Glenelg, a beach side suburb west of Adelaide.
What a cute town that was !!
Paved streets with natural gas trams, bars and restaurants on both sides, a beautiful beach and pier and very amicable faces.
We stayed at a gorgeous hotel by the sea – Stamford Grand., went for a walk where my son met a man who taught him how to catch squid with a lure (!!!) and had to go back after having left, because hubby forgot the bike at the hallway.
Ha !
We were lucky I remembered to ask him about 1 block away… otherwise he would still be biking back.

Some interesting scenes when you drive for so long – the kids and I have made a change to the The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale: We present you F0 – only found in the Australian Outback.
It was a heart brake when I found out the phenomenon had already been names by the Aussies: Willy Willy. A total lack of respect.

A couple of hours later, as we crossed the border back to New South Wales, we had to stop for gas at a place I found most interesting at the time…
It seemed to be a mix of restaurant and lodge, with a gas pump up front that was locked with a chain.
The man who came to free the pump had no teeth, the lady supposed to charge us took a while to show up and when she did, smelled like rush hour Tokyo sub and had gypsy jewelry all over.
We thanked and left.
Only THEN, husband tells me the place was actually a brothel.
I wanted to go back, but he would not let me !!!
Darn.

Off we went, to Broken Hill. 
My husband, you see, is the typical man. Not happy we actually arrived in Broken Hill at 6 PM, he wanted to go further to Silverton, “just to check if there was something interesting”.
There wasn’t.

I mean, hello, after 10 hours in the car, it would take more than a couple of holes on the floor and walls made of metal in a make shift hotel to excite any of us. There wasn’t even a place to eat – 6 PM everyone is already half asleep…

Back to Broken Hill for the night.
On the way back, we had to stop and wait for a hoppity convention to end, before proceeding… I should mention the participants were all extremely polite – and we apologized for the inconvenience.

the camels were a little further down – didn’t seem to mind our Sunday Excursion…

We stayed at Hilltop Motel, the restaurant was closed, we had dinner downtown at a Chinese place. Not impressed with Broken Hill, but it was not our destination anyway… cute turn of the century architecture though…

Next morning we all went to take a peek at the Mine –  from the distance you can have a better idea of its profile…

And back on track, heading to Wilcannia. We stayed long enough to have lunch… Sad place, saw better days when it as known as the “Queen City of the West”. Nothing royal about it now, sadly.

Getting to White Cliffs is pretty straightforward – just look for the red truck.

See. had I not destroyed the roof of the car in White Cliffs, I would probably have better memories about the place… but somehow, the thump and terror is pretty much what comes to mind when I think about it.

The kids had fun (I think) mining for Opals under a 47C sweltering sun… granted, we all had to hide in the running car every 10 minutes or so, but still. What kind of adventure would this have been without the discomfort ?

So, if you live in White Cliffs, you live like a mole. Most dwellings are underground around here, since the heat is so intense… Our hotel was interesting – White Cliffs Underground Motel – an old mine turned into rooms. You do have a funny feeling going through the narrow and windy passageway that lead to the chambers, now furnished with 3 beds and a wardrobe.
Bathrooms are built separately and are not part of the dugout – meals have to be planned in advance and you must choose all your courses upon arrival (I suspect they actually go food shopping after you do).

Can you tell that a beam is cracked and a bicycle could not fit under that roof ?

The pool was always at the Caldroun temperature…

And the there was a Solar Power station right next door, in case a real mole decided to chew away the cables in the rooms…

The highlight of the trip, to me, was the visit to the Opal shop, where we met Dick, who explained that if you are mining for Opals and you find river stones – stop and go mine somewhere else !!
He also introduced us to the boulder opals, which turned out to become my absolute favorites…

Would you look at THAT !!

Next day we traveled happily back home, through a beautiful landscape…

Arriving home in the evening and already thinking about Mt Buller and our next trip !!

You got to love to suffer, let me tell you… Anyway, he woke up, dressed up, prepared,

kissed the bike, and made me drive him 111 Km to Mannum.

and back – so I could pick up the kids (who were left sleeping) and drive them to Strathalbyn, to cheer and pray to God we could see dad amongst 3400 other cyclist, wearing the same darn ocre jersey.
I know it sounds that doing too much laundry made the fumes go up to my brain, but I did just that. And smiling.

Since it was really early (around 6:50 AM), I stopped at the gas station for coffee and – to my surprise, I found myself on the corner where all the cyclist would go by after the start of the ride – and right in front of a fantastic sculpture made of (of course) bike parts !!

First came the Police…

followed by a deluge of bikers that was so huge…

I stood there for a full 18 minutes and when I left, not all of them had passed yet !!!

As predicted, take too many men wearing the same outfit, doing the same thing, under a 40C sun, and you have a frustrating wait for someone you (gasp) actually get to see (but not photograph) at the finish line.

And when 3 thousand 4 hundred cyclists go on the Tour Down Under carrying their cell phones, can you guess what they do as soon as they arrive and second to taking their shoes off ? They CALL.
Their wives, mothers, kids, neighbors, bosses, who knows. All I know is that after we actually saw Lance Jr arriving, we lost him. For a full 1.5 hours.
Ah – and hubby does not know how to text or answer to text messages – we figured it out that day. All lines busy, for ever. No comment.

(end of part III – to be continued) 

It is pristine, about 10 meters away from a river jetty where all of us actually caught a few fish !!!

which were cleaned and cooked by yours truly… The kids had a BALL !

The day after, we took the ferry back to Cape Jervis and then drove to Victor Harbour where the professional bikers had just completed their stage for the day… At the park, the kids found a couple of rides while my husband entertained himself with a candied apple.

We are now 1793 Kms and 3 days away from home… (to be continued)

The sunset from my deck… the pictures are not manipulated in anyway – these are the actual colors that you see as the sun goes down in Terrey Hills.

A cockatoo spying on me from the roof, looking for something to chew on…

and the same cocky sitting on the roof, sharing the view…

a very very strange bird…

Sydney downtown from the zoo…

our dog, finally at home after 40 days of quarantine…

and one of our daily visitors…

Everything is new, strange and exciting to us – and we will continue to put this camera to good use !