BLOG 2019 – (Our retirement journal)
1 - Time Home with a bit of respite away in our caravan - Yorke Peninsula
We thoroughly enjoy our nomadic travelling adventures with
its soul enriching qualities provided by the experience of many beautiful
locations around Australia.
Stepping back into our home late 2018 we found our relaxed wellbeing
bubble disappear rather quickly. Our two large trees were lying on the ground,
one on the clothes line and the other on the shed. There were a couple of damaged fence panels,
as it transpired all complements from a damaging storm the week prior our
arrival home. The lawn mower was broken, and the rear yard looked a bit like a
jungle. Steve had a list for caravan maintenance needs, requiring immediate
attention just in case he needed to order parts prior to the Christmas holiday
shut down period. It was an intense period of activities for our first month
back at home
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| Mary providing a protective cover over the tyres for repainting of the caravan rims |
In between assisting Steve, Mary was busy with sewing
projects for Christmas things, along with preparing for the arrival of our
family for our younger son’s wedding adding to the mix for our Christmas period activities.
Christmas gatherings were held at one of our local caravan
parks over a four day period with Steve’s side of the family staying in three
caravans and one cabin, with other family members coming and going each day.
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| Mary made some table runners |
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| Mary, Great Grandma, Grand-daughter Isla with her parents for Christmas present unwrapping. |
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| Christmas lunch mob |
Moving on from Christmas we re-established some form to our
rear yard with new plants to fill the gap from the two missing trees and assist
with the current buzz word of providing carbon neutralising growth. We can but
try to help minimize our impact on the world.
On 2nd January our daughter arrived from Canada,
followed a couple of days later with the arrival of our Canberra based
children. It was terrific to have all our children together for a couple of
weeks. Only one person missing, Judith's fiance'. We would have loved for Corey to have been with us. Hopefully next trip Corey can make it.
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| Mary and Pippa |
Then it was a weekend of activities with our extended family
members, pre-wedding night with a dozen gourmet pizza’s consumed and lots of
chatter, followed by a longish wedding day busy with activities. The wedding with
the ceremony held in a pine forest setting followed by the reception at a 93
year old stone built hall, finished with breakfast put on by our son’s new
in-laws for about 40 attendees. We spent the Sunday afternoon soaking up time
with our Canberra and Canada based family before farewelling them for their
respective trips home.
After a couple of days spent recharging our personal
batteries, (doing nothing) we got on with our required maintenance needs which
include those medical checks / maintenance requirements. We had a window of
about 12 days between appointments and decided it was time for a time out
caravan fix. We always enjoy nearby Yorke Peninsula and it had been nearly
three years since our last visit. With a phone call to fellow caravaners Rob
& Glenda who live in the middle of Yorke Peninsula we found ourselves at
their home for a couple of nights then the four of us set camp at Port
Minlacowie with a beautiful ocean setting. We even managed to jiggle the
caravans into a position where no sun was able to squeeze between the awnings
on those hot sunny days.
We were about 20 kilometres from Rob & Glenda’s home
making it an easy drive to collect Rob’s boat which was utilized even though it
was a dodge tide period. We caught enough King George Whiting for a few of our
evening meals.
We also fitted in a couple of drives exploring a few areas
unvisited before.
We had an exceptionally good week on Yorke Peninsula enjoying
the company with Glenda and Rob.
Heading north from Port Minlacowie we assessed a few low
cost beach front bush camp locations, all looking very inviting except for the gale
force wind blowing at that time, creating an uncomfortable sand blasting
effect. We did stay one night at “The Gap,” (utilizing a large bush for wind
protection) with a beautiful sandy beach where you could walk along the beach
for kilometres. We propped at a free camp for a couple of nights near the main town
centre of Moonta where we enjoyed walking around the main townships district
and we also explored nearby townships of Kadina and Wallaroo. We did spend one
evening catching up with Mary’s Aunty Eileen and Uncle Joe at their Moonta Bay
home. There were quite a few historic buildings near the Moonta camp ground
including some magnificent churches and we could hear a church bell ringing the
arrival of each hour with the appropriate number of bells for that hour.
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| Kadina water tower art |
It was a return trip of about 200 kilometres back to home
for another month of required medical needs with further maintenance on our
home and caravan keeping us occupied.
