Dec 15

Mount Barker

Today is Adelaide day. We pack up and take the road down the hills to Adelaide.

First we drive to Elizabeth (suburb of Adelaide) and struggle through Saturday pre-Christmas shopping to buy some oil for the planned service at the Clarsen’s residence. Colin Clarsen has generously suggested that instead of paying someone else we could do the bus service at his place. We drive there next and encounter many many small roundabouts which are not fun to take in the bus. Some Adelaide planner must have chuckled when he drew these on the map, meanwhile thinking “we’ll get those idiots in their busses”.

Then we arrive at Colin and Jill where Colin and his son Cameron are busy to try and move one of their cars to make room for the bus. The car is not starting so we decide to just do the service on the side of their street.

Lucky for me Colin was so nice to watch for traffic so I would not get severed in half while lying under the bus to change the oil. We change the oil, the oil filter and fuel filter and check for any loose bolts from all the rattling dirt roads. It’s all good.

We felt really welcome and not only could we service the bus, leave our oil and old filters, but also enjoyed the great hospitality of the Clarsen’s and had a very nice lunch.
When we looked at how Cameron was in the midst of replacing the engine of his drift car, we didn’t feel to bad that we were leaving them with our used car filters and oil. Great to have such friends!

Just before we wanted to leave an Australia Post van pulled up and we were hopeful to get our kite returned (that would be three days after it was posted, where 1 day is the guarantee) but it worked out to be something Cameron ordered of eBay.

After saying goodbye we went to the campground in Mount Barker, not a long drive.