I sorted a few things out whilst in Adelaide, The Overlander Train to Melbourne, which is one of the part Indian Pacific Train family, I only booked a backpackers seat in Red Service as it wasn't overnight for $79, which was $100 cheaper for the same seat as a 'backpacker' than a regular adult fare. I just needed to buy a Hostelling card to make me a backpacker, even with a YHA card costing $25 I still saved $75 on the train and get the hostel discount card too*. So the next day before leaving town for Jamestown I went to the YHA to get the card, I drove around in circles before finding a suitable park. Adelaide on street parking is a shambles if you just want to nip in and do something, every park on a given street has different rules - 1/4 hour from 10am, 1P (hour!) from 8am, 2P from 9, 2P ticket from 9:30, ahh and so on. I guess that's why people mostly cycle and bus.
After a couple of hours I arrived in Clare, the Clare valley is a vineyard area, I stopped for a coffee break, I was about to leave and an older lady sitting at the next table asked me to stay and talk to her, so I did, she was lovely, very friendly and before I left she said I should stay with her on the way back through, how kind.
I pushed on to Jamestown and went looking for Mount Lock Road, on the map it was shown north of the town in tiny roads that only show up after zooming in alot, because of the scale, the smallness of the device and the tiny roads I couldn't see the other roads that connected to it on the West side but found an awkard route through farms and paddocks on the East, so I followed it and eventually found the vineyard about .5km from a main sealed road. Gah! I had driven a big loop. Aparently the excact name of their road is not on Google maps so it defaults to one with a similar name.
Jamestown is a lovely little town where everyone knows each other and meets at the pub, there's a real community spirit here. My hosts David and Zine were very much part of that community, and everyone knew David as Boxy - from his surname Box. A few days into my stay I had to collect David from the pub as he had a few and wasn't going to be driving, so I went to the pub and met Harriet, another English girl who were working there, I also met David's friend Sean and the publican Mac, who kept buying them rounds, they're lovely people. There was a rodeo on the weekend and David and Zine were going to be in Adelaide visiting relatives so David asked Sean if he'd take me to the Rodeo.
I'd never been to a rodeo before, Harriet was also there. The started with horses and then junior bulls and then the big bulls. We all agreed the riders are crazy, its nots something your health would benefit from. Everyone enjoyed themselves.
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| Peterborough Annual Rodeo |
On the Sunday I went on an excursion to Port Pirie on the coast with Harriet, there wasn't much to do there, we went to a nice cafe and had a good old chat, she has a very mature way of thinking for a 20 something and great company, we passed a museum on our walk around the town so went back inside, on the counter was a younger man in his late 20's early 30's and an older man, the younger guy didn't know why we wanted to go in the museum as he said there wasn't much to see except the lookout. After an awkward exchange, we paid and went inside and grinned at each other, Harriet had been fixated on his long fingernails. We went up to the lookout, the steps are were quite exciting but the lookout was really only like looking out of a second floor. Outside we found some old machinery bits, there was an stone peddle sit apon thing that I guess was used to sharpen things, while harriet was in the ladies I filed my nails on it. Harriet did the same and said "they should be selling that salon instead!" Ha ha. There was some other old things with pulleys and things to turn, so I played with them, not sure if you're meant to.
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| Stairs leading to museum lookout |
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| Port Pirie's best manicure |
After we drove to Port Broughton had a walk along a signed coast walk, it was a bit rubbish but thats ok, there was a pub and we ordered a pizza, it was a biggest pizza in the world, I hadn't read the details but just ordered a large, the large was 18 inches, we managed about half.
The only problem at the vineyard was there was no interent and very limited reception so I had to go to the library in town to sort things out after finishing around 3pm on the vineyard, the library shuts at 5pm and isn;t open on the weekend so sorting my flights out via email to the Flight Centre in Adeliade took a number of days, made harder as I was trying to decide on 2 opposite directions. I also had to pre write my blog entries so I could get them up quicker whilst at the library.
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| Burra |
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| Old Burra mine |
The library is very good for a small town. Even though I only in Jamestown for a week I felt like a local, one day I went out to help David with his other business of floor sanding and sealing. We went to Burra, an old mining town that had a rural France feel about it with the stone work of the buildings, the trees and colours, a gentle river, beautiful place. We had to put 2 coats of sealant on a floor David had sanded previously, between coats drying he took me to the old mining area and we crept under the fence and had a look around, and then to a street in the village that has albino Kangaroos that someone keeps in a large garden. He's a wonderful person, a very kind, thoughtful person, he told me about his family, his Father and Grandfather, his Grandfather surviving the Second World War, when he talks of them his voice quavers and his eyes shine. He recalls what his Father said to him on his death bed. 'Look after the weak and look after the women son'. His voice breaks, eyes filled up.
"You do those two things right nothing else matters" said David. If only more people could understand that.
So onto the Flinders Ranges.
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| This is the best photo I've taken so hence Copyright mark, and its only a crop of the main image. Got to protect one's IP. Sometimes images from blogs appear in Google searches. |
*The YHA card is also valid for the HI Hostels elsewhere in the world.
PS. I don't have time to research the proper use of " and ' quote marks, life's too short.
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