Leaving Hahndorf we headed in the general direction of Adelaide. After all the uphill and down dale and round every corner, the drive out of Hahndorf really floored me. Flat, good road. and within less than ten minutes we were on the approach road to the South Eastern Freeway, direct to Adelaide then through town to Tea Tree Plaza. A brief stop at Bunnings for young John (not me!!) and on to the shopping center. I had been given direction where I should find the shop that I wanted, but I’m stuffed if I could find it, and no shopkeeper in the area had ever heard of it. Anyway, by this time we had to set off for home. I drove to Port Wakefield then had to stop. I had to hand the driving back to John. Generally, I wear dark clip-on shades when driving during the day. I did not for three days. I had my eyes tested last week and asked for my driving glasses to have an anti-glare coating. This was done so when I picked up my glasses on the Tuesday I did not wear any protection from the sun, believing that the anti-glare coating was all I needed, and to be honest, it seemed to be. Wednesday we left and I drove to Adelaide. Thursday we collected the car and although John was driving, I was sitting looking out without any clip-ons. Thursday was a 39c day. I continued like this throughout the day, and took over the driving at Tea Tree Plaza. By the time we reached Port Wakefield my eyes were so strained and painful, to continue driving was dangerous for both of us, so John took over the driving. I went into my bag and got the face cloth from my wetpack, poured cold water on it and washed my face and eyes. I put the clip-on shades back on. By the time we reached the Tin Man (245 k) my eyes had calmed down and I was going to take over the driving again, but John decided he would drive us home – which he did. I felt bad about that but I really did believe that the anti-glare coating would be sufficient. I was wrong. I have eyes that are sensitive to very bright sunlight, which creates a bit of a problem – although I have shades of different degrees of darkness scattered all over the place, house, bedroom, car, garage and some float around the sheds
The scenery on the road to Lobethal was incredible, but with the narrow roads and no stopping areas (unlike Scottish Highlands Roads) I was unable to take photographs. Mind you not that they would have been much
good with trees blocking much of the view. With John doing his thing at several Beer Places I was able to have a quiet wander around Lobethal. Here I came across the white church and the foundation stone dated 1921. The place was a Uniting Church Building but since the Uniting Church did not exist in 1921, the original church was something else. My smartphone was not being very smart so I had to wait until I came home. As it turned out the white church was founded in 1921 as Tweedvale Presbyterian Church. Tweedvale is the name that was given to Lobethal during the anti-German feeling in WWI. It reverted back to its original name Lobethal by Government Decree in 1934. So the White Church began life as a Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church had existed there since 1869 but it was 1920 before they had sufficient funds bu build their own place.
This last week has been the first mini heatwave of the season with the temperature peaking at 39c on Thursday. Friday was 34c and on Friday afternoon the thunderstorm started and it rained. Saturday morning and was still raining, so we were unable to go out for our morning walk. Benji is curled up in his bed so I don’t think he was too put out. The rain continued until early Sunday morning and by the time I got up it had stopped. We did go out and it was interesting to see that the ground is so dry that the water in the pit had already started to soak away into the soil. In some communities in New South Wales, water is being shipped in because their own source of water has dried up. I feel for our fellow citizens but am thankful that we still have a good supply of water and decent rains to back it up. Having said that, it did rain in New South Wales and Queensland over the weekend. Not enough to break the drought but very welcome none the less. Anyway, it was a nice two days away, but nice to get home again. However, this coming Thursday (7th Nov) I head off to Mount Gambier.
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