Mick re-confirmed it operational and blast off for Murray Bridge occurred by noon. To his amazement Kevin found that, upon first call to Adelaide control, the transponder had again failed! So he proceeded OCTA over the Adelaide foothills and onto Murray Bridge. The local flying club CFI , Slav, was more than fantastic offering us hangarage, fuel, accommodation and almost the shirt off his back – lovely bloke.
At this stage the luggage locker door which we had been picking every day, had decided to jam shut and Kevin was faced with the awful decision of having to cut a hole in the fuselage fabric in order to access our luggage and repair the lock. The local maintenance boys sold us some “sticky – backed” patch material and the dastardly deed was done!!!!
Oh boy - We nearly cried. All that beautiful fabric work, immaculate paint job and polishing had to be defaced! The only consolation was that the hole was underneath and could only be seen from below.
Meanwhile back at Robyn’s place in the hills I arose with Kev and then proceeded to do the washing. After a leisurely breakfast the 3 of us took Indi their 9 month old Doberman dog for a walk down the bush. Their property backs on to a reserve donated by a local property owner which has been used by Scout, Church and School groups as their yearly camping and outdoor education weeks. There was the original mud and daub house which had been built by his grandparents and restored for use by the campers. Sheds had been built along side the water holes and all the area had been terraced for tent sites. The amount of work that had gone into maintaining the area for future children was inspiring. Not far from the property fence line Indi tracked a koala (by nose) back past us to a tree and there at only 10-12’ from the ground was a fat happy koala staring indignantly at the dog. We took some great photos until it moved higher in the branches. The remainder of the walk was via tiny trails around the steep terrain until we returned to the old daub hut. Just behind us near the waterhole I saw movement on the ground and to our amazement, the koala was slowly trudging across a clearing to another tree. He was not worried about our presence at all. However Indi in her blundering way, found his track again and he high-tailed it up another tree out of her way.
Back to the house for a well earned shower we hit the road and Robyn drove us to Adelaide city showing famous landmarks, buildings and places of interest on the way. Adelaide is renowned for it’s churches however I was surprised at the large number of period buildings that were still being used and in great condition. We stopped in the city and strolled the mall. Buskers, from digeridoo players to dancers, were very entertaining. People were everywhere which was quite a change from the past week of empty skies and airfields.
Adelaide was settled by German and European descendants who planted trees from their home country therefore Liquid Ambers, Golden Ash and Oak abounded and the colours were fantastic. The hills area of Stirling was very surprising as one minute we were driving up a winding bush road and then turning we found ourselves in a shopping centre carpark. Whilst Robyn attended to business Sarah and I toured the local shops which specialized in bakeries and coffee shops.
As the drive to collect Kevin from the airfield was at least 45 minutes we set off after confirming that he was ready to be collected. He had flown from Parafield to be clear of the hills and possible associated weather problems.
We finally found the Murray Bridge airfield – more by luck than by good navigation – as Sarah saw a sign post as we passed by, and collected Kevin to return to their house in Ironbank.
On the return trip Rob took us through Haandorf the original German village with it’s period houses and business that was unfortunately all closed as it was about 6 pm. Daylight savings is on here too and it’s light till 8 o’clock.
After a BBQ dinner we enjoyed the evening with family whilst Elise face painted all of us just to practice for her job. She attends Uni studying Education and has part time jobs at a child care centre and face painting gigs. Simon has worked for a Mitre 10 store for 18 months and is hoping for a plumbers apprenticeship. It was great for Sarah to get to know her cousins – she and Elise really hit it off.
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