Back at Bunna

I can 't say I didn't recognise Tribes when I got back but there have been some changes.

The supermarket's gone a trendy grey with timber paneling.

I think I've alerted you previously to the gnashers / mako denture shop.  Comfortingly, next door Beauty by the Sea has opened.

There was insufficient time in Adelaide this trip to have my usual Marden toenail makeover so I chanced BbtS and was delighted with my $22 pedicure ($50 on special at Marden).

The Japanese Garden outside the Visitor Information Centre has been re-discovered and is being revived.  I hope to get involved in this project.

The wharf and marina extensions go on a-pace.

The Triabunna Gatehouse has been officially opened

and I hope to bring you more news about this soon.

Gratuitous shot of the red gums (no connection to the denture shop) in front of the Barracks building taken some time ago.

 And life goes on.

Omm Adelaide

Unfortunately Sandrine and I are both able to wake up early.  Thus it was that we were up and about by 3.30 am the next morning and sitting in the dark at the bus-stop watching the big trucks go by at 4 am.  My bus for Adelaide came exactly on time at 5am.  This is a new service designed so that Mildurians can go shopping or keep appointments in Adelaide and be there and back on the same day.

It was getting light by 7 am when we pulled into Waikerie for a pitstop and from then on it was lovely seeing the sights I used to see on a regular basis when I drove from Wentworth to Adelaide.  In fact it was better because I was up higher in the bus and didn't have to concentrate on driving.  We arrived at Adelaide Bus Station on time at 9.30 am and I cut through buildings and coffee-seeking office workers to keep out of the rain and find an O-bahn bus.  Having negotiated all this successfully I arrived at Mum's and crashed for the rest of the day.
I picked up a hire car the next day and Mum and I had the freedom to lunch at Mercato's, get sushi, lunch at The Sussex with Pru and take Madame du Barry to the Flying Fish - not all on the same day, of course.  There were many other delights:

Rundle Street  Mall

a niece who makes chocolate cake

a recently discovered photo of aunts (and some uncles and a cousin)

a visit to the groovy Spinners and Weavers' Guild

and a last coffee at Grange with Heths to fortify us for a wander around Ikea.

I have no photo but a very vivid sound memory of yoga with Fleurieu Floosie at Encounter Bay.  The teacher started and ended the class with three oms and I was startled but entranced with their reverberance.  The last time I had ommed was during an anti Viet Nam war march in the 1970s.  And one last highlight by virtue of having a car:  racing around the backstreets late at night to pick up Tamasin from uni.  I really felt rejuvenated.

Wentworth Revisited

No point going to Mildura if you're not going to Wentworth. So off we went on the Thursday.  It was lovely to walk along these streets again.  Curly Tree is the name of the shop that now operates in what was our heavenly River Bank.

How lovely to go through that portico again.

Inside it's a bit different from our minimalist New York Room.  I was, however, seduced by a watermelon lamp

seen here on the fridge in our Triabunna home.  It's hardly a thing you need but I loved it and watermelon always makes me think of beaches and holidays - driving South Road to Normanville or Port Noarlunga and buying cold watermelon from a roadside stall back in the 70s.
There are still traces of us in Wentworth.

Steve's blackbird continues to sit on the deck overlooking the Darling as does the gazebo that Mum gave us one Christmas.  My grapevine continues to do well.

And curiously some of Steve's works are still in a shop window.
We lunched at ArtBack after a very warm welcome.  We had arrived on the chef's 40th birthday - the chef being John, our former next door neighbour. At John's suggestion I had the amazing dreamily light gnocchi with sausage

and Sandrine had some goody goody salad thing.  It couldn't have been a better day.

On the road again - north this time.

Up earlyish and on the road to Mildura,

stopping for more silos en route

and pasta from this enterprising shop in Hopetoun which makes and sells delicious pasta and sauces.  Perfect idea for a wheat town.

We arrived in Mildura in the late afternoon and ate lunch at this pop-up style cafe on the waterfront.  Mildura is working hard to connect the city with the Murray River.

I was also excited to see that the conundrum about the old hospital building has finally been resolved.  Many had called for its demolition which I thought highly likely for, to me, Mildura is a soulless town without a heritage heart despite some lovely deco features.  The hospital is being converted to apartments and they will be stunning.

Magic trip to Port Fairy

The next day we headed south.  Negotiated Horsham.  Ate delectable chicken sandwiches in Hamilton Botanic Gardens.  Took in Hamilton type sculptures while looking for an appealing coffee shop.  Kicked in toilet door at said coffee shop (ask Sandrine) and proceeded down roads previously untravelled.  The road to Port Fairy differs from the one to Portland which I used when visiting Southern Belle on the long weekend in March each year.

As you can see, Port Fairy is very much to my liking. This group walks their dogs each morning.  All the dogs romp together having a wonderful time.

I chose this room because it had 5 ships a sailing and a foxy red heeler at the door.

We stayed Chez Gail.  The 3 of us used to work together at Mildura Base Hospital.  We pounded the shopping streets and cafes.  Sadly the renowned fish and chip shop was closed but we were well content at this seafront cafe with wine bar next door.

