Life in lockdown has continued on its sedate path. Here in Melbourne we know the rules and everyone – except the nutters – follows them. The reality of the Delta variant came home to us when Evan24 and Jenna, (pictured above a couple of months ago in happier times before NSW bungled its Covid response), were notified that they had to go into isolation. Their housemate is from NSW and went to a rugby match (ugh) in the city, where a super spreader was. So far they’ve all tested negative but it’s a warning as to how easily we can be exposed to it.
To ease the pain of iso I sent them a half a dozen bottles of shiraz. Tey may as well eat, drink and make merry while they’re stuck there!
I asked about Lentil, the golden retriever, who lives with them. Apparently dog lovers from up and down their street are waiting at the front gate to pick her up and take her for a walk. Dog people are the best people.
My project for Lockdown #5 was to plant a row of columnar apples along the strip of garden in the driveway next to my car. I bought 4 trees last year just before Lockdown #3 (I think) and they’ve been sitting in pots waiting for winter. I looked at the space and on the day before this current lockdown I went and bought another one. Turns out I should’ve bought 2.
I have 5 of these trees out in the back yard and last year we had a pretty decent crop from such small trees. Only one didn’t fruit and a couple of them went wild. These ones in the front will have slightly less sunlight but hopefully they’ll do the right thing in a year or two and give me plenty of apples. They’re a mix of red and yellow, which will keep things interesting.
The only problem is that there was an orange tree that wasn’t removed properly when I had the garden bed cleared last year, so of course its roots are precisely where we want 2 of the apples to go. When lockdown finishes I’m going to get Blogless Sandy to bring her husband, Even More Blogless Andrew, to bring his mini chainsaw to gently break it up. Hopefully we can buy another tree and have the whole lot in the ground before Spring.
Look at how pretty the new growth looks against my newly-painted fence!
Next Saturday I get my second shot. I’ll be so glad when that happens. I saw online that over 18s can get the AZ shot, so Ryan26 booked an appointment and 2 hours later his first shot was done. When he’s out of quarantine Evan24 will be rolling up his sleeve as well, with the other boys not far behind.
The little woofs are all doing well and are still the light of my life. I really believed that after I retired, they’d get used to me being around and would be more chill about me not being in their direct line of vision at all times.
Not so. I didn’t think it was possible for them to be even more attached than they were, but it’s happened. I mean, it’s flattering and all, but it’s still a bit embarrassing when I get an hysterical welcome back after stepping outside the gate to put the bins out.
I’ve begun cutting out hexagons to make a quilt for the lounge room. When I went on last months Little Adventure to Kellie’s fabric shop in Faulkner I picked up fabric that goes with the painting that I bought when I went to Hahndorf.
I’ll be machine piecing this quilt, but I’m cutting the hexies out by hand by tracing around a template with a water soluble pen. Life would be easier if the ink in the pen wasn’t so blue… I really should’ve started from the other end of the bag!
My quest to ‘earn’ back my council rates by reading $1,800 worth of books from the local library is coming along well, with only $305 to go. I’ve discovered the most fantastic series by an Australian author called Joy Dettman – The ‘Woody Creek’ novels. I’ve finished the first 2 and – can you believe it? – my library doesn’t have 3, 4 5, and 6. I’ll be putting in a request sometime today for them to buy them. What’s the point in having the first and last books in a series without having the middle ones?
Argh!
Still, if this is the worst thing that has happened to me this week, then life must be pretty darned good. 🙂
Remember the baby quilt that I unpicked for WEEKS and then sewed back together again?
The one that nearly drove me to the brink of despair?
I was throwing out all the weird lozenge-shapes, but then I got to thinking of how much work Past Frogdancer put in.
So I decided to do this:
I have some triangles, some 1″ squares and some 1″ coins.
I think I’ll be able to make something from these… one day.
The pile of lozenges was on the corner of my table, looking messy. But now all of the pieces are in a ziplock bag, all cut and ready for inspiration to strike.
Only took about 3 hours to tidy up. Do you know how many stray threads were on these things? Who knows if I’ll ever do something with all of this, but it just felt too sad to throw them all away.
After reading a couple of quilting books by Amanda-Jean Nyberg, I’ve decided to do as she suggests and sort through my stash, cutting little scraps into usable shapes. When I want to make something, most of the cutting will already have been done!
This jar is filling with 1″ square blocks. These quilting books have LOTS of projects using small squares, so I’m thinking these will come in handy.
At the back is the beginning of a pile of hexagons. Yes – I’ll be learning a new skill and making a hexie quilt. God help me.
