The Extraordinary Tourist

Home Made Crutch, MacGyver Style

2009-05-27T14:01:00.004+09:30

My partner, Enigma, recently had a bad fall and did her ankle in. Nothing broken thankfully but painful enough to make walking nearly impossible.

Initially Enigma was using an old student office chair (with coaster wheels) to get around on which was proving to be awkward, impractical and still quite painful on her ankle. Me, being the creative person that I am, went out to the shed, MacGyver style, to see what we had to make some kind of crutch.

After some searching I brought together our mop handle, the handle off the end of a spade, a rubber stopper, a towel and some tape (couldn't find a use for a paperclip) to fashion the very effective temporary crutch you can see in the photo.

Whilst, ultimately, it didn't get a lot of use after about day two of Enigma's ordeal it did come in handy for a trip down to the chemist to fill a script for pain killers. The Women at the chemist was very impressed with my makeshift crutch too.

Enigma said on the day she twisted her ankle she had planned to vacuum and mop the floors the following day. I should have left the mop head on the end of the handle!

NavMan: Telling YOU Where To Go!

2009-05-18T16:57:00.005+09:30

Traveling to Port Broughton and Moonta with the aid of a NavMan was something of a new experience for me. My partner, Enigma, was doing the driving so I had plenty of time to observe this little technological marvel from the passenger seat.

If you're like me, able to get yourself from A to B (most of the time) using old fashioned maps and street directories, then you might appreciate the following explanation; A NavMan or, I presume, Navigational Manager, is a little electronic device with an LCD display that attaches to the windscreen (usually) of your car and tells you how to get where you're going through the use of real time animated maps, voice instructions and GPS (global positioning system) data. (See my photo above).

Before this invention the term Navigational Manager and Passenger were interchangeable as many of us drivers relied on our memory and the map reading skills (or lack there of) of our passengers to direct us to where we were going.

A NavMan completely eliminates the need to even read a map. Simply enter the data of where your trip starts and where you want to go and let your NavMan direct you, as you're driving, with a smug, yet still, somehow, emotionless voice of a person who knows better than you. It'll tell you where to go.

I learnt that you shouldn't argue with a NavMan and that NavMans should have an I told you so mode because, if anyone is going to make a mistake in getting there, it'll be you. The Human Error in the system.

For example, on our way to the Cornish Festival in the town of Moonta, we passed through the town of Kadina. For some strange reason NavMan directed us through the town on one side of the town centre, on some big back street loop, that took several minutes, and got us to a point at the other end of the town centre that both Enigma and I could clearly see we could have got to in seconds simply by driving through the town centre its self. Both of us thought the NavMan was just being stupid.

On the way home we passed back through Kadina and this time the NavMan directed us straight through the town centre where we discovered the main street was two lanes of one way traffic only. It was at this point I concluded the NavMan needed an I told you so mode.

Don't argue with the NavMan - it knows what it's doing. Even if you think it doesn't it'll still, politely, tell you where to go!

Public Toilet Tourism: Art Where You Go

2009-05-18T12:47:00.006+09:30

There seems to be a growing trend in Australian Public Amenities (i.e. public toilet blocks) where councils cover them in art, thus turning them into a tourist attraction.

Far from the usual graffiti attacks that often befall Public Toilet Blocks (as well as the occasional, more artistic but still unwanted graffiti 'pieces') I'm talking about a council taking a considered approach to decorating their public facilities then adding the artwork to the local tourist trail.

I first encountered this in the almost a ghost town of Iron Knob, South Australia, where our tour guide directed Rose and I to what he called 'the most photographed toilet block in Australia'. A big call at the time but I did take a photo so one can assume just about everyone he showed it to does.

The toilet block in question couldn't be more Australian with the word 'Dunny' emblazoned across it as part of a mural created by the town's former local artist.

Recently, on our trip to Port Broughton, Enigma and I came across this impressive mural on the toilet block along side the historic jetty. I don't know if it has been made a local tourist attraction but if not it should be. I thought it was worth taking a photo of so no doubt other people do too.

Clearly this mural is a considered work that had to have been commissioned by council in order to achieve such a complete painting of the whole block.

To continue this possible trend I noticed when Enigma and I were in the town of Bute, South Australia, their public toilet block had a mural of the main street painted across one entire wall.

Whilst I didn't take a photo I did notice that the town's tourist brochure of 'things to do and see in Bute' included a photo of the toilet block mural as part of its heritage trail walk.

A few years back I also heard of an Australian town (possibly South Australian but I'm not sure) that rallied together with much fund raising activities in order to turn their entire public toilet block into a work of art - specifically to turn it into a tourist attraction. Way to go - literally!

I'm sure there must be book documenting this phenomenon somewhere? If not there should be.

If you know of, or live in a town where the public toilet facilities have been deliberately made into a tourist attraction please leave a comment and a link to a picture in my comment section. It could be interesting to see what else is out there.

Gunner Bill's Gallery - Bute, South Australia

2009-05-17T20:26:00.008+09:30

May 17, 2009

I was all ready to bag the town of Bute as not being worth the visit but then Enigma and I had a look around Gunner Bill's Gallery in Bute and I changed my mind. First though, let's back up a bit.

After spending our Saturday at the Cornish Festival in Moonta, Enigma and I were wondering how to spend our Sunday, the final day of our holiday? We knew there was a fair on at Kadina for the final day of the Cornish Festival but we had a sneaking suspicion we'd see pretty much all the same food vans we saw at the fair at Moonta so decided not to go.

I read in a tourist magazine a single paragraph about the town of Bute which mentioned that the town had an award winning fauna park and a Gallery/museum/craft shop. Thinking the fauna park might be a good animal photo opportunity and the Gallery could be interesting we decided to go. Bute was on the way home anyway (we passed through it on the trip to Port Broughton but it was dark then).

Bute is small so the fauna park was easy to find. Like any kind of park you usually find a gate to go in. This park didn't have one. You simply walk around the fenced off perimeter and view the animals within. A sign behind the fence informed us that this was Bob Brokate Park.

How it became an 'award winning' fauna park I'll never know? It's not that the animals don't look well kept or that the caged areas aren't appropriate for each animal, it's just that there is nothing special about it. As a park it's functional but that's about all.

Enigma and I deduced that it probably won an award for the best fauna park in Bute because it's no Gorge Wildlife park. However it's free and we did get one or two good photos of emus, wallabies and birds.

Bute is a very small town and you've got to love a town where some local has enhanced its entry statement with a spray painted shout out to the local football team (I'm assuming) across the middle of the road.

The statement you can see on the road in this photo on the right proclaims; "BCC A GRADE PREMIERS 5 IN A ROW". That's five in a row!

It's at this point I was thinking Bute wasn't really a town I'd go out of my way to see but after killing enough time waiting for Gunner Bill's Gallery and Craft to open at 11am Enigma and I finally got to go in and have a look around.

The Gallery and Craft aspect of Gunner Bill's is high quality with more craft than art but you could see this stuff in almost any rural, South Australian town. What changed my mind was the museum which, unlike most museums I've seen around South Australia focuses, in part, on the Australian Swag man. In particular one swag man known as Gunner Bill.

I didn't take in much about Gunner Bill but I did notice one photo of him receiving a food package as late as 1956 when he was still living the swag man's life style. I don't know a lot about the history of swag men but, at a guess, I would've thought the traditional Australian Swag man were few and far between by 1956. I could be wrong but I always thought they were from a much earlier era in Australian history.

The Gallery has a self published book featuring Swag man stories that I would've liked to have bought but unfortunately my budget wouldn't allow it.

Anyhow, if you have a particular interest in the history of the swag man then Bute is a good place to start your research or at least to learn about one, some what, famous local 'swaggie'. That aspect of Bute's history gives it a point of difference from other towns in the region.

Unfortunately my camera batteries were low by the time we got to the gallery so I was being very selective about taking photos however if you do happen visit Bute you'll find Gunner Bill's Gallery in the old Police Station just across the road from Bute Railway station.

Port Broughton, Moonta Mining and a Cornish Festival

2009-05-17T16:13:00.014+09:30

May 15 & 16 2009

After traveling everywhere with Rose for the last five weeks, my partner, Enigma, and I decided we were well overdue for some 'us' time. Enigma heard that there was a Cornish Festival happening in the town of Moonta, South Australia so she booked some accommodation over the coming weekend for us in the, kind of, near by town of Port Broughton (closer, affordable accommodation was booked out due to the festival).

We didn't see a lot of Port Broughton as our specific purpose was to see the Cornish festival. In fact we didn't arrive in town until after dark on the Friday. However we did enjoy some fish and chips for tea at a local cafe and, on the Saturday evening, we snapped a few pictures of the Port Broughton historic jetty and surrounding beach front at sunset (see photo above).

According to one passer by the sunset we snapped was nothing compared to some he had seen there. I can only imagine as the sun seems to set almost in line with the end of the jetty. Given the right cloud conditions you could get some stunning pictures on a 'great' sunset day.

