27th Feb: 2011
Christchurch, what a shocking situation, absolutely dreadful. When I lived in NZ for a few years many moons ago, I remember experiencing earth tremors periodically and although they were only minor tremors and weren’t really frightening you were always aware of them and hoped they wouldn’t get any worse than that. To experience something like what has taken place in Christchurch now on two occasions in a relatively short period of time must be absolutely terrifying. I have a young niece living in Christchurch where she works and has her own unit. Suzanne is ok and apparently her unit escaped relatively unscathed compared to a lot of others, a few cracks and minor damage I believe, her garden I understand wasn’t so lucky, has been desecrated but these are material things and all repairable or replaceable. The emotional trauma is something else; every one is different and responds differently to situations. How do you cope with something like that, how would you react? I really don’t know how I would react myself but I’m pretty sure after surviving two events I would be seriously considering moving on. I don’t know how it has affected Suzanne or what her intentions are but I wish her well and trust she will be ok.
Wednesday 23rd we relocated from Victor Harbor to Goolwa in the Murray River basin in readiness for the weekend wooden boat festival, spending the next couple of days wandering around this old river port, walking into town the kilometre plus for a bit of exercise. I also took the opportunity while the weather was fine and sunny to do some onsite sketching and photographing of a property a few kilometres north of Goolwa. What I thought was a small winery turned out to be an old historical inn that has been restored and turned into a B&B, wedding venue and restaurant. ‘Kinsbrook’ historic inn is straight out of Tuscanny, old stone masonry walls covered in creeper, shuttered windows, produce and flower gardens behind the main building, vineyard off to one side, gravel courtyard with its obligatory Aston Martin and classic white Bentley parked nonchalantly under shady trees the whole ambience is classic Tuscan and money. Inspirational subject matter for would be artists, so after taking a couple of dozen photos (the good thing about digital), I sat on the tailgate of the Toyota and made a fairly detailed pencil sketch so I can paint it later, a bit difficult when you have traffic thundering past just a couple of feet away.
Goolwa’s wooden boat festival wasn’t quite what I had visualised it to be but then I had overlooked the fact that Goolwa is a river port not an open sea port. Whereas I had visions of chunky old gaff rigged sailing boats and the such, there turned out to be a multitude of small wooden constructed river sailing boats, dinghies and even some small steam driven motor boats and of course ‘Oscar’ a restored steam driven paddle wheel river cargo boat, so that was interesting. Note I didn’t say I was disappointed, the show was well organised and well patronised, just wasn’t what I had visualised, but still it was boats and it was free, I’ll just have to go to Hobart for their wooden boat festival. Yesterday was Qld weather hot and muggy, but Sunday started off cloudy, windy and cold, not exactly what was predicted by the experts but you know how it goes, we didn’t do a second day at the festival but noticed a huge crowd in the locality when we passed through town, so it has been well patronised which is pleasing for the local businesses and as an added bonus the temperature has warmed up half a degree so that’s an improvement.
Cheers
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
17th Feb 2011
When someone says to you keep a look out for Tiger snakes as you are about to set off on a nature walk doesn’t exactly fill you with eager anticipation. This was how we started our environmental nature walk at Banrock Station the famous winery 70 kls north east of Waikerie. Banrock organisation have developed areas in one of their vineyards into an environmental park including a large wetlands where bush walks give you access to bird hides that have been set up to watch the numerous waterfowl frequenting the wetlands such as black swans, ducks, cormorants, pelicans and many, many others. We enjoyed the walk but couldn’t access a lot of area as it was inundated. We didn’t see any snakes.
Something you don’t do is throw sticks into the bush when your wife is not looking. The sting from a humourless wife is probably as bad as a bite from a Tiger snake anyway.
Over the past four days, using Waikerie as a base we have systematically travelled around the Riverland region following tourist trails, visiting country towns, talking to people, exploring unmarked dirt roads and generally making sure we saw as much of the area as was possible. Every time we had an opportunity to get near the Murray River we would do so taking in the scenes of high sandstone or limestone cliffs and vistas of huge wetlands being created by the now flooding Murray. The water itself is not the horrible silty muck that inundated premises in the recent Brisbane flood, it is coloured of course but is sure to do more good than harm and no-one is complaining.
