Strathalbyn take#3

This was our 3rd visit to Strathalbyn in SA, and our second house sit of Hannah.  We commited ourselves a couple of months ago as we thought it would be on our way to Western Australia. But we are finding our plans are forever changing, so we are just doing a short trip SA, before the start of our next big adventure.

We had all the elements of wind, rain, and sunshine on and off, but still managed to walk Hannah twice a day.  Whilst in the region we stayed 2 nights at Murray Bridge, visited Mt Lofty lookout over Adelaide, Hahndorf, walked around the town of Mt Barker and did some interesting river and bushwalks (saw massive wild rabbits) with Hannah in Strathalbyn. The region is so picturesque even in winter.

Hannah trashed our bed 3 nights running,.sometime between 8 and 10 pm.  She didn’t do that last time.🤪


Beautiful stone buildings, lots of heritage, and wild miniature daffodils.

Its been fun, but can’t wait to get back into the Van, ( thinking of calling it “The Manor”), and do some more exploring.

Fun Fact #5 Pink Lakes

We just happened to drive past this Pink Lake west of Dimboola Vic. before crossing the border into SA.  I had to adjust my sunglasses thinking I was seeing things.  Our first Pink Lake.  Western Australia has a few which have made our list, but this was a total surprise, a quick u-ey (u-turn) with the van to the rest stop and we were soon exploring it.

It is a salt lake and the local olive company farms the salt, it is one of 4 pink lakes in the Murray-Sunset NP and Australian Geographic describes the colour as result of a pigment produced by the Salinibacter ruber bacteria.

On the Road Again

We have spent some fun quality time with our Munro grandkiddies during the school holidays, and being unconventional grand parents we hope we bring another dimention to their lives as they listen to us planning, talking and discussing with them our travel adventures.   

But now as kids head back to school we are back on the road again, and back to South Australia for a repeat doggy sit of Hannah in Strathalbyn  and a visit back to Victor Harbor, which Derek loved.  

Everywhere is lush and green

Tonight we are on a powered site in Donald Victoria, just in case we need our electric heater.  We have been spoilt so far this winter with China, Cairns, and a lovely warm home in Finley.  Hope it doesn’t get too cold tonight.

We are camped on a beautiful lake, and had a little time just before dark to explore historic Donald, who celebrate their railway heritage.

Groper Fish from Melbourne Commonwealth Games, and Bullock Head Tree on banks of Richardson River

Rollerskating Rocks

We had the best day rollerskating in Albury today.  We took the grandkiddies a few weeks ago for their first time, and they enjoyed it so much they were keen to go again.  Only 1 hour 40 min drive away, but they were up early, packed a lunch and ready to skate.  This time we decided to join them on skates.  We too can have so much fun babysitting.

Cairns Sunset

Enjoyed this awesome sunset from just above the clouds as we approached Cairns.  We were looking forward to spending time with Craig, Sara, Ayla and of course Lucy over the next few weeks, is has been way too long. An opportunity to help with some babysitting, puppydog walking and some landscaping.

All things Chinese - Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou

Have I said it already, we were pleasantly surprised with our introduction to China and these 3 cities in south eastern China did not dissapoint They were each about 3 hours bus ride apart, and were in the economic centre of China. Each had old and new districts, evident in the multi modern highrises. We visited and stayed in all 3, and stayed quite close to the city centres.  

This afforded us many opportunities to take in lovely scenery, stunning parks and gardens, lakes and canal rides, street food, local restaurants, walled gardens, local crafts, countryside, markets, and even though we broke from our tour group to have some optional free time, we still managed to find Shanghai’s upmarket Nanjing Rd and Yuyuan Markets. We had views from 88 stories high and rode on the fastest train in the world the “maglev” at 451 km per hour.  We really got a good feel for the culture and diversity.  

We even got use to ordering local food for lunches and dinner,  and hung out with four of our travel buddies to explore Shanghai via the Subway system (which was all very orderly colour coded and also in English).  How brave were we?  Breakfast at our hotels was a little hit and miss, Derek found himself having fried rice for breakfast one morning!

Ancient Xian & Warriors

Our last day in Beijing was beautiful with sunny clear blue sky.

Beijing is the modern capital of China of the last 800 years,  and Xian in the central province is the ancient capital going back for thousands of years prior to Beijing.  We had a 2 hour flight west to Xian,  which has a population of ONLY 10 million. We were fascinated at the urban sprawl of high rise apartments along the hour drive from the airport. 

Although the city centre is a walled city, it is much more cosmopolitan than Beijing, and very pretty at night, as we discovered when we explored the city centre streets around our hotel for a few hours, finding an underground city of shops.  We thoroughly enjoyed Xian, and could have easily stayed a few more days.

Beautiful bell tower

In 1974 a farmer digging a well discovered some pieces of terracotta pottery, and the find unearthed Emperor Chings Terracotta Army which were to protect him in the afterlife. Over 2000 years ago,  Ching was a tyrant, his dynasty only lasted 14 years, he conquered the surrounding 6 kingdoms, and is buried (and his tomb still remains un opened) in a huge man made pyramid shaped hill, next to the warriors. 