The Cornish Festival we were going to see is billed as The World's Largest Cornish Festival according to our souvenir guide. Its actual title is the Kenewek Lowender and is a Festival that lasts a full week and has events which span across three South Australian towns, Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo. Enigma and I were here to catch the second last day of the event which was focussed on the town of Moonta.

We knew there was going to be a parade through the streets of Moonta but weren't sure if we could get there in time to see it since the drive from Port Broughton was about 30 minutes. However we managed to get going early and arrived in town just in time to find a vantage point for the start of the parade.

The weather up to this point had been dodgy to say the least, with stretches of blue sky followed by a passing, shower delivering cloud. I was surprised that the town was seemingly packed with visitors despite this and, incredibly, the rain held off long enough for the entire parade to pass us by.

Not that it was a long parade but it did have a good variety of brass bands, Cornish costumes, vintage cars (a monster truck?) and floats relating to Moonta's mining history and the Flintstones (what the?).

The selection of photos shown here are just a sample of the many Enigma and I took (thanks to Enigma for the Flintstones float photo which I didn't manage to get a good photo of). Be sure to click on them to see larger versions of each image.

After the parade Enigma and I did what probably most people who are hungry do at a Cornish festival - headed off to purchase a Cornish Pasty. Enigma had heard that the Cornish Kitchen Cafe on Ellen street made the best Cornish Pasties so we went straight there. Apparently word had got out because the cafe had set up a table on the shops front footpath to meet up with the demand. We joined the queue and it wasn't long before we were sitting on the footpath a little further up from the cafe enjoying our pasties.

As with all town festivals they're always a good time to put on an art exhibition and Moonta had no shortage of them. Enigma and I were amazed by an exhibition of photography by local artist William Godward whose images of the mines in the region are like none we'd ever seen.

A festival isn't a festival without a fair and Saturday was Moonta's turn. We made our way to the show grounds and paid a ridiculous entry fee to see a bunch of food wagons, food tents and amusement rides with a few Cornish themed stalls and entertainment thrown in to match the festivals theme.

If I hadn't been to so many town fairs over the course of the Barossa Festival I would've said this was a pretty good fair but it could've been a fair anywhere with a few Cornish events rather than a Cornish Fair. I know these things are not easy to organise but if you are someone who organises a town fair please make sure the food stalls/tents and amusement rides don't dominate and overshadow the whole reason for the fair in the first place.

Considering the entry cost for each adult person there just wasn't enough for the adults to do to justify it. The couple in the photo above probably had the right idea by setting up their fold up chairs next to the entertainment arena to watch some Irish dancing (or was that Cornish Dancing? It looked more Irish to me?). I didn't notice too much happening of interest in that arena after the dancing though?

By about this time Enigma and I were all festivaled out having seen the main attractions for the day. Country towns being country towns we of course bumped into someone we knew who lived no where in the immediate region. Enigma's Sister and her family had driven over from the town of Burra for the day and quite by chance we crossed paths.

I reckon Enigma's had a baby homing device secretly installed to seek out her sister's newly born daughter, whom she has to hold every time the two get together. (This isn't the first time we've 'accidentally' crossed paths with her sister since her daughter was born - it's not like we live next door either - Burra is over an hours drive away from where we live).

From then on we kept crossing paths as we managed to choose almost the same things to do with the rest of our day. Enigma and I went back to the Cornish Kitchen for a drinks break before heading over to the town's Visitor Information Centre at the Historic Railway Station.

There we learned about the Mining History Museum housed at the old school around the corner and down the road a bit. So we decided to head over there where we crossed paths again with Enigma's sister and family, browsing the museum whilst they waited for the Museum's train tour to get back in for the next trip.

The Museum its self has a wealth of information about not just the mining history but the history of life in general when mining was starting to take off in the region. Everything from school history to men's clubs (such as the Freemasons) is covered.

I found this museum even more interesting as it features many cartoons by a local Cornish newspaper cartoonist of the day (who's name escapes me) highlighting many humorous moments of the time in that sort of stiff wordy style of the old time gag cartoons. Though the cartoon drawings were far from 'stiff'.

One thing that did stick in my mind was that the original discovery of copper in the region was made by chance when copper deposits were dug up by a wombat. Apparently on the surface in this region there were no obvious signs that the area was rich in copper.

Enigma and I finished off our day with a visit to the Moonta Mine Sweet Shop just across the road from the Museum. This is quite possibly one of the smallest sweet shops I've ever been in (housed in the former post office) but still worth a look if you like traditional style candy.

Then we waited around for the tourist train to return for a photo opportunity (of the train) and one last chance to path cross with Enigma's Sister. Whilst we were waiting at the train station we wandered around the grounds looking at the old machinery on display. I wandered into the Black Smith's display and discovered another 'Upsetting Machine' just like the one in Angaston (see photo below).

There is actually quite a lot to see and do in Moonta if you have the money to pay all the admission fees. One unique experience is the chance to tour a modern day copper mine that was worked during the 1980s. Known as the Wheal Hughes Copper Mine you can book tours at Moonta's Visitor information centre. Enigma and I didn't do the tour but I thought it worth mentioning as seeing a copper mine isn't something you can do just anywhere.

That was pretty much our day in Moonta. As I mentioned at the start Enigma and I headed back to Port Broughton where we enjoyed a Sunset and turned in for the night.

As Fast as a Speeding Frog(van)

2009-05-12T19:32:00.003+09:30

Since I haven't mentioned my frog van since Rose and I's trip to Mannum I know you're wondering how it's doing and whether I drove it the 90 minutes each way to and from Burra?

As you can see from the photo on the right, this is my van parked outside the old Burra historical railway station. No, really, I didn't photoshop the van in, it's really there!

The van traveled to Burra in 100 minutes (give or take a minute or two) reaching speeds of up to 110kmph (that about 68mph in old 'money') without so much as raising a sweat i.e. the engine stayed at normal temperature the whole way.

At about 110kmph the vans roof begins to vibrate in the wind. Nothing serious, it's a commercial style van, it doesn't have roof upholstery like your people movers just the thin sheet metal that is the roof. Since the speed limit in most places was 110kmph the vibrations are quite handy for letting you know you're going too fast.

As well whenever an oncoming eighteen wheeler went past we'd suddenly be driving in the fields along the road side (not really but it was hairy all the same). I learnt to give myself as much space as possible when a truck was coming in the other direction to reduce the wind blast on the van.

Burra was Rose's last tourist stop in South Austalia. She'll be returning to Perth in a couple of days time. I know the van will be happy for the rest.

It's still not one hundred percent right as a mechanic friend of my partner's looked at it and immediately noticed it had an exhaust manifold leak 'somewhere'. I'll have to look into it more to see what I can find.

The Van still occasionally 'runs on' a bit and backfires too, though not as much as it did. I'm hoping a professional tune up at some point will fix that.

In the meantime it's back to normal posting of whatever happens to be interesting to me at the time. I hope you've enjoyed these travel diaries and no doubt you'll be hearing more about the Frog van in the future.

The Frog Van - it's not easy being green!

Two Afternoons in Burra, South Australia

2009-05-12T16:09:00.006+09:30

9th and 11th May 2009

This is my third trip to the town centre of Burra, South Australia, approximately 90 minutes drive north(ish) from Gawler. Fourth, if you include the second trip two days later on the 11th of May.

The first time Rose and I were here, during our 2007 Road Trip, I briefly wrote about our visit in two posts titled Miranda's Bedroom and Searching for C. J. Dennis and Gunning for Broken Hill.

At the time I was disappointed that the towns Community Art Gallery had an exhibition of quilts (not really my thing but I do appreciate the work involved). On the first day of this trip to Burra we visited the same gallery and... an exhibition of quilts (sigh). Must be an annual exhibition that occurs during the month of May?

The town of Burra is actually famous in these parts for its copper mining history and in particular the open cut 'Monster Mine' which is now used as a venue for Jazz concerts and can be seen in the background of this photo of Rose (above) taken on the balcony of Morphett's Engine House Museum.

Just to give you an idea of where Rose is standing in the first photo here is a photo of the Engine House Museum from ground level. See that balcony at the top? She was standing on the balcony, in the corner closest to the camera.

The engine house is one of three local history museums you can visit in Burra for a reasonable cost - though you have to time things just right if you want to catch all three on the same day. They have limited opening hours but are worth the visit because each one is staffed by a guide who will provide you with additional information on Burra's history as well as answer any questions.

In case you were wondering the Engine house used to contain a massive Cornish beam engine that would pump water out of the mine. The gap between the two balconies used to support the massive pumping arm (known as 'Bob') that was pushed and pulled by a giant piston up and down 24/7 during the mine's working days.

All three museums are part of a historic, 11km Heritage driving trail that you can follow as an essential part of the Burra experience. The trail is free to follow and takes in 49 different historical sites of interest. For an extra fee you can purchase a pass key from the Burra Visitor Information Centre which will give you additional access to eight of the 49 sites.

To do the tour properly and at a leisurely pace I'd recommend three days in Burra. You could do it in two but you'd have to skip a lot of information. Rose and I tried to do all three museums and the Heritage Trail in two afternoons and failed. Though we did manage to see all the various key access sites - albeit the Old Police Station we saw after sunset and virtually in the dark with only natural light.