Gail and her husband had only lived in Port Fairy for 6 weeks but they had done their homework and stayed there numerous time before they bought.  Gail chauffeured us like a local showing us, among other delights 'Peasoup' and the above Tower Hill volcano.  You can drive around the volcano but on this day the road was closed because of the rain.
The next day - Anzac Day - we drove back to the cafe in Hamilton with the scuffed and dented toilet door... and had a delicious lunch with the post Anzac Day March crowd.  So fortified were we that we missed the turnoff to Horsham and were nearly in South Australia before we realised our mistake.  We cut across to Edenhope and though we did far more kms than we should have, the road was beautiful and we both agreed that it was fortuitous because we were unlikely to have ever driven that way otherwise.  After a short return to Warracknabeal it was back to Horsham that night for dinner at Ginger Chilli with a gang of Sandrine's amies.

The Silo Trail

After a bracing walk around Warracknabeal, taking in the lovely houses and gardens including Sandrine's Community Garden, we breakfasted at The Nurses' Residence and set off on The Silo Trail.  There had been wide consultation at the party the night before, including with people wearing white sheets over their heads for fear of recognition, about the best way to get to Sheep Hills.  We finally found the turnoff and crossed kilometres of wheat fields to arrive at Sheep Hills where the Firies were doing a big clean-up.  I tried to capture their dedicated activity in the photo above but really only captured why I couldn't live there.

The silos, however, are amazing and a big tourist attraction with campervan after campervan turning up to take photos.  Next on to Rupanyup where I didn't like the silos so didn't take a photo though they were beautifully painted.  They looked too much like school sports' captains to me. We were rather taken with this mosaicked former shop.

There is also a beguiling homewares type shop on the lawned median strip running through town where you can  have coffee.  It is a quirky little town.

From there we drove the long way round to Horsham to buy a cooked chook for lunch the next day.  En route we stopped at a great cafe in Natimuk

which also attracts a quirky crowd and nutters who climb Mount Arapiles.  Believe it or not I've only just realised the mosaic connection between Natimuk and Rupanyup.  And trust Sandrine Shiffer to get in the photo too.

All aboard The Overland

After a few more days with Mum, it was up before the crack of dawn to catch the Overlander.  I had booked myself  into Premium because, for not very much extra, breakfast and lunch was included.  The Premium carriage was spaciously fitted out and not very peopled.  What the other carriages were like I could not say.  After taking this photo of their disappearing forms

I had nothing more to with the plebs in other carriages.  A bonza sheila  in an akubra hat, shirt and jeans jollily took our breakfast orders in a methodical manner.  The delivery of the breakfasts seemed to take until almost lunchtime and was totally random.  My feta and spinach omelette, however was very good as was the coffee when it finally arrived.  It was lovely 'steaming' out of Adelaide in the early morning, holding up workbound traffic at the crossings, with not a care in the world.  Although there was a family who behaved curiously:  the father seemed unable to sit for longer than 10 seconds and disappeared constantly presumably to explore the train.  He kept his teenage children informed of his discoveries via txt and phone calls.  There is something very exciting about train travel.  It always bring to mind for me previous train journeys so there were flashbacks to France and Wales as the Adelaide Hills unfolded in their autumn glory.

I took this photo of the station at Murray Bridge because it was so unprepossessing - but I hadn't seen Horsham Station at that point.

I like Murray Bridge, not just because giant octopuses try to drag the train into the river,

but because it is the Murray River, and I once lived on its junction with the Darling,

and crossing it by car or train is always exciting after the wheat towns of Victoria.

This time, however, we were travelling into the wheat belt of Victoria and I took no more photos, especially not of Horsham Station.
The absolute best thing about Horsham Station was Sandrine waiting for me and driving me, Claudia Schiffer style, in her VW to Warracknabeal.

That night we went to a party to support and farewell a woman who was sacked when she handed in her resignation.  I took no photos 1) because I was non compos mentis by then after such an early (for me) start and 2) because other staff had been told not to attend any event held for her and were a little wary of cameras... (unlike Claudia Shiffer)

A short Dissertation on the University of Adelaide

I pondered the Uni as I waited for Tamasin at lunch time. It is so genteel and park-like these days.  Individuals walk around apparently talking to no-one.  Nobody smiles.  My memory of Adelaide Uni is of a bustling place, the lawns festooned with people and litter exhorting us to take a stand on some thing.  Memorably, once a guy stood outside the then new extension of the Barr-Smith Library handing out leaflets telling females how they should look and dress in order to be emancipated.
Over the road a church has this message

and I like it.

a small lie

Yankalilla wasn't quite our last stop.  We called in to see Corinne's daughters and their families.  Heths and I attempted to thrash Hugo at Uno while Lady Jayne tried to sweet talk Leo into letting her play trains.

This was our fourth Easter spent without CK.  We always feel at some stage that she is with us and there are always times when we know she would be giggling uncontrollably with us,