TripRoundUnder

The day we left was one jam packed 24 hours. We went to a few of our favorite coffee and food shops for one last hoorah, sold a car, had a lengthy phone call to insurance, changed health funds and one last mad rush to the shops to get all the last minute essentials. Best believe we had to farewell all of our friends and family ALL in one day as well!

This trip has been something we have spoken, planned and worked one for over a year and the fact that we were actually about to leave almost didn’t feel real. But, given the Covid fog that surrounded Adelaide, we were both glad to get out of the City and be in our own space.

Our first port of call was Loxton, a nice little town in the Riverland area of South Australia. Lauren’s friend Paige is working as a nurse in the local hospital and she was kind enough to let us stay in her backyard and use her shower and bathroom, a much nicer option than a bucket or hole outside!

Lauren and I had never really spent much time up on the river, so this was a bit of a first for us! It was slightly unnerving to not be able to see where you were walking and the fact we had been told yabbies were on the bottom was a little unsettling and made more than a few startled moments. In saying that, the water was actually really nice to swim in and bringing the SUP to the freshwater worked out quite well!

Besides the water activities, we also ventured out to check out some of the other attractions the Riverland has to offer. Our first visit was to 23rd St distillery and judging by Laurens facial expressions when doing a tasting paddle, I’m not sure either of us are going to become straight spirit drinkers any time soon! In order to find alcohol that couldn’t probably be used to power the Troopy, we visited the Riverland Wine Centre and Woolshed brewery (not to be confused with the classy Adelaide establishment). This was much more to our liking, although, Lauren in a surprise upset was the first one to spill a drink for the trip.

On our last evening, we caught a cracking sunset at a local lookout spot which led to a much more interesting experience that we were expecting. An ambulance was called (not for us Mum), but that is a story for another day…