One highlight of the tour for movie buffs is the old gaol which was used in the Australian, Bruce Beresford film, Breaker Morant (1980). (Note that the historic railway station in my home town of Gawler also appeared in this film). The gaol is a key access site if you want to look around inside.

One thing that I have learned about heritage trails in general is that the phrase interpretive walking trail translates to everything has been reduced to its foundations or rubble and you have to imagine what buildings looked like based on the detailed information boards along the way.

One or two of the key entry sites on Burra's trail are interpretive walking trails (much like Kapunda's mine site). Whilst the sites are probably very interesting to walk around, when you're in a hurry to see as much as you can, spending time imagining how things looked isn't something you really want to do. Especially if you're running out of daylight and are in danger of missing seeing other sites that are still standing.

After two afternoons in Burra we finally had to give up and be glad we saw as much as we did. There is a lot here that I haven't written about, such as the Town Hall museum (which is free) and the very interesting display and guided tour of the Bon Accord Mine Museum (which includes a detailed model of the Burra mine before it was converted to an open cut mine).

If you have an interest in Australia's mining history or you have Cornish, Welsh or Irish descendants who emigrated to Australia to seek their fortune in the mines then Burra, South Australia, may be of interest to you. It's recognized as one of the most complete historical mining townships in Australia and a nice town to visit too.

Back Into Central Adelaide

2009-05-12T10:46:00.009+09:30

6th May 2009

Rose and I specifically planned another trip into central Adelaide to see a free exhibition called Picturing Words at the Adelaide Festival Centre, Artspace Gallery.

Prior to visiting the exhibition we made a stop into the Festival Centre's Cafe where I snapped this photo (on the right) of an almost deserted table area. We were having a fairly late lunch so had to go with pretty much what was readily available. I had a piece of Quiche, that looked more like a slice of cake it was so big, along with a bit of cucumber and lettuce salad topped with some kind of savory sauce dressing that I couldn't quite determine the flavor of.

The Picturing Words exhibition was described on the festival centre's web site as follows (because I'm too lazy to write this up and you'll understand more why I was a little disappointed later on):

Picturing Words

Artist's Perspectives on writing and illustrating picture books

Program developed with the DECS education officer based at the Adelaide Festival Centre

A visual exhibition of original children’s picture book illustrations showing creative stages that lead to the finished works of art now enjoyed in print. The exhibition of preliminary artworks, reference materials and storyboards are largely drawn from the Dromkeen Children's Literature Collection, with additional, original sketches and final illustrations supplied by the artists.

Picturing Words will feature self-guided storytelling 'stages' for featured books. The illustration processes for ten well-known children's books are from:

Ali the Bold Heart by Jane Jolly, Illustrator: Elise Hurst

The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard; Midsummer Knight, Illustrator: Gregory Rogers

Home, Written and illustrated by Narelle Oliver

Kestrel by Mark Svendsen, Illustrators: Steven Woolman & Laura Peterson

Maise Moo and Invisible Lucy, Written and illustrated by Chris McKimmie

The Man from Snowy River by A B Paterson, Illustrator: Freya Blackwood

A Pet for Mrs Arbuckle by Gwenda Smyth, Illustrator: Ann James

A True Person, Written and illustrated by Jacqui Grantford

The Wolf by Margaret Barbalet, Illustrator: Jane Tanner

Sounds really interesting doesn't it? Especially if you're someone like me who is constantly told that you should illustrate children's books, or someone like Rose who has written a children's book that she's hoping I'll illustrate some day.

When we entered the gallery we were greeted by the attendant who told us that the exhibition was really targeted at children, to help them learn about how children's books are made, but we were welcome to look around. Right away I knew this wasn't going to be as good as I had hoped.

Looking around at the various sample pages of work in progress to finished artwork displays you did get some insight into each artist's process but not anywhere near as much as I would have liked. Just little snippets of explanation from the artist but nothing too in depth.

No doubt, if you were a child on a school excursion to this exhibition you'd have a much more interactive time participating in the range of activities that were available. All designed to encourage learning and to get kids more involved with the creative process. As an adult and a professional artist it was a little 'light' for me but then it wasn't an exhibition aimed at people of my age or experience.

Still, it was an interesting exhibition and any time I get to see the work behind the finished art is always a joy to see. Sometimes people seem to think us artists just create all our pictures straight from our heads with no preliminary thought, sketches, roughs or mistakes along the way. Sometimes we do but most of the time not.

For the rest of our time in Adelaide Rose and I didn't have any specific plans so we just kind of wandered around the shopping precinct.

Knowing that Rose is interested in art I remembered this rather large garden themed sculpture that you can find on King William Street just north of the west end of Rundle Mall. The photos don't show you all of it - there is a giant peg, beach ball, bone and fish skeleton as well - but to give you some sense of scale the tap you can see in the background (with the garden hose attached) is easily eight to nine feet tall (at a guess).

The thong (that's flip flop to my American readers) in the second photo is big enough for a couple of people to sit in and still have room.

Despite this sculpture having many plaques with little garden friendly messages on them I couldn't find one that gave me any information about the artist or the title of the artwork as a whole. All I could find was a plaque that said This Playspace was commissioned in 2006 by the Adelaide City Council and that it was officially opened in December of 2007.

We finished up our second Adelaide trip with a wander through Adelaide Arcade shopping mall. This is one of those shopping malls that every city has that you really must take some time to visit. It combines a real sense of history with a selection of specialty shops ideal for those who like to shop somewhere other than their local variety superstore. Rose and I browsed through the Arcade's stairwell history museum before heading back to the railway station and making our way home.

Mannum House Boats and the 1956 Flood

2009-05-05T19:34:00.004+09:30

May 2 and 4, 2009

Mannum, South Australia is situated on the Murray River about an hour and twenty minutes drive from my home town of Gawler. If you've been following recent posts on this blog then you may be wondering if my frog van was up to this distance.

Fortunately the day before Rose and I spent a very damp afternoon at The Gorge Wildlife Park located in the Adelaide hills about forty minutes south of Gawler. The van had not only got us there without any real problem but had also negotiated some pretty steep hills (one of which had me right down to second gear to make the steepest sections). After that a drive to Mannum should be easy.

Before I get back to Mannum, I didn't write about The Gorge Wildlife park because I've already covered it in 2007 with my post, Gorge Wildlife Park, Cuddle a Koala. That previous trip we had a much better time and weren't rained out. Back then I took 137 photos, this time I took only one and it was a bad photo of a dingo.

Right, that out of the way, Mannum. The town of Mannum held an 'Open Weekend' for their houseboat hire industry where you could go along and inspect a considerable number of houseboats for hire. Rose and I went along on the Saturday.

The Murray River in Australia has received plenty of media coverage of late due to the droughts we've been experiencing. Often regarded as the life blood of Australia (well at least three states anyway) the water levels have dropped considerably in recent years making water for irrigation extremely scarce.

In the media the river is often depicted as dried up however this isn't the case. There is still more than enough water to enjoy a houseboat holiday. In fact if it wasn't for the markers and jetties indicating where the water level used to be you'd probably never even realize that the Murray river was far lower than it used to be.

For example in the photo above of the Murray Princess (which is a luxury paddle steamer and local tourist attraction that you can book cruises on) if you look at the shore in the foreground you can see the water level should be nearly up to the green grass of the park lands.

On our first day at Mannum Rose probably looked through every houseboat, whilst I managed about half before I decided they were all starting to look a bit 'samey' just with different decor. That's not to say it wasn't fascinating to begin with. Some of these boats were bigger and had better kitchen's, lounges, bathrooms and bedrooms than just about every house I've ever lived in on land. Not only that but most had room for two to three bathrooms all of equal size!

Granted many of the house boats were considered five star accommodation, with virtually all of them having a full size spa on the upper deck, but still, for house boats - I'd consider living in one full time!

One particular highlight was this three level houseboat you can see in the photo on the right. The interior on this was stunning. I swear I wouldn't know what to do with all the rooms and space. I'd also have trouble finding ten to twelve friends that I could take a holiday with to fill it.

The very first houseboat we looked at was also both Rose and I's favorite. Unlike all the others it utilized half the lower decks floor space (from front to back) as open plan shared living space. The other half was filled with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The effect was a much more spacious boat than most of the other boats which seem to use the front of the boat for shared living space and the middle to back for bedrooms and bathrooms. The upper sun deck simply had a full size spa and room for an out door table setting from which to enjoy the scenery.

Rose found out this boat was for sale and did some serious talking with the boat manager's step daughter, who was looking after that particular vessel during the open day. I think she nearly talked Rose into actually investing in a houseboat (but not quite).

By the time we'd finished looking at all the houseboats we were running out of light so decided to head home for the day. The trip back was a real drama in its self because I got lost twice, extending out trip by at least another thirty minutes. Damn maps, a lack of good road signs combined with darkness all conspired against me.

After a frustrating time getting home we took a break on Sunday to just relax then headed back to Mannum on the Monday. I figured that since we'd worked out how I'd managed to get lost we may as well go back whilst all the road routes were still fresh in my mind.

