Ending my time in Waikerie and moving on

I had a quiet few days my last few days in Waikerie, just very much enjoying being with the friends I was with!

On Wednesday my friends had a few errands to attend to in Berri and before I left the Riverland area I thought I'd better cross the Murray River on the ferry crossing right at Waikerie, seeing as how I hadn't done that yet.

We made a side trip to a little village called Monash which is about 12 kms outside of Berri.  The town was proclaimed in 1921 and was named in honour of General Sir John Monash, a highly decorated commander of Australian troops in World War 1.  The General also gave his name to the most amazing playground that is there.  The General began building the park in the 1930's, using his own money, and continued to add play equipment to it until the time of his death, and the park was always open for the public to come and use.  Concerns about public liability led to the park being closed after the General's death, but it was reopened in 1996, with the 'dangerous' equipment having been removed but a huge maze with high walls and secret doorways was added.
Needless to say, it wasn't hard to spend a bit of time here - the park is definitely for the young and young at heart!

On Thursday we travelled down to Adelaide and it's then that I said goodbye to my friends in Waikerie after having spent a lovely month visiting with them.  And since I know they check into my blog every once and a while I will use this opportunity to say "thank you", "thank you", "thank you" for a wonderful visit and for everything you did while I was there!

I wasn't alone for long in Adelaide, in fact I wasn't alone at all as my suitcase went from the boot of one car directly into the boot of another car and I met up with another friend who lives in South Australia.  The first question I was asked was "do I like to swim?" and well, you can imagine my answer.  Based on my response we headed directly to the beach (remember Adelaide is on the Gulf of St. Vincent) and we had a swim at West Beach before heading out on the drive home.  And for those of you who are wondering, it was 44 degrees in Adelaide yesterday.

One stop on the way to my new 'home' was at Mount Lofty, the highest point in the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges.   The Mount Lofty Ranges are the range of mountains just east of Adelaide - they stretch from the southernmost point of the Fleurieu Peninsula at Cape Jervis and go northwards for over 300 kms before petering out north of Peterborough.  The section of the ranges nearest Adelaide is also known as the Adelaide Hills.  Mount Lofty, at 727 m, offers amazing views over Adelaide and out to the Gulf of St. Vincent.

You can just see "downtown" Adelaide on the right-hand side of the photo.

And now I'm in the Adelaide Hills, staying with friends who have a property about an hour east/south-east of Adelaide.  How are these for amazing views, from the front yard

and from the side and back.

My friends are on a 400 acre property and they have about 225 cattle and about 190 sheep so yes, those are cows and sheep you see in the first photo.

We went out for a little drive last night after dinner to go roo spotting - and kangaroos we did see!  It was a bit late for photos when I didn't want to use a flash but here's a couple just so you get an idea ... and depending on what we're doing tonight we may go back out again, this time just a bit earlier.