Guten Tag, Hahndorf

It was time to leave Wilmington and surrounds today and hit the road again, on route to Hahndorf. I have been looking forward to this stop for a little while now. This is the last four days of our trip and as treat, we booked ahead in to a lovely B&B to relax. So we packed up the tent for the last time this morning, in record time and took our time getting to the lovely little German inspired town.

The Adelaide Hills were really lovely and
made a welcome change to red dirt and shrubs. The tiny towns we drove through were ever changing. We certainly drove through a few without paying attention because everything was either closed (permanently) or contained maybe one shop and petrol station.

The closer we got to Adelaide though, the more the towns were clearly populated and impacted on by city goers and tourists. Boutique stores and hipster cafes started appearing and I felt a little sad that we had left the outback and were heading back towards civilisation.

We stopped in a small town for lunch, where we enjoyed views of Eden valley. Having our Engle fridge in the car has been a great way for us to make lunches on the road and save some money, to enjoy restaurants at night when we arrive in a new town.

Snow-Drop, had to be tried, very sweet, won't be tried again.

Our accommodation is just lovely. Vanessa, the owner, has worked in various accommodation places for a long time. She started up this place her self, which only has 3 rooms (small apartments) and it is obvious she knows what travelers want and need. Her attention to detail is impressive. We spent some time chatting to her and then started to enjoy the luxury of walls and no canvas! From our King size bed, we have views of beautiful gardens and the local bird life swoop in for a feed. I am looking forward to soaking in the spa tomorrow and scrubbing the desert from my body.

I was able to cut flowers from the garden and make an arrangement

We took a little wander down the main street this afternoon. It is clear we will need a lot more time to explore this town in the next few days and all it has to offer. There are many shops, cafes, wineries etc. We visited a little brewery and sampled their beers. I surprised myself by enjoying the chocolate stout, but the smoked beer left a bad taste in my mouth. Tonight we will enjoy dinner at the German Arms hotel and reminisce on our time spent in Germany.

Birthday Show

Wilmington, a town that along with a lot of other rural places is feeling the pressures of the modern world. It is not urbanisation, it is not overcrowding, it is population decline.  In this area there are a string of towns that were here to support the farmers and associated industries, however, from what we have learnt the farms are getting larger, the farmers are getting the fewer and the yields are less.

These are then, in turn, causing small business to lose trade, and close. Wilmington has a small supermarket, that is part of the rural supplies that also is the petrol station. The butchers are closed, the baker is gone, the two coffee shops are closed, and the pub is closed.

These are without a doubt sad times in country Australia and I do wish something will change and change soon to help these very interesting, attractive and special towns.

Apart from being a day of rest, it was also Katie's Birthday and as with most things when camping there was a little improvisation needed for the birthday cake.  I was able to make a Birthday (pan) Cakes!

After a restful morning, well we won't mention laundry was also performed, it was off to the Melrose Show. 

We were able to look over the schedule of events yesterday and decided there was on an event we had to see, The Yard Dog Competition.

For about 1 1/2 hours we sat there and watched farmer after farmer come out with differing dogs and then through various commands such as hands, whistles, and shouts. The dogs maneuvered the eight sheep into a series of pens and open yards. 

There were differing levels of skill and sometimes we believe the dogs were actually better at the task than the farmers. It was an unpredictable and enduring event to watch and kept us interested.

After this Katie was able to make a very important purchase and we inspected the exhibits. 

Bertie Beetle show bag - five Berties for $2

There was the standard fare, cakes, flowers, art, photography, quilts, jams and sauces, but I did note that some categories only had one entry, meaning they got first prize!  

Crocheted can holder

From here we went to a couple of wineries, sampled and purchased the exceptional produce.

A garden Pianist

Me and the view from Blesing's Garden Wines

This evening we are heading to The North Star Hotel in Melrose to continue Katie's Birthday celebrations. 

From the inner warmth to the southern cooler

It was time to hit the road again this morning, after a fairly, well...uncomfortable night at the 'Opal Inn' in Coober Pedy. We were clearly spoilt at the Underground Cave lookout hotel on our way through town a couple of weeks ago! 