Mannum does have more to offer than just houseboats. Rose wanted to walk through the Visitor Information Centre's history Museum and hoped to get a tour of the Marion - a completely restored and working paddle steamer originally built early last century.

Unfortunately we didn't get to look through the Marion due to a school group having taken over the boat for the afternoon however the Museum was extremely interesting though largely focussed on one significant event. The 1956 Floods.

Rose and I learnt that in 1956 all the lower wetlands across three states - which include the Murray River flooded to record levels. If you look at the photo on the right you'll see a tree stump monument dedicated to the floods that includes a measuring stick. The mark right at the top... that's the level of the 1956 floods in Mannum.

If you look behind the tree stump in the photo you'll see the back end of the three storey paddle boat, the Murray Princess. If the boat stayed at its present level and the water rose to the height of the floods, you might be able to stand on its roof without getting your feet wet.

One particular story the museum's video on the floods relates is how the local pub managed to stay trading even though it's entire ground floor filled with water nearly to the ceiling. They simply knocked out a section of railing on the upper floor so people could pull up in their boats and climb onto the balcony.

Apparently things worked really well until the water levels started backing up the sewerage system and the toilets in many of the buildings simply exploded with raw sewage coming back up the pipes. Yummy!

After the museum we decided to seek out some water falls that Mannum is known for. We hadn't been able to find any brochure that actually contained detailed information about where they were located. However Rose did find a photocopied, hand drawn map that looked fairly straight forward and easy to follow. How wrong we were.

Here's a hint to anyone drawing a street map - try writing on the name of the roads. You may be able to find things by distance traveled and their relationship to one site specific landmark but the rest of us are used to street directories and maps with the actual names of roads.

We looked everywhere for these waterfalls, back tracking and more but had to give up as we started to run out of light (I didn't want to be driving home in the dark this time). I swear we followed the map but along the way could not find one single street sign that said 'Mannum Falls'.

If it wasn't for a single photo of them in one of our extremely unhelpful color brochures I'd say Mannum Falls don't exist. If you've been there and taken a photo place a link to it in the comments below. I'd love to see what I missed.

With that our trip to Mannum was over. The drive home was uneventful and only notable for the fact that I didn't get lost and the Frog van didn't break down at all.

Mannum is a very picturesque, historical town, great for a day out or as a stop on your next houseboat holiday... you won't get sea sick or anything. Rose and I actually rode on one of the houseboats whilst there and we barely noticed any rocking motion at all - even when it was moving along.

Stranded In Kapunda, South Australia

2009-04-29T20:54:00.004+09:30

28th & 29th April, 2009

Not content with dropping out of the lime light my frog van continues to find new ways to play a staring role in my blog posts about Rose and I (supposedly) and our South Australian adventures. This time a dead battery left us stranded in the mining town of Kapunda for the night.

I've written about Kapunda on Rose's last trip in 2007, specifically about the annual Celtic Festival and a few other local sites. I thought I'd covered the town pretty well and wasn't going to write another post since we only managed to browse through the town's extensive history and mining museums. However as things transpired the van decided we weren't going home just as the sun was setting and most things were closing for the night.

Rose and I were taking a final look at Sir Sidney Kidman's old residence, now the main building for Kapunda's high school. Sir Sidney is a rather famous land owner in Australia - at one time owning probably more land across the country than most other land holders. It was starting to get dark, we got back in the Van, I turned the key and nothing. Well the dash lights came on but that's about it. A few more attempts at turning the key later and even the dash lights stopped working. I checked all the fuses but they were fine.

I've never had a battery just go dead (especially not after a really good long drive at speed) so I was sure it couldn't be a battery issue and thought maybe the ignition switch was broken. You'd understand my logic more if you have seen the key I use to start the van, otherwise it sounds a bit silly. Anyway I pulled apart the steering column casing to get at the ignition switch but it was a fruitless exercise and I ended up putting it back together with no progress made on the problem.

We were too far from home to get my partner, Enigma, out to pick us up and too far to get the van towed home. Rose and I decided to find some accommodation in Kapunda for the night then deal with the van in the morning when we might be able to get a mechanic to have a look.

As luck would have it the nearest accommodation was a bed and breakfast called Ford House. When I say 'luck' I really mean that. The B&B owners, Liz and Chris, were better than the RAA (our local automobile break down service - of which I'm not a member). Not only did Liz welcome us straight in after Rose explained our situation but she volunteered her partner, Chris, to drive out with me and have a look at the van when he got home from work. We'd just been hoping to get a room for the night!

Chris was immediately thinking 'flat battery' based on what I told him so we drove to the high school in his ute armed with a set of jumper leads. Sure enough the van started. Unfortunately as soon as you turned the headlights on (it was dark by this time) it stalled and was completely dead.

It was possible to keep the van going with just parking lights on so Chris suggested I drive it like that back to their B&B a few minutes away and he would follow behind. As soon as we got back I turned the motor off then tried to start it again. The power lasted for all of a second before going completely dead.

Chris seemed to think the alternator was probably fine and all that was needed was a new battery. He drove me about a minute further up the road to show me where we could buy a new battery from in the morning. How many B&B owners would do all that I wonder!

Our overnight stay at Ford House was extremely pleasant. Complimentary tea, coffee and port is provided to all rooms and breakfast is included in the price. You also have access to television and the owners DVD and CD collections. For dinner Rose and I went to the Pub across the road known as the Sir John Franklin Hotel where I had a very nice meal of fish, salad and chips.

The next morning at Ford House Liz made us breakfast. Well she made Rose Scrambled eggs and she tried to tempt me with a hot breakfast (or at least more than just the cereals, biscuit and cup of tea that I had). I'm just not a big breakfast person. I find large breakfasts make me want to go back to sleep instead of getting on with my day. However if you are a big breakfast kind of person then you'll love Ford House at breakfast time.

After thanking Liz and leaving glowing comments in Ford House's guest book we set about getting a new battery. I won't bore you with the details suffice to say the new battery did the trick and got us going again. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping the alternator is fine!

Since we were still in Kapunda we decided to use the day to see a few more of the things the town had to offer.

First up we did the 1.5km walk around the old Kapunda Copper mine for which the town is famous for - apparently the copper find here was the purest find anywhere in the world at 63 percent pure.

There's actually not a lot of the mine's buildings left to see other than a single chimney that was installed as an air vent and a couple of other fallen down structures. However there is plenty of information boards to fill in the blanks and you can walk down into the mine pit and see various shafts where the miners hand dug for copper.

From there we went to the newly established Salon Rouge Gallery and saw paintings by Sophie Gralton and Jacqueline Coates. Sophie paints autobiographical self portrait works of children that feature wonderful textures not only from paint but also lace work and other collaged items. Jacqueline is a master of painting flowers in sizes that make their structure seem quite awesome (literally).

Moving on we visited the studio gallery of Roger Murcott. Roger paints mainly birds in an almost photo realistic style, something he told us he's been doing for over 30 years. I found his sketches with their colour descriptions to be quite interesting to look at as well. I can't imagine doing anywhere near as much planning and studying for a painting as he seems to do.

From there we stopped in at the Kapunda Bakery for lunch (which features a downstairs bakery museum that I wrote about in my previous visit to the town) and then went for a look at the Little Glory Art Studio (note: web site may or may not work. At the time of writing it was still a 'work in progres') where artists B. J. Moore and Carmine Lake exhibit their work and run a Succulent Nursery (the subject of Carmine's paintings).

By about this time we felt we'd seen as much of Kapunda as we wanted to see for the moment so Rose and I decided to head for home. Fortunately the frog van was on the same page this time and we departed for Gawler with no further hiccups and glad to be getting home.

The Frog Van - Old Boiler No More

2009-04-27T17:48:00.009+09:30

In the continuing saga that is my frog van we left off in my post Getting to Know More About Cars with the van parked in my studio minus one driver seat and radiator.

As mentioned previously I took the radiator in to have it cleaned.

The verdict was, according to the radiator mechanic, that the internal pipes were 95 percent blocked. Overheating problem solved, I guess. Whilst this before and after photo on the right is rather meaningless it does show how painting the thing black can make all the difference. I'm sure that'll help. I wonder if we paid extra for that?

I put the radiator and the engine panel and driver seat back in (thinking I wouldn't need to get down that side of the engine any more), filled the radiator up and gave the van a good run around a few local hills at 80kmph. The good news being that the engine temperature remained constant at its proper level the whole time. Yippee! Old boiler no more!

Next I decided to see what I could do about the fuel problem with the van constantly running on, backfiring (sometimes) and I did notice it was struggling a little again going up hills.

All my online researching suggested starting with the fuel pump and fuel filter. I knew the fuel pump was fine but have no idea when the fuel filter was last changed so put a new one of those on my shopping list. At the same time I checked all the rubber hoses that make up the fuel system and discovered a suspect one right at the base of the carburetor attached to the fuel inlet manifold (I think that's what you call it). Rubber hose added to my shopping list.