As you drive through this region you pass kilometre after kilometre of grape vines, citrus, stone fruit, pear and apple orchards, olive groves, almond nut trees and I’m sure one large orchard with unusual looking fruit bearing trees was actually immature pistachio nuts.
We stopped at a roadside fruit stall where we purchased huge peaches and nectarines $3.50 per kilo, tree ripened and absolutely beautiful, a 1/2kg bag of pistachios $10. Nancy tells me it was all good value.
On one of the days as previously mentioned we visited Banrock Station winery and environmental park, we had lunch there sitting on a shaded deck high on a hill overlooking a section of vineyard with a beautiful back drop of Murray wetlands and washed lunch down with a great glass of red wine, very serene and picturesque, very enjoyable, very more-ish. Even Nancy had a glass of wine but not red and I think it was St.Valentines day. Amongst the significant towns we visited over the few days were Berri, Loxton and Morgan. As you enter Berri you pass the Berri Estates fruit and wine processing plant and it is colossal, taking up a substantial site on both sides of the road huge stainless steel pipes conduit either fruit juice or wine from one side to the other like a large bridge over the road. Morgan is significant to us, on the particular day we included Morgan on our itinerary we had crossed the river by ferry at Waikerie and were well on our way to Morgan when we came across a country café established in a farmer’s front yard. We had read about this little place in a local brochure advertising homemade cakes, jams, soups etc, local arts and craft, so being morning tea time (haven’t a clue what the time was but it was morning tea time), so I made the corporate decision to pull in. The smell of home cooking was unreal and we waited ten minutes for fresh scones to come out of the oven while we studied some really nice little water colour paintings by a local artist and then sat down to a pot of tea and a plunger of coffee, hot fresh scones, homemade strawberry jam, fresh cream and a large portion of chocolate, hazelnut slice, it was to die for.
Morgan is also significant for historical reasons, during the halcyon days of paddle steamers and cargo boats plying the Murray, Morgan was considered to be the busiest inland port in Australia. Today dozens of riverboats and house boats use Morgan as their base, the town itself is fairly small but it has an interesting marked heritage trail encompassing numerous old dwellings and buildings still in use and in pristine condition. Two attractive old remaining pubs on opposite corners of the road conjure up mental pictures of waterfront days long gone and no doubt they are still very popular.
Friday we drove back to Victor Harbor in heavy rain, apparently it’s the tail of the cyclone that formed in WA and is supposed to move through over the next 6-12 hrs at the moment it is bucketing down and has been all day so I’m not sure when the 6-12 hrs is relevant from.
When someone says to you keep a look out for Tiger snakes as you are about to set off on a nature walk doesn’t exactly fill you with eager anticipation. This was how we started our environmental nature walk at Banrock Station the famous winery 70 kls north east of Waikerie. Banrock organisation have developed areas in one of their vineyards into an environmental park including a large wetlands where bush walks give you access to bird hides that have been set up to watch the numerous waterfowl frequenting the wetlands such as black swans, ducks, cormorants, pelicans and many, many others. We enjoyed the walk but couldn’t access a lot of area as it was inundated. We didn’t see any snakes.
Something you don’t do is throw sticks into the bush when your wife is not looking. The sting from a humourless wife is probably as bad as a bite from a Tiger snake anyway.
Over the past four days, using Waikerie as a base we have systematically travelled around the Riverland region following tourist trails, visiting country towns, talking to people, exploring unmarked dirt roads and generally making sure we saw as much of the area as was possible. Every time we had an opportunity to get near the Murray River we would do so taking in the scenes of high sandstone or limestone cliffs and vistas of huge wetlands being created by the now flooding Murray. The water itself is not the horrible silty muck that inundated premises in the recent Brisbane flood, it is coloured of course but is sure to do more good than harm and no-one is complaining.
As you drive through this region you pass kilometre after kilometre of grape vines, citrus, stone fruit, pear and apple orchards, olive groves, almond nut trees and I’m sure one large orchard with unusual looking fruit bearing trees was actually immature pistachio nuts.
