Days are closing in at Anns Brothers House
Things are starting to look up The Bus will be taken to repairers tomorrow & Insurance is good.We have measured for an aluminium box to be fitted at the back to put our golf clubs in ( there’s opulence!!) and fuel tanks for the generator.It has been fantastic staying at Anns brothers.I enjoyed the bit where he let me operate his crane !! His house he is building is coming along nicely Ann visits an acupuncturist today and should be refreshed ready for our next leg of our Journey (we fly to Perth Sunday early)
Container Delivery from China
Annies brother Mark is in the process of developing houses,his wife Wendy helps in the design of the future houses & he travels to China to buy equipment using Sea Link Containers (main cargo is Scaffolding & deck) Mark also fills his container up with other items therefore utilizing the container to its FULL capacity.We all mucked in helping to unload the items (Mark also owns a very handy crane) His friend who also helped is an accomplished Chinese Doctor ( Wei Bei) and is also a very highly trained acupuncturist ( Annie was VERY ill last week & Wei Bei sorted her out with his amazing skills) It was great fun unloading the goods (reminds me of days when I USED to work !!) Jake ( Marks son) is very skilled on operating the crane They even let me ava go on the control Fortunately NO one got squashed !! I have NEVER seen a container as large as this one ! ( approx twice the length seen at ports worldwide) Being so busy with helping family I have had to miss my Didgeridoo Training (tongue in cheek !!)
Sirling,Adelaide Annual Xmas Pageant
Isn’t it great to see kids faces around Xmas time ( I hate the Bast#$25d who told me he isn’t real !!!) Just a few pics from the event Very hard to photograph because the bloody ADULTS wouldn’t sit still !!!!!!
Still in Adelaide with another week to go & Loving it !
Christmas is a coming and we attended our first pageant of the season held in Stirling .The kids faces are a pleasure to watch and for such a small community there was a huge crowd & in the excitement of Father Christmas ,s arrival I ( along with lots of little kids) started shouting with great excitement ” He’s Here, He’s Here !!” Annie had to restrain me from jumping up on his float !! The festive party ended with a BIG get together on the local oval A school rock group performed on the back of a truck & I was stood head banging alongside the Massive loud speakers ( ahhh for the old days eh?) this habit from way back is instrumental in the cause of my Tinnitus no doubt !! I particularly liked the Volkswagon with a BIG Red Nose on the front and a person on the Left & a person on the right both carrying huge cardboard made up antlers!!Representing Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (very inventive) Kids were given very large pieces of chalk pre procession and were allowed to draw on the main road (naturally it was closed !!) A very good evening had by all We were fortunate to have Wendy & Jake drive us to the event Pictures will follow
Ironbank our home place till 14 th Nov
We are settling in very nicely Having a king size bed after 4 months on the bus is err ‘adventurous” to say the least ! The house is situated on top of a hill .To get here from any given point is a journey within itself.The long & winding road ( I’m sure there is a song in that phrase somewhere?) can be treacherous if you are a nervous driver !!bends around very sharp corners on a very narrow road with a sheer drop on one side can be quite scary Night driving around here for us is a NO NO !!Mark ( my brother inlaw) has some awesome stuff on his property including a fully working Fire Engine !! Ducks reside along his swimming pool and some of the surrounding flora is splendid. We are relaxing very heavily at the moment BUT me and my new camera will venture out tomorrow in the hope of getting some great photos For further entertaining stuff & I urge you all to send Money for my future camera training please send it to my Bank!!!!
Todays Blog dedicated to Annies brother Mark,his wife Wendy & son Jake
Annies brother has given us the run of his “spare” house in the Adelaide Hills,the views are magnificent & he been an absolute positive while we here,he organised the repair caravan Co & put our minds at rest.He also loaned us his 4 WD motor !!Its cool up here in the Hills but we have a roaring log fire and window views to kill for !!! Tomorrow we will venture into Adelaide shoping for a coat & Camera’s We have this place for 2 weeks & SO relaxing !! we will not use the bus now until we return in March.
Sunday in Murray Bridge
We stayed overnight so we could inspect a Retirement Village ( actually looks quite pleasant) we arranged to got to the Vendors shop & while looking BANG !!! I crossed an intersection and a lady wrote her car off hitting me !!! to add to the drama it was also absolutely pissing it down !!! After the various agencies turned up ( Police/Ambulance & firemen and of course the obligatory tow vehicle) The lady was assessed by the medics and proclaimed healthy ( she is 85 !!) The Police & Ambulance officers were great and calmly handled the incident very well The firemen cleaned the whole area up and gave me the all clear for travelling on ! I was breathalized (0) thankfully We are now parked in a lovely Van site facing the Murray River My blogs my be a little delayed BUT I shall return !! At the end of the day all that was hurt was my pride and the plastic & metal !! Annie was very supportive through out the ordeal Tomorrow our insurance assessor will take over SO fingers crossed
30 yrs of unblemished driving !!! Everyone involved is OK tho thanfully
Ouyen/Pinaroo & Murray Bridge
We have now left Mildura & heading Murray Bridge Ouyen (Strange name) is apparently famous for its Custard Slices !! Small town with a tiny courthouse BUT we did dtop to sample the slices (very tasty too!!) we stayed overnight at Pinaroo (hopefully where I will end up !!) Annie is starting to come down with the Flu so we have decided to do an overnight in Murray Bridge.We will also look at retirement homes tomorrow and do a bit of photography Today is the wettest we have encountered and it is also very windy SO yet another day of lethargy declared Spending the day watching old Movies and will try a glass of wine later on We are approx 100 kms from our designated destination Adelaide ending our first leg of our marathon trip (so far approx 14000 kms !!)
Possums of Borunga SA
This is our last night here before setting off for South Australia Once again we went into the excellent RSL for a meal & a Gamble ! we spent the day looking around Camera shops BUT prices are much higher than in Adelaide Shop keeper in Camera house wasn’t really interested in selling anything !! Even told us to come back in an hour while she recharges the Battery ( for a camera demo) think a shop like that would have masses of batteries? In the meantime here some pics of the wonderful Possums that came to our bus for a free feed (they were very successful!!) They never budged an inch when using the flash BUT ran off very quickly if I moved my foot !! Sorry about the red eye New camera might fix that !!
Buronga (just outside Mildura)
We are still parked in this wonderful Camp in Buronga ( where do they get these names?).Wish we had time to stay longer but we aiming to hit Adelaide tomorrow week (Friday) we discovered a weir here that has plenty of fish & bird life.Fishermen just dangle a line in from their little “tinnies” (little tin boats) Parts of the bush are strewn with Huge rotting Carp ! apparently because they are a “nuisance” fish it is illegal to throw them back into the Murray !! We caught glimpses of gloriously coloured small parrots They are extremely difficult to spot as their camouflage is excellent Pelicans are abundant in this part of the river & make good photo.s Today I am off to buy a camera that will hopefully alleviate my camera skills !! Last day here & Annie is treating me to dinner in the wonderful RSL club tonight.Will try my gambling kills once again & will no doubt squander $20 !!!!
Watch me play Didgeridoo
Geoffs Life After Work ! 