I thought I'd remove the old fuel filter easily but it wasn't to be. It was located on the drivers side of the engine so once again I had to pull out the drivers seat and the engine cover panel.

Pulling out the old filter was a little tricky but putting in the new one was easy enough. I bought enough rubber hose to put new hoses on each side of the filter which I cut then let my partner, Enigma, handle attaching them to the filter whilst I went off and made a real mess of replacing the other hose near the carburetor.

The old hose had a definite split. Since this was a vacuum pressure hose it was clear to me that this could be the reason for the van once again struggling with hills. You'd think replacing a pipe would be simple but, since this is me we're talking about, I managed to break the metal connection point right off, putting on the new hose.

After fitting the new fuel filter my partner and I rushed down to the car shop with the broken part for advice. The man there suggested we could either fit a new similar (but not the same part) brass part for AU$42.00 or we could try gluing the old part back together with a product called 'permaweld' for AU$9.95. No prizes for which we chose.

The Permaweld glue needed to be left overnight for maximum strength so I glued the part and then tidied everything up for the day. If you look at the photo on the right you can see the part I'm talking about. The curved bit on the top, angling to the right, is what broke off.

Permaweld is designed for use in engines and is meant to be able to stand extreme heat, oil and fuel and more. When I got back the next day the bond seemed pretty strong though I was very careful not to put too much pressure on it when I refitted the new pipe.

In the photo on the right you can see the grey, Permaweld glue holding the curved metal pipe in place. All the pipes are attached and the part is back in position.

Enigma once again helped, putting back the engine panel and drivers seat. All that was left to do was give the frog van a really good run to see if our work had made any difference.

That afternoon Rose and I took the van for a really long run to visit Gomersal Wines out at the small town of Lyndoch. The Winery had an exhibition of art we hoped to see. The van drove there beautifully maintaining normal temperature at 100kmph and even faring well on corrugated, puddle filled dirt roads.

The winery had a different exhibition on to the one we were expecting (apparently Rose had got hold of a really old flyer with no dates). Still the exhibition we saw was interesting featuring macro photography of flowers, beach themed oil paintings and some Japanese and European themed scenes too.

On the way back we stopped in at The Yaldara Estate (pictured), where you can sample wines and cheeses. Rose is something of a cheese gourmet and bought three different varieties along with some crackers.

By the time we got home the frog van had done remarkably well. It didn't overheat at all and the engine seemed to be running better. Unfortunately I didn't solve the running on problem but I did seem to improve it. That is to say it only runs on slightly now. I'll have to look more into it but I'll save that for another day.

Adelaide Pigs, an Echidna and an Urban Cow

2009-04-26T21:17:00.006+09:30

22nd April 2009

Since the Frog van was out of action Rose and I decided not to let this week go totally to waste and boarded the train for Adelaide's Central Business and Shopping District (i.e. the city of Adelaide).

Rose specifically wanted to see the Adelaide Pigs of Rundle Mall that she hadn't had time to see last time. I can't tell you much (* see footnote) about these four bronze pig sculptures (see photo) other than each one was named by different people in 1999 and their names are Horatio (pictured with Rose), Truffles, Oliver (looking in the bin behind rose) and Augusta. The two pigs not pictured, more or less, look like they're walking around, as pigs do.

The four are very popular photo opportunities though I suspect Horatio is probably the star given that he is strategically placed to look like he's interacting with whoever sits on the bench in front of him.

Rundle Mall is essentially the main pedestrian shopping strip in the city of Adelaide. Anyone who comes into Adelaide to shop will usually gravitate towards this part of the city at some point. It's also where any kind of events happen, such as concerts, fashion parades and kids school holiday activities.

Currently most schools are on a two week break so on our visit to the mall we spotted this giant inflatable echidna (see photo right) and a giant inflatable platypus further down the mall.

Both were part of something called the 'Nylon Zoo' a story telling experience created by artist, Evlyn Roth. Kids are invited to dress up in their favorite animal or plant costumes as part of a parade then they can actually go inside the inflatable animals and enjoy a story.

Later that afternoon Rose and I took off to find a gallery called the Urban Cow Studio which, after visiting, I can highly recommend. Especially if you're into contemporary arts by local South Australian artists.

For the most part Urban Cow is a shop stocking hand made arts and crafts by, as I said, local artists. There is much to see and the shop display is spectacular for its range of different art, craft and ideas.

Upstairs they have a smallish room that features changing exhibitions. On our visit Rose and I viewed a combined exhibition of photography called The Elephant in the Room by photographers John Goodridge, Janine Matheson, Harvey Schiller, Paul Tait and Mandi Whitten.

Personally I'm not a big fan of photography as an art medium so I didn't get much from the exhibition. Don't get me wrong. Photography is art and I can be greatly impressed by exceptional photography. I've done my fair share of taking photos (had several years photography training too) and I'm just not that impressed by it as a means of expression.

Moving along we continued our visit to Adelaide with a walk around the South Australian State Art Gallery and the South Australian State Museum.

Both places are worth a visit if you've never been but I'm not going to talk too much about them here. In both cases you're going to be seeing the permanent collections of two very impressive institutions (which will cost you nothing) then you can opt to pay and see whatever touring exhibition/display is currently being featured.

The State Galleries permanent collection of art is well worth looking around. You will not be disappointed. It caters for all tastes in art and features some very famous artists from Australia and around the world. You could easily spend a day here if you really wanted to look at all the art. For an even better experience there are guided tours that will help give even more meaning to the art you're viewing.

In contrast the State Museum whilst equally interesting I did find very hard going to stay interested in. Mostly because they have so much stuff to look at. For example they have an entire floor dedicated to Oceanic tribes which has so many examples of spears, masks, tools, tribal dress and more that you just can't look at it all - even if you wanted to.

It's a similar problem with the Australian Aboriginal display. There's just so much of it that it becomes hard to find things to single out and enjoy. It becomes a bit of a blur.

That said, if you have the time, I'd certainly recommend browsing the museum. Some of the displays are easier to follow and there are plenty of video screens to inform you better about the things you're looking at.

* Footnote (28th April 2009): I just happened to be looking at some of my photos of the pigs and noticed on this photo (right) of Oliver that there is a plaque on the side of the bin crediting the artist.

Turns out the pigs are the creation of artist, Marguerite Derricourt. They were commissioned by the City of Adelaide in 1999 and they are collectively titled 'A Day Out'.

Getting to Know More About Cars

2009-04-21T20:00:00.004+09:30

I've written before on everything I know about cars which is a lot more than some but no trained mechanics will be shaking in their boots any time soon. In fact quite a few backyard mechanics kick sand in my face too (metaphorically speaking of course).

My vehicle, known as the frog van, recently renamed the old boiler in this Barossa Festival post, has finally succumbed to its overheating problems to the point where I had to do something about it.

I tried to fix it the day before we went to see the Vintage Festival Parade at the town of Nuriootpa. I was thinking it may be a thermostat issue. After much research and consideration about where the thermostat actually was on my van I pulled things apart and did the 'boiling water' test to see if the thermostat would open. It did. Crap!

Essentially that meant I'd wasted a bottle of coolant (which had only been in the engine less than a week), had to replace a perfectly fine thermostat gasket and not found the overheating problem. Still, I now know more about car thermostats and how they work.

That was my last best guess at the problem because the cooling system wasn't leaking or losing water (except to evaporation and the overflow pipe as a result of it overheating). After that I figured it might be a water pump issue but I'm definitely not up for pulling that out. As well I couldn't help feeling that if the water is boiling in the radiator then the water pump must be working because the radiator removes heat from the engine it doesn't actually heat anything up its self.

So I bit the bullet and went in to see a proper mechanic. Described the problem - van overheats at 60kmph or greater but the temperature remains relatively stable at lower speeds during shorter drives.

The mechanic said it sounds like a blocked radiator. Of course! Well I believed him anyway because that sounds cheaper and easier to fix than a water pump. It seems mechanics in my home town are all backed up with work no matter where you go. This guy was no different but suggested I take the van to a specialist radiator mechanic on the other side of town (not that far when you live in a small country town).

When I got to the radiator guy he seemed to concur with the mechanic after I told him the van wasn't leaking. Seemed promising. I asked him when he could take a look at it - he said Thursday (3 days time). Then he asked "Are you able to take the radiator out?"

"Err... well no because I have to drive it here."

"Well we can't look at it unless you take the radiator out yourself because we don't like working on vans. Too fiddly and you have to crawl all around and underneath them - plus it'll save you some money."

You know I might have gone somewhere else if he hadn't of said "plus it'll save you some money".

You might think his attitude to vans is a crock but if you've ever worked on a van engine... I don't blame him.

The frog van's engine is right under the passenger seat. To get the radiator out you have to pull out the drivers seat, remove a panel so you can see more of the engine then crawl under the front to remove the four bolts that hold the radiator in place. See the photo of the van parked in my studio - drivers seat and radiator removed.

It is pretty tricky and I've never taken out a radiator before so I know how to do that now.

