There And Back Again. Chapter Five: The Black Gate Is Closed

Before we even think about starting with this post, here's a beaut pic of the goal:

Just click on it for full sizedness, you'll be happy.


Da-da-da-DUM!

But first, let's have just another picture of a sawdust-stuffed cat-hide thingy that no taxidermist would ever take credit for:



And how's abouts a big ole aussie shout out to a bloke who hails from Peter Pan land?

I've got big claws
I've got big claws
They're such big claws
And they're dirty big claws
And he's got big claws
And she's got big claws
But we've got the biggest claws of them all!

So my query to you (I think I'm up to 13 readers now, woo-hoo!) is what is the connection betwixt Peter Pan and the claws of a cockatoo? No more hints from moi, so start your googling fingers!

Back to the show, cus the show must go on.

Upon our arrival in Naracoorte, we drove to a motel. A motel with which I had previously (like 2 months previous) made bookings for YT and WP. They have BBQ facilities and microwave ovens in each room. That suited us just fine since I had already prepared a meal that only needed to be nuked upon our arrival.

Food for the ensuing two mornings was gonna be eggs, bacon, toast, etc. The evening meal on the second day was also ready to be cooked.

This particular motel (not naming names) is situated right smack dab in the middle of hustlin' bustlin' Naracoorte. It also had a "No Vacancy" sign out front and that made me happy that we had reservations (in every sense of the word).

Hmmmm, Mr Downes? No, I can't find that name at all. Could it perhaps be under another name?

Needless to say, the conversation to check in did not go as planned. I was nice. So was WP. In fact, she was the first to point out that even if the owner (who I spoke with on the phone) did show up and remember me or my accent (almost ten years now and no aussie accent at all) that there wouldn't be room anyways since they are booked out.

We certainly didn't want to toss someone out, and they could find no record of us ever making a booking or giving them a cc number for the deposit.

Fortunately, everything always works out for me. Has for the last 5 decades.

We always travel with me little ole campstove. It's neat, compact, and cheap. Folds up to the size of a small briefcase, and that includes the butane cartridge. I made five meals offa that puppy on this trip and didn't even need to put a fresh butane cartridge in it.

I also noted a few other motels on our way into "town". Two of them had vacancy signs posted. And there was even a caravan park (love em!!!). And a big ole swimmin' hole with bbq facilities!

No worries mates!

We ended staying at a Comfort Inn. However, this was not a normal Comfort Inn. This Inn was the VERY ORIGINAL INN FROM THE SCOTTISH FOUNDER OF NARACOORTE. You can read all about it here.

The ole WM (William Macintosh) didn't have bbq or any cooking type stuff, so we thought we'd have a looksie through town to find a barbie. Turns out that we ate 4 meals over by the big swimmin' hole that had a barbie (too slow though, used me own cooker) and a fairly sizable swimmin' hole.

The swimmin' hole in Naracoorte is very cool. Size of 7 oly-pools it is. Yep, neato:


Never woulda found this place if the reservations hadn't been lost. See? It all works out, dunna why but it just does.

There's also a great tile mosiac on the crappers by the pool. Have a look:



I think the artist had a huge supply of disused tiles cus she made awesome stuff out of rejects:



Here's where we is, just click on the pics to bring em up full size:



And I just HAD to git the crayola crayons out :)



And just cus I think overhead fotos (like, maybe, birdseye?) are neat, here's where we wuz:



Oops, gotta git the paint out:



Just a gentle reminder to y'all: if you want to see a pic larger than life then just click it!

And here are two reasons to continue along with the saga --just click the pics for big ole huge full-sized goodness!