Oct 28, 2011

Adelaide - Mannum - 28th Oct 2011

We spent nearly three weeks staying at our daughter Erin's and her partner Scott's new home, Erin and  Scott had just moved in and here we were ready to invade their privacy, they say they didn't mind and it did give me the chance to fix up a few things that needed doing so i guess that was the trade off.

Vickie's appointment with her Dr went as expected, it has been confirmed that she will require another operation within the next 6 Months or so to peel back the membrane on the retina plus at the same time perform cataract surgery. Again it has made us think just what we should be doing as far as travelling goes, at this stage we will just continue on and wait for any phone calls informing us of any surgery date.

We stayed a bit longer at Erin's so we could attend their house warming and Erin's 30th Birthday party, it was a good night but the Doof Doof Music from DJ Scotty G was not my style of music, and some neighbours thought the same as the Police turned up at 2 AM asking them to quieten up. Everyone was cool though and the party was over and the last of the guests left at 2.30am.

We were keen to leave and hit the road and catch up with our mates the Parker's, they left us at Quorn and had continued along the Murray River visiting friends along the way before making their way back via Mt Gambier and along the Coast and Coorong. Before we could leave Erin's i had to wait until Thursday as i had bought a 2nd hand Mountain Bike from a German Uni Student and i couldn't take ownership until then as she needed it as her transport. Up early Thursday i went and picked it up and by lunch time we had left and were heading to Mannum to meet up with G&V.

We have stayed at Bolte Reserve before 3 or 4 times and it is a lovely spot on the edge of the Murray River opposite the town of Mannum. We had heard a rumour that a fee was now charged by Council so it didn't surprise us to see a sign up stating Camping was $10 per vehicle per night. Part of me feels like it is unfair considering the amount of money we spend in a town and that we personally do not require any services nor amenities, I would prefer to see a time limit on camping enforced rather than a cost. Geoff and i rode the bikes around the town and gave the legs a solid workout. We also replaced the pivot blocks in our caravans suspension, usually not a difficult job but this time some bolts gave us some hassles so it took longer than expected.

This was one of a few Possum's that live in the tree's around us
View at Night across the river

Our Camp

The Paddle Steamer, Marion

Mannum is home to many houseboats, The Marion is a well known Paddle Steamer,and is unique, as she is the only vessel of her type left in the world today, Another well known Boat is the Murray River Princess, both are moored opposite our camp.

We are staying a few nights here, today we walked into town and the girls visited all the shops, tonight we are going across to the Community Club for tea, tomorrow it's another bike ride and try and fix our blocked drain in the Van, when we do part Geoff and Vickie are heading to explore the South Australian Peninsula's and us going East.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Mick and Vicki,
another great post - loved your camp setup! Can't wait til we head off again, end of March next year.
Happy Travels,
Dave & Shell

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