Visually, you can't really tell if a radiator is blocked. You can look in from where the radiator cap goes at the top to see a few of the pipes but that doesn't really tell you much. Externally it's got a bit of mud caked into the core but it's all old mud that was there long before the van started overheating (we're talking previous owner old because I've not really driven on anything except sealed roads).

At the moment the frog van is out of action. At the time of writing this there's still two days to go before I can take the radiator in to get it fixed, cleaned and unblocked (or re-cored even). I just hope this will solve the problem.

Over the next few days I suspect I'm going to be learning even more about cars. The van has a fairly serious 'running on' problem. For the uninitiated that's where you turn the engine off via the key and the car keeps running until it runs out of fuel in the cylinder heads.

It's not so bad most of the time but again, after a long drive, it can run on for quite some time requiring me to put the car in gear to 'stall' the engine.

Should you be reading this and you know how to fix that kind of problem please let me know in the comments. You'll be doing me a great favor and who knows, I may just write about you in this continuing saga of the frog van.

The Barossa Festival 2009 - Part 4

2009-04-18T19:05:00.014+09:30

Vintage Festival Parade, Nuriootpa Town Day (Barossa Brunch) and Tanunda Town Day
April 18th, 2009

Eight days into the Barossa Festival finds Rose and I at the Nuriootpa Town Day. Obviously Nuriootpa is another Town of the Barossa Valley and serves as a commercial/shopping centre for many of the smaller surrounding towns (such as Greenock).

We arrived in town just in time to see the start of the Barossa Vintage Festival Parade that showcases local wineries, businesses, community groups and more. Apparently it's the longest parade in the southern hemisphere given that it runs the distance between Nuriootpa and the town of Tanunda. It includes over 100 floats and 1200 participants and has been a Barossa tradition since 1949 (can you tell I'm just rattling off figures from the brochure now?).

Anyhow, for a parade that isn't a Christmas Pageant (with all the story book and Christmas themes to base floats on) this one was still a lot of fun had a good variety of floats, bands, cars and people to see.

It's hard to pick out just a few highlights from my photographs but I'll try. (Don't forget, you can click on the images if you'd like to see bigger versions of each photo).

The car covered in turf certainly made me do a double take because at first glance the turf looked real.

There was the wood carver from Angaston's Town Day, carving his toy rocking horses on the back of his truck.

An entire crowd of what looked like people dressed as yellow rockets but I'm guessing were actually cheese sticks as their float was advertising a Cheese Shop.

One float had a science fiction theme and featured Star Wars characters, a rocket and a Doctor Who Tardis. I've no idea what it was about but it was certainly different.

Even more different was a little red car that depicted the George Bush 'shoe throwing incident'. How that got into the parade I'll never know but it was quirky none the less.

Finally I thought some of the really old tractors bringing up the rear of the parade were, perhaps not the most exciting, but still interesting to see.

There was far more to see in this parade than I can show including custom made cars, trucks, singers, and quite a few over-sized wine bottles waving the flag for the various wineries.

Once the parade was over we wandered around the rest of the main street to see the various stalls and displays.

You had to get up pretty early to see everything because Nuriootpa's Town day was really only two thirds of a day, beginning at 8:30am and finishing at 2pm. Unusual I know but no doubt timed to correspond with Tanunda's Town day at the finishing line of the parade. Their day started at 1:30pm with the parade finishing there at about 2pm.

We'd arrived at 11am so we missed a few things but if you had kids they could catch a traditional Punch and Judy show or play a game of Snakes 'n' Ladders using themselves as place holders on an over-sized floor mat game board. There were the obligatory fair ground rides and plenty of live music too.

To sum up Nuriootpa's Town day (which officially was actually called the Barossa Brunch) really lived up to expectations. The parade was a real bonus but once it had left town for Tanunda there was still plenty to wander around and look at. We also stopped for lunch at a fairly nice cafe too who's name escapes me (Fisherman's Wharf Cafe I think - something to do with fish anyway).

Rose and I stayed until the end of Nuriootpa's Town Day then we moved on to Tanunda's. I didn't take a lot of photos here, not because there wasn't anything happening but because Tanunda was jam packed with people. It seemed like everyone who had been watching the parade or been at Nuriootpa in the morning had descended on Tununda. The overall effect was a lot of people sampling the wine, standing around talking or gathered around various events turning the whole thing into one massive street party.

We did get to view a few art galleries including the Barossa Regional Gallery that always has some very interesting, contemporary art - definitely worth checking out if you're in town (but it often costs money to get in).

Both of us stopped to watch the German Dancers (that we'd first seen at Lyndoch's family fun day and then again at Angaston's Town Day) and we caught another heat of the grape stomping competition (though we missed the Grand Finals which were also held shortly after).

Things really turned into a street party when Chad Romero and his band, Cabaret Cabernet hit the main stage singing classic rock and pop covers. Rose and I caught the bands last set of about five songs. Whilst the photo doesn't really show it, by about the second song Chad had the crowd dancing and hyped. He really was a fantastic showman and sung the event to its close at 5:30pm.

I'm not altogether sure about Tanunda's Town Day. It's highlights were good but it seemed like you had to pay an entry fee to get into nearly every second display. Fair enough many of the displays were to raise funds for the community groups putting them on but in my opinion, on a day like this, a gold coin donation is a better way to go.

There were a number of displays we would have looked at even though we didn't have a lot of interest in them but didn't because of the entry fees.

The only other aspect I'd criticize worked for and against it. The number of people standing around drinking wine and talking was incredible. It did add to the street party atmosphere but it sure made it hard to get around and very difficult to see things. As I said though, once Chad and his band got on the stage it really lifted the atmosphere and it was good to have a crowd.

If you like crowds, wine, food and a party atmosphere, Tanunda's Town day is a must for you. It's definitely a bit of a party town.

The Barossa Festival 2009 - Part 3

2009-04-17T19:52:00.005+09:30

Angaston Town Day
April 15th, 2009

If there is one event of the festival that I could highly recommend thus far it is Angaston's Town Day. Angaston is a smallish South Australian country town that, in my opinion, is one of the most scenic and attractive. Located, seemingly part way up a hill, it has a good cross section of history, historic architecture and Shady trees/spots (a real asset to any spectator event).

Importantly, the Angaston community knows how to put on a town day that is what it should be - jam packed with plenty to do and/or see.

The main street was blocked off for the event and was filled with demonstrations and stalls including Yarn Spinning, a man making wooden rocking horses, stone crushing, wine barrel making, local produce stalls, main stage and more.

The highlight of the day were three heats of the Barossa grape stomping competition held right in the middle of the main street where you couldn't miss it (see photo, top right).

Further up the street the local blacksmith (which you can visit any time and is home to The Upsetting Machine) was in full swing with demonstrations.

Rose and I visited Angaston several times back when she came over in 2007 so, for us, no trip is complete without lunch at our favorite spot, The Roaring 40's Cafe. Since our last visit the cafe was acknowledged with an award for making the best home made pizza's in Australia (2008). We didn't have pizza but I had a very yummy Turkey Burger in Damper bread.

Along one side of the main street we came across this rather interesting, fake bronze, sculpture of a man with a cart horse (see photo). Neither of us were sure why it was there but it was doing a great job of blocking the driveway and several people felt a need to have their photo taken with it.

To finish off our day we browsed a community art exhibition in the Church Hall followed by a wander around the Angaston Town Hall where there were more local art and craft displays - including one man's giant collection of toy fire trucks.

Although the two of us spent most of the day at Angaston we didn't get chance to see everything. With several tourist attractions (Such as the Angas Park Sweet shop and a Gourmet Cheese Shop - and don't forget The Lego Man) that you can visit almost any time, Rose and I will almost certainly visit Angaston again before she heads back to Western Australia.

Herbig Family Tree, Springton

2009-04-16T21:49:00.004+09:30

April 14th, 2009

Rose and I didn't stay that long at the Mengler Lookout. There was still a good part of the afternoon left so Rose suggested we go look at a tree.

Not just any tree but the Herbig Family Tree at the small country town of Springton, South Australia. I looked at the map and noticed the drive would be quite significant for my heat challenged boiler, the frog van. I said to Rose, "This better be one really impressive tree!"

The first part of the drive was the rest of the way up the fairly steep Menglar Hill. I knew this would be the most challenging for the van. Fortunately it made it and fortunately the rest of the drive was largely down hill, following the sealed back roads without too much traffic. In some spots the van's engine temperature actually went down for a bit.

Whilst I had been very skeptical of traveling so far to see a tree I must admit once I saw the Herbig Family Tree it was worth the trip. If only because the tree is so photogenic.

I can't tell you much about the tree other than the Herbig family (who were among the first pioneers to settle in the region) made the huge hollowed out tree trunk into their first home. Apparently the hollow nature of the trunk was caused by lightening strikes - though I'm not sure - that's just what I gleaned from Rose who told me a little bit of the history while I was busy taking photographs.

I do know that the tree is well over one hundred years old and used to be much taller. At some point the top part of the tree collapsed but has since grown back to the slightly bonsai-ed look you see today.

Although it is quite a drive to see the Herbig Family tree, you can make your trip even more worthwhile by traveling to Springton via the road that leads from Williamstown (perhaps after a visit to the Whispering Wall). The scenery is just superb with many hills that I swear would be just perfect for a fairy castle on the summit.

