The travelling tales of a woman in Pink Gum Boots

Our stay in Port Vincent is in a caravan park as we need to do some washing, have a good shower, fill the water, get supplies and empty as Don calls it the Shitter (not that any was in it). We booked for 2 nights and so glad we did, we have a site right on the cliff edge overlooking the sea. Once again it’s cold and windy but sunny too and what would one expect it is winter after all. View from the Jetty looking back to the HAPIBUS  Day 2 and we took a spin (or rather a slow and careful drive)out to look at our next prospective camp site/s. We settled on the third in the area called “The Gap” funny must we missing Mahomed Street! Took the girls down to the beach and went for a walk, there was not a lot of sand but plenty of Seaweed and from a distance you could be mistaken thinking it was a rock formation. Tilly followed Don who was not paying attention and she kept on going when he turned around, half way back to where I was I asked where she was and then the hunt was on aaagh how...

 Finally some non windy weather with full on sun got to love ❤️ it! Not too good on the first night. But the following day was glorious all day. When we arrived (it was only 15kms down the road) I was having a downer, Don made me go out and stand in front of the bus - not so he could run me even though at the time I wished he would, but to remind myself of what we were in - “the HAPIBUS “. If you are not a dog lover please skip this paragraph! The first morning Don was up early to see if it would be a good day to be a gatherer, he took the beautiful miss Mia with him and came back shortly after with the decision to give a flick off the rocks a go and along with him came Mia wearing an extra coat made of sand and snuggled into bed beside me, I got up feeling as though I had been out in a sand storm and my face had enough to sand on it to have a facial scrub not to mention I won’t be needing a scale and clean of my teeth any time soon as I was chewing sand for the following 2 hours. ...

 While in Ardrossan and playing with the lovely ladies of the Ardrossan Golf Club they suggested I sign up to play in the Warooka Open, just down the road from Minlaton, being one to support local clubs I did just that. We booked in to the Minlaton caravan park (the Point Turton one had no sites available for a rig our size) for 4 nights. The park was not super picturesque but staff were friendly, amenities clean and park was quiet and close to town, a bit of a bargain too at $30 a night! The weather improved a bit if you took advantage of it, as the sun came out but did not always last too long. We took a drive down to check out the course and township of Warooka In preparation for the “Big Day”, it was ladies day and they were just finishing up. The lady we spoke to said that the tournament would be dependent on numbers and weather. 2 days before the event I received a text to tell me that it was not going ahead due to insufficient numbers (the weather had put a lot of people off...

 Here we were on our way. Just so you are not expecting too much of me, I will tell you up front I’ll only be doing one post a stop or every couple of stops if they are brief, don’t want to bore you to death or burn myself out.  First stop Ardrossan, for those of you unfamiliar with SA and more specifically the York Peninsular it is a lovely little town on the the southern side of the Peninsular about 65 kilometres from Port Wakefield. The town has a population of just over 1,000 and some of the loveliest people I have met.  Could this be our retirement option? Well it is close enough to the big smoke of Adelaide at about 150 kilometres away, now that is something we need to consider at our age with medical facilities etc. and to feed my retail therapy from time to time! Also access to the airport so I can go visit my beautiful family at regular intervals- it was so had leaving my grandchildren behind and I felt like saying “ If my grandkids can’t come, I’m not going” sad...

 Soon things were going to improve, the rig was being assessed today and tomorrow off we would go on our way to explore the York Peninsula, OR not! Things did not go well as the insurance company had not had their assessor approve the job as was said over 3 weeks ago so the new awning had not been ordered in - no way this could not be happening. How long we asked, not sure was the reply maybe a week. It was school holidays and the first 4 caravan parks called had no room. Finally we found a space a lovely caravan park up in the hills to sit out the time awaiting the arrival and fitting of the awning. The weather was not ideal to say the least and I was in desperate need of some sunshine. One week passed, no news, one and a half weeks, still no news, to say I was getting testy would be an understatement, even retail therapy didn’t help, although I did 3 trips to Harbour Town, 1 to Marion, a couple to Glenelg, a trip to Costco and various other small shopping precincts I was still re...

 After an unfortunate start of actually having one of those deadlines that in the beginning we were not supposed to be having, we were making our way to Adelaide to replace the awning that was ripped off the HAPIBUS on the previous trip (how is for another time -*note to first time campers* put in the awning before driving anywhere near a stoby pole - We are only human, stupid but human and what idiot put the poles close enough to the road for this to happen anyway?) the worst part was the clothes line with it, I have to say I was devastated, it was a double disaster. Tip: write a check list and stick it to the steering wheel Togo through before taking off. Anyway Adelaide here we come with a few stop over nights along the way, we are grey nomads after all (well at least the husband is, I’m a pink nomad). The trip was carefully planned so we arrived on the set date for the repairs. The insurance claim was done wasn’t it??? Lovely first couple of nights free camping in Northern Sout...

You would have obviously accepted my invite to this blog as you are reading it, so feel free to follow, comment, skip or ignore completely as you see fit. It is a work in progress and I will go back and add or change odd bits, correct spelling (bloody predicive text) and improve things as I get better and learn more about this program! If there is someone I have not invited or that you think my enjoy following me, please send me their email and I will invite them, I either don’t know them or don’t have their email address.  Everyone I speak to is envious of my new life…… It’s not like I haven’t earnt it, let’s face it, I’ve worked my butt off (sadly that’s still there as big as ever) raised 4 children now in their late 20’s early 30’s working 1, 2, sometimes 3 jobs, days nights and in between and I’m still sober so yes I’ve earnt it and then some. Anyway here I am 58, still married (going on 37 years), a house we own (albeit in need of a little TLC just like my husband I guess) and...