Day 95 to 99
Port Lincoln
We stayed in Port Lincoln for 1 day and 2 nights. It poured with rain for the first night and during the day. Madi got her wish to go shopping and finally bought the shoes she had wanted – good news is they were on sale so I made her shout me lunch with her savings! We had a drive around in the rain and had a look around. The kids were keen to jump off the pier into the shark net enclosed swimming area but the rain didn’t let up and it was a bit cold so we had to say no. To make up for that we went to see Harry Potter 7 that night. Nick and Chris were very excited as they have read all the books. The cinema was very old with upstairs and downstairs areas and the old moldings, etc.
We drove from Port Lincoln to Burra on the Thursday. It took us about 8 hours but was not a bad drive as for a lot of the way you can see the water. There are also interesting quarries and mines to be seen from the road.
Burra
We arrived at Baldina Station on Thursday night. The kids were very excited to play with the Goudie girls and to see the new baby. They were also very excited to sleep in a house with real beds for the first time in 3 months. As we were saying goodnight to them Nick said “It beats the caravan Dad”.
Next morning he kids fed the chickens and collected the eggs for our breakfast and dave cooked up a storm with bacon and tomatoes.. Then Dave and Andy appeased the boys desire to shoot guns by teaching them to shoot the slug gun at a target. They went for rides on the motorbikes and swimming in the pool – where they still were when the storm arrived and pelted them all with hail. The mass exodus from the pool was very entertaining to watch as was the guts test when they all decided they could go back in; no one was prepared to be left out!
That night we went out for dinner at the Commercial Hotel. With a population of 2,000 Burra has 5 pubs and about that many churches as well. At its peak Burra was the biggest country town in SA. It is actually the amalgamation of 7 Burroughs and is very spread out so it is hard to get an idea of just how big it is
The next day Priscilla’s brother Dave came up with his son 2 ½ year old, Elfie. Dave B became known as the smoking Dave and then Dave G could just be Dave. The kids thought the smoking Dave was very cool cos he could mono the motorbike for ages and he went really fast. They all wanted to ride on the back or front of his bike. Bubba got on and was heard to yell as the bike took off “you can do anything, go real fast, but not that 1 wheel thing!” That day we helped with a bit of farm work – for the kids this meant supplying drinks to the men which ultimately meant the work took longer. There was more motor bike riding and then we had drinks out on the property overlooking the hills. Nick and Chris got to drive the car home (1/2 way each) which they loved – Mum loved a lot less and although they both did quite well Chris could be a little more friendly with the brake pedal and a little less with the accelerator!
Next day smoking Dave and Alfie went home and we went into Burra for lunch (another pub – the Burra) and for a look at some of the historical buildings. We saw the dugouts in the creek where miners lived due to the housing shortage at the time. They were basically burrows in the side of the creek which were probably ok in summer but not so great in winter when a flash flood comes through and best washes them out at worse kills them. We went to the old Gaol where I found 3 Bennetts had been interred (2 sent to Adelaide Gaol!). The Gaol was also a Girls Reformatory and later on it was using for the filming of Breaker Morant (as was the land around Baldina Station). We went to the old mine site, checked out some churches and some other old buildings. That night we went out to dinner (without kids – 1st time in 14 weeks) at another pub – the Royal.
Today we are back in the car and heading for Victor Harbour. It is hard to believe that in 4 more sleeps we will be home and back in our own beds.
