Aus Day 80 - Farewell to the Van

Wednesday 8th December    Aus Day 80


Rose at 07.30 after another night being woken at intervals by barking dogs, mossies or, heavy rain. Shower and breakfast then Valerie drove me to the Kay Brother’s Winery where I purchased 4 bottles of their Rare Muscat which I had been lusting after for some time. I am going to have to be very careful how I pack them to ensure safe arrival in the UK but, hopefully all will be OK.

Some of you may recall me talking about “Fruit-Fly Quarantine” in the Blog on Saturday 4th December (Aus Day 76). Well, I have received a request to clarify what this actually means. What is doesn’t mean is that you have to catch them and keep each one in a little box for a specific period of time.

When crossing State Borders such as from the Northern Territory into Western Australia and from Western Australia into South Australia transportation of any form of fresh fruit or vegetables is illegal and can attract hefty fines. Plant pests and diseases can spread from one part of Australia to another through the movement of fruit, vegetables, plants, flowers, plant products and soil. The regulations are designed to prevent the spread of such pests and diseases. The above hyperlink should provide you with any further information you wish to see and I hope this answers the original question.

At 1.30 pm I set off in the camper van for the final time to deliver it to the depot in North Adelaide arriving there at 2.40 pm, having refuelled on the way. The depot was incredibly busy to the extent that I had to park my vehicle on the road because there was simply not enough space to drive it into the depot yard.

However, once I actually managed to get someone to attend to me, the hand over was relatively simple although I did present them with quite a list of things which need attending to. By this time Valerie had arrived in order to ferry me back to Willunga although we stopped off at Adelaide Market and a friend’s house for coffee, on the way.

We got back to Willunga just in time for me to establish Skype contact with Eileen thereby rounding off a good day.

I apologise for having no photographs today and will try to do better tomorrow. However, I have now all but completed my Australian travels and only have to wait until Friday before I fly out from Adelaide to Bangkok, via Sydney and then from Bangkok on Sunday night to UK, arriving home (weather permitting) on Monday morning.