These are 2.5″ squares. Up until now they’ve been pretty much the smallest pieces I use.
And this was how my day began today. David27 gave me this mug for my birthday last year, celebrating my favourite episode from (one of) my favourite tv shows. I grabbed it out of the dishwasher and the handle snapped in my hand.
A couple of Christmases ago, Ryan26 bought me some ugg boots – otherwise known as slippers. Over time, both of them got holes right where my big toes were. This wasn’t a problem in summer, but when I go out with the dogs in the chilly winter mornings, it gets a bit breezy.
Something had to be done.
The obvious answer was to simply go and get another pair. But everything else on the boots was perfectly fine. And then I had a brilliant idea…
A fellow blog writer named Spo put me onto a brilliantly quirky podcast called ‘Welcome to Nightvale.’ I started it about 5 years too late so it took me 3 months of listening to catch up and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve even been to 2 stage shows when they toured Australia.
I remembered that they had patches as part of their merch.
Don’t they look FABULOUS?
Instead of paying well over $100 for a pair of uggies, I spent $24.50 (plus 74c international transaction fee) to fix my uggies and make them absolutely ME.
Now they’re toasty warm again and I love them even more.
I’m not one to accumulate a lot of things around me. Partly that’s because The Best House in Melbourne has few extra cupboards, but mostly it’s because I look at my parents’ house that they’ve lived in since 1959 and I shudder to think of the huge job it’s going to be to clear it all out one day.
But I DO like to spend when I’m on holidays. It’s fun.
So I tend to choose useful souvenirs.
Such as this pincushion. I bought it when I was touring the UK back in 2015. I think I bought it at Kenilworth. It came back in the huge parcel I posted from London and then it’s been in a cupboard in Ryan26’s room ever since. I forgot I had it.
I’m on a quilting jag at the moment, with 2 quilts currently on the go. I was looking for something and found this beautiful pincushion. Up until now I’ve just been taking the lid off the tin of pins and grabbing pins from there.
Well! Let me tell you that using this pincushion is LUXURY!
At first I felt like a fool for not using it until now, but then I consoled myself by saying that by deferring its use, I’ve clearly added 6 years longer to its life.
(Yes, I know I’m rationalising, but it hurts no-one!)
Today is almost 5 months to the day when I retired. It’s taken this long to start to feel like normal again. I spent the first 3 months, at least, feeling tired and needing naps every day – sometimes two naps! – but now the napping has settled down to more like an optional choice rather than a necessity.
When you think about it, I’ve been on a constant swirl of activity since the kids were small. Tom29 is, well, 29 this year, so that’s a fair chunk of time. I think my body and mind needed some decompress time.
The garden has suffered. I’m not going to show you photos of the sad, neglected veggie garden. Poppy used to pull fat green beans from the vines to snack on. Now she pulls dried, crunchy husks and optimistically crackles away at them. Grass has come in under the fence from the neighbour’s yard and is under the apple trees. I really should get onto that…
But on the plus side, there are a couple of self-sowing experiments out there that are thriving on neglect. Free cabbages, lettuce, chard and cauliflowers, anyone?
The one activity I’m hitting out of the park is reading. Last year I set a goal to read 80 books and I did it. This year I thought I’d have LESS time for reading – you know, because I was going to do all these other things – so I dropped my goal to 70.
I’ll finish that book by tonight.
I’m also on a quilt-making streak. At my last dinner party, I promised a quilt each to 2 friends. I’ve sandwiched one together and yesterday I spent most of the day making the blocks for the other one. Hopefully there’ll be photos to show soon.
It’s looking a but grey and dull outside. Excellent quilting and reading weather!
The man in the motel in Portland told me to back-track a little and to go and see the Petrified Forest. After I checked out, I raced down to have a look.
You park your car and walk along the cliffs to see it. On the way, there’s a fork… right to see the Blowhole and left to see the petrified forest. I decided to save the Blowhole for the way back.
I was a bit sad to read the explanation of how these tubes formed. It’s much more romantic to think of trees being slowly buried, rather than being all drippy and watery things making these strange tubes.
It was an eerie sort of place. I was the only one there and it was blustery and cold.
It was definitely the perfect place for a wind farm!
Looking out towards Antarctica again…
I walked around for a fair while, feeling all broody and mysterious, and then I walked back to see the Blowhole. I was so glad I did.
This was taken from the lookout. The waves smash into the cliffs and they rise up. Every now and then I could feel light spray on my face if the wind happened to be blowing in the right direction. The sound was amazing and it felt so wild and free.
