The Zebbie's Big Adventure

 We arrived in Tasmania with only a small amount of drama with border security, and we can't help but wonder if it was because we had a Victorian number plate. 🤔 After a small wait, re-submitting our border permit, and finally approval by the police, we were allowed to drive away. We had been so focused on getting into Tassie, we hadn't actually planned what we were going to do once we arrived. We had breakfast at a park in Devonport, looked at the weather and decided to head inland slightly towards Launceston and that was the extent of our plan. We ended up at Beauty Point, just next to Beaconsfield.  It rained very solidly for the next 2 days, so we just drove around and saw the area. We visited the Beaconsfield Mine and Heritage centre. This was a very fun and educational 2 hours - and mostly out of the rain. The kids had fun panning for gold, and we so excited to find some little pieces of "museum gold". ...

 The next chapter of our adventure has now begun, and we start driving East towards Victoria on our way to Tasmania. We are allowed to travel through Victoria with a transit permit as long as we drive straight from South Australia to the sea-port, only stopping for fuel. We also had to camp outside the 70km border bubble, and wanted to avoid high traffic areas with freight trucks, so we chose to camp at a quiet little farming town called Tintinara. It was the best little place. Such a great community atmosphere. On our way we stopped for lunch at Border Town and saw the Murray River at another new location. It looks very different to the river we are used to back home - no trees on the banks and very open. We also read about the Bunyip of the local rivers and lakes - he was a greedy man who took too many fish and the aboriginal spirits turned him into a bunyip. Bridie was terrified of the Bunyip as it emerged. To break up the trip we stopped at a few of the ...

 We set up camp at the Port Elliot Showgrounds for the next 5 days to explore the Victor Harbour and Goolwa area. This place is super busy given that it is only an hour out of Adelaide and it is incredibly beautiful. It is just like an extension of the city, there are that many houses and subdivisions, but then just like Adelaide itself, within 15mins you are out in rolling countryside again. One of the many joys of South Australia. On our first day we explored the Barrage at Goolwa which is the weir-like place for the mouth of the Murray River. We learnt a lot about our beloved Murray here, with informative plaques about every weird starting all the way up at the Hume and traveling along the whole river. There is also a Murray River flag which was news to us all - with the horizontal blue lines at the bottom representing all the river the join together to create the Murray River system. We walked out on the bridge over the barrage and said hello to the 2 re...

 Heading towards Adelaide, we were hesitant to go near the city incase there were any COVID that may cause issues with our plans to go to Tasmania in a week or so. We looked for a nice place on the edge of the city towards the Adelaide Hills and found a the gem called Hillview Farm in Mount Torrens. It is the most stunning area with rolling green hills and endless tall gum trees, and then we drive up the side of a dairy farm and camp on their top paddock with the most amazing view.  We had young cows and the billy goats next to us. One young goat could fit under the fence and came to visit a few times despite Kylie putting him back over the fence. Bridie screamed at one point and Kylie turned around to find the goat at the caravan door. Hahaha. Elsie on the other hand, spent hours talking to and patting the goats and trying her hardest to get the cows to come close enough for a pat. On the very top of the hill was a tyre swing - ...