Head for the Hills

We packed up, a few had more showers, then we drove out of Adelaide south east into the hills.   We passed some old hotels,  stone with wooden balconies, and drove through a tunnel through the hill.  We stopped in Hahndorf, the oldest German settlement in Australia,  and walked around the cute old buildings, past the German bakery, the German health food shop and the German coffee house.  We went and looked in the Hahndorf candle making shop, full of fat candles and spinning wooden advent carousels.  The ones with candles down the bottom and helicopter blades up the top, and tiers of wise men or shepherds hand carved out of wood .  There were hundreds, and they were worth hundreds of dollars.  I held on to Cooper very tightly.

A young lady was dipping candles into wax in the corner, and she let all our children make a rainbow candle by dipping it into different colours of wax.  That was very kind of her.

On we drove through hills of grassland, dry and brown right now, but I'm sure it's green and lovely in the growing season.   SA is the driest state in Australia, with an annual rainfall of 400mm.  Farming involves moving a lot of irrigation pipes.

We arrived in Strathalbyn about midday, to stay on the front footpath  of friends Ross and Val's house.  We all went to the  same church about 9 years ago when Ross and Val were in Brisbane.  It's really great to catch up with them again, and reintroduce ourselves to their three children who have grown a bit taller in that time!  Strathalbyn is Val's hometown, and in fact her family were pretty much the first settlers here in the 1840s and were instrumental in developing the area.  We were staying with the royal family!

We watched Red Dog the movie, walked down to town and back, staying away  from the cranky pony in someone's  front yard.  I twisted my ankle, but made it back home again, praise the Lord!  Strathalbyn is a lovely town, with old buildings and new buildings all mixed in.  It is the antique capital of South Australia, and had one particularly beautiful old church (among several), which Val grew up going to and  was married in.

We had a lovely afternoon visiting, looking at Val's vege garden (I really want to start one when I get home) and making jam out of the very ripe apricots off Val's tree.  In fact, that took Val until midnight!  Happy new year.

 

 

 

 

 

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Vicki