CATCHING UP TO TODAY 14th JULY

9th July
Today we headed towards Port Augusta, stopping for lunch and stock up on a few essentials in a shopping mall we stumbled across.  The drive up thru Horrocks Pass was absolutely beautiful, rolling green hills, old stone buildings, some in ruin, the sky overcast and a continual shower of rain.  It was a shame I wasn't able to take photos, it wasn't worth trying. Coming down off the pass, it was grain fields on both sides, canola being prevalent in some areas.  Passed through small Adelaide Hills towns, Clare Valley, Barossa Valley, ending up at small caravan park in Laura.  The managers were so helpful, even giving us 2 sites with concrete slabs so we wouldn't be wading around in the water.  Still raining and cold.  Was an extremely cold night in the van, thankful we had electricity so we could turn the heater on

10th July
We are heading through the rural towns towards Mt Pleasant, were we spent the night at the local showgrounds.  Still raining, it has been miserable and wet for a few days now.  Would love a day of sunshine to dry our towels out, and open the van up for a few hours.  

11th July
Our main aim today was the National Motor Museum in Birdwood.  Arrived there early before it opened, so a browse through a Motor bike shop across the road (loaded with bits and more bike bits everywhere} to help fill in the time.  We had been warned it would take a good day to go through the Museum, after 2 hours Don had seen all he wanted, so we headed off to Hahndorf.  A fancy new Resort and Caravan Park, beautiful landscaping, lots of work going on, fantastic amenities, I'm sure I was the only one using the Womens block.  The sites laid out well, extremely soggy underfoot as the winter has been wet so far in the Adelaide region. It was an easy decision for us this afternoon, to spend a few hours taking the conducted tour at "Cedars", the studio and home of Sir Hans Heysen.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, Don found it very interesting.  We filled the afternoon in there before heading back to another cold night in the van.  We loaded up our beds with extras, including our beach towels.  It worked to keep us warm only problem it was heavy and couldn't move easily.  What the heck, one has to keep warm.  

12th July
Today started out with the sun shining and no rain, set out to stroll up and down the shops at Hahndorf.  What a beautiful, quaint town.  Stone shops and houses everywhere, plenty of shops to browse thru or buy food, wine, coffee whatever you wanted.  All the food having a Germans origin as this was the first German Lutheran town founded by a group of migrants with the help of the ship's captain.
In honour of the help he gave, the town was named Hahn (his surname) and dorf (town)    I had a lovely time, in and out all the ones that took my fancy.  There was one in particular who stocked the most incredible display of Fine Craft.  I could have bought heaps, but I held myself in check and just looked.   We met a couple of Don's friends, Colin and Kay, who had moved from Manilla to Adelaide spent a couple of hours over a meal with them at one of the local pubs. It was mid afternoon before we left Hahndorf and Don was planning to stop at the S.A./Victoria Border for the night.  After leaving the Freeway at Murray Bridge, the highway was the worst road we had been on.  It was terrible.  Dark by the time we reached our destination for the night, and again another cold one, this time with no heater as we were free camping again.

13TH July
Heading to Brad and Jacky's home today, Miners Rest, a suburb of Adelaide. 
Stopped for a splurge at Stawell, hot chip sandwiches.  Yumm  yumm.
Arrived mid afternoon to a lovely warm welcome, into a lovely warm home.  It was sheer bliss.  An offer to sleep in the house instead of the van, was not a hard decision to make.  

14th July
Don drove me into Ballarat this morning to view the Exhibition by Dawn Whitehand {Ballarat potter) of her pit fired pots.  She had a major launch of her new book on the subject a few days ago (I have already ordered one) at The Art Gallery of Ballarat.  The display of pots was "to die for"  all pit fired with the most amazing colours.  The rest of the day has been catching up with the washing, this blog and Don has been fiddling with the brakes on the caravan.  Tomorrow we take off again, into Melbourne to look at a new caravan.