I left the caravan park at crack of dawn, parked the trailer in a service road near the Mazda dealer in Paradise and dropped the truck in for the repairs to the clutch.
They had quoted more than a day for the repair so I decided to visit the Barossa in the Little Motley. Jean suggested that I should go to the Clare valley to buy a bottle of their wine to wet Baby Claire's head.
I visited the Leasingham Winery and bought a bottle of 1999 Classic Clare Shiraz.
I enquired at the Tourist Info Centre about wineries with restaurants