Half-lap Day 7: Hahndorf

Sunday was mothers day. We were up earlyish and hung around the tent, reading, catching up on email and so on. The kids gave me their presents - dark chocolate honeycomb from Millie, and a block of 88% dark chocolate from LiAM - it's the darkest I've eaten and it is delightfully bitter, really satisfying and I love it. Caitlin had already given me her present before we left - scented shower bombs, so I'm looking forward to using those when we get back.

Tony cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast - the bacon was amazing, thick and tasty, a perfect mothers day breakfast. The rest of the morning we spent pottering around the caravan park - playing air hockey and fusball, chess, and playing games at the tent. I was downloading some audio books to our computer when suddenly it turned itself off and I couldn't get it back on - this has happened before and I did get it fixed, but wasn't happy at the idea of trying to fit that in to our time in the Adelaide Hills.

Tony started to work on installing the dual battery in to the car, so the kids and I decided to go exploring. I discovered we could catch a bus from Hahndorf to Mt Lofty - we needed to leave almost immediately though unless we wanted to go much later in the day and I felt like the weather would be worse by then. It was already drizzling quite a bit. Tony drove us in to Hahndorf so that we could buy bus tickets - the mothers day traffic heading in to the town was slow and heavy. He dropped us off about half way as walking was going to be about as quick as driving from that point, and it was easier for him to get back from there. We went to the newsagent to buy tickets and she said she didn't sell them, I'd have to go to Mt Barker. After a bit of discussion I found out that I could buy them on the bus (I didn't find that info on the website) so it was fine - although it did mean that we could have just caught the bus from out the front of the caravan park, without all the rushing around.

Anyway, we finally got on the bus and I really enjoyed the trip through parts of the Adelaide Hills I hadn't seen before (Bridgewater, Aldgate, Stirling). Really really pretty. We changed buses and went up to the summit of Mt Lofty. The rain was falling hard here, and the mountain was covered in cloud. It was icy cold as well - and still fun to go and stand at the lookout and see nothing but cloud below us. We could look at the pictures of what the view normally was, and enjoyed the experience of really being in the elements. We went for a quick 10 minute walk around the base of the lookout - I love walking through the bush in the cloud, it really means I focus my attention on the foliage around me, and it was beautiful. It's obviously recovering from bushfire which always fascinates me too. The kids popped in to the gift shop for Millie to buy my birthday present.

We had the choice of catching the bus back after 30 minutes or waiting 3 1/2 hours, so we chose the quick trip option. We sat at the bus stop eating ritz and tuna in the rain and then jumped back on the bus. Changing buses at the base of the mountain we found the driest place to stand was outside the bus shelter, up against the wall - the rain was swirling around inside the shelter. Back on the next bus (with the same driver as the first time) and through the pretty suburbs again and to our caravan park.

We hung out at the tent reading and playing games through the afternoon. I was a little frustrated that my computer wasn't working, as I'd planned to do more work while I had wifi and power handy. I researched how to fix the problem and found a possible solution, but I needed a tiny screwdriver which I didn't have - I figured I'd sort it out on Monday.

Tony cooked a chicken curry for mothers day tea, it was delicious, and lovely to sit cosy under our annex eating a warm meal while it rained outside. We headed to bed pretty early, everyone was tired and happy to go in and read Brisingr.