Category: Around Australia 2011

There are some sounds that just aren’t nice. Finger nails dragging down a chalk board is one. A shovel scraping over concrete (Emma’s favourite noise) is another. As a caravan pilot I do not like the sound of an awning trying to occupy the same space as a tree. I couldn’t describe just what this sound is like, suffice perhaps to say it is sufficiently different to the usual caravan noises to have made me very quickly realise I had done something stoopid.

It all happened at a carpark just outside the Barossa town of Angaston. As I manoeuvred the car and van away from the edge of the drive the awning fitted to the outside edge of the caravan caught the edge of a tree that was clearly located too close to the Yalumba winery. The tree must have been drunk because it was leaning heavily to the side. Continue reading “Day 126 Duck… duck… GOOSE!” →

‘It has a chalky finish, plenty of fruit on the palette and without the big acidic notes you get with some wines. Also a hint of ginger there, it’s very subtle, a complex drop’. We are at Skillogalee in the Clare Valley and Ian and I are sampling the goods while Emma distracts Amy and Oliver outside amongst the vines. Continue reading “Day 122-125 A taste of the good life” →

Never mind Nick the Informative Fisherman, we have Ian the Informative Grandfather Fisherman! What I like best about the Ian version is that he is so much more hands on than Nick. Ian drove all the way from Canberra to be with us for a start!

After meeting up with Ian in Port Lincoln I told him how much Amy, Oliver and I were looking forward to having an expert fisherman around. Ian’s reply… ‘oh alright let me know when one shows up’. Too modest, cause our fishing tally since his arrival has leapt from 1 rock cod to 3 king george whiting, 2 flathead and a tinsy weeny little flounder. Of course only one of these was large enough to keep and that poor fellow made for a very tasty entre. Continue reading “Day 118-121 Ian THE Informative Fisherman” →