Getting the picture

Lunch with Artist - Beryl Martin.

Beryl Martin is a water colourist. She's quite modest because we have had to delve to discover the range and extent of her work of many years. There is an example of her art hung in the Australian National Gallery, Canberra - although she won't necessarily tell you. We know her work well because she is the mother of dear friends whose home is alive with her water colour depictions of flowers, still life and landscapes. We also own two lovely paintings of Beryl's that were sadly too large to bring on board Zofia.

Since Beryl lives in Adelaide, we were eager to catch up with her. It's been a couple of years since we'd last seen her. Now aged 89 she's less mobile so we were easily slotted into her social schedule and we had hired the 'bunkie' in large part to make this visit possible.

My photo's, complete with reflection of the flash (lol!) barely do justice to Beryl's work.

..... but you get the picture!

Only recently returned from a successful exhibition in Brisbane, Beryl was delighted when the Bloke asked if there might be any paintings that she'd consider selling to us. She zapped up the hallway with her walking frame at high speed, sniffing a sale.

It was not framed when we saw it but one of Beryl's depictions of Coffin Bay, where we had passed through only a few months ago, made our hearts sing. A quick call to her picture framer Murray around the corner, ensured that we would be able to protect and hang our new 'Beryl' with minimum delay.

A hearty lunch of Avgolemeno soup prepared by Beryl augmented by cheese, fresh bread and wine brought by us, was was enjoyed amid much mirth and story telling over a couple of hours before we had to tear ourselves away to meet up briefly with 'Marvelous Miles' and wife Steph at The Grange in Glenelg.

 We probably should have taken the photo BEFORE lunch!

Marvelous Miles had a new sausage roll for the Bloke to sample

The girls finished off the 'red' while the Bloke delivered Miles to his flight back to Port Lincoln.

A great day enjoyed by all and topped off with a two hour white knuckle drive, mostly through zigzagging hilly terrain, in the dark and pouring rain on the way back to the Marina. Phew, so glad we made it back in the bunkie!

Morning tea at Leonards Mill

In our haste to rendezvous with Team Midnight Blue in Victor Harbour we drove straight past a delightful touristic sight just a few kilometres down the Fleurieu Drive from the Marina St Vincent at Wirrina. The Bloke promised to return for a proper look. True to his word, we made a special trip in the direction of Second Inlet for a 'look see' and morning tea on a classic grey winters day.

Even on a gloomy day Leonards Mill is cute as a button

This historic old mill building and it's surrounds is very charming and includes a restaurant, little gallery of paintings, sculptures etc... for sale plus associated accommodation. They proudly hold a 2013 Gold Award of some sort, for tourism. It drips ambiance and the service is fantastic! When measured against the nearby Wirrina Resort it's not hard to see why the Resort is struggling. Resort management might need to rethink the 'Doof-doof' din (I recoil against calling it music) they pump into the empty bar area at 11am that wrecks any possible ambiance in the adjacent cafe area. How can staff cope with that day in day out, it was difficult enough while we killed time on laundry day! There are lessons to be learned.  On a positive note, the resort makes great scones.

The Bloke ponders over his own concealed 'six pack'

An easy drive from Adelaide, we bet this 'goes off' in the summer!

Victor Harbour - Birthplace of 'The Erratics'

To be honest, The Erratics at Port Vincent were a bit of a let down.... basically a few bowling ball sized bits of granite that had been spotted and identified as, geologically speaking, 'not belonging' where they lay. By coincidence we found some much more impressive offerings on our road trip to Victor Harbour; the identified ancestral home of those precociously named little globes. The real deal are to be found at Rossetta Head but locally referred to as The Bluff, just 4 km south of the town centre.

The Bloke tested just what level of force it would take to relocate the granite boulders to a distance of 120km, where we saw the smaller versions called 'The Eratics' in Port Vincent, Yorke Peninsula.

I climbed up to prove these were much, much larger!

 Geological explanation

In case you forget where this is

As you can see, it's a pretty popular spot

 View to Victor Harbour down below

 

In it's early days whaling was a key industry.

The Bluff was used as a lookout to spot the pods of whales.

A whale tail fountain referencing the importance of whales to this town

The proclaimed home to 14,500 people, Victor Harbour is a stunningly picturesque town. It's wide bay (Encounter Bay) with tall headlands is dotted with some small islands creating visual interest and the built environment is a mix of heritage stone buildings as well as a nicely designed and constructed modern residential mix that includes stylish low rise waterfront apartments. The impression given by the civic spaces and ocean side promenades is of a prosperous area and like so many South Australian Coastal towns we've seen, very clean and neat. There is obviously more water available here too since many gardens actually contain lawns and plants with less emphasis on 'follies' for adornment.

A political statement?

