So reluctantly we packed up and headed off from Point Lowly to Parham. The weather was a tad cooler with suspicious clouds around. It felt like a long drive when it was onlyeant to be a couple of hours down the road.
Being so close, and since we were in the area, we turned off and went to check put Snowtown. Sadly the town was made famous by the 'bodies in the barrels' murder some years ago. When we pulled up it was bloody raining and cold, so our suspicions about he clouds were spot on. We had our normal travel lunch of peanut butter whilst we looked on in envy at the Cronans going inside and having a salad sandwich. After lunch we went over to the old bank where the bodies in the barrels were discovered. Walking past, of you didn't know the history you wouldn't have taken any notice. The bank itself is pretty unremarkable, just these huge double stainless steel doors. It's closed of course. Standing in front, it felt so eary. I couldn't imagine the horrible things that took place inside. We headed up to the old antique store to have a squiz, same old same old stuff you would normally expect. Until, that is, you have a look at the counter and see the souvenirs that they had for sale. Patricia, the volunteer, was even busy making some more. She was a bit weird and the things she was making were even weirder. She was making bloody barrels wih legs and heads sticking out of the tops of them out of clay and painting them with blood on the tops. So totally inaproppristw! And if that's not bad, she was selling them for $25 a pop!
We finally made it to our next free camp at Parham, and when we rocked up it was cloudy and windy and totally disappointing compared to Point Lowly. But it was only for a couple of nights l suppose. There was ocean access, pity it was a few kms to walk out to at low tide and when it was in it was only ankle deep. At least there were flushing toilets!
Although not the best free camp, we had a few good days. Was a little harder to entertain the kids with the s***ty weather, but we survived. They had great fun playing bocce, cricket and even having little Masterchef cake cook offa thanks to Nikki! Nikki and l even had a little pampering sessions doing our own pedicures, facials and even tinting my eyelashes. Matt and Marty raised their eyebrows a bit (lol).
The first night was a little scary, bloody fierce winds. Didn't sleep a wink and thought the van was gonna fall down. You could hear the top of the van shaking side to side and squeaking all night. Next morning we were telling Meg about the scary storm and wind and how we didn't sleep much and she responded by slaking "did we have a teddy to cuddle?". Lol....
The last day was an overcast s***ty windy day and we thought we should take a drive. Marty had been looking into the upgrade of the van for a while and he saw one was for sale in Tanundra, in the Barossa Valley just an hour up the road. So we headed off on a road trip with the Cronans for the day. Marty and l were a tad excited, and when we eventually pulled up, the excitement became ecstatic. The van was a Golden Eagle Escape, it had double bunks, air con and an oven. Best of all our bed had an inner spring mattress. We were lucky that Mat and Nik were with us as they have a Coromal van and knew what to check out. They were very excited and said they were even a tad jealous. It still looked new and had the new smell. Totally loved it and the owners where lovely. We explained our situation about having to sell our van first, but did ask them to call us if they got offers in theban time. We were very keen, but tried not to get too excited. We still had a way to go before we could do anything about it. So after getting some amazing chips for chip sangas for lunch, we decided while we were in the area we should hit the wineries. First stop was Peter Leidmans where at first the lady was a bit of a snob but then we had the younger girl take over. She thought l was a total crack up seeing it was the first winery l had ever been too. She was really cool, giving me a lot of different wines to taste. I found out l love moscato, yummy!! Nik and l had a great time, hunk the boys got a bit bored but l didn't care much, l had south fun. After a few tastings and purchasing a few bottles we headed to Wolf Blass just up the road, but took us awhile to find it. Nikki was very eager as it was one of her favorite wines, and l know why now. OMG some of the wines were amazing. Again, we tasted and we brought. More reasonably priced than l thought, quite affordable. I sort of thought that it would be really pricey but it's not the case. Can't wait to get to Margaret River in the west now!!! Our winery day ended and we all had a ball. Such a great time and all spontaneous, the way we like it...

Overall, our time at Parham was unexpectedly great as we have found the van we want to buy and we also got to experience the Barossa Valley. We were all very excited that our next stop was West Beach in Adelaide for Christmas.....wahoo!!!

Bell Xxx