Rain fell most of the night, consistent but not heavy. In the early hours of the morning, I wondered in my half asleep state how we would manage to exit from this camp on the slippery slopes of red mud. I decided to convince Chris that we sit tight for a day and enjoy a quiet day reading and writing. But after breakfast Chris ventured out in the drizzle to inspect the first part of the descent down to the creek and came back confident that there would be no problem. I hastily did all the jobs I had been procrastinating, and we were off. A heavy foot as we attacked the hill out of the park, a fishtail slide and we were out on to the gravel road. If they were any parts still clean on the rig last night, they no longer were now.
We headed south to Gawler, just over fifty kilometres away, passing through Malalla, with a pub and the inevitable grain silos. We had set the Tomtom with the co-ordinates for our planned camp and soon found ourselves on a motorway heading for Adelaide but apparently having arrived home. It turns out that the roads have been changed over the last two years and the access to the airfield has totally altered. We reset the Tomtom with the road name and eventually found our way here.
There are two other caravans here, however they are not occupied and so we are effectively the only residents on this airfield. The club house is well patronised however all members have gone home at least until tomorrow. The rain has eased but not disappeared altogether. The forecast is not a whole lot better for tomorrow so we doubt there will be any gliding tomorrow when one would expect more action, it being Saturday.
We set up here, then had soup and toasties for lunch, it being that sort of day. We then headed into the Information Centre, discovered that there is a cinema here and that “Red Dog” was showing at 2 pm. Not only was it the right sort of day for a hot lunch, but a day to pass at the movies, so we made our way to the town’s lovely cinema and enjoyed this excellent Australian movie. We both enjoyed it very much; a moving touching depiction of a true story set in the 1970s in Western Australia. It is a two handkerchief film and requires a dash to the Ladies immediately on exit to correct one’s eye makeup.
Gawler is a very pretty well established rural town established in 1839, thus being the State’s earliest country town. We glimpsed the magnificent architecture and lovely well established trees, particularly the deep purple flowering jacarandas, and look forward to exploring it in better weather. We had indicated to the office person here that we would be staying three nights, however it seems that we will be able to undertake our travel of the Barossa Valley and at least the northern Adelaide Hills from here, rather than have to stay for too long in a city motor camp.
Back at camp, Chris washed the rig in a cursory manner, being careful to minimise use of water, and we managed to contact Larissa who is currently suffering terribly with a crippling back problem. We were pleased to hear her cheery voice which did alleviate some of our concern.
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