Day 1 – 14th January 2018 – Adelaide to Baroota

And so it began at 10.45am, Sunday 14th Jan 2018…..

All the planning, dreaming and waiting has finally paid off and the day has arrived.

My beautiful children and their partners and one of my grand kids, came down to help us pack up at the Christies Beach Caravan Park. They bought us McDonalds for breakfast and gave us a wonderful send off. We even got great coffees from our very own Barista, Erin Cunningham (spoilt!).

I was towing the boat and Col the Van, and the drive from Adelaide to Baroota went smoothly. We chatted on our UHF radios throughout the drive and it was a pretty relaxing and enjoyable start to the trip.

Sadly my Grandpa, Jim Sitters, recently passed away on the 29th December 2017, aged 93. Before he passed he gave me the address of the house in Port Pirie that he was born in and stayed until the age of 12, with his parents and 6 siblings. We stopped in Pirie to see the house and take some photos. It was a beautiful start to the trip. Amazing to imagine so many people living in such a simple and small space.

We then drove on and camped at Baroota, approximately 27km from Port Pirie. It is a beautiful spot, only $10 per person, per night. Set among the many Mally trees, with camp fire pits, showers, toilets and is also pet friendly. When we pulled up to the ‘sign in station’ there was a photo of our van from the last time we stayed here – ha ha. Nice welcome. Really I think we should be staying for free as we are clearly famous here.

It was a clear sky and the stars were amazing to see. There was no moon, so the sky was really dark, making the stars pop.

We had been having trouble with a bad smell coming up from the grey water tank (you all thought I was going to say Col, ha ha). So Col dropped a heap of NapiSan down the drain, which we are big advocates of and usually works a treat. But we have come to learn a couple of things on this trip – DISSOLVE IT FIRST. It unfortunately completely blocked the sink from the dry Napisan, and nothing we could do would dislodge it. The second thing we learnt was always pack a plunger!! Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Col ended up using a piece of fencing wire and drilling a hole into the NapiSan concrete brick to break it up. Nice one Col.

In the evening we had two huge T-bone steaks and amazing red wine (thanks mum for the going away present – Old Adam Shiraz 2013, Bremerton, Langhorne Creek). We also tried your port Dave East and it was good!

Col built a great camp fire and we were joined by two Brazilian couples who were staying at Baroota too. We all chatted well into the night. Steph and Fernando were one of the couples who were on their last leg of a year long trip around oz, heading back to Perth. It was good to get some info on places to stay. Trish and Dan were the other couple and Dan was a dive instructor who had also dived in Vanuatu and was familiar with million dollar point and the SS President Coolidge.