The museum complex was huge and awesome, and we enjoyed our 4 hour stroll around the 3 massive pits trying to take it all in. Much of each pit is still unexcavated.

We have had some great buffet lunches on the tour, as well as the interesting, informative but mandatory tours to various local craft factories such as the pearl and jade factory, terracotta figurine factory, laquered furniture factory and have visited a Traditional Chinese Medicene Institute (got awesome foot massage) and have a silk factory and tea plantation coming up. As much as they are meant to be shopping outings, we enjoyed watching the craft work and learning alot about these old crafts and Chinese culture.

Great Wall and Huton Old China

We have been driven all over Bejing for hours each day seeing mostly highrise housing, business towers, leafy streets, massive traffic congestion, but little in the way of retail outlets and home stores, but today we passed through to the outer limits of the city - passed ring road no 6, and went into the mountains 50km from Beijing to Jujong section of The Great Wall.  This section  as the last stratigic line of defence which protected Beijing City and the Emperors from the neighbouring Monguls.

It was a privilage to be allowed to hike part of The Great Wall, up uneven stairs from car park 4 to Fortress Tower 11. We needed an extra 1/2 hour to get to 12 (the end of this branch) and back to 11,  our total round trip was 2 hours. It was hot, humid, smoggy and a public holiday. Crowds thinned as we passed through each Fortress Tower. The gatorades were great at the shop at Tower 9!   Tonns of stairs and quite gruelling, glad we had our poles, fyi we were the only 2 that did.   As we got to each tower and then looked past it, the mountain just kept going.  Fabulous experience. 

Huton Village is part of the old Beijing, heritage listed district where the old town square is walled, has an ancient bell tower, narrow lanes, and a lake. It was where the villages lived .... those who did not live in the Forbidden City.  Now most people move out of the Huton district and live in high rise in Beijing City CBD.  22 million.  In China, the Govt owns the land, and in old districts like Huton houses do not have toilets or bathrooms, there are communal toilet blocks, and you have to pay for a shower.

Bell Tower

Rick shaw ride, visit to the mandatory China Town with its food shops, market shops, the lake, traditional home cooked meal.

A little bit of authentic old China,  I wonder how they feel about the daily tourist invasion, TripaDeal guides everywhere.

Not your normal kitchen decor in the west.

Very well looked after by Trip a Deal, then given plenty of free time to get lost on our own.

City Squares and Village Greens

Firstly, internet in China, whilst accessible, you are limited to which search engines and social media can be used.  China have their own version of all our western platforms eg. Facebook is called “we chat” etc. So even with our own VPN taking us back through Australia’s web, we were limited with data speed and unable to post the blog daily.

Our tour was with Tripadeal, and this is our tour group of 36, who came from all over Australia.

Our tour guide “Jingles” reminded us today that we could not possibly see all of China in 11 days, however we would be able to enjoy some of the “highlights” of the 3 regions we would be visiting. 

Our first region is Beijing and our first stop is Imperial Beijing (political head quarters) with a 4 hour visit to explore the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

We have always been drawn to many city Squares, town Market Places, and village Greens, to explore the central hub of daily life. These public spaces play a vital role in a regions history, culture and politics, and can showcase its architectural beauty in the form of churches, fountains, buildings, shops, markets and cafes, but visiting Tianammen Square which just happens to be the largest square in the world, today reminded us of the political hotspot it once was.   Jing says it is a part of Beijings history that is never mentioned nor acknowledged.

Today it was not like other city squares, it did not encourage the public to stay and relax, there were only tour groups and souvenier sales vans, it contains a few imperial monuments and sculptures, no seating, a military and security presence, was not welcoming, and left us feeling quite solomn as we remembered its past even if Beijing chooses to forget. It was really a very lifeless place, and the grey rainy weather added to the somberness.

Plenty of security police, armed. But, not as many as we were expecting.  Looking towards the Forbidden City.



Security cameras

Next door to the square is the Forbidden Palace. Once a Forbidden city to the everyday person, it has been open to the public since 1924. It was completed in 1420 and has served as the residence of 24 emperors with 980 buildings.. Its size was remarkable, being the world’s largest palace complex, 74hectares, room for 80,000 visitors daily, but lacked any signs of grandeur and  extravagence unlike many European palaces. It was a maze of walled courtyards.

Some of the highlights

The colours were outstanding and the architecture was amazing.

The last Emperor and Empress were in residence today.

China - Warriors, Wall, Culture

Following an overnight in Sydney, we will be flying China Eastern for an 11 day visit to China on a package deal. It will be nice to let someone else do the planning and organising and we are looking forward to being taken care from the moment we board our flight until we land back in Sydney. 

It is a country we have thought about visiting but have been reluctant to do on our own. Although we are not fans of big cities, we hope to see a good mixture of culture, scenery and history......