Mengler Hill: Barossa Sculpture Park Revisited

2009-04-16T19:29:00.007+09:30

April 14th, 2009

After the some-what disappointing Step Back in Time, Rose and I decided to head up the road (and up the hill) to the Mengler Hill Lookout, home of the Barossa Sculpture Symposium. I wrote about these sculptures when Rose visited me back in 2007 and at the time was unimpressed with what I saw.

However, sometime during the year 2008 a new Symposium was held with a few more international sculptors being invited to contribute new works to the existing park. Hence, since we were so close, we thought we would have a look.

As near as we could tell about eight (possibly nine) new sculptures have been added to the park. Unusually we couldn't find any information about who made them or what each new sculpture was called (other than some pretty rough signature inscriptions into the sculptures themselves - one even had the artist's web address carved into the base).

All but one of the new sculptures were fairly simplistic abstract shapes much like the existing sculptures. The odd one out was only different because it had a simplistic female figure carved into the rock (see photo, right - Rose is the figure not made out of rock!).

In my opinion the new sculptures simply give visitors more to look at and do very little to enhance the park's experience overall. If abstract shapes and symbolism are your thing when it comes to art then put this on your MUST SEE list. Personally I'm not into it.

I know carving anything out of rock is a difficult ask but I can't help thinking many of the original masters (such as Michelangelo) did sculpture so much better with far more primitive tools than what is available to artists today. It's not like I want to see classical sculpture with realistic figures depicting bible stories, myths and legends but please, give me something with depth and detail that makes me marvel at the skill required to achieve such artistic excellence.

If you can't do that at least arrange the sculptures closer together so their combined presence makes some kind of statement as a whole. In this park the sculptures are just too far apart and don't really have any visual cohesiveness to each other beyond being sculptures carved from the same type of rock.

All of the sculptures in this park I feel I could create with a six week crash course in rock carving. It's a terrible generalisation akin to saying my kid could make that. Like the kid I probably couldn't make these sculptures, or if I could, would I think to make them? Probably not.

Perhaps the Barossa Council would like a giant stone carving of one of my cats?

The Barossa Festival 2009 - Part 2

2009-04-14T21:27:00.003+09:30

Bethany: A Step Back In Time
April 14th, 2009

Rose wanted to visit the Bethany, Step Back in Time family day. Bethany is a small, South Australian, rural town just before you get to the larger town of Tanunda. It's main attraction is the German 'village' which these days consists of a church, tea rooms and school house art gallery as well as a few smaller surrounding structures.

Rose and I decided to head through the School house art gallery first where the Barossa Art Society had a display of paintings. The exhibition wasn't particularly large and there were certainly a number of nice landscapes and animal pictures however nothing particularly stuck out in my mind to single it out here.

The brochure for this event said there would be demonstrations of traditional bread making, butter churning, noodle making, rope making and more. When we got there the bread making stall was vacant, I heard someone ask the rope making person if he'd be demonstrating (he said "no"), and nothing was happening at the butter churning stall.

There were a couple of men hollowing out a log with axes to make a trough and the noodle lady was kind of making noodles.

At about this point it was time for lunch and, to the organizers credit, the tea rooms made some very nice sandwiches along side a serving of German Cake. The pleasant environment and friendly staff were a welcome contrast to the rest of the stalls and demonstrations.

I don't like to knock events like this because I do realize they take considerable time to organize and many of the people operating the displays are often volunteers however, everyone in period dress seemed to be on an extended tea break. After we had finished our lunch we went back out to see if any of the other demonstrations were under way only to see a tray full of cups of tea and coffee being brought out to the demonstrators. I guess it's pretty tiring standing around and talking to each other.

With not much else to see or do (beyond listening to the historical church organ play) Rose and I left for Mengler Hill, the site of the Barossa Sculpture park, which was just up the road. I'll write about that next post.

The Barossa Festival 2009 - Part 1

2009-04-14T19:59:00.008+09:30

Lyndoch Family Fun Day and Greenock Town day.

My sister, The Blonde Rose, is visiting again from Western Australia for a few weeks. As part of her visit we're stopping by a few of the 2009 Barossa Festival events. Neither of us are big wine drinkers so we tend to stay away from the Winery events preferring the family events that focus on the places and history of the Valley.

The festival runs for nine days from April 11, 2009 however our first event was the Lyndoch Family Fun Day, on the 13th, held primarily at the Lyndoch Oval.

Unique to this event is the short helicopter rides (which can't be much more than five minutes) but offer some spectacular aerial views. At AU$25.00 per person neither Rose or I were prepared to part with that kind of cash for such a short trip but with two helicopters going, seemingly non stop all the time we were there, these flights were popular.

Town days (which is really all this 'Family Fun Day' was) in any country town in the Barossa are all fairly similar. Get together as many food vans as you can book, intersperse them with a few local product stalls and surround everything around a central stage with ongoing free, local entertainment. The bigger ones, like Lyndoch, even include a few carnival rides, pony rides and camel rides for the kids.

If there is one criticism I could level at Lyndoch's Family Fun day it's that there seemed to be more food stalls than anything else. Not locally produced food stalls either (although there were a few of those) but mostly your average food and drink stall selling fast food of the variety you can get at any fairground in the world.

Rose and I stayed to listen to a local band play and watched some dancers but really there wasn't that much to hold our attention. We stopped in at a local art gallery that featured a variety of artists before moving on to Greenock's Town day.

Our transport for touring around the Barossa is my Frog Van that I think I may have to rename the old boiler on account of an ongoing overheating problem that I'm having to manage. I'm not entirely sure why it's overheating but if I take it easy I can keep the engine at a constant, though still high, temperature. So we've been cruising around the Valley at a leisurely 60-70km per hour - much to the annoyance of a few drivers behind us.

Greenock's Town Day was much like Lyndoch only a lot less spread out and filling up the town centre and square entirely. On the plus side it had a lot more stalls featuring local products but, being so compact, it didn't take us long to look around. Still a plethora of food stalls but seemed like a few more were actually featuring locally produced foods.

Both of us wandered into the Greenock Institute Hall, expecting it to be filled with craft and food stalls like it was back in 2007, but instead discovered it was now an activity centre for kids. Rose didn't want to stop and try any of the activities so we hastily made our way out again.

We didn't stop to listen to too much of the entertainment on the main stage. We caught the end of a bag pipe band and stayed around to watch some Irish Dancing but that's about it.

We finished the day by driving back to my home town of Gawler and buying dinner at Cafe Nova, a local restaurant that really does serve up some great value food.

Is Michelle Obama the New Princess Diana?

2009-04-08T11:54:00.002+09:30

Marc Malkin from E!Online recently wrote an article, Another Michelle Obama Fashion Stimulus Package, that talked about how Michelle Obama's taste in clothes is creating a noticeable boost in fashion sales (specifically on clothes she is actually seen wearing as evidenced by this Essence magazine cover - see photo - that is featured alongside Marc's article).

Marc's article prompted me to notice that there are obvious similarities with the late Princess of Wales, Princess Diana, who only had to stick a toe outside her front door for the media to go wild with anticipation to see what she was wearing.

The two are also in the same league when it comes to their fashion choices. Unlike many celebrity women (movie stars and singers etc.) Michelle and Diana have/had to show some conservatism in their wardrobe whilst still highlighting their ability to wear clothes that others want to wear because they make the clothes look so good.

I can't think of any other women, beyond Princess Diana, in recent history or in my time that has had as much world interest in their clothes as Michelle Obama. Hence I wonder if Michelle, in her unique position as America's First Lady, is now filling a void that was left when the Princess of Wales tragically left us?

If HRP-4C Had a Child Could it be CB2?

2009-04-07T13:06:00.004+09:30

My previous blog post about the fashion robot, HRP-4C, talked about the idea of proof of concept and I think this child robot, CB2, also from Japan, almost takes the idea one step further.

At the moment CB2 mimics the behaviors of children roughly around the age of a toddler but where it differs from HRP-4C is that this robot can 'feel', 'see' and 'hear' as well as respond to its environment and the people who are interacting with it - learning as it goes.

It's a little bit creepy to look at just yet but according to this article from Breitbart, Japan child robot mimics infant learning, it, for the most part, can mimic the mother baby relationship (obviously it handles the baby side whilst a human plays the 'mother').

This quote directly from the article sounds more ominous than revolutionary (or is that evolutionary):

A bald, child-like creature dangles its legs from a chair as its shoulders rise and fall with rythmic breathing and its black eyes follow movements across the room.

It's not human -- but it is paying attention.

Sounds like it might just leap up and attack when you're least expecting it.

That aside this video explains just how complex this robot is, demonstrating its Biomimetic Body very clearly. It makes me wonder if combining some of the technology in this robot into something like HRP-4C would bring us even closer to a truly autonomous humanoid robot.

HRP-4C Robot, Proof of Concept

2009-03-27T12:32:00.004+10:30

The HRP-4C Robot (pictured right - photo, Yahoo News) that recently strutted down the catwork at a Japanese fashion show is a very exciting development in humanoid, robot technology because, as far as I'm concerned, it's 'proof of concept'.

