So, after the Yorke it was good to get back to some normal bush and by that, I mean a tree that’s at least over 2 metres tall! Don’t get, me wrong coastal scenery can be spectacular but me thinks I prefer the bush.

The area east of the Yorke in Mid-west South Australia, is rolling hills, farms and off course wine country, but before we could nestle down amongst the wineries and breweries we had to get back on track, seems I’d stuffed up and whilst that is nothing unusual in itself, we had gained a day…. somehow, I had overlooked the camp in the middle of nowhere on the coast with no 2WD access and it was throwing my itinerary out of whack (and the advanced bookings). So, we opted to do some circuits of an area that I had not planned to cover, which would get us back on track, so we didn’t spend too much time (and money) in the wine region.

This meant we extended that particular day’s travel, and as the kilometres crept up the fuel gauge crept down. No problem we had a range of 200 left and it was 120 to the cheapest fuel stop on the main A1 highway, then 20km out, the fuel light came on in Little Bus, now when it does that, the range to empty disappears and you get — instead. A little unsettling the first time it happens.

We knew we’d make it but there is always that little niggle of doubt, what if we don’t? is that a chug-chug we just felt or a string wind…. Finally, we pulled up to the bowser with a little sigh….. we’ve made it to…… where are we actually?…. Port Wakefield! renown for the cheapest fuel north of Adelaide (and not much else). Actually, that’s not true it is an interesting little spot once you scratch at the surface a bit.

Like anywhere else in SA, it’s got some nice heritage buildings but what is going to stick in our minds is the water art…. Someone here has a sense of humour that tickles our funnybone…. They had taken some dinghies and put shop mannequins in there fishing, and doing other watery stuff, but had included skeletons in chairs on the shore watching them, what really appealed to Jo was the pigeon skeletons on top and inside a bird avairy….. gave us a chuckle.

From there we went down a bit, across a bit, up a bit and round a few corners until we came to a little spot called Owen, now we never met anyone in the town called Owen, there were some Marks and Rob’s and the like, but we didn’t hear anyone calling anyone Owen. You can get a feel for the people in the front bar of the Owen Arms by listening to them introduce each other like, this is Henry the local chicken farmer and Robert the local pig farmer and so on. Seems the local pig farmer’s wife had left him and the whole bar was hearing the sordid details. Meanwhile we sat in the corner nursing our bottles of Coopers extra stout and trying to look inconspicuous.

Next day we went out in the morning to Kapunda… Never heard of it? neither had we really, but it was the first mining town in Australia, back from 1840ish when they discovered copper, the town grew up around the copper mine which closed in 1860ish. Now we really liked this little town, for once the heritage drive actually worked and you could follow it around the streets easily. Then we found out it had a second claim to fame by being the place where Sir Sidney Kidman was from (probably no relation to some famous actress but who knows….. maybe?????) Seems he was the Horse Lord of Australia and made his fortune in the horse sales, thousands of horses in one go.

Anyway, after the heritage drive, we did the brand spanking, newly redone walk around the old mine site. Got our steps in and I always like visiting old mine sites, maybe because I grew up in a mining town. It was interesting and very well done

After that it was a drive through the Barossa Valley, but not intending on stopping anywhere in particular, as they are all too big, too flash and way too spread out for our liking, but then we saw the sign for KellerMeister winery. Kellermeister is an old favourite from 30 plus years ago, so we just had to call in for a visit. Being a Tuesday we were really the only ones in there, except a young couple who looked like they were on honeymoon, well dressed, very fashionable and looking deeply into each other’s eyes, whereas we were in old grubby paint splattered jeans, flannel shirt, Jo’s best TEMU $10 T shit and beanies, and looking deeply into our glasses.

We opted to share a wine flight for $15 letting us taste 5 wines. We shared it as Jo was driving, (I offered but she convinced me otherwise, OK?) Thoroughly enjoyed it all, even took in a cider at the end before rolling back into Little Bus with a bottle of Sable… The whole single reason why we went in there, was Sable, so we could not even possibly leave without taking a bottle (which we paid for off course).

Then after a nerve-wracking drive around the City of Gawler, we found an Uncle Dan’s (aka Dan Murphy’s) and no joke it was massive. Basically, you take your normal Dan Murphy’s bottle shop and double it, then put all the local wines in one half and the rest of the world’s wine, plus the beer etc, in the other. and you might come close. Then we braved the onslaught of Aldi, just as the school next door was being let out, traffic chaos and mayhem, we tried, failed, left, then returned and tried again, finally getting a parking spot and did some shopping before returning to Owen…. just in case he had turned up this time.

Next morning without sighting Owen, who by now we thought must be a figment of someone’s imagination, we left, back on track with our itinerary. Drove through the countryside, marvelling at things, taking photos etc. We did find the town of Balaklava interesting, windy, lots of beanies but no-one selling or even wearing balaklavas, and then after visiting a Bute little town we finally pulled in for the night at Lake Bumbunga (we had been practicing that all afternoon in case someone rang us to ask where we were, and we could say “Lake Bumbunga” without giggling, or cracking a joke.

That night we slept ok, then carried onto a Valley called Clare… another less pretentious wine region, we were still not going there specifically for the wineries but more the scenery. We did, however, plug in a brewery. The nav wench (GPS) in the dash promptly directed us up and over a mountain goat track, on steep angles and tight curves, scraping through tight spots only to then find there was a bitumen road on the other side leading to said Brewery…. WTF? But we felt we needed a beer after that.

Even the guys at the brewery were unsure why some GPS units send you that way, at least we weren’t like the guy in a truck making deliveries who apparently took the same route (which is actually part of a walking trail.)

And now here we are, we have been here now for 2 days just chilling, doing some walks, chilling some more and enjoying having some electricity and nice long hot showers…..

It’s the little things in life.

See you next time…… Stay shiny