After a terrible nights sleep thanks to noisy trucks on the highway and then Bella waking up very early, we packed up and headed to Iron Knob. We had a short stop here. I love the character of this dirty dusty little mining town!...
Our next stop was a place we had bypassed last trip Port Germein. this little seaside town was once an important transport hub for the surrounding districts following the opening of its jetty in 1881~at the time known as the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. Due to the shallow water along the coast, the long jetty was built to allow sailing ships to be loaded with grain from surrounding districts...
It was originally built to a length of 1680 metres when completed in 1883. The present length, following storm damage is 1532 metres.
With such huge tidal movement it was an almost eerie experience looking at the jetty. We went for a walk out on it about half way and were still along way from the water as the tide was very low...
So strange looking back towards land and hard to imagine the tidal flat full of water at high tide. We ended up leaving the jetty at this ladder and walking back along the tidal flat...
It was an amazing structure to visit and very interesting to see it at low tide...
After having lunch at Port Germein we continued on through some familiar places from last years trip through the beautiful Clare Valley to Leasingham. We stayed at this caravan park last trip and even booked into the same bay this time! We took the dogs for an evening walk along the Riesling Wine Trail track...
Next day we continued on through the towns of Auburn and Gawler. As we weaved our way through the Adelaide Hills we felt very sad seeing all the destruction from the recent fires that swept through. It was so nice to see some regrowth happening...
We stayed the night in Mount Barker again. This time the park was full and we got put on the adjacent sports oval which was quite a walk from the amenities! We woke to a very cold morning, packed up and traveled on to Tailem Bend. It was then a very pretty drive through the Padthaway wine region to Naracoorte...
Here we met up with our fellow travelers Wayne and Sue who had been on the road already for 7 months. Naracoorte wasn't really a place either of us had planned to visit but with it being Easter weekend and having the 2 dogs with us there wasn't much else to choose from!
Naracoorte has some beautiful churches so went for a drive on Church Street to check some of them out...
We also took a drive just out of town to Cockatoo Lake. Sadly there wasn't much water in it but it was still pretty and tranquil with some bird life around...
Love this beautiful tree...
The next day we all drove down to Penola in the heart of wine growing areas. Penola has a very rich history and is also know as the central location in the life of Mary Mackillop (the first Australian to gain Roman Catholic sainthood) We spent some time wandering down Petticoat Lane visiting some of the historic and heritage listed cottages...
We also visited sites marking the wonderful life of Saint Mary Mackillop...
We then drove to the Coonawarra wine region and stopped off at some wineries to do some tastings. The vineyards were so pretty with Autumn just starting and the leaves turning...
This vine would have certainly produced a few grapes over 80 years!!...
That night we all rugged up and settled in to watch a football match...
It had rained all night which made packing up that bit harder! We said our goodbyes to Wayne and Sue and headed off in different directions. We travelled through Edenhope and then into Horsham before stopping for a while just out of Stawell to visit the Big Koala...
We then got stuck in a massive traffic jam as all the easter traffic were trying to get back to Melbourne via Ballarat. It was cold and quite late when we finally made it to Daylesford and then we couldn't remember which caravan park we had checked into. After much frustration and trouble setting up (very close bays) we took the dogs for a much needed walk around the very pretty lake...
Next day was freezing! We went for a drive just on the outskirts of town to find "Daylesford Organics" a family I follow in instagram and bought some of their organic produce from their little stall...
We went for a lovely (but very cold) walk around Daylesford Lake and also tried some of their famous "spring" water (definitely and acquired taste!)...
We also got to see Holly growing for the first time...
After a beautiful fireside lunch at Hepburn Springs we went to the Daylesford Botanical Gardens. In between rain we managed to have a quick walk around. It was very pretty with the Autumn leaves just starting to turn...
Apparently a visit to Daylesford is not complete without a visit to the iconic Mill St Markets. It was hundreds and hundreds of small stalls of everything (mostly vintage) "stuff". We had fun wandering...
We then visited Gordon's sister Bev's house. She has quite a bit of land and so many fruit trees growing. (They did point out that they thought it was cold enough to snow so it certainly wasn't our imagination being soooooo cold!)
By the time we had left there it was dark so we took the dogs for a walk around the streets of Daylesford under lights. Everything in the van had turned into a mess with wet cold dogs, umbrellas and wet clothes. We were over the mud, rain and cold!!!!...
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