What I mean by that is it looks good enough and is functional enough as a piece of hardware to say the technology is there to build human like robots. Stating the obvious really but that's what 'proof of concept' actually is, a working example of an idea. Watch the video below to see HRP-4C in action.

Video posted by sys2074

This humanoid fashion model is 158 cm (5 ft 2 inch) tall, weighs in at 43 kg (95 lb) can walk, talk and even express some facial emotions was developed by Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).

The only thing that really spoils its human like appearance is that the robots hands are currently not automated from the wrist down. No doubt this will be addressed on future models.

That aside, it shows we're not far from realizing the movie style, humanoid robots we've dreamed about for decades. This one in particular is very reminiscent the early NS-4 model robots that appeared in the Will Smith movie, I Robot. Especially in the way they walk.

I know we're still a long way off from a true humanoid robot that is completely autonomous. I doubt HRP-4C can even see where she's going (I tried to find out but I'd hazard a guess that she's operated via remote control rather than truly independent of human assistance).

However HRP-4C is a great base to try and build the extra technology into. The main point I was trying to make is that a fully intelligent robot, with current technology could look more like C3PO from the Star Wars movies than R2D2.

Watchmen Movie (2009) Don't read the novel.

2009-03-24T21:49:00.004+10:30

I've come to the conclusion that reading the graphic novel of Watchmen prior to seeing the movie is a really bad idea. I'm very glad that I didn't (and at the time of writing this haven't read it).

I wasn't familiar with Watchmen, the movie or the novel, until the anticipation for this movie's release started creeping into the conversations of the Batman On Film podcast team. Their interest in this DC comics title and film first piqued my interest, then I saw the trailer in the cinema and thought it certainly did look promising.

Then I listened to the BOF Podcast for Watchmen with their in depth analysis of the film. I wasn't concerned about their podcast containing spoilers because, not being familiar with any of the characters, I doubted much of the details discussed would stick in my mind - I tend not to remember things that I have no vested interest in.

One thing that did stick was that everyone involved in BOF's podcast seemed to feel that this movie would be difficult, complex and confusing for someone who hasn't read the novel. Hence I went into this movie expecting to come out with no idea about what I just saw.

My partner, who went into this film with next to zero knowledge of Watchmen other than what I could relate just prior to the movie, not only liked this film but picked up on a key plot point long before it was revealed near the end of the film. Not only that - we both agreed that we found Christopher Nolan's, The Dark Knight, harder to follow than Watchmen (on first viewing).

I didn't find Watchmen hard to follow in the least. Hence my conclusion that reading the novel prior to the movie is actually a bad idea. Guest BOF Podcaster, F.J. DeSanto (co-producer of THE SPIRIT and writer of DC's THE SPIRIT comic book) put it best when he described Watchman as "a kind of cliff notes for the Watchmen graphic novel".

If you haven't read the novel then this is a great introduction and gives you somewhere to go to find out much more about these characters and what makes them tick. I know this because I know director, Zach Snyder, had to leave a lot out and change a few plot points in order to create a coherent movie that would fit into the time he had to tell the story. I know this because that's what the BOF podcast team told me on their show.

I also know that the expected DVD versions of this film will be longer and include more scenes that were cut from the theatrical release. All great news for people who enjoyed the film, never read the novel but want to learn more about characters that may never have another film made about them. Watchmen is a 'one shot' comic book series, published back in 1986-87 (later released as a graphic novel) after all.

For those of you that have read the graphic novel, you have the disadvantage of referencing all the movies visuals and plot points back to what you've read. Filling in the blanks, noticing the changes and matching the cast to how you imagined them as you read the book. I'm glad I'm not in your shoes. By all accounts the novel is better, more complex and detailed than the film. I have that to look forward to. I have somewhere to go after having seen the film.

This hasn't been a review of the film. You can find plenty of those all over the place. This movie tends to polarize people. You either like it or you don't.

I have a theory that those who don't completely miss the point, such as in this review by Daniel M. Clark: Watchmen: I Am Never Going To The Movies Again. I think Daniel must've been watching in some alternate 2009 because the film he describes sounds nothing like the film I saw.

Daniel - the superhero costumes were supposed to look terrible - especially in the early days of costumed heroes. The second generation of heroes did have better outfits that were a little more practical (except for Silk Spectre II - but even she thought her outfit was ridiculous).

I didn't think the acting was bad either - again not even Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) who copped a lot of flack from the BOF podcast team.

It's at this point you can see I'm starting to defend a film that I thought was pretty good. Don't listen to the bad reviews, see it for yourself. If you can wrap your mind around the idea that this is an adult superhero movie that is very graphic in it's violence and nudity but quite intelligent with what it's trying to convey, you'll be okay. You may even like it.

Most importantly though. If you haven't read the novel. Don't. It'll simply make you far too critical of the film if you do. Just enjoy the film as it is then find out what you missed in the novel afterwards.

Ellen DeGeneres Interviews Portia de Rossi

2009-03-18T22:06:00.004+10:30

March 16, 2009 will go down in history as either an important day in gay and lesbian relationships or, if you're like me, it'll be just another Monday.

I'm not a regular Ellen TV show watcher, the show's just a bit too light entertainment for me, but Ellen herself is one of the funniest comedians around, so I'll watch once in a while.

I was very interested when Ellen announced that she would be having her partner and wife, Portia de Rossi, on the show. Not because she's Ellen's partner but because she's kind of the 'forgotten' Aussie in America. She's not known in Australia in the same way as Nicole Kidman or Simon Baker or even Julian McMahon whom Portia stared alongside in the US TV show Nip/Tuck. Perhaps it's her openness about being a lesbian or perhaps it's because she's mostly played supporting roles rather than lead, I don't know? Whatever the reason she's been consistently working as an actress in the USA since she first appeared on the US TV show Alley Mcbeal in 1998.

Hence to see her on Ellen's show last Monday was something to look forward to. Especially since she has a new comedy show premiering called Better Off Ted.

I've never seen Portia do comedy. She's known for playing cold but determined and driven female characters and, by the sounds of things, Better Off Ted isn't going to be a stretch other than the comedy angle.

Anyway, if Ellen and Portia's rehearsal video, which aired on Ellen's show the Friday prior to the interview, is anything to go by Portia's fantastic at comedy. In fact I found the rehearsal video to be even more interesting and fun than the official interview.

Rehearsal
by chinesedaughter

The official interview on the Monday was a lot of fun too and Portia stayed on to play a round of the Newly Wed Game and to sing Sonny and Cher's, I got you babe. You can see those clips on Ellen's TV show site.

Interview about shoes and traveling
by chinesedaughter

Getting back to my opening sentence, for those of you that feel Ellen and Portia's appearance together on TV as a happily married, same sex couple was a milestone, you may like to read Ellen DeGeneres interviews Portia de Rossi, who "also happens to be my wife" from Gay and Lesbian web site, After Ellen.

I can see how Ellen and Portia are helping to bring same sex relationships into main stream acceptance without being too in your face about it. Sort of a softly, softly approach. However I don't want to go into that too much here. Sure it was a lot of fun seeing Ellen interviewing her partner/wife but really I was just interested to finally see Portia being herself, having never seen her in an interview before.

DC: Batman's Future in Comics

2009-03-16T22:46:00.003+10:30

I came across this video thanks to the Batman on Film web site. It's an interview with several key players over at DC comics talking about the Future of Batman in the comics.

For those of you not in the know we are currently at a crossroads in the comics where Bruce Wayne is no longer Batman due to events that happened in Batman RIP and Final Crisis. That's as much as I can tell you because I don't read Batman comics at all. I'll tell you more about why after the video.

DC: Batman's Future in Comics

Batman on Film's founder, Jett, is clearly not happy with this new era as he lets fly in his recent post on his site, BATMAN IN COMICS: BOF's mad as hell and ain't going to take it anymore!

For my part, this video highlights exactly why I don't read Batman comics and I agree with Jett's call for at least one Batman Comic title that simply tells good Batman stories with Bruce Wayne as Batman, Alfred as his Butler and maybe, just maybe Robin appearing every now and then.

The problem I have with Batman comics (aside from the fact that each individual issue is expensive) is that there's too much going on. I never know when it's a good time to jump in nor which titles I should follow?

Now it's even more confusing with all these cross-over stories that are being talked about in the video... It may be a fresh start for Batman but it'll be a non-starter for me. I mean, please, they've got Bat Woman replacing Batman in Detective and Alfred (the butler) managing a team of fresh superheroes - what a confusing mess!

At least with the films (and even the animated series) you know what to expect going in. There's no real cross overs, everything is self contained. You don't have to know what happened six months earlier to know what's going on or, if the series does rely on prior knowledge, it's easy enough to catch up.

I've been a Batman fan for close to 35 years. I've never really read a Batman Comic to remember it and I haven't seen anything that would get me started now. As far as I'm concerned, if it didn't happen on film then it didn't happen in the Batman Universe. Batman On Film Forever!