BACK TO PERTH CARAVAN TRIP WEEK 3

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BACK TO PERTH 2011 - WEEK 3

Sunday 13 March, 2011 - 11:06 by Bob and Marion in Travel Log

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Sunday 13 March 2011:  After Sunday mass at Henley Beach we returned to the van in order for Marion to complete some much needed washing of clothes.  The forecast was for some showers that did not arrive so we were fortunate in that regard.

Marion Washing 13 March 2011.

After lunch we drove over to Aunty Nat's house where Marion was generously given the use of Nat's sewing machine to make some alterations to the jeans and long trousers we purchased last Friday.  We had a pleasant visit and watched the rainbow lorrikets feeding at the bird feeder whilst sipping our coffee.  Back at the van we had a "scratch" evening meal and I retired early to read a good book.  We had a telephone call from our daughter Cathie to advise us Jake had come down with suspected "Chickenpox" and would be going to the doctor on Monday.  We immediately envisioned  having to return home to look after him whilst his parents travelled to work.  Sometimes we think this trip was not meant to be; given the late departure due to floods and hold ups with our solar installation, however time will tell.

Monday 14 March 2011:  We both woke up at 4.00am this morning.  We were worried about Jake and the possibility of baby Luke (Lucas) catching the disease from Jake.  We discussed the possibility of going back home, but decided to wait for a report this morning.  At 10.15am we received a telephone call from Cathie to advise all was well and the illness Jake had come down with was called "Hand, Foot & Mouth".  It was not chickenpox, thank goodness!

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common childhood illness that is caused by a viral infection (most commonly the Coxsackie A16 virus). It typically affects children under the age of 10 years, but older children and adults can also be affected. There is no relationship between hand, foot and mouth disease and the condition known as foot-and-mouth disease that affects animals.

Cathie informed us the doctor was of the opinion all would be well by Wednesday and Jake could return to school.  In the meantime Beau had days off and would be looking after him.  We could continue our trip!  (Cathie was surprised we were even contemplating returning home; guess we are "worriers" at heart.)  Today is a public holiday in Adelaide and nothing is open; thus we decided to stay "home" and complete some washing and maintenance.  It would seem my deep cycle battery has called it a day after 4.5years of hard work.  I currently (no pun intended) have it on a sophisticted machine which is trying to re-condition it, without success I am afraid.  Looks like we are in the market for a new one.  The rest of the day has been spent reading and relaxing.  Tomorrow we will be attending the funeral of John Koukourou's mother which will be a sad occasion for the whole family.

Tuesday 15 March 2011:

We drove to Unley early making sure we found the church and a parking spot, as we knew there would be a large number of friends and relatives attending the funeral of Mrs Katina Koukourou, John's mother.  We entered St Spyridon's Greek Orthodox Church and took a seat towards the rear to await the arrival of Nat, Lee and Alan as arranged.  Neither of us had attended a Greek Orthodox Church Service before and we had plenty of time to gaze upon the beautiful artwork depicting saints and religious adorning the walls of the church.  There were also several very large chandeliers hanging from the ceiling one of which was of an enormuous size.  We noticed an iconic painting standing just inside the entrance to the church proper; many of the congregation bent to kiss this painting as they entered.  Katina was born in Rizokarpaso, Cyprus and lived from 1921 to 2011.  She is now at rest with her husband, Stelios.

After the ceremony we were taken by Alan and Lee, together with Nat, to the Buckingham Arms Hotel where they brought us a smorgasbord lunch.  The food was excellent as was the wine and conversation!  After lunch Marion and I went shopping before finally returning to the caravan for a well-earned rest.

Wednesday 16 March 2011:

Today we struck out on our own to do the "tourist thing".  We started with a drive to the Torrens Lake in the city center where we intending taking a cruise on the  Lake in a "Popeye" boat.  We were an hour early and spent the time walking along the bank and watching the ducks and swans at play.  A couple of black swans swam over to us, no doubt looking for a "hand out", but we had nothing to offer.

 Black Swans - Lake Torrens.

The boat finally arrived and we embarked upon our cruise.  Being a week day we had only a few other passengers for company and the captain proved to be a genial host.  When I went forward to take a photograph of one of the old bridges across the Torrens, he obligingly stopped the vessel and positioned it for the best angle of the shot.

  Oldest Bridge Over the Torrens Rv.

The banks of the Torrens along the city reach and the lake boasted landscaped lawns and gardens, all of which made for a postcard picture.  As we slowly made our way upstream and down I thought the scene was a perfect setting for mole and his friends from "The Wind In The Willows" and I was reminded of the quote, ""There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." - Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, Ch. 1.

Our voyage was over all to soon and as we returned to the dock the mist from the fountain floated gently over us, bidding us a fond farewell.

After the boat trip we went to a little cafe nearby where we had lunch.  We then drove to the Adelaide Zoo and paid our entry fee.  Our first call was to see the two Giant Panda Bears, Wang Wang and Funi.  We found one of them fast asleep in the panda house; however Funi was up and about and treated us to a good view.

Much to our delight Funi decided to inspect her enclosure and I got some good photos of her walking about.

 Funi, Adelaide Zoo.

We then strolled around the zoo looking at all the exhibits.  I felt a bit sorry for some of the larger animals as it did not seem appropriate for them to be caged up.  I was particularly struck by the confinement of the lions, but they did seem content.  One female bestowed a "lion's stare" upon me for several moments; those eyes bored right into me.  She was a very large lion and I would hate to meet her on a path in the wild.  I felt a bit privilaged that she choose to stare intently into my eyes for all those moments; I could see some of her spirit was still there.

After the lions we found a couple of enclosures which house the famous tree kangaroo, which is so hard to see in the wild.  I was at least glad to be able to  photograph these unusual animals.  Tree Kangaroos can also be found in New Guinea, as well as tropical North Queensland, Australia.

