The Turning 50 Report

Well, it’s official….I am now definitively middle-aged. But it can also be said that I have amazing friends and that makes up for a lot of the aches, pains and wrinkles that seem to go with turning 50.

We celebrated my 50th in the Clare Valley, about 2 hours north of Adelaide. Some very special friends travelled to meet us for the occasion. Tracey & Tony came from Sydney, Steph & Bruce from Adelaide, Mark & Emma from Coffs and Karen & Dave from Melbourne. We all stayed at a great, old B&B in a place called Mintaro, which is a historic town that somehow has been left unspoilt by tourism. There was a big birthday lunch at a winery called Skillagallee, where the food was amazing, the wine was good and plentiful and the great Australian tradition of making speeches at 50th birthdays was honoured. It’s not very often one gets to feel so well loved, and the whole occasion was about the best gift one could ever have asked for.

Of course, there was a bit of roasting too. Mark, in particular, could not spend an entire weekend without sharing his stories about what an idiot I have been over all the years he’s known me. There was also the requisite consumption of too much alcohol, particularly by me. Turns out gin and tonics taste even better when you’re over 50….which is unfortunate! There was a wonderful amount of laughter (which was great even when at my expense) and the hilarity reached fever pitch during our game of celebrity heads – you know , the game where you wear a sign on your head with a celebrity’s name and you have to ask questions to figure out who it is. The names got harder and harder, I got drunker and drunker and the laughter got increasingly manic. Great fun!

I should mention that prior to my birthday we did the trip from Broken Hill to Adelaide with a 2 night stop in Burra – which is an old copper mining town north of Adelaide and not far from Clare. This stop had been planned largely because there was a golf course in Burra with a men’s comp – which meant Dennis could play golf while I did the report I needed to do for my one outstanding client. It was all kind of a disaster. It was windy and freezing (high of 13, low of 4). I dropped Dennis at the golf (without his mobile phone) where he discovered that there didn’t seem to be a comp at all (despite a sign out the front advertising the men’s comp on Wednesdays) and he was the only person on the course battling against the wind. Meanwhile I discovered that there was no suitable coffee shop to work in so had to zip myself into the tent with my beanie, a cup of tea and head torch. I sincerely hope that the final report showed no signs of the conditions in which it was prepared.

The next day we discovered that there really was a Vet’s Comp at the Clare Golf Course – so we drove into Clare where Dennis played a more interesting and companionable round of golf and I finished my report in the relative warmth of the club house.

And that brings us to now….. We are jut leaving Melrose and have decided to exercise our right as explorers to completely change plans. The intention had been to spend a couple of weeks in the Flinders Ranges – but the weather SUCKS. Gale force winds again last night meant we were awake most of the night, we lost our roof again and awoke generally cold and pissed off. The weather forecast predicts much of the same for the next few days and we have decided we’ve had enough being cold and windblown. We are going to skip the Flinders altogether and head to the Oodnadatta Track via Roxby Downs and Andamooka. Bring on the desert I say!!

Special mention must go to our friends Steph and Bruce, and their kids Jack and Laura, who put us up for 3 nights at their lovely new home in Adelaide, despite the fact that they were in the middle of a renovation. Being the experienced explorers that we are, we had no trouble sharing one bathroom between 6 people, or living without a kitchen. But it was a brave move on their part to put up with two more people in their slowly unraveling home life. We loved being with them, didn’t even notice the chaos and I was particularly delighted with the opportunity for a few games of Scrabble with Steph.

A few mentions from the bearded one (that's Dennis in case you haven't figured that out by looking at the pictures). Stephanie's birthday was great, even better to be there to experience her emotions and the joy that came with the occassion. So far to get to Port Augusta we have travelled just under 7000 klms, mostly on bitumen and some on gravel, our vehicles are performing well however Monday in Adelaide was a good day to fix a few problems. Fixed the fridge and the hot water system and had the car on the Dyno tune. Monday Steph flew to Melbourne to present to her client which went well, also visited her Accupunctist Xiao who thought that she looked well and "calm" shows what life on the road can do for us. A highlight of this trip is meeting a diverse range of people as we go around, miners, lawyers, car salesman and lots more all sharing the great outdoors in some way. We camped at Burra and this guy came over to borrow a teabag, ended up exchanging 2 teabags for seats at their camp fire, a lovely family Mick, Lynda and kids Cloe (7) Jake (5) and Sarah (3) from Bordertown SA. We shared their fire, and exchanged stories of life. The next morning we said goodbye and Lynda remarked that Jake had asked her if they would ever see us again, well not sure about that however they will follow us on the blog.
Off now to Roxby Downs and sadly not much golf for a while.

FINAL NOTE FOR THOSE AT THE BIRTHDAY WEEKEND....to view all the pictures go to www.flickr.com/photos/dennisandsteph.