German Lutherans

So we began our four week journey in a Melbourne thunderstorm. Nothing too violent but plenty of light as we worked through Melbourne at about dawn. It was still fairly grey out of town and we got some heavy showers and more thunder at Ballarat. From there it progressively got better, till at one stage it was 32C in South Australia.

We stopped for breakfast in Beufort, and is is traditional on one of our holidays, I ran into someone from work. Marjan took over the driving then and we headed off in bright sunshine. We came to a screeching halt when I yelled at Marjan to stop at Pink Lake . This is a little wayside stop past Dimboola and it has a salt lake, and yes it is pink.....and I tasted it ....so yes it was salty.

This was among all the wheat you can imagine.

We figured from there we may as well drive through to the Murray, so after picking up some bread rolls, off we headed. Unfortunately I did not pay attention when I set the cruise control and before we knew it we had a SA Police car behind us with lights flashing.  The fine for doing 115 was going to be about $497. Fortunately the police officer felt it would be wrong to book a Justice employee helping out the prison system, so I got way with a warning and a shake of the hand. Whew

We made it to Tailem Bend without further incident and had some left over potato salad by the Murray whilst the local kids enjoyed the water.

From there we crossed the Murray at Murray Bridge, the original one, the first bridge built over the Murray. Marjan was driving so no chance of a photo.

The countryside was getting even dryer than the Wimmera/mallee country we had been driving through. Around Tungkilo it became quite rocky and around Mt Pleasant it seems every local teenager needs to paint signs on local rocks. Shortly after that the countryside became greener and gentler and before we knew it we were driving though the lovely Barrossa.

Managed to get to our digs in time for afternoon tea......which apparently happens daily.....yum. This and a shower helped revive us and we headed into town for an early dinner. We ate at the brewery, yes a little ironic and not particularly yummy. The highlight was a walk in town checking out the Lutheran church. A lot of the original German settlers are buried here. Really interesting.

Back to our digs to check out the sunset.....and early night is called for.