Adelaide here I come... again!

8 March
Alarm at 7am and dozing until 7.30. Walked out the bathrooms and the cloud was really low... and full of rain! Really interesting. So much so that half the camp were on top of the hill (above where we had slept) taking photos of the cloud and two beautiful rainbows. Changed (wearing two odd socks – I was that desperate for clothes!) and down to pack up my swag, collect my food from the caretaker, breakfast and photos before driving out just before 9am. Arrived at the Old Timers Mine for a self guided tour of what life was like working and living in an opal mine. Although they produce 90% of the world’s opals, apparently there are very few people actually mining. From there I headed to the visitors centre (via the servo’s to check out the cheapest fuel) to find a church that wasn’t going to be in service. Now – the make or break part of the day – hole in the wall to find out if I was going to have to wash dishes on my way back to Adelaide. After finding my Bendigo card I plugged it in for $150 withdrawal – no problem, and $150 still to my name I was laughing. Over to BP and paid for the fuel on credit (which must now have about $2 left) and headed out to the Serbian Orthodox Church. It was rather impressive, the way they’d been able to carve the roof to match the stain glass window. OK on the road – Adelaide here I come. Got to Bon Bon, the rest stop from my way up and cooked up some spag bol and found the Women’s World Cup Cricket on the radio. Red bull and I was on my way again. Now I had made it up to Coober Pedy from Port Augusta on one tank of fuel with a roaring headwind, so I figured I would be pretty right to make it back. Last servo for 170kms – nah, she’ll be right. But with 120kms to go the red light came on - whoops! Mum rang to find out what I was up to – heading your way, if I make it! No rolling into Port Augusta like we did Launceston! 100kms out thought I’d give RAC a call – don’t want to know unless you’re broken down (bloody good if there doesn’t happen to be any mobile service then!) Down to 90kms an hour, and the count started – 60kms to go, 30kms to go. Over yet another cattle grid Bbbbrrrrr clang clang clang.... Rim had come off and was rolling down the road. CRAP. Turn around (if I fall short by a kilometre I’m not going to be happy) picked it up, accelerate nice and slow.... 27 kms, then I started to lose power. Was it just the wind – no. Turned off the ignition, and rolled along the side of the road, and very nicely found a gravel pit/rest bay. Call to the RAC, feeling like a goose. She was going to call me back with a time. So I took photos of the Ghan as it went past, and the mountains (I decided not to take one of the dead billy goat on the other side of the road). Half an hour went past and still no phone call so I called back, would be another hour – 7.30pm. Then she called back, same deal, an hour. So on the laptop for some blog, stuck the cricket on and sat back and relaxed. Decided now would be a good time to organise dinner, so heated up some spag bol and started digging in – for the mechanic to turn up, half an hour early – damb him!!! Put his $20 in the tank, here we go. Turned over but wouldn’t start, so he primed it and after a second go George was back up and running. Right. Got into Port Augusta and filled up at Shell, some refreshments (chocolate) and I was on my way at 7.45pm – 300kms to Adelaide. Now I got to see a beautiful sunset and rainbows across the Flinders Ranges on my way south. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, except for some beautiful batting from Hughes to continue rubbing it into the Saffas. Arrived at 11pm (because the 300kms was actually 314) with mum and dad very glad to see me. Upstairs to their room to say hi to Uncle Ray and Aunty Debbie, and to watch Hughes bring up his second 100 while we caught up. Managed to get my Men of Cricket calendar just before heading to bed, with a cough that I wasn’t all that happy about......

9 March
7.30am and I was hot and blocked up. Was up before everyone else and on the laptop to see how the boys finished up yesterday. Breakfast and said goodbye to the olds as they headed off to Clare and I sorted out George. Did some washing and enjoyed being in a room by myself for a change! Left for Mount Lofty for a look over Adelaide before getting to Hahndorf, which I thought was like a big version of Olinda (and coincidently, overheard someone while I was having lunch at the bakery say the same thing!). A German town it was absolutely pumping on the Adelaide Cup public holiday. Walked up and down both sides of the street, finding a chemist for cold and flu tablets along the way. Then headed out of town and back to Bridgewater and the Petaluma Bridgewater Mill, which was beautiful! Went into look at the artwork and had my arm twisted to taste some of their wines, which were nice, but I must have been off-colour as I wasn’t even interested in flirting with the bar staff! Back to the car and headed back home, I jumped on the net and then had a shower before the rest of the crew arrived. Wine, cheese and biscuits with the cricket before leaving just after 8pm for dinner. Found the pub on the corner open and with some great service ordered our meals. Unfortunately dad’s garlic bread never turned up, and the service slid a bit when it got busy, but the meals were delivered and most were impressed, with ‘holey crap’ my expression on receiving the biggest snitzel ever – Mexicana style with salsa and corn chips! Headed home for more cricket and the smallest birthday cake in the world – a lamington with 6 candles – yay me! Presents and cards, cricket and wine, it was a great evening for my last day at 28 – give or take the cold! The folks drifted off to bed, and I managed to stay up til just after midnight, watching the Saffa’s score too many runs and wishing myself a happy birthday.

10 March – my birthday (and Jakes, and Josh’s)
Who has a cold on their birthday? Having not been able to breathe for most of the night (you know the whole ‘my mouth is like sandpaper’ feeling) when I woke at 5.45am hot and quite uncomfortable I wasn’t too upset in knowing the apartment was going to be up and going at 6am. Sure enough alarms started going off and it wasn’t long before there was movement at the station. Cuppa helped and with the crew leaving just after 6.30am I had the place to myself. My phone started going off and didn’t stop all day! We got ready to head out and left at 9.30pm, heading north but not really sure where, and needing to drop George off at long term parking for the day. Found a cricket/tennis club and then started heading for Port Wakefield, when we decided it would be too far and did an about face and went to Port Adelaide instead. Squeezed into a parking lot and started on their historic walk. Found an average bakery for lunch and headed back to the Maritime Museum to have a look. Free entry to the lighthouse lookout so we headed there first, but the view wasn’t all that spectacular over the city and river. Back to the museum which was completely the opposite – absolutely amazing! Over 3 floors the building, where the bottom floor was originally the street level of Port Adelaide, they had set up replica rooms of the cabins from 3 different eras of migrants to Australia, along with info on shipwrecks, marine life, explorers and heaps more. Awesome. We spent probably 2 hours in there and were all really impressed – best museum I think I’d been into. Back to the car and headed to the shops before trekking back to George and heading home. Glass of wine while I got ready to head out to dinner and we arrived at the Wellington Hotel just as Scotty, Cassey and kids did. Had a really great meal and some good laughs (and one or two... or three more glasses of wine...) leaving there about 9.30pm. Got home and with a glass of port to round out the night we watched Katich tear through the tail enders and win the second game against the Saffas, also securing the series (and regaining the Number 1 World Ranking). What an end to my birthday!