I glanced at my phone and saw that it was morning recess time at school, so I texted a few people at work with this photo. The contrast between the crowded staffroom and this isolated place was huge.
I stopped the car to take this photo. The fence was hung with shoes for hundreds of metres.
Then I headed into Port Fairy for lunch. Found a nice little bakery and had a lovely lunch. Then I went out to explore.
I was in two minds about how long I should stay here. I was looking forward to seeing this place. Everyone says how pretty Port Fairy is and I was keen to have a squiz. I was going to book a lace for the night so I could really have a good look around.
But honestly, it was really boring.
Sure, there are plenty of pretty little cottages but most of them are privately owned. The lighthouse walk was closed because they were resurfacing the path, so I drove around for a bit, looking at the picture-postcard cottages, then yawned and headed off to Warrnambool.
“Now that we’ve met each other and we know we get along, would you like to come back to our place for dinner?” she asked as I was huffing and puffing along beside her. I’m slowly getting fitter but it’s clear I need to make more of an effort!
So off we drove. On the way, I rang Ryan26 and told him where I was going – safety first! (I could see that Loretta was ok, but what if her husband was an axe murderer??? ) Only joking, but as a single woman travelling alone, I sent Ryan26 texts everywhere I went. He must have loved being in so much contact with his Mum…
I had the loveliest evening with Loretta and her family. When we got there I met the dogs – it was so good to see some waggly tails again. Her husband made dinner for us all and he cooked the most tender steaks I’ve eaten in years. Paired with home-grown potatoes, which, when I got home, made me start harvesting mine. It’s too easy to forget them when they’re under the ground.
When it was time for me to go, she walked me down their driveway to the car parked on the street outside. You forget just how dark it is out in the country. She said that she and a friend take walks in the evening all the time. I’m sure I’d fall down a hole and break my leg in the first 5 minutes if I tried that. It was pitch-black. She’s an intrepid woman.
The next morning I was on the road again, heading back to the Port Campbell area to see the 2 sights I didn’t see on the way up, due to rain. Here’s the Bay of Islands.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
The sun was shining over me and in the bay, but the grey clouds were gathering behind me. I stayed savouring the view for quite a long while, then jumped back in the car to go and have a look at the Bay of Martyrs.
By the time I got there, the sun had moved on.
So had the rain. Towards me.
I ran back to the car. I didn’t get too wet.
Then I drove on.
The rest of the day was me basically driving juuuust ahead of the rain. The Great Ocean Road ducked inland for a bit and I suddenly realised that I was getting low on fuel. There was a tiny dot on the map in the middle of nowhere that had this petrol bowser outside a shop. I thought for sure that it wouldn’t be operational but thank goodness it was. Saved my bacon!
They’d just filled the bird feeder out the back before I arrived. We get lorikeets at home but we don’t get rosellas. Pretty, aren’t they?
Lots of twists and turns but I was listening to a shockingly bad audiobook, (Hamish McBeth – don’t even go there) so it helped take my mind off the awfulness.
By the time I reached Apollo Bay I’d pulled ahead of the rainclouds a bit.
WHAT a beautiful place!
I tried to capture the turquoise water but my iPhone camera doesn’t do it justice. There’s a lovely beach so I took the chance to walk along it.
I met the beautiful Heidi. She made me miss my snag, Scout. Heidi was just as tiny as my girl.
By the time I’d finished my walk, the sky was beginning to darken. Time to push on.
The drive along the Great Ocean Road was so weird, because the sea was 2 different colours. I’ve caught it here. Right where I was driving was the line between the rain and the sun. The left is bluer than the right, can you see?
Then I came to Lorne and I as I was driving through, I passed a place that I haven’t seen since I was 18. I did a u-ey and drove back.
There’s a caravan park beside a bridge on the foreshore. It has a creek going through it.
At the end of year 12, back in 1981, we all drove down here and camped for a week in tents by the creek. This is exactly where we were.
Nowadays they’ve got cute little cabins, but back in the day it was just our tents, then caravans further back. We had such a good time!
I took a short walk along the creek bank, being mindful of the rain chasing me. All I could hear was the sound of the water and birdsong. It was beautifully calm and peaceful.
One thing that I found out about when I was doing my all-too-quick research about what to do on this trip was the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento. Rather than driving through Geelong and then battling peak hour traffic all the way through Melbourne and then around to the bayside suburb where The Best House in Melbourne is; I could drive to Queenscliff and take a short ferry ride to the Mornington Peninsula, then have a 30 minute drive home.
