Day 33 Van repairs and moving on

Up and out early as we had to get to Blair Athol with the van as we had it booked in with Adelaide Brake and Mechanical for 8:30

Drove out past this place where I bought our takeaway dinner last night

This must be a popular route for cyclists in the morning because we had several pelotons ride past talking quite loudly

We headed out along the waterfront first

Quite a pretty area along the waterfront



We then had a very interesting drive to reach Blair Athol passing through different suburbs and lots of left right turns to get there. 

Past the massive Coopers brewery



Finally reached the Adelaide Brake and mechanical repair place and left the van in John’s capable hands to see what he could do for us in the time frame

We then headed off to find a shopping centre to to find somewhere that would fix the screen on my phone and also a post office and some items of shopping

Found this place at Ingle Farm shopping centre where I got my phone protector screen replaced, which sadly I then damaged on the same day



We decided after having coffee and cake at that shopping centre that we should find somewhere nice to go for a walk to kill time whilst waiting for the van to be fixed

Bill found this place quite close to where we were

We discovered there were quite a few walks around this place







But we had trouble working out where they started from and where they went so we headed off on this track









Not a bad walk

But we had only got this far before John rang to say that he had finished fixing our van for us

So Bill ran back down to get the car and picked me up here

I had recorded our walk on AllTrails 

Which shows how far we got and where I just walked down to the road for Bill to pick me up

We then had  to navigate our way back to Blair Athol

Past this place that was obviously a whole new housing estate with these attractive metal sculptures of birds 



Arriving at Adelaide brake and mechanical repairs to pick up the van John talked to us about the different systems that are being deployed into the vans now

He also showed us the parts that he had replaced







Extremely pleased with the work he had done and very grateful for his efforts in making sure it was such a short turnaround time to get the van back to us

Fortunately we were already north of Adelaide and on the correct highway north so we just needed to continue north to carry on our journey

Lots of photos now of places we passed and interesting sites













Huge areas with special growing sheds but no idea what is in them

Lots of olive trees in this region









We decided to turn off the main highway into Dublin to see if there was somewhere we could have some lunch

So pulled up at this place

And saw this sign

So decided we should have a garfish roll for lunch

Very yummy

So yummy in fact that we bought some to take away with us to keep in the freezer in the van

On the road again heading for Port Wakefield

Looking for somewhere to stop for the night we found what looks like a good place to head for

Passing the turn off to the Yorke Peninsula as we had decided sadly that we would not have time to go there









Had read about the Lochiel monster

So decided to pull in there to have a look











Not only did we find it but also a massive pink lake



Of course just had to have photos taken here





Did a bit of exploring











And taking lots of photos











Lots of pretty wildflowers in the area as well









We continued on up the highway 

Passing a whole lot of wind turbines up on the hills

We pulled in at the second lookout site at the lake

A couple of dutch workers pulled in and asked about the lake as they were amazed about the colour. 

We walked down to the lakes edge here







And unfortunately I took a tumble as I tripped over a piece of wire that was hidden in the grass across the pathway

Bill put a piece of timber across the pathway where the wire was so that no one else would trip over it as he could not remove the piece of wire.

unfortunately I landed in such a way that my phone fell and I cracked the nice new protective cover again!!!







A few photos of the wind turbines up on the hill



We turned into Snowtown to check out the big blade







Interesting reading about it as we knew nothing about this project





































Checked out the mural on the Watertower while we were here too







Had to wait for a train passing before we could go back onto the highway









Not far along the highway we took the turn off to Crystal Brook to head for Bowman Park that we had decided earlier in the day would be a good place to spend the night



On reaching the town we could see the railway crossing ahead of us

And ended up being held up by the same train that crossed in front of us at Snowtown











Our map tracking image for the day

On arrival at Bowman Park we found there were quite a few people already there and it took us a while to find somewhere suitable

We ended up under some very large trees with one dead branch hanging over that we were hoping wouldn’t fall off onto us in the night

We were greeted by these resident peacocks

Had a quick look around the area with a plan to explore more tomorrow













There was a man who was parked close to where we ended up who had this sitting on the roof of his car. Turns out that he had made it himself.

Not a bad place to have ended up for the night.

A very pleasant night too - not cold



Bill cooked up a delicious stir fry for dinner

A pleasant environment to be cooking outdoors too.