 Tree Kangaroo, Adelalde Zoo.

After leaving the zoo we returned home driving through heavy traffic.  It was a bit intimidating coping with the beligerence of some drivers who seemed intent on maiming themselves and others as they approached round-abouts at speed and played "blindman's bluff" when changing lanes.  I perservered with my sedate country style of driving and we eventually arrived back at the caravan park in one piece!  Another day of high adventure was over.

Thursday 17 March 2011:

I spent the morning testing all our batteries as I was suspicious that at least one had given up the ghost in the caravan; and another in the car was not behaving normally either.  To my consternation I found the deep cycle battery in the caravan was completely dead; although I must admit it was over 4yrs old.  The auxilleries battery in the car had "gone out" in sympathy and after a bit over 2yrs work was also dead.  It had been feeding off the cranking battery (used to start the car) and thus the cranking battery was feeling the strain when it came to starting the car.  This is what alterted me in the first place.  I spent a couple of  hours ringing around for prices as these deep cycle batteries are not cheap to buy!  I finally find a distributor who was prepared to sell me two batteries at "trade price" and his quote stacked up against all the others to the tune of $50.00 cheaper for each respective battery.  We had to drive down to Port Adelaide which was about 8kms away, but it was worth it to get these batteries at the right price.  By the time all this was done the day was shot to pieces, so we returned to the van and relaxed for what was left of the day.

Friday 18 March 2011:

Marion was attempting to do some early morning cooking on the gas stove in the van when she advised me we were running out of gas.  I turned the suspect cylinder over to the second cylinder, only to met with the declaration, "That one's empty as well.  You will have to go and fill them up!"  Now I was sure that the second cylinder was full; and was intent on proving my point.  I removed each cylinder from inside the van's boot and attached a tester to each in turn.  The first cylinder still had a quarter of a tank of gas in it; and the second was indeed full!  Whilst this was a small win for the "mere male", it was a big problem.  Something had gone wrong with the gas system!  Either the gas line had been holed, or the regulator had a blockage.  Maybe the regulator had collapsed entirely.  I gave the regulaor a few taps with the hammer to see what would happen and Marion reported a slight increase in pressure before the flame immediately fell back to being just visible at the burner on the stove.  That told me the regulator was faulty and would have to be replaced.  I called a gas fitter on the telephone only to get no reply; all I could was leave a message and hope for the best.  Just after 9.00am Mark from Waterworks Plumbing rang me.  I explained our problems to him and he promised to come out to us at 11.00am, after he had done another job.  I said a silent prayer that the "other job" would not take too long.  True to his word Mark turned up just before 11.00am and made short work of testing the regulator, confirming my earlier diagnosis.  He had to go away to obtain a new regulator of the correct type and promised to return ASP.  Again I whispered a silent prayer that this would be so!  Again true to his word, Mark was soon back with the new regulator and made short work of installing it and testing the system.  I was very impressed with his professional approach and his genuine attitude.  He charged us $87.00 for the new regulator and as I had priced them on the internet at $133.00 I was most impressed.  We had planned to spend the day at Victor Harbour but gave that idea away, as it was far too late to be driving that far. Nothing was really lost as we had been to Victor Harbour a number of times in the past.  Instead we went shopping for groceries and returned from the shops to the van for a well earned rest.  Finally I had a functioning 12v system in the car and the van respectively; and a functioning gas system in the van.  All was well and the worrying was over!

Saturday 19 March 2011:

Our time in Adelaide was coming to an end.  The two weeks had simply flown by and we wanted to do a bit more of the "tourist thing".  Rain was forecast for our last day, Sunday, so we decided to head over to Glen Osmond to see the monastry of St Paul of the Cross which was owned by The Passionists order of monks.  Lee and Alan had told us about The Sacred Garden in which large marble statues of the fourteen stations of the cross had been placed, and they said it was well worth going to see.  We arrived in bright sunshine and parked in the grounds.  The garden was easily found and we entered via a small pathway to find a peaceful and well landscaped garden.

 Station XI - Jesus Is Nailed To The Cross.

 Station XI - Jesus Is Natled To The Cross.  Close Up of Art Work.

The statues were strategically placed along the path and I was struck by the excellent work of the artist who had made them.  I photographed each one taking our time as we proceeded from station to station.  We also came across one of the biggest Moreton Bay Fig trees I have ever seen.  A sign informed us it was planted in the 1850s.  It was a magnifcent specimen even more so for being south of the latitude at which these trees are usually found.

 Moreton Bay Fig Tree circa 1850s.

 Moreton Bay Fig circa 1850s.

We left the garden in silent reflection upon what we had seen; it was not only the religious aspect of the Stations of the Cross, but the beautiful art work we had seen, that caused us to be so reflective.  We went and visited the church where we saw some magnificent paintings.  I hope these works of art will be preserved for future genertions to wonder at.  After leaving the monastry we decided to drive across the City of Adelaide and the Torrens River to see the statue of Colnel Light, known as "Lights Vision".  Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find a full scale Japanese Wedding in progress!  I managed to get a couple of photos before leaving the scene to the wedding party.

 Lights Vision, Adelaide, S.A.

Colonel William Light was the first surveyor general of South Australi.  He fixed the site and laid out the city of Adelaide in 1836.  After a quiet drive through the CBD of Adelaide, we returned home to the van for the rest of the day.  We discussed the fact that rain was expected on Sunday and Monday and decided to take down the annexe, in preparation for our departure on Monday, whilst it was still dry.  This poved to be a wise decision.  After the work was done, it was time to sit and relax in the shade with a glass of wine and chat with passers by.  A very good day had come to an end.

END OF WEEK 3.