I was excited to try it. Every ferry ride I’ve had has been fun. What an exciting way to end the holiday!
I was lucky enough to arrive 5 minutes before it was due to leave, so I drove straight on. I went up to the deck to get the full experience of what was sure to be a dashing ride across the bay.
Here’s a photo of the most boring ferry ride ever. Honestly, I think I could’ve swum quicker than the ferry. It slowly chugged chugged chugged its way through the water while I gave up and turned to the book in my bag. It was far more interesting.
And then home I drove. The dogs were ecstatic to see me and so was Ryan26.
“The dogs are SO ANNOYING!” he said. “They’re so clingy. They’ve got to be with you 24/7. I never thought I’d say this, but when I leave home I think I’ll get a cat before I get a dog. At least the cat will come up and want a pat, but then it’ll leave me alone!”
But that’s the best part of being home again. 🙂
Costs of the Trip:
Running total: $2,096
Costs of Day 9 :
$108 accomodation. (No bowl supplied here either.)
$12 lunch
Total for Day 9: $120
Costs of Day 10:
$88 fuel
$5 lunch
$69 ferry
Total for Day 10: $162
Total for the trip: $2,378
That’s not too bad for a getaway like this. (Though as Dave from Strong Money Australia asked me on Twitter, “What are you getting away from?” LOL.)
If you take away the $1,100 painting I bought, it’s only $1,278, which equates to an average of $127.80/day.
These figures are slightly smudged by the fact I used my timeshare for 5 nights’ accomodation. I pay 1K/year for costs for the timeshare, but because it is calculated by points rather than by weeks it’s been used for a fair few holidays by the kids and now me. The points blend into each other year by year.
In fact, I’ve just booked a 2 night break (from what?!?) up in the mountains to use up 280 points that are due to expire on June 30. In previous years they’d just have to expire, but now I’ve go the time, by God I’m going to use them up!!
I stopped in at Penola for lunch, and while I was walking around I saw this sign. Petticoat Lane. How could I NOT take a look here?
Apparently this street got its name because in the 1890’s so many girls were born here. It has quite a few National Trust houses and one of them was open.
Gammon Cottage’s front gate was ajar so I prowled around the yard. It even has the old well!
Have a read in the next photo of what happened to the builder of this cottage when he went to find gold!
Not everyone who went to the goldfields had a rollicking good time.
This is one of Sharam’s cottages. This couple had so many kids that he had to build another house next door, just to house them all.
The roof was only just above my head and I’m only 5’2″.
And people have the gall to say that I have a large family. Compared to this couple, I was positively restrained! Only 4 boys.
At least the poor woman ended up with one nice room.
This is inside the original cottage which was only divided up into 2 rooms. As you can see, the wall didn’t even go up to the ceiling. Not much privacy going on here…
But look! At some stage she got a pump to get water instead of a well. LUXURY!
The garden out the back is still run by volunteers. There was a woman working there when I walked through and we started chatting. At first she was merely polite but when I showed that I recognised most of the herbs growing here, she warmed up and I walked away with a packet of lovage seeds from the garden. I’ve never grown lovage before. Its like a strong tasting celery.
Growing food means that you can bond with people wherever you go.
Next door was the McAdam slab hut. Anyone who wants to romanticise the lives of the pioneers should have a quick look inside this place.
I would NOT have been happy in this place. Can you imagine the wind whistling through all of those cracks in winter? Plus every neighbourhood Peeping Tom could be glued to your every move and they wouldn’t miss a thing.
Penola also has a museum dedicated to St Mary McKillop. She started off her teaching here and due to her efforts, Penola had the biggest library in South Australia outside of Adelaide. I guess that’s what happens when you raise the literacy level of an entire district by educating every child, not just the rich ones. People need reading materials, once they know how to do it.
I knew very little about Mary McKillop, aside from the facts that she was on the $5 nots and that she’s Australia’s first Catholic saint. I don’t have a religious bone in my body. I decided to invest $5 in an entry fee to the Mary McKillip museum and see what I could find out.
First I went to the church where they have this little ante-room where you can have a chat to her, if you’ve a mind to.
I went to the museum but the only new information I came away with was that she and her fellow nuns were excommunicated for a while. Can’t remember why, but the bishop who did it reconsidered on his deathbed and lifted it.
The $5 fee also allowed entrance to the schoolroom where Mary and her fellow sisters taught school. It was all a bit interesting but for me, once is enough.
I jumped in the car again and made it back to Mt Gambier. I drove around the Blue Lake again, then headed for the Umpherston Sinkhole.
