After a photo-op with the Hall-Konstandakos family - before the girls went off to school, we set out for the 2-day drive to Adelaide. Pleasant enough.
Given we reached our destination for the day, Mount Gambier, around 3:15pm (there was a half hour time change), we had plenty of time to visit the local South Australian 'Transport, Travel and Motoring' Department, to get the necessary paperwork for our car in SA. We had called them some days ago and were told to do this upon entry into the state. So there we were.
We presented our issue at the counter and were assigned the 'number 2' in the office. She had never had this query before and she promptly went to work finding out what the requirements were. Shortly after that the 'number 1' (Tony Wilson) of that particular branch was involved and we couldn't help but sensing that they were all a tad excited about getting one of these :). We were amazed with the level of good service we received. After learning that we did already have the necessary documents for Victoria, they dug a little deeper and told us that because of that we didn't need anything extra for South Australia. We suspected that already but it wasn't very clear on their website. Tony confirned that particular info was not on the website. He then printed out a copy of the relevant laws for us to keep, in case we'd encounter police who weren't aware of this. Very nice! Thanks very much to Tony and colleagues for making this one of the best experiences in a registration office anywhere!!!
We stayed the night in the Blue Lake Holiday Park campground. This was the second night of camping in Australia and clearly we are still working out our systems. It bucketed down during the night but our tent held up and we stayed dry inside. A very good test.
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| Saying goodbye to our wonderful hosts for 2 nights. Gaby, Jono, Amelia, Patty and Bella. |
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| Camp 2 at Mt Gambier. Everything deployed for wet weather. |
The remainder of the drive to Adelaide was easy and the roads good. We arrived in the city center of Adelaide before the banks closed and in time to pickup our Australian banking card.
Unfortunately Sterlin decided to breakdown, right in the city center. We were stopped in a no-stopping zone and Sterlin was not starting. Stephen quickly diagnosed the issue as a bad battery and proceeded to swap the dead main battery with the working auxiliary battery. Ten minutes later we were on our way again, albeit with only one working battery. If we had to have this issue Adelaide was a good place for it, as there hare Battery World shops which sell batteries in the same size as we have in Sterlin. It took three stores mind you, but we found a replacement. Sterlin's battery is not stock standard in Australia. The new battery was installed in the basement of the Hilton Hotel. The hotel's basement can accommodate cars that don't fit the height restrictions of the standard car park. We weren't the only 4WD with stuff on the roof in there.
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| Robe. Beautiful coastal township. |
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