We stopped at a roadside fruit stall where we purchased huge peaches and nectarines $3.50 per kilo, tree ripened and absolutely beautiful, a 1/2kg bag of pistachios $10. Nancy tells me it was all good value.
On one of the days as previously mentioned we visited Banrock Station winery and environmental park, we had lunch there sitting on a shaded deck high on a hill overlooking a section of vineyard with a beautiful back drop of Murray wetlands and washed lunch down with a great glass of red wine, very serene and picturesque, very enjoyable, very more-ish. Even Nancy had a glass of wine but not red and I think it was St.Valentines day. Amongst the significant towns we visited over the few days were Berri, Loxton and Morgan. As you enter Berri you pass the Berri Estates fruit and wine processing plant and it is colossal, taking up a substantial site on both sides of the road huge stainless steel pipes conduit either fruit juice or wine from one side to the other like a large bridge over the road. Morgan is significant to us, on the particular day we included Morgan on our itinerary we had crossed the river by ferry at Waikerie and were well on our way to Morgan when we came across a country café established in a farmer’s front yard. We had read about this little place in a local brochure advertising homemade cakes, jams, soups etc, local arts and craft, so being morning tea time (haven’t a clue what the time was but it was morning tea time), so I made the corporate decision to pull in. The smell of home cooking was unreal and we waited ten minutes for fresh scones to come out of the oven while we studied some really nice little water colour paintings by a local artist and then sat down to a pot of tea and a plunger of coffee, hot fresh scones, homemade strawberry jam, fresh cream and a large portion of chocolate, hazelnut slice, it was to die for.
Morgan is also significant for historical reasons, during the halcyon days of paddle steamers and cargo boats plying the Murray, Morgan was considered to be the busiest inland port in Australia. Today dozens of riverboats and house boats use Morgan as their base, the town itself is fairly small but it has an interesting marked heritage trail encompassing numerous old dwellings and buildings still in use and in pristine condition. Two attractive old remaining pubs on opposite corners of the road conjure up mental pictures of waterfront days long gone and no doubt they are still very popular.
Friday we drove back to Victor Harbor in heavy rain, apparently it’s the tail of the cyclone that formed in WA and is supposed to move through over the next 6-12 hrs at the moment it is bucketing down and has been all day so I’m not sure when the 6-12 hrs is relevant from.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
15th Feb 2011
Sunday, we finally got under way from Victor Harbor about 10.00am a lot later than I would have liked but we won’t go into that. Starting off with a gloomy sky and a threat of rain it was quite cool as we travelled to Murray Bridge to follow the Murray River upstream and as we did the skies cleared into a beautiful warm sunny day. We crossed the Murray River at Murray Bridge over one of the few bridges in the lower end of the river. South Australian Roads maintain a system of free cross river cable ferries operating 24/7, you come across these every where and it’s a very functional system, we usually arrive at the boom gate just as they have left but then again we are never in a hurry. Turning left we followed the river course through ‘Murraylands’, grazing and grain growing country past numerous country villages and farming communities, turning off the main road to check out riverside settlements and the views whenever possible. Past the large town of Mannum on the other side we continued upstream through Bowhill, Purnong, Nildottie, Walkers Flat and on to Swan Reach where the nature of the terrain was now changing and we were starting to see large vineyards and fruit groves amongst the grain fields. Several times we crossed the Murray by ferry just to view the tall sandstone cliffs from the opposite bank. There’s a lot of water moving downstream the river is in flood and will get higher, many riverside camping and picnic areas are already under water and it looks strange to see people fishing off jetties with water half way up to their knees. Comments from residents stating they haven’t seen the river this high for at least 15 years are commonplace and they are all excited about it. It’s not a raging torrent of dirty water but it is flowing fairly hard, cross river ferries strain at their cables and complete a fairly large arc as they cross the current from one side to the other and I guess they wouldn’t risk operating if it wasn’t safe to do so.
