Wrap Up {Edition 22}

*** Hi Guys – Gareth wrote this about a week ago. We have changed location since. If lucky we’ll get an up to date Wrap Up this week ***

HELLO + WELCOME  to the regular Wrap Up on what’s been happening as we drive across Australia and up to London via deep dark Africa.

As we sit here in South Australia with no internet and no one else around we are loving life and enjoying sharing our experience with our growing tribe.

This week we have really learnt what it is like to live IN and AMONGST nature. We have experienced howling winds, rain and even a dust storm. We count ourselves very lucky every single day though – that the only thing we can whinge about is a slight drizzle or a small dust storm.

It’s Wombat (Gareth) here today with this Wrap Up. Here’s what has been happening.

FISHING

Again, Christine Lyon (one of our Facebook legends), this week I have tried my hand at beach fishing. So you all want the good news? I haven’t got any. Sorry.

The excuse? I was interrupted by an Australian sea lion who ended up either scaring or eating all the fish I was planning on catching. So we had to rely on some day trippers who caught and kindly gave us all of the eight mullet they somehow miraculously caught on the same beach, with the same sea lion that was eating all the fish I was planning on catching. Buggers!

ADELAIDE

We both REALLY love Adelaide. The people are just so down to Earth and the place just seems so clean and relaxed. With the exception of the swarm of smelly vagrants that populate any big city. I had a plan to upgrade my camera so at four in the arvo, new camera in hand and no place to stay we decided to check into a hotel in the East End of Adelaide. This area is full of trendy cafes, bars and a short jog down to the river. The equivalent of Paddington in Sydney – but prettier. It was a good escape which we will more than likely do over the next year when we feel the urge. At about 5pm it was time for a drink after such a stressful day (I’m kidding there if you didn’t get the tone) so we found the closest bottle shop. It turned out to be a little independent cellar with some good quality stock and a Meile coffee machine installed in the wall. After a short chat with Michael the Proprietor he offered me a coffee while we waited to pay the bill. “No problems”, I said. “Don’t usually get that kind of service”, Good coffee too!

THE BEST PIZZA WE HAVE BOTH EVER EATEN

I consider myself a harsh critic of restaurant food & service. Not because I’m a trained chef or anything but just because I love good quality food. So I take my restaurant recommendations seriously. When in Adelaide we asked the boys at the bottle shop for some good places to eat. Their’s and now one of our recommendations when in the East End of Adelaide is Amalfi. We were so impressed with the food & service that we went back and had the same pizza. Mmmm its making my mouth water like Homer Simpson’s. We ate the Cardinale with chilli oil on the side. Go there if you are passing through!

DUNNY PAPER & CIGARETTES

A couple of things that have annoyed me over the past eight weeks is that no matter how beautiful or remote a place is, we ALWAYS see cigarette butts and dunny paper littered throughout the camp or surrounding areas. Now you will probably wander why I am even bothering to comment on this? Here’s why. This blog is written the way we choose to write and it wont always be covered in a nice layer of sugar. I assume that this camping, overlanding, caravaning community all have the same type of interests at heart. Why the hell don’t the odd percentage of us pick up their crap when they finish at a camp site? I don’t want to lay down on a nice pice of grass, roll over & be told by Kirst that there is  a filthy cigarette butt stuck on my jacket. Yeah it happened. And I certainly don’t want to be hiking down to Wineglass Bay spotting native turd paper in the bushes. It’s not that I look for it either. It is just there.

Anyway enough of the rant. I just had to get that off my hairy chest.

GARRY GOOD GEAR

We were asked by Drifta to road test some of their Snow Peak gear. No problem as long as it is good quality and reasonably light. Well, when it comes to cups we have two Snow Peak mugs with us and that is it. This photo shows one cup with the sipper lid and the titanium coffee plunger. They are made from a double skin of titanium and serve the purpose for wine, Sake, beer, coffee you name it. I was a little skeptical with metal mugs at first because I don’t like the taste that they give the liquid inside the cup. These cups haven’t got ANY strange mettal-y taste that you get with the cheap tinny cups from disposal stores. We love them and use them for everything. Charley Boorman even uses these cups.

LOVING

Not getting up for work + shooting on an awesome new camera + finding a remote and quiet campsite to chill out in (Memory Cove) + sake + Red Arc Solar panel blanket helping our battery stay charged + our Facebook tribe’s comments and tips about bush camps + the birds we are seeing (DANGER We might become Birders) + Kirst having her hair done + keeping the Troopy clean + Sea Lions (except when they eat all my fish).

Well that’s us done. I hope you have all enjoyed my first Wrap up? Any tips on fishing, send em’ my way NOW. And if there are any turd burglars out there? Take yer dunny paper with you… please.

Serious now…I am so proud and happy to be doing this with Kirst and all you good people out there. Enjoy and thanks for being here.

Cheers,

* To check out some live pics from the road find us on Instagram and follow.