had a quick look around the little German themed village of Hahndorf (in the Adelaide Hills)...

 

 

...and sampled some of the locals wares...

 

...before basing ourselves at Stirling for the finish of the third stage of the tour. It was great to see M, N, L &T.

 

We watched the tour parade go past and gladly accepted some of the give aways.

 

And what an awesome atmosphere!

 

 

 

Surely they can spare one of these.

 

After the cycling action we all headed up to the Mt Lofty summit to take in the views of the city.

 

For the kids, climbing the foot of the summit tower was more interesting than the views.

 

 

 Back to camp for the evening cricket match on the LCG (Langhorne Cricket Ground).

 

On Friday we didn't have to go anywhere to see the tour - Langhorne Creek was hosting one of the sprints on the main street.

 

 

After the sprint rolled through town we drove in and met M, N, L&T at Glenelg for an afternoon of swimming, fish and chips by the beach and more cricket.

 

 

Glenelg is a great spot - some beautiful buildings and jetty area right by the beach....and some smooth, flat ripsticking areas.

 

 

Time to say goodbye to Mick, Nik, Tom & Loz - it was great to catch up.

 

On Saturday we were excited to be catching the second last stage of the tour at Willunga - what a great little town.

 

The tour was passing through town five times throughout the stage including climbing the well known Willunga Hill. Quite a climb for an average cyclist but probably just a small rise for these guys. At least the hill had them slowing down so we could have a better look. The atmosphere on the hill was unreal, with the crowd closing in on either side of the road just like you see at the Tour de France. We could have reached out and touched them.

 

The exciting finish to the stage was also in Willunga. The kids were all yelling and cheering for Cadel Evans who was right up the front and came in fourth. They had quickly turned into cycling groupies (the next day we were planning to go to the beach for the day but they were begging us to go into Adelaide to watch the final stage).

 

After the race we were able to get up close and grab a few autographs. We got Lance Armstrong's...

 

And Ashley forced her way to the front of a crowd and shoved her hat in front of Cadel Evans to get his (not quite as shy as when we left Brisbane).

 

Following the race we had a look down the west side of the Fleurieu Peninsula and went down to Cape Jervis.

 

We decided to stick to our plan for Sunday and had a stop at Horseshoe Bay at Port Elliot...

 

...before spending the rest of the day at Victor Harbor. We really liked it here - great parks, playgrounds, pubs and picnic areas. Of course we had a walk around Granite Island before catching the horse drawn tram back.