Continuing north towards Blanchetown you pass into what is known as the ‘Riverlands’ region, encompassing centres such as Morgan to the west Waikerie ( pronounced Wakery as in bakery), Barmera, Berri, Renmark in the east and Loxton further south. Blanchetown is where the Sturt Highway crosses the river via a high concrete wide spanned bridge, strangely enough the old concrete bridge still stands alongside looking perfectly ok and makes a great viewing platform for taking photos of the cliffs and downstream to the 1st lock system on the Murray.
The Murray River’s lock and weir water management system was constructed in 1920’s and 1930’s to help control water level enabling cargo and paddle steamers to always navigate the waterways. Source: ‘Official tourist information brochure’
By now the day was drawing on so we discontinued the river drive and followed the Sturt Highway a few kilometres into Waikerie where we booked into the local caravan park for a couple of nights, by this time we had covered almost 300 kilometres and had checked out the majority of settlements and viewing sites from Murray Bridge upstream.
Waikerie is right on the Murray, a clean, tidy looking town, with a population of 5,114 (when the brochure was printed) it is big enough to support the several essential businesses such as a Woolworths and is approximately 174 kls from Adelaide. The name Waikerie is said to mean ‘many wings’, after the giant swift moth ‘wei kari’ the name given by the original indigenous community, it was established in 1894 when the first settlers arrived by paddle steamer. Large fruit groves of citrus and stone fruit dominate the farming district now and in recent years hundreds of hectares of grape vines have been planted making the area one of the largest tonnage producers in the Riverlands. Source: Official travel brochure
Over the next few days we will use Waikerie as a base and visit as many centres of interest as time permits.
Sunday, we finally got under way from Victor Harbor about 10.00am a lot later than I would have liked but we won’t go into that. Starting off with a gloomy sky and a threat of rain it was quite cool as we travelled to Murray Bridge to follow the Murray River upstream and as we did the skies cleared into a beautiful warm sunny day. We crossed the Murray River at Murray Bridge over one of the few bridges in the lower end of the river. South Australian Roads maintain a system of free cross river cable ferries operating 24/7, you come across these every where and it’s a very functional system, we usually arrive at the boom gate just as they have left but then again we are never in a hurry. Turning left we followed the river course through ‘Murraylands’, grazing and grain growing country past numerous country villages and farming communities, turning off the main road to check out riverside settlements and the views whenever possible. Past the large town of Mannum on the other side we continued upstream through Bowhill, Purnong, Nildottie, Walkers Flat and on to Swan Reach where the nature of the terrain was now changing and we were starting to see large vineyards and fruit groves amongst the grain fields. Several times we crossed the Murray by ferry just to view the tall sandstone cliffs from the opposite bank. There’s a lot of water moving downstream the river is in flood and will get higher, many riverside camping and picnic areas are already under water and it looks strange to see people fishing off jetties with water half way up to their knees. Comments from residents stating they haven’t seen the river this high for at least 15 years are commonplace and they are all excited about it. It’s not a raging torrent of dirty water but it is flowing fairly hard, cross river ferries strain at their cables and complete a fairly large arc as they cross the current from one side to the other and I guess they wouldn’t risk operating if it wasn’t safe to do so.
Continuing north towards Blanchetown you pass into what is known as the ‘Riverlands’ region, encompassing centres such as Morgan to the west Waikerie ( pronounced Wakery as in bakery), Barmera, Berri, Renmark in the east and Loxton further south. Blanchetown is where the Sturt Highway crosses the river via a high concrete wide spanned bridge, strangely enough the old concrete bridge still stands alongside looking perfectly ok and makes a great viewing platform for taking photos of the cliffs and downstream to the 1st lock system on the Murray.
The Murray River’s lock and weir water management system was constructed in 1920’s and 1930’s to help control water level enabling cargo and paddle steamers to always navigate the waterways. Source: ‘Official tourist information brochure’
By now the day was drawing on so we discontinued the river drive and followed the Sturt Highway a few kilometres into Waikerie where we booked into the local caravan park for a couple of nights, by this time we had covered almost 300 kilometres and had checked out the majority of settlements and viewing sites from Murray Bridge upstream.
