Thu 01/05/2014 Headed into Adelaide city today. 18oc mild and overcast. Cruised the town and then took a stroll through the Rundell Street Mall. Mix of Chinese and Indian dishes for lunch, then took some snaps with statues of the bronze pigs - Truffles, Horatio, Oliver and Augustus. Next enjoyed a walk through some parks and visited "the love locks bridge" over the Torrens River before going to the Adelaide Zoo. We all enjoyed the zoo very much. We saw: two rather large hippos smooching and eating pumpkins, the tigers being fed, an orang utan who insisted on wearing a bed sheet over himself, the meerkats have a fight, a blind otter call to his mate to come and help him find his way back to the nest, a sealion swimming around and around upside down, some sleepy lions, screeching black red tailed cockatoos, unusual nocturnal animals in their nightlight exhibits (kids liked the ghost bats best), patted some deer, were ambushed by greedy goats in the petting zoo who tried to eat the maps in our pockets, visited the reptile house and of course the big fat pandas - Wang Wang & Funi - she strolled her enclosure then went for a snooze, while he sat there and stuffed himself with bamboo and made a terrible mess. The pandas were our favourites, with the loved-up hippos coming a close second. Home in time to put a butterflied lamb roast and jacket potatoes in the webber -delicious! Cherubs are exhausted from all the walking. Pouring rain and blowing a gale on and off all night. Had to break out the very fashionable plastic ponchos for the night toilet run!

Fri 02/05/2014 Freezing, wet and windy day with a top of 12oC and low of 7oC - a tree in the caravan park blew over - yukky anti-caravanning weather! Blankets in the annexe this morning while the kids did a "science lesson" and watched "Operation Ouch" on TV. Spent most of the day hunkered down in the camp kitchen catching up on home schooling and trying to stay warm and dry. It seems the portable hard drive we were using to store all our holiday snaps etc on has decided to die; MB in negotiations with supplier for a replacement and retreival of our photos - NOT HAPPY! Alexis lost a tooth (top left fang) and is now fretting that 1) the tooth fairy won't know where to find us, and 2) even if she does, it is too wet for her wings! Lets hope all turns out ok! Went out for dinner to Gringos Cantina in Glenelg to escape the weather; the taco meat was cooked with jalepenos and had the kids diving for the cold water and cucumber salad to stop the burn. Lukas managed to down his, but the girls had to concede and scraped the meat out - more water please waiter! Lukas also decided at the restaurant to divulge and then proceed to demonstrate that he had discovered a"blow out" (hole) in the crutch of his trousers. His sisters (and I must admit us too) found this side-splittingly funny - what can I say, 10 yr old boys are all class! Back home to cold, wet and windy - thankfully the van has a heater; so glad we are not one of the families here in a soggy tent!