This was originally just a huge hole in the ground but the guy who owned the land back in the 1890’s decided that summer in South Australia was too damned hot. Why not build a pleasure garden down in the big hole where it was so much cooler?
It was about 4PM when I arrived.
You walk along the top of it…
… and then you see this.
Down the steps you go.
View from halfway down the steps.
Imagine being able to punt along in your own lake…
I wandered around here for. little while, then decided I could push on a little bit longer. It was that time of day when it was too early to think about stopping, but too late to think about driving for too much longer.
I saw some cool things as I drove along to Portland for the night.
There were contented cows.
This farm decided to put old bikes at the entrance and up the driveway. I suppose that’s one way of making sure that when they give directions to their place and say, “You can’t miss it,” then they’re correct.
Lots of pine plantations. It worries me to think of bushfires happening here – pine trees go off like rockets.
I got in late-ish to a cheap and cheerful motel. One thing I’ve found about motels for around $100 a night – they don’t include bowls in the crockery they supply. So annoying if you’ve planned on making oats for breakfast and you have a sneaky tin of baked beans to have for a dinner.
But I wasn’t going to let them steal my rights and repress me. If I want a disgustingly cheap dinner in a sad motel room then I’m going to have it, dammit!!
When I was a kid we’d go to vintage car rallies ALL THE TIME. Dear God, it was so boring. My Dad was a Riley enthusiast – beautiful British cars. Dad has a 1930 Riley 9, a Drophead and a couple of others. My first car was a Riley Elf, which is basically a mini with a Riley grill on the front.
We’d drive to car parks/wineries/paddocks/whatever. All of the Rileys would line up in a row and the men would crawl all over them, the women would pull up picnic chairs and chat and the kids would be bored. I think this is when my addiction to reading became cemented.
So when Jenna’s parents suggested that we go to a car rally in a town on the peninisula, I inwardly groaned.
But it was actually quite fun.
I think the difference was that it was a huge mix of different cars and they drove down the main drag of the town in a procession that lasted around an hour.
Jenna’s parents and I drove to a mid point to meet up, then I hopped in their car and off we went. No, the corvette is not their car!
We found a spot at a table under a verandah and settled in to watch the parade.
There was everything from a model T Ford, dune buggies, Morgans, VW combis and beetles, muscle cars, sedans – something for everyone.
There was even this 3 wheeled thing!
For a while I stood on the kerb with Andrew and watched the parade, looking for any Rileys, but after a while I got a little bored and thought I’d better go back and sit with Ann-Marie.
We were chatting away when I glanced over at the parade. A car was smoothly driving past with a silhouette that has been ingrained on my psyche since childhood.
“Holy shit, that’s a Riley!” I exclaimed, ever the lady, and I leapt up to join Andrew. I was ridiculously excited.
There were about 5 or 6 of them, one of them a mint-green Riley Elf. I could’ve taken photos but I called Dad instead and described what I was seeing. He was reliving his glory days as I was talking. It was pretty special.
Then we went to a winery for unch. I thought I did pretty well to get to pay for their lunches – I’ve learned from David27’s “in-laws” that you have to be quick to stop them paying for everything. Jenna’s parents are the same.
I sneakily overheard what they were going to order, then made sure I was ahead of Ann-Marie in the queue to order. When I ordered my meal, then went on to list theirs, I heard, “Oh you better not!” behind me. I put my card on the payment thingy, then turned around and said, “OMG, my card just slipped. Oh well…”
I thought I got away with it too, until we went to another winery for a wine tasting and I raved about a shiraz that was priced in the 3 figures and made them taste it. Guess who went home with a bottle of it? I’ve told them that they’re invited to my 60th and we’ll all crack it open then.
It’s so nice to see that my boys are choosing to be with partners with such lovely families. Andrew and Ann-Marie let me stay with them Friday night and they gave up their Sunday to spend time with me. That’s going above and beyond! I’m looking forward to enjoying that bottla wine with them in a few years time.
Monday. Time to start heading home. I had no fixed plans, other than wanting to see the Ulpherstone Sinkhole in Mt Gambier that I missed on the way up – and I knew I wanted to spend ages in Port Fairy. Everyone says how pretty it is.
I wanted to learn from the mistake of my rushed trip over and take my time on the way back.
As I headed out, I thought I may as well drive up to Murray Bridge and have a look at the river. Why not? I put a generic address into the TomTom, ( 1 Main st / Smith St /First st ; whatever works), and I set off.
Then I started seeing signs to Harndorf.