Waikerie is right on the Murray, a clean, tidy looking town, with a population of 5,114 (when the brochure was printed) it is big enough to support the several essential businesses such as a Woolworths and is approximately 174 kls from Adelaide. The name Waikerie is said to mean ‘many wings’, after the giant swift moth ‘wei kari’ the name given by the original indigenous community, it was established in 1894 when the first settlers arrived by paddle steamer. Large fruit groves of citrus and stone fruit dominate the farming district now and in recent years hundreds of hectares of grape vines have been planted making the area one of the largest tonnage producers in the Riverlands. Source: Official travel brochure
Over the next few days we will use Waikerie as a base and visit as many centres of interest as time permits.
Friday, February 11, 2011
11th Feb 2011
11th February
Finally we have our awning replaced and we are temporarily back at Victor Harbor.
In my last post I mentioned how after our first run to the repairers in Adelaide they had ordered the wrong sized awning and we were required to take the caravan back to Adelaide a week later. Wednesday 9th after once again negotiating peak hour traffic we delivered the van 15 minutes earlier than scheduled time, once again being promised they would do their best to get it finished in one day, do their best! This was contrary to the assurance we had been given that a team would be organised to ensure completion on the same day, particularly as they had already messed us around. We drove to a major shopping centre, did some compulsory shopping then caught an express bus into the city, that stopped at every bus stop whereupon the courteous driver waited each time for the passengers to sit down before continuing. I think the short trip took just over 40 mins.
If you like Asian food and you are ever in Adelaide don’t miss ‘Chopstix’ 287 Rundle Street, sensational food and reasonably priced, we’ve been there a couple of times now. One plate plus rice between the two of us was an ample meal and two doors back along Rundle Street is ‘Chocolate’ a decadent cake, crepe and homemade gelati shop/café, with the focus on chocolate of course. Finishing off with gelati, we really didn’t need it.
A sale was on at the Columbia clothing shop, this took up another hour and as always I waited very patiently. Another bus trip back to the inner suburb where our car was parked, at least this time it didn’t stop very often and the driver was obviously trying to see how many people he could get horizontal as they walked down the aisle to a seat at the back. Why does everyone head for the back of the bus, are they hiding something or do they just want to sit near us?
Back at the repairers – you guessed it they couldn’t finish it in one day, there was supposedly one hours work left and the chap working on it had gone home. One person! What happened to the dedicated team and assurances!!!!!!! One hour of work and the comment was we would rather take our time and do it properly if we rush it and stuff it up it will end up taking longer tomorrow. That’s confidence for you, what do you say, go ahead, they would probably stuff it up just to spite.
As the installation was almost complete we were able to take the van to use overnight, so quick phone calls to make sure we could get back into the caravan park we had stayed in the previous night and once again found ourselves in the midst of the 5.00pm rush.
So finally the next morning peak hour traffic again and we were back to the repair shop nice and early for the one hour of work that took three hours.
I must say it looks as if they have done a good job, guess time will tell and I’m not sure if all the smiles were because they were proud of the job they had done or they were getting rid of that cranky old bastard that goes off his brain all the time.
Art lesson Saturday morning and then we are off to Renmark Sunday morning for a few days in the Riverland area before they flood.
Finally we have our awning replaced and we are temporarily back at Victor Harbor.
In my last post I mentioned how after our first run to the repairers in Adelaide they had ordered the wrong sized awning and we were required to take the caravan back to Adelaide a week later. Wednesday 9th after once again negotiating peak hour traffic we delivered the van 15 minutes earlier than scheduled time, once again being promised they would do their best to get it finished in one day, do their best! This was contrary to the assurance we had been given that a team would be organised to ensure completion on the same day, particularly as they had already messed us around. We drove to a major shopping centre, did some compulsory shopping then caught an express bus into the city, that stopped at every bus stop whereupon the courteous driver waited each time for the passengers to sit down before continuing. I think the short trip took just over 40 mins.
If you like Asian food and you are ever in Adelaide don’t miss ‘Chopstix’ 287 Rundle Street, sensational food and reasonably priced, we’ve been there a couple of times now. One plate plus rice between the two of us was an ample meal and two doors back along Rundle Street is ‘Chocolate’ a decadent cake, crepe and homemade gelati shop/café, with the focus on chocolate of course. Finishing off with gelati, we really didn’t need it.