This area is also known as The Encounter Coast. The maritime explorers Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin once again crossed paths here in 1802. Locations significant to their exploratory journeys are a thread running right through our own. We continue to boggle at what they achieved.

This plate set into a granite block at the top of The Bluff suggests that Flinders and Baudin met there. Methinks that might have been a tad 'staged' as it's quite a hike to the top and much easier to meet on the beach. ....just thinking!

The scenic route along the Fleurieu Peninsula took us beyond Victor Harbour to Port Elliott were we'd arranged to meet up with Team Midnight Blue. A sausage roll was hastily sampled at Victor Harbour and declared a dud but the Bakery at Port Elliott had been recommended by the Marvelous  Miles. We needed to hurry along.

 Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliott

Ladies Beach, where the ladies swam in the days of segregated bathing.

 

Ian and the Bloke with an immortalised local identity

Port Elliot is a very cute town and popular holiday destination.  A steam engine runs through the town on week-ends along a path that, in by-gone times, carted export goods to the now long gone jetties. Heritage stone buildings are everywhere and there are lots of little shops selling all the usual "stuff" that's fun to browse through at holiday destinations.

 Lovely slate-paved hill side walks with bonus pretty views

It's hard to imagine that it's midwinter - 22nd of July!
Happy Birthday to The General - the Bloke's brother.

Secret Women's Business

Years ago there was a terrific controversy over a proposed bridge to span the mighty Murray River at Goolwa to link Hindmarsh Island to the mainland. It was claimed that Hindmarsh Island was the site of traditional Indigenous 'Secret Women's Business' and development stalled. The claims were eventually discredited after extended High Court battles and the bridge constructed.

The phrase 'Secret Women's Business' has subsequently slipped into the Australian vernacular and there is even a very successful South Australian racing yacht named Secret Men's Business!

Here it is!
The controversial Hindmarsh Island Bridge which is decorated with Indigenous motifs.

 

The information plaque at the base of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge

The river port boarding station at Goolwa

Tina waits for a coffee, well pleased to introduce us to the Mighty Murray.

Acting the goat at Port St Vincent

Sunday was a calm and dry day suitable for 'flying' the quadcopter enthused the Bloke! Having made an exploratory visit into Wirrina Creek to recover it after an aborted flight, the Bloke suggested a hike up the hill behind the Port St Vincent Marina instead.

Walking away from Port St Vincent Marina.

We took a couple of boat hooks with us as improvised hiking sticks which came in handy as we crossed the creek on wobbly stepping stones.

 The run-off from the reservoir created a nice waterfall.

Heck, where's he got to?

Oh, there he is!

Catching our breath to take in the view.

There are a many very smart looking boats here -

Cruising yachts and Rivies with easy access to Kangaroo Island!

The terrain here is vastly different from the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas with very steep hills and lots of creeks and rivers. Our first impression was how like Scotland it was.

The view inland to the reservoir

 Looking north up the coast

Sadly, the Wirrina Cove development has not been a screaming success and has been in receivership for a number of years. It includes a Resort with a Convention Centre, Golf Course as well as the Marina. The Resort now has new owners. An Indian syndicate from New Zealand hope to revive the place. The Marina has a number of new pen owners who, like Ken and Colleen have invested at rock bottom prices directly from the liquidators. What a win! The Marina is struggling a little though. A 'Club Room' building stands at 'lock-up' stage; stillborn. It has not been completed for so long that it externally needs repainting already, despite not having been completed internally. As a consequence, facilities only include a couple of well serviced demountable cabins that house the bathrooms. A guest laundry (2 washers and a single dryer) can be used in the Resort but it is several km up the road (hilly and winding) and can only practically be reached by car. Marina admin staff were kind enough to offer to take us up to the resort to do our washing but for now we have our rented 'bunkie'. In essence, this is not a facility that would suit 'visitors' unless like us, one has helpers to assist with getting to shops etc.  Fuel and water are available. The nearest shops are at Normanville and Yankalilla. Telstra phone and internet reception is fine although my Vodafone signal is sadly a 'no-show'.

Getting ready for Party Time

We've been helping Ken and Colleen prepare for their Big '0' birthday party with 50 guests; some of whom, like us, will be traveling from out of state.

There's nothing like having visitors to motivate a spring clean and Ken and Collen have really embraced this. We've already spent half a day assisting by re-organising garage contents to make space for the Jazz playing. A mini-skip was filled today with the Bloke's help while I've had a cook-up of dessert foods back on board. A blissful day of solitude.

What's on the menu? Our contribution includes chocolate brownies plus poached pears with chocolate sauce.

 Would have preferred Bosc Pears but had to settle for Josephines and Packhams.
Don't be worrying about our charts, they are under thick plastic!

 First batch

 Chopped, boxed and ready to go.

Hands off my Tupperware Brian, I really do need it!