I’ve been hearing about Harndorf for 17 years. It’s the first German settlement in Australia and every year the German students from our school would go over there for an excursion and report back at the next General Assembly.
I had to see it for myself. I wanted to follow my nose home and this was an ideal place to start.
I pulled up in the Main st and parked outside an art gallery. Following my nose, I walked in.
And you wouldn’t believe it – I finally found the perfect painting for my dining room. I’ve only been living here and looking for the last 5 YEARS.
It’s absolutely nothing like I thought I’d buy. The subject is SO not me, it’s smaller than I visualised and the colours are different to what I was looking for, but when I saw it I knew it’d fit really well. So $1,100 lighter I walked out of the shop.
What are the odds? I had no plans to go to Harndorf and there just happened to be a spot for my car directly outside the gallery. The painting had been put up less than 24 hours before I arrived. Maybe it was meant to be?
It’s being delivered sometime this week. If it looks awful then I only have myself to blame.
Hans Heysen – bust and sketches.
Look who I found in the museum behind the information centre!!!!
Remember when I showed you the picture of Ruth by Nora Heysen? Here’s her Dad – the way famous one of the two of them. The bust is of him and the sketches are his.
I like how when you travel in an area, the stories loop around. It reminds me of when Scott and I were walking on the battlements of Lincoln Castle, listening to the guided tour through our headphones, when I suddenly heard that Henry VIII and Katharine Howard had walked along the very same stones I was walking on. I’ll never forget the unexpected thrill.
Speaking of royalty, the museum behind the information centre was tiny, yet Prince Philip had visited it. One huge advantage to being a working royal is the amount of travel you could do. Imagine all the countries he must have seen? But imagine all the hours of tedium he must have gone through as well. No wonder he sometimes said the odd non-PC quip.
In its day, the building was a school for boys and also a hospital. Look at the lacework, or is it tatting? This was on a maternity dress. I think I’d go blind, squinting, if I tried to do this, though I have some tatting that my great-grandmother did. Amazingly detailed.
Harnsdorf was a very pretty little place. A few shops had jolly German music spilling out onto the street as thr tourists walked by. It was still school holidays in South Australia so there were a fair few people about.
Scott suggested that I mark all the school holidays in my calendar at the start of every year so I don’t make the mistake of travelling while the kids are free. I’m going to have to mark every state’s holidays, I think.
Then I drove to Murray Bridge.
Here’s the river Murray. It’s long. It’s wet. I had a look, ate lunch and drove on. I was aiming for Mt Gambier but then, as it was getting to late afternoon, the heavens opened up. I drove into Narracoorte.
There was a huge sign on the highway just before you enter the town, spruiking their caves. I vaguely remembered that Narracoorte was way famous for its caves, so I thought I’d get a cheap motel, stay the night and have a bit of a look around underground the next day.
When I reached the caves the next day, I saw another instance of stories looping around. See this massive Diprotadon? Otherwise known as a giant wombat. What does he look a bt like?
Remember my sculpture that I bought from the arts festival, thinking that it was going to be my only souvenir? They look like they might be cousins.
The Narracoorte limestone caves are a world heritage listed site. They offer a few different tours but the lady in the information centre said to go on the fossils tour, because that is why they made it to the heritage list.
Don’t make the mistake I did and assume that the caves would be chilly. I wore my duckdown coat. It’s actually really warm down there.
See how the stalactites are hanging in a row here? Our guide said that in the early 1900’s guides used to clamber up there and ‘play’ the stalactites like a xylophone for their customers by hitting them. Sometimes one would break. Can you believe it???
Incidentally, I learned how to remember the difference between stalactites and stalagmites. Stalagmites MIGHT reach the roof one day, while stalactites have to hold on TIGHT to the roof to stop from falling.
Never say that this blog isn’t informative about the issues that matter!
This fascinating photo is of a hole in the roof that leads up to the ground. This one was man-made to get all of the rubble out so that the tours like the one I was now on could be made. These also occur naturally, which is how the fossils have ended up in the caves.
Animals (and people, probably) would be innocently walking along and then fall down these shafts into the caves below. Some died immediately, but others survived until they died of thirst. They know this because they have complete skeletons of animals who look as if they’ve just curled up and gone to sleep, but with bones that have started to heal from their initial fall.
This guy is a literal drop bear. Yes, they used to exist! He was some sort of carnivorous koala-type.
See the massive claw on his opposable thumb? Imagine that slicing into your soft underbelly?
This one was a kangaroo, but with only one toe. I took this photo to show you, but I like this next one a lot better.
That shadow is very Star Wars, isn’t it?