A sale was on at the Columbia clothing shop, this took up another hour and as always I waited very patiently. Another bus trip back to the inner suburb where our car was parked, at least this time it didn’t stop very often and the driver was obviously trying to see how many people he could get horizontal as they walked down the aisle to a seat at the back. Why does everyone head for the back of the bus, are they hiding something or do they just want to sit near us?
Back at the repairers – you guessed it they couldn’t finish it in one day, there was supposedly one hours work left and the chap working on it had gone home. One person! What happened to the dedicated team and assurances!!!!!!! One hour of work and the comment was we would rather take our time and do it properly if we rush it and stuff it up it will end up taking longer tomorrow. That’s confidence for you, what do you say, go ahead, they would probably stuff it up just to spite.
As the installation was almost complete we were able to take the van to use overnight, so quick phone calls to make sure we could get back into the caravan park we had stayed in the previous night and once again found ourselves in the midst of the 5.00pm rush.
So finally the next morning peak hour traffic again and we were back to the repair shop nice and early for the one hour of work that took three hours.
I must say it looks as if they have done a good job, guess time will tell and I’m not sure if all the smiles were because they were proud of the job they had done or they were getting rid of that cranky old bastard that goes off his brain all the time.
Art lesson Saturday morning and then we are off to Renmark Sunday morning for a few days in the Riverland area before they flood.
Friday, February 04, 2011
4th Feb 2011
Following my last post of the 26th Jan we had planned on relocating from Victor Harbor on Sunday 30th a day after my first water colour art class, so Thursday and Friday we just pottered around preparing both caravan and car for travel keeping in mind we had been in the one location since late December so it was almost like preparing for a first trip. Diligently we also did our stroll to town and back for a bit of exercise.
Saturday morning art class 0930, being reasonably early parking near the venue was no problem Nancy had come with me as she wanted to go to the Saturday morning farmers market for fruit and veges, which was walking distance from where we had parked (I would have driven). The premises of Terry and Louise Lewitskas art gallery are the old telegraph station building, probably built circa 1850’s and still a grand old building, as it also constructed like a house inside I assume the telegraph operator or operators, lived on site in those halcyon days of horse and buggy when Victor Harbor was a whaling centre. At the front of the building are two entrances, one being the entrance to Lewitskas gallery, studio and art class rooms, the other doorway opens into a room partitioned off from the remainder of the building and used by a local barber.
So here we were Nancy and I standing talking ouside Lewitskas doorway 0915 nice and early full of anticipation, (excited like a kid going to the circus). A few metres away an old dero beard and battered hat was standing at the barbers doorway talking to the barber and another chap sitting inside, it was a nice friendly scene something reminiscent of country Italy or France where the old fellows gather for a chat. I wandered up to the barber’s door to check on the price of a hair cut and the conversation sort of went like this.
“Morning fellas, scuse me interrupting but what time do you close today”, “Oh about quarter to 12.00” came the answer, “Dam I’m tied up until after lunch”, “do you want a haircut now we are only chatting,” say’s the barber, “no thanks I’ll get one next week, I’m about to go to art classes”. “You going to Lewitskas say’s the old dero with the beard and battered hat”. “Yes mate”, I reply. “You’ll be right for a haircut then, he’s not open on Saturdays”, say’s the old man with a smile. “Yes he is this Saturday he has an art class starting at 0930”, I say. “Are you the person from Brisbane, staying at the caravan park”. I answered in the affirmative which resulted in. “Oh blow (or something to that effect), I’m Terry Lewitska the art teacher, I think I’ve made a stuff up” !!!!
Then I noticed his old battered hat was covered in paint and he didn’t look so old after all.
Terry, who it turns out is a really nice bloke went on to explain the comedy of errors.
The previous Monday Terry had phoned to see if I was interested in a basic portrait sketching class he was holding the next day and at the same time remind me that the first of our 4 classes were starting on Saturday. This suited us fine because the last class would be finished a week before the Wooden Boat Festival being held on the last weekend in February at Goolwa, where we had booked in at one of the Caravan Parks for a week. Following Terry’s call I had contacted Goolwa and brought our booking forward a week giving us plenty of time to get established and enjoy the build up to the actual festival.
