The journey in to Coober Pedy is a strange one as 30 km before you reach town, you start to see mounds of earth and holes all over the landscape, all sizes and the closer you get to town the more there are...some people say it looks like you are visiting the moon. In actual fact, it is an opal mining town and anyone can look for opals if you buy a plot of land. We were very tired from the long drive so had a pizza and then went to bed. It was very cold during the night...we go from one extreme to the other during this trip! We left the next day as quickly as we could as a) there are so many flies...I even sat in the car with my fly net on as there were too many outside) b) the people are super unfriendly and only like locals and it is a real backwater hicksville town!

Next stop was Port Augusta. I have to say the journey from Uluru to here is around 1500 km of the most boring landscape ever.....nothing and I mean nothing of any interest. Thank god for the ipod - Jan Smit and Andre Hazes got us through :o) In PA we even had to get the duvet out again as the night's are chilly - much better than too hot though!

The next day was the perfect temperature -warm and sunny and we left to visit the Clare and Barossa valley which were utterly beautiful. We spent some idyllic days strolling through beautiful towns and villages, surrounded by vineyards, rolling hills and meadows, full of delicious bakeries, antique and bric-a-brac shops, and of course wineries. We stopped in Burra for our first cake (and met the local visitor centre volunteer/Santa Claus for the local area Christmas pageants), then Clare, Freeling (which is where McLeod's Daughter's was filmed) and then on to Noriootpa, where we stayed for a couple of nights and made it our base. We spent the day driving around the beautiful countryside, stopping off at a couple of wineries in Tanunda - Chateau Tanunda where we tasted our first 6 wines. Unfortunately, there wasn't one we both liked so we headed to Grant Burge Vineyard which was stunning. It was our ideal wedding location! I guess if we choose it, we won't have many guests :o) We tasted another 6 wines before settling on and buying one we both like.

After 12 sips of vino I was a little smiley! In Tanunda, we also found a lovely German bakery and cafe and Max gorged on bratwurst!. Leaving the Barossa valley, we headed further south through Eden Valley, Springton (and saw the famous hollow tree where Mr Herbig and his wife lived with the first 2 of their 16 children!) and headed to Birdwood to visit their National Motor museum. It was really good. Good for Max as there were lots and lots of cars and motorbikes, and good for me as there were games such as 'Are you a good driver?' ( I killed a pedestrian so I guess not) as well as a driving test you could take from 1955. After also getting a lot of useful info from the ladies on reception, we headed south to the Adelaide Hills and to Hahndorf, the oldest german village in the region. It is lovely - cafes, boutiques, beautiful old buildings, gardens and galleries. We spent the afternoon there mooching around, tasting and buying some lovely cheese from the wonderfully named 'Udder Delights'. We found a german bakery and tried their apple strudel which was heel lekker (yummy).

We stayed in Mt Barker for 3 nights and spent one day idly at the campsite while the car went for another service. It's like an old man with arthritis - its joints have started to creak! Let's hope the legs last until we get to Sydney! :o) We also took a trip in to Adelaide to see what the city had to offer but it's pretty much like most Aussie cities - shops, lots of people and a few nice buildings. We visited the SA Museum which has a huge collection of aboriginal artefacts and had a lovely and cheap noodle lunch and a walk around but it was 38 degrees so a little warm (again). It's ironic that in September we experienced the wettest and coldest Perth since 1985 and now we are experiencing the hottest EVER South Australia in November. Around 13 degrees above the usual average - phew!

After our stay in Mt Barker, we headed south to start our journey along the Fleurieu Peninsula which is the small boot just below Adelaide. The distances between places has been so great in previous journeys that it is strange to go a few kilometers to reach your destination! We visited McLaren Vale en route, to see more vineyards and beautiful scenery as well as Aldinga and Myponga Beach looking for surf (no luck) and then on to Carrickalinga and Normanville where we stopped for lunch by the sea.

We then went to Rapid Bay and Second Valley to cool off and have a swim as it was really hot again. However the sea was really cold as it comes from the South Pole :o) We then headed to Waitpinga beach famous for surfing but alas, as flat as a pancake. We then made our way to Victor Harbour, our home for the next 4 days. We also bumped in to our neighbours from Mt Barker, Ken and Lorraine so passed a couple of evenings with them, some cold beers and lemonades, before dinner.

Victor Harbor is a lovely seaside resort with nice bluffs and beaches, close to lots of other nice villages and home to Granite island and it's colony of fairy penguins. We spent a few days just relaxing, reading, shopping, eating cake and fish and chips by the foreshore and we visited the penguin island at dusk and saw some very cute baby ones waiting for mum to come home from fishing all day. There was also supposed to be good surf in this area but nah - too small for Max!