The caves that were initially found were just open caverns full of the rock formations, but then a couple of cavers found their way into some massive caverns further in that were jam-packed full of bones and fossils.
These are real bones that have been left as they were.
Behind the cave where we were standing is a massive cave where they’ve removed a small section of bones to study. They plan to leave the rest where they are for as long as possible. Our guide, who is a palaeontologist herself, said that they’ve removed enough bones and other material to keep many universities busy for decades. Maybe by the time they need to take another look, they might have technology that can study what’s in the caves but be able to leave everything untouched.
It’s an interesting thought.
And then I was off and away. I pointed the car towards Mt Gambier and off I went. It was just before lunch and the day was still young!
Costs of the trip:
Running total so far: $665
Costs for day 6: $85 for lunch.
Costs forDay 7:
$1,100 painting
$10 lunch (Subway – eat fresh.)
$69 fuel
$91 accommodation
Total for Day 7: $1,270
Running total for trip: $1,935 (Yikes! I hope I still love this painting when it arrives!)
I’ve had 4 or 5 people contact me to ask whether I’d died in a fiery car crash on my holiday – some asked it more tactfully than others! – so I thought I’d better get back into the zone to write. I’ve been busy finishing off a quilt, reading, having a rapturous reunion with the dogs (and with the boys, of course!)
LOOK at this beautiful painting. After I finished looking at the Antarctica exhibition at the Adelaide Art Gallery I walked into the next room, just in time to join an hour-long tour, looking at 10 Australian works of art. Exactly the amount of time I needed to kill before I walked back to the restaurant to meet up with the FIRE bloggers for lunch.
This painting wasn’t one of the 10, but it was hanging on the wall near the UGLIEST cabinet I’ve ever seen – which was one of the 10. So while the tour guide was waxing lyrically about the ugly 1930’s cabinet, I was gazing at this. If it was in a different art gallery – one where you could actually buy the paintings – I’d buy it in a shot. I’ve been looking for a painting to hang near my dining table for the last 5 years. And here it was – unattainable. Still, I thought, at least now I know the colours I’m looking for. (More on this later…)
Nolan’s ‘Narcissus.’
This next one made me chuckle. It was in the Surrealism room and is Sidney Nolan’s take on the greek legend of Narcissus – the boy who was so good looking that he fell in love with his own reflection and starved to death beside a pool of water, because he couldn’t bear to leave the beautiful face he saw in the water.
This was the most beautiful sculpture. It’s called ‘Kathleen’ and was made by Marjorie Fletcher in the 1930’s. There’s all this talk about women’s art not being appreciated in their lifetimes, but sometimes not even THEY appreciated it. She worked in sculpture for around 10 years, then got married and had a family and shoved all of her artwork into a cupboard under the stairs. Over time, her work was given away, left out in the hard rubbish and generally spread far and wide. This one was found by her son, who’s made it his life’s work to track down his mother’s art and bring her the recognition she should have received. I loved this figure.
Nora Heysen’s ‘Ruth.’
Nora Heysen had a way famous artist father – Hans Heysen – but in the end she won the Archibald prize while he never did. I can’t remember the woman’s name in this picture, but she used to sit for Nora quite a lot and they became good friends. One day Nora asked her if she would let Nora paint her in the nude. The woman got up, left and never came back.
I saw this fine fellow on the walk back towards lunch. There’s something distinctive about a well-defined chin, don’t you think?
A couple of weeks before, I’d let Michelle from Frugality and Freedom know that I was coming to Adelaide. She’s exploring the boundaries of what FIRE really means, by freelancing and travelling the world, basically living life on her own terms. Ahhh, the freedom! Covid clipped her wings, so she’s biding her time in her hometown of Adelaide until things open up again.
She put the word out and three more bloggers joined us for lunch.
Captain FI is a pilot who’s normally in Sydney but he happened to be in Adelaide visiting family, so we got to meet him. He’s MUCH more numbers-based than I am, though I suppose you have to have that sort of brain to understand what all the dials and gadgets on the aircrafts’ dashboards are all about. You definitely wouldn’t want someone like me behind the controls of a jet.
He’s just done a post on payday lenders and I really liked this paragraph – “This is why the grassroots Financial Independence movement is so important, and can be so powerful. If we can spread the message of financial health and wellbeing, then gradually these unethical pay-day-lending companies will go out of business.”
The other two bloggers were Sarah and Laura from Keepin’ it Frugal and the booming food blog Wandercooks – I’ve linked to the recipe that we went shopping for after lunch to buy the essential ingredient that I’d never heard of – nduja.
Blog-meets are always a success. You all have things in common, otherwise we wouldn’t be reading each others’ blogs, and so the conversation flows right from the start, with very little of the whole awkward “getting to know you” stuff. After 3 days on my own, otherwise known as indulging my introvert side, I was ready for a few days of talking and laughing with other humans.
After lunch I drove to Jenna’s parents’ place. She and Evan24 have been going out for 3 years now and I was going to stay at her folks’ place that night, after going out to dinner with Simone, an old school friend that I haven’t seen for FORTY YEARS.
omg.
I can’t be that old, surely?
It was either going to be a great night – we were really close back in the day – or incredibly uncomfortable with lots of pauses and dull questions about our children and how they were going, just to fill in the space of the silence. You know the sort of thing.
Fortunately, it was great! We actually walked past each other on the street. To be fair, 40 years is a long time. But once we turned around at the same time and started laughing, the evening just flew.
She lives in Melbourne, like me, after having spent most of the intervening years living in Japan, South Korea and the US. She just happened to be in Adelaide for work and so we caught up there. It’s lovely when you meet up with someone you haven’t seen for ages and it’s almost as if no time has gone by.
The next day I drove to Victor Harbor to meet up with yet another person I’ve never met in real life. Extrovert Frogdancer was 2 days into a 3-day people-fest. This time I was meeting with Lara and her husband. We both belong to a couple of investment groups on FaceBook.
Lara suggested calling around to see if any local locksmiths were still open on a Saturday afternoon. Talk about good old fashioned country service! The locksmith I talked to suggested I drive to Repco and get a battery there. Took 5 minutes for them to replace the battery for only $7 – and a spare battery. The place at home that I’ve been going to charges $10 per battery.
I’ve never enjoyed locking and unlocking my car more.
A whopping big tree.
After I sorted out the battery problem – thanks Lara! – I headed to the little beach outside of town to look around. On the way I saw a quilting shop so I popped in and bought some fabric for a quilt I’m going to make for another old school friend. Simone and Cathy and I were all close, back in the day.
It was a cool, quiet afternoon. I walked along this little jetty and watched people fishing. The waves were lapping against the rocks…
… which were clearly popular with the local seagull population.
Then, after wandering around there for a while, I jumped in the car and followed my nose in a vaguely southerly direction.
Anywhere that looked interesting, I’d stop the car and have a look.
Then I decided that I’d go down to the bottom of the peninsula to Cape Jervis, which is where you catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island. I wasn’t going to go to the island this time around, but hey! I’ve got all the time in the world now. I’ll come back here sometime.
So I drove through winding roads wth cows, sheep and, once, a herd of goats dotted around the countryside. The area had had a bit of rain so, unusually for Australia, the paddocks were green and lush. I was listening to a really good audiobook ($20 off my challenge!) and all was right with the world.
I got to Cape Jervis just as the sun was going down. There was only one other car at the lookout. The man behind the wheel was looking at the view without getting out of his car, but Frogdancer Jones is made of sterner stuff.
Besides, I wanted to get a shot of these two.
I stayed here for quite a while. It was beautiful. So still and clear.
Then I jumped in the car and drove back to the timeshare in Normanville. Tomorrow I was off to a vintage car rally with Jenna’s parents!
Costs of the trip:
Day 1 cost: $272
Day 2 cost: $67 fuel.
(That’s it. I ate my food I brought from home and basically just drove all day to get to the timeshare.)
Day 3 cost: $70 sculpture. (I’m so happy I bought him. I absolutely love him.)
$9 lunch. (A bagel from the local bakery.)
$33 food for dinners and breakfast in my room.
Total for Day 3 – $112
Day 4 cost- $35 gifts. (For Michelle and for Jenna’s parents.)
$31 parking. (Ouch. Missed the earlybird parking at the market by 15 minutes.)
One of the benefits of retirement that teachers look forward to longingly is the ability to go on holidays outside of actual school holidays.
Next week I’m going to Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Next week is part of the school holidays. I didn’t even consider school holidays when I made the booking. WHAT an idiot!
So far the only things I have planned are get togethers with Evan24’s girlfriend’s family from Adelaide, a meet-up with a Facebook friend from a finance group I belong to and a dinner with an old school friend who I haven’t seen for about 40 years. (Yikes!)
Has anyone been there and has some recommendations for “must-dos”?
I’m thinking about coming home via the Great Ocean Road and splitting the trip into 2 days. I think that finding accomodation might be easier once the kidlets are all back in school.