However Terry’s wife Louise in the mean time had put together the official programme and posted it on their website plus notices in the Gallery window all depicting the start date at a week later. Now it turns out Terry had notified 3 new people myself included of the incorrect starting date and the remaining 4 or 5 were regulars that normally get their information from Lewitskas website notices so he hadn’t phoned them. At this stage it was about 9:30am and I was the only one there so I told Terry I was going in for a haircut, he decided to hang around for a spell in case anyone else turned up and before my cut was finished he came into the barbers to tell me two others had turned up so he would hold an introductory class as soon as I was ready. What a shamozzle.
This was good us three beginners getting an introductory lesson even though it was a short one by now and of course he reduced the price, this meant we would at least have some idea what to do when we joined the regulars for the next lesson.
Adelaide was forecast to be 40C and Renmark where we were going to relocate to was forecast to be 42C on Sunday and Monday so we changed our travel plans and booked in for a couple more days at Victor Harbor where it is always a few degrees cooler than Adelaide, just as well Renmark was 44C on both days and even VH was hot.
Tuesday being cooler we felt we just had to make a move somewhere so we travelled to a small town called Meningie just off the Princess Highway on the eastern shore of Lake Albert one of the large waterway systems forming the delta area of the mighty Murray and about 120 kls from Victor Harbor. We didn’t want to travel too far afield while waiting to get our caravan repaired so the following day we started heading in a northerly direction instead of continuing south and following a few phone calls during the morning while travelling we were finally requested to bring the van in to the repair people in Adelaide at 0830 the following morning (Thursday).
So we dropped the van off at 0830 Thursday morning with the understanding they would have it completed in one day, that is replace and repair the roll out awning under insurance and repair or replace the toilet under warrantee and I should note here that this had all been established and agreed to weeks prior. Now there were some doubts as to whether they could finish it in time because some goose had arrived before me even though he wasn’t booked in until 1100am. For a change I did my block, but didn’t feel any better even though they were making noises like we will do our very best to have it finished.
We decided to drive up to Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills and visit the Cedars, Sir Hans Heysen’s old home and studio. We no sooner had started a conducted tour when the caravan repairer phoned to say our awning was 16 foot and unfortunately he had ordered a 15 foot one and needed to re-order a 16 foot but it had to come from Melbourne, so we have to go through the same bloody process all over again next Wednesday and in the mean time we don’t have any awning at all. Geeze what W*****’s, I just hope their tradesmen are better organised.
On a good note they replaced the toilet under warrantee and that’s working well now, so that’s something.
The Cedars, just sensational, Nancy and I were the only people to arrive by 11.00am so for $10 each we had a conducted tour by a very nice and knowledgeable lady all to ourselves, it was extremely interesting and certainly worth a revisit for me in the future.
Saturday morning art class 0930, being reasonably early parking near the venue was no problem Nancy had come with me as she wanted to go to the Saturday morning farmers market for fruit and veges, which was walking distance from where we had parked (I would have driven). The premises of Terry and Louise Lewitskas art gallery are the old telegraph station building, probably built circa 1850’s and still a grand old building, as it also constructed like a house inside I assume the telegraph operator or operators, lived on site in those halcyon days of horse and buggy when Victor Harbor was a whaling centre. At the front of the building are two entrances, one being the entrance to Lewitskas gallery, studio and art class rooms, the other doorway opens into a room partitioned off from the remainder of the building and used by a local barber.
So here we were Nancy and I standing talking ouside Lewitskas doorway 0915 nice and early full of anticipation, (excited like a kid going to the circus). A few metres away an old dero beard and battered hat was standing at the barbers doorway talking to the barber and another chap sitting inside, it was a nice friendly scene something reminiscent of country Italy or France where the old fellows gather for a chat. I wandered up to the barber’s door to check on the price of a hair cut and the conversation sort of went like this.
