The Wedding

The week we had back home was a whirlwind trip. We slept in 6 different beds in 6 different towns in one week!! It was a truely awesome week and the highlight was definitely the classy wedding of Cath (Geoff's sister) and Dave. Here's a few pics of the big day...

We arrived back in Adelaide just over a week ago. While back home, we arranged with my sister Danielle and her husband Shaun, to travel with them from the Flinders Rangers to Lake Eyre in about 3  weeks time. So we had some time to fill in between, and God once again seamlessly provided this the night we arrived back in Adelaide. Geoff was offered a couple of weeks work with our friends parents, Alan and Shirley Bell. We had stayed with them the night before we flew home and they treated us just like family! So for the last week and a half we have been staying with them and Geoff has been doing some carpentry work for them. We'll be here at least for another week. We'll keep you posted!

The Grampians

The Grampians is a cluster of sandstone mountains that rise up out of the flat, farm lands in central Victoria. They look quite impressive from a distance.

 We found a great free camp just near the base of one of these... 

It was very peaceful, although cold.

The Grampians is known for bush walking, so I picked a walk that climbed Mt Strapylton. It was a 4.6km return walk that was graded "hard, for fit and energetic walkers" with an altitude climb of 290m. It turned out to be a great walk, following little yellow arrows on the rocks...

I have to include this photo as it was no small feat for me to climb up on top of this rock.

I thought looked like a bird...

That night, back in the camper, it dropped down to 3 degree's overnight. Brrrrr 

Totally loving our duck-down doonah though as we have not been cold yet.

NB. You know it's cold when; A. You take out meat to defrost at Breakfast and at dinner time it's still fully frozen; B. You are breathing smoke as you lay in bed at night; and C. You've forgotten what it feels like to feel your fingers. 

After a day of rest, we were keen to tackle the biggest mountain called Mt Difficult. This walk was 8.8kms return with an elevation climb of  466m. I was slightly nervous about doing it, not sure I would make it. Armed with a large mars bar and staminade (for me), we took it on. It was a long and strenuous walk with no real track. We were climbing over rocks, under rocks and most of the way was uphill... 

This was part of the track... as you can see, no real path!

As there was no real path, you had to constantly watch your footing. We both had a couple of falls each, nothing serious. In my defence, I was highly distracted for my most spectacular fall by a man coming back down the mountain wearing WAY too much licra! I fell in front of him. 

We also passed some rock climbers, which also seems to be popular here...

After two hours of climbing, we made it to the top! 

Not a bad place to have lunch (although it was freezing up there)...

Driving back to camp, tired but happy, we were rewarded with this beautiful rainbow...

Poor Geoff must have really been smashed when we got back to camp, as he had a few real shocka's! Firstly, as he was chopping some wood with his beloved ax, a large piece of timber flew straight at him and smashed him in the shin. After icing his shin, he then decided to help me out. I was happily enjoying my 2 minute hot shower, when Geoff suddenly starting yelling at me to turn it (the shower) off quick. Suddenly, (as I'm watching from my little porthole in the ensuite, totally lathered in soap and completely starka's in the artic temperature's of victoria), Geoff's running around like a pork chop speaking 'french'. Next thing I know, he's yelling "FIRE!", and from my little peephole I see smoke is billowing out of the front of the camper. Stunned, and nearing hypothermia, I demand he tells me what's happening. Sheepishly, he confesses while I was showering, the diesel (for the diesel hot water system) was running low. So he thought he would quickly top it up before I ran out. Only problem was, he poured petrol in the system instead of diesel! Thankfully, he realised what he had done pretty quickly so we didn't blow up the camper! I was also very grateful there was still some warm water left in the hose to de-soap myself. Poor Geoff wasn't feeling so good after that, but at least it was our last night. There was also no fire, the air intake was just smoking quite a bit. 

With many happy memories of the Grampians (minus nearly blowing up the camper) we left early Monday morning. (It was 5.5 degrees when we got up at 7am to pack up!). From the Grampians we headed back to the coast to a small town called Kingston to pick up some parcels from the Post Office and stay the night. Along the way we came across this at Dadswell Ridge... who knew!

Today we are on our way to Adelaide, before flying back home tomorrow for Geoff's sister Cath's wedding. Yeeha!! (After making a few calls this morning, Geoff found out we haven't stuffed the hot water system, it got a little 'hot'). 

Warrnambool & Long Lost Relatives

We arrived in Warrnambool on Friday night just in time to watch the Royal Wedding - Yeeh ha! What a glorious testament it was to Jesus, watched by millions. (And Cath, I also commented on the Cardinal's enormous eyebrows and suggested perhaps they were purposely grown to such fantastically grotesque lengths to keep his hat from falling into his eyes!?)

I found a church online called Extreme Life Inc. that we hesitantly visited on Sunday - we weren't sure what we were in for with a name like that! We relaxed though after the first 5 minutes and really enjoyed the service and message. Afterwards, we had our first invite to lunch (since we've been on the road) from David & Joanne. They had previously travelled around Australia with their 5 kids, so we had much in common (minus all those kids). We had a great time with them and it was so nice to be included in their family for the afternoon.

Geoff's dad had mentioned that they had some long lost relatives living near Warrnambool. Geoff randomly decided to give one of them a call. After assuring the poor man who answered the phone, that we weren't crazy and perhaps we were even related to them, we were invited to their small farming town of Wangoon for a visit. It turns out there is a WHOLE tribe of Adams living in this town!! Just mention "The Adams Family"  in Warrnambool and they'll all point you to Wangoon...

So awkwardly we arrived at a Dairy farm owned by Alister Hugh Adams. Geoff's middle name is also Hugh, which has been passed down for 5 generations! I think it was this common link that assured Alister we were OK. After chatting to Alister for awhile, he then took us down the road to another farm owned by David Adams, who knew more about the family tree. He knew of Geoff's grandma and his dad has visited Geoff's parents a few years ago, before he passed away. The photo below is David and his wife Meredith, their niece and David's mother in law... They were so friendly, I was sad to leave!

We were surprised when he pulled out some an old scroll with the Adams Family tree inscribed dating back to 1761...

After carefully studying it, we found Geoff's dad and his brothers! (Anthony, Christopher, Derek, Stephen). We were then able to add to it with their kids and grand kids...

We tried to get a photocopy of it at the local store but it was too big being A2 size. So we took a bunch of photos of it which Geoff wants to piece together. David also took us to the local church as nearly everything inside has a plaque on it, dedicated by a member of the Adams Family...

 We learnt that one of the original Adams found some gold, put it in a teapot, and bought a farm in Wangoon. Many of them are dairy farmers, or pastors and missionaries. It was a different way to spend your Monday afternoon, I must say. At the same time though, it was pretty cool to find out a bit about your ancestors. 

We stayed in Warrnambool until Wednesday, and then travelled inland to the Grampians... but more on that in the next blog... I'll just say three words "Three Degree's Celius!!"