Luckily, with Ian and Tina's help yesterday, we picked up a set of wheels for one week which will enable us to be independent and do some visiting. The Wirrina Cove, Port St Vincent Marina is miles from anywhere. I suspect the Bloke also has ambitions to make surreptitious visits to the Yankalilla Bakery to further sample it's rather excellent sausage rolls.

A brief foray into McLaren Vale

Safe in the knowledge that we were in good and expert hands we allowed ourselves to be introduced to the McLaren Vale wine district by Tina and Ian. The tourist blurb suggests that there are in excess of 70 cellar doors in this internationally known wine district of South Australia which is a mere 35km south of Adelaide.

We were loosely aware that McLaren vale was experiencing pressure from urban expansion and we were really quite shocked that housing really is encroaching on this unique wine terrain as Adelaide spreads relentlessly southwards along the coast. Perhaps our expectations were coloured by our own experiences of the WA Margaret River and Mt Barker wine regions which are well and truly rural and never considered as a day trip from Perth. A weekender maybe. So, McLaren Vale is more like a Caversham/ Swan Valley scenario for Perth people. Without doubt this area will be busy on weekends but luckily we visited midweek.

With so many potential wineries to visit we were delighted for Ian to take the lead. He is from a wine making family and knew people everywhere we went. We visited Dog Ridge, Coriole and Woodstock.

The Coriole Cellar Door is in an historic ironstone barn built in 1860.

Very charming.

 The Bloke promised to be good and escaped a spell in the stocks at Woodstock.

We were troubled by the 5 holes!

We stopped for lunch at the Blessed Cheese in McLaren Vale township where I ordered baked brie on sour dough toast with a rocket and prosciutto salad. I hadn't factored on being served a whole brie and shared a good portion of this with the others. It was hot and the cheese burst open like lava from a volcano - it was gorgeous. The presence of the remnants of the brie on my palate had a massive impact on my subsequent wine tasting. The majority of the wine we drink is with cheese at Fivers but in this instance the combination didn't work. So strange, but the wallet was the winner! 

More ...

Leg 24 - Port Vincent to Port St Vincent

Yes really! Wirrina Cove is also known as Port St Vincent. We are not going around in circles.

A short hop in the scheme of things, diagonally across the Gulf of St Vincent. A light NE breeze delivered us in a straight line downwind to our waypoint without adjustment. We sailed until the breeze dropped out with the tide change around midday and then motor sailed for the remainder. It gave the Bloke the opportunity to try out our stay sail on its new furler and with the rest of the sails up, Zofia became a little cutter.

The Bloke well pleased with his work.

A closer look. 

Our sailing mentors advise that the main is on too hard LOL!

We left our main sail up, not for any speed advantage but to make us more visible.

Way back when we arrived in Streaky Bay, our first stop in South Australia, we pondered over some evening drinks whether the Bloke's PhD supervisor Ken Hill was still in South Australia. They had lost touch for about 25 years. A couple of hours of detective work tracing Ken's jazz trumpeting passion, enabled a phone call to a pub where Ken and his band sometimes perform. A bar manager was most obliging and gave us a current mobile number. By this time it was after 9pm but the Bloke was unable to contain himself and immediately made the call. It was like twins separated in childhood suddenly finding one another again!

Ken has lived on the Fleurieu peninsula since retiring from academia and has built a house with partner Colleen, high on a hilltop within eyeshot of the Wirrina Cove Marina. It was for them that we left the main sail up to signal our impending arrival. Ken's SMS to spot their white house with distinctive green roof was less successful. Against a backdrop of recently greened hillsides it was like trying to spot a John Deer tractor in a field of barley....green on green! None the less, excitement was escalating.

Ken and his Jedi apprentice.

When we arrived, Tina and Ian our cruising friends from Midnight Blue, were on the dock to take our lines. This is their home port. We had expected to see them in due course but not necessarily to meet us on the jetty. Such a thrill. Ken and Colleen arrived too moments later to assist with the last of the leads having been slightly delayed by the purchase of a spectacular gift.

The Bloke rated this sausage roll (2 actually, ensuring a more credible sample size) very highly 
both as a gift choice and for the quality. 

So good to have friends engaging in the sausage roll research!

For now we will remain in Wirrina Cove for a couple of weeks as guests in Ken and Colleen's pen. We will help celebrate 130 years of birthdays next week when Ken and Colleen celebrate a 70th and 60th birthday respectively. All being well we may assist Ken sail their 34' Catalina down from Garden Island Yacht Club, Adelaide to its new home. Quite a bit if onshore activity is imminent with two pairs of friends and here's another wonderful coincidence - McLaren Vale is in the hinterland. You do the maths!

Tina and Ian helping to celebrate another completed passage

First glimpse of the Wirrina Cove Marina - Port St Vincent

 Our view of the Fleurieu Peninsula on approach

Quiet a different landscape to the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas

View towards Cape Jervis