“Morning fellas, scuse me interrupting but what time do you close today”, “Oh about quarter to 12.00” came the answer, “Dam I’m tied up until after lunch”, “do you want a haircut now we are only chatting,” say’s the barber, “no thanks I’ll get one next week, I’m about to go to art classes”. “You going to Lewitskas say’s the old dero with the beard and battered hat”. “Yes mate”, I reply. “You’ll be right for a haircut then, he’s not open on Saturdays”, say’s the old man with a smile. “Yes he is this Saturday he has an art class starting at 0930”, I say. “Are you the person from Brisbane, staying at the caravan park”. I answered in the affirmative which resulted in. “Oh blow (or something to that effect), I’m Terry Lewitska the art teacher, I think I’ve made a stuff up” !!!!
Then I noticed his old battered hat was covered in paint and he didn’t look so old after all.
Terry, who it turns out is a really nice bloke went on to explain the comedy of errors.
The previous Monday Terry had phoned to see if I was interested in a basic portrait sketching class he was holding the next day and at the same time remind me that the first of our 4 classes were starting on Saturday. This suited us fine because the last class would be finished a week before the Wooden Boat Festival being held on the last weekend in February at Goolwa, where we had booked in at one of the Caravan Parks for a week. Following Terry’s call I had contacted Goolwa and brought our booking forward a week giving us plenty of time to get established and enjoy the build up to the actual festival.
However Terry’s wife Louise in the mean time had put together the official programme and posted it on their website plus notices in the Gallery window all depicting the start date at a week later. Now it turns out Terry had notified 3 new people myself included of the incorrect starting date and the remaining 4 or 5 were regulars that normally get their information from Lewitskas website notices so he hadn’t phoned them. At this stage it was about 9:30am and I was the only one there so I told Terry I was going in for a haircut, he decided to hang around for a spell in case anyone else turned up and before my cut was finished he came into the barbers to tell me two others had turned up so he would hold an introductory class as soon as I was ready. What a shamozzle.
This was good us three beginners getting an introductory lesson even though it was a short one by now and of course he reduced the price, this meant we would at least have some idea what to do when we joined the regulars for the next lesson.
Adelaide was forecast to be 40C and Renmark where we were going to relocate to was forecast to be 42C on Sunday and Monday so we changed our travel plans and booked in for a couple more days at Victor Harbor where it is always a few degrees cooler than Adelaide, just as well Renmark was 44C on both days and even VH was hot.
Tuesday being cooler we felt we just had to make a move somewhere so we travelled to a small town called Meningie just off the Princess Highway on the eastern shore of Lake Albert one of the large waterway systems forming the delta area of the mighty Murray and about 120 kls from Victor Harbor. We didn’t want to travel too far afield while waiting to get our caravan repaired so the following day we started heading in a northerly direction instead of continuing south and following a few phone calls during the morning while travelling we were finally requested to bring the van in to the repair people in Adelaide at 0830 the following morning (Thursday).
So we dropped the van off at 0830 Thursday morning with the understanding they would have it completed in one day, that is replace and repair the roll out awning under insurance and repair or replace the toilet under warrantee and I should note here that this had all been established and agreed to weeks prior. Now there were some doubts as to whether they could finish it in time because some goose had arrived before me even though he wasn’t booked in until 1100am. For a change I did my block, but didn’t feel any better even though they were making noises like we will do our very best to have it finished.
We decided to drive up to Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills and visit the Cedars, Sir Hans Heysen’s old home and studio. We no sooner had started a conducted tour when the caravan repairer phoned to say our awning was 16 foot and unfortunately he had ordered a 15 foot one and needed to re-order a 16 foot but it had to come from Melbourne, so we have to go through the same bloody process all over again next Wednesday and in the mean time we don’t have any awning at all. Geeze what W*****’s, I just hope their tradesmen are better organised.
On a good note they replaced the toilet under warrantee and that’s working well now, so that’s something.
The Cedars, just sensational, Nancy and I were the only people to arrive by 11.00am so for $10 each we had a conducted tour by a very nice and knowledgeable lady all to ourselves, it was extremely interesting and certainly worth a revisit for me in the future.
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