But we didn't let this spoil our day. We were up with the sun and on the road even before the roadhouse was open for breakfast, muesli bars and iced coffee was breakfast on the run.

Shannon drove the first stretch this morning to Glendambo. The weather has changed and this morning was quite overcast and we even got a little rain! The change in the weather brought the wildlife out, clearly looking for water. We saw our first live kangaroos on the side of the road. While it was a nice change from only seeing roadkill and wedge-tailed eagles, they were right on the edge of the road. Shannon did very well to get around them without any damage done to animal or car.

I took over after a short pit stop. I battled a headwind and numerous road trains. Road trains are very new to me. They often have up to three long trailers carrying cattle, gas and who knows what else. They travel at fairly low speed, especially considering we were on limits of 110, some of them sit on 80 or 90. So, I passed a number of them today, carefully, cautiously, but with gusto!

This was only a small one

We only had one other stop on route to Wilmington at Port August for fuel.

We spent a little time here on the way north, so didn't need to stop again. We arrived in Wilmington at around 12:30 and found the closest park so we could have some lunch. These are welcome rest stops for travellers driving long distances. They are usually maintained by Rotary or Lions Club and have a toilet block, chairs and tables and usually bbq facilities. We had leftover sausages, so chopped these up to put in our sandwiches.

Wilmington is a very small town at the foothill of Mt Remarkable, Flinders Ranges. It is big enough to have its own Primary School, though the one pub and decent cafe in town have both closed down. We wandered into a local jeweller, which we thought odd to be out in the middle of nowhere, but he gets a lot of commission work apparently. He told us things close due to disagreements between landlords and tenants. We perused his lovely jewels and kept moving, taking a stroll down the main street. Wilmington has its own toy museum, which we may visit tomorrow, a takeaway food shop and an op shop. It does have two caravan parks, to cater for tourist passing through, but also those that hike and cycle in the nearby ranges.

The Pub that is closed

After we had set up our tent, for the last time this trip, we took a scenic drive to Hancock's lookout. It was lovely to see emus and flocks of galahs and parrots in a very green, lush area.

We will revisit the lookout tomorrow when we have better light.

We decided to drive into Melrose, about 20km down the road.

This little gem is slightly bigger than Wilmington. We had a lovely coffee and cake and booked for dinner at the North Star Hotel for tomorrow night's birthday dinner! We will return to Melrose tomorrow, to visit their country show. I am looking forward to the dog events and sheep chasing competition. I'm hoping to find excellent scones and a Bertie Beetle showbag to complete the show experience.

Melrose

Melrose

Before the Long Weekend crowds arrived

Blogging in the bush

Finally if you would like to travel from Coober Pedy to Wilmington, a distance of 581 Kms, you can, in around one minute. Shannon and I made the video below by taking one photo every five minutes over the entire journey, with one every minute whilst in Port Augusta.

Migrating South

The alarm clock was set for 5:45 and we were up before the sun.  With most of our camp already packed last night, it was just a matter of pulling the bung on the air bed and then squeezing the tent back into the bag it comes in. Packing the tent always reminds me of trying on last years jeans.

It was then the road and the road is pretty much
all we saw for the next 8 hours.

Below is a series of photos taken every 5 minutes while heading east from Yulara to Erldunda.

It was a fairly unadventurous drive, thankfully, with a stop for fuel at Erldunda and the lunch at Cadney Homestead.  Fuel (Diesel) at Erldunda was $2.079 /Ltr which is still less than the $2.209 at Yulara (Ayres Rock Resort).

Tonight we are at Coober Pedy once again and have checked into a Motel.

With a little time to spare Katie and I got a few supplies at the supermarket and if you are in Coober Pedy this is the place. The supermarket on Hutchison St is much smaller than what most are accustomed too, however, the range of items is far greater than any Woolworths we have ever been in.  I believe this may be due to the vast number of cultures that are in this town, for memory, I'm sure the tour guide at Faye's Underground house said there were around 80 different nationalities in this small town.

We also had a look in a few Opal shops and got a couple of small ornamental items for the good room at home.

From here we went for a short drive of the back streets and then went back to the Italian Club for dinner.

The Italian Social club did fill up, we were just first there.