An ambulance came to our caravan park this morning. A little while later, a woman was looking for the dump site that she had just walked past. She told me that her husband had been taken to hospital and she didn’t know how to use the dump site. I showed her the way there and was giving her step by step instructions, when a man came to use the dump site and started giving contradictory advice!
We packed up and hooked up, leaving the caravan park at 2 minutes to 10am heading towards Auburn. I had planned a stop at Parafield Gardens, where there is an Aldi store on a stand-alone site, and we were able to find a place to park with the van. We went shopping for merino wool winter clothing during the annual Aldi snow sale. The store had plenty of stock, so hopefully we will keep warm at night in the outback.
The Auburn Community Caravan Park is based around the town’s oval and other recreation facilities. We didn’t book early enough to get two of the limited number of powered sites tonight, but will move to powered sites tomorrow. The facilities here are excellent, but some campers are inconsiderate driving too fast and kicking up dust. This is the well-equipped camp kitchen with a small herb and vegetable garden.
I left Bluey with Anita and walked to town to have a look around and buy a bottle of scotch. The town has several wine outlets, but only one pub with very limited stock. I rang Anita to see whether she wanted Grants or the Johnnie Walker Black – these being the only two bottles available! She opted for the latter but is still complaining about it being a blended whisky!
Without realising it was on, we are staying in the Clare Valley during the Clare Valley Gourmet Week 2024, which started yesterday. A couple of the cellar doors had music and other entertainment as I walked past, and a lot more is planned for Auburn and other towns and wineries in the Clare Valley.
Many of the old buildings in town were built using local bluestone, such as the Gothic Revival Catholic Church and the Georgian style Auburn Institute, both built in 1866.
The Rising Sun hotel is for sale. Hopefully, someone will buy this business and continue to operate it as a hotel. The cast iron lacework is based on a representation of the sun.
The Corn Store was also built in the 1860s and operated as a general store and wheat and flour store. In 1882 the local butcher acquired the building, and it remained in his family for about 100 years. It now houses a gallery. The writing on the side of the building could have been there for about 100 years. It advertises Burfords Signal Soap.
Burfods was a soap and candle making business established in Adelaide in 1840, ceasing operations in the 1960s. It became the dominant soap maker for South and Western Australia. In 1924 Burfords merged with J Kitchen & Sons and Lever Bros which became Lever & Kitchen, and finally Unilever, when Lever combined with the Dutch company Unie to form Unilever. It is unlikely the large ad for Burfords soap would have been painted after 1924.
Our friends are parked next to us and by late afternoon, Bluey was chomping at the bit wanting to visit them. It was a short visit as he kept patting me, which I realised meant he was hungry. Both critters are eating more in the cooler weather.
We are running our diesel heater as the temperature at 9pm was 4°C, and it is forecast to drop to -1° with possible frost in the early hours of tomorrow morning. Bluey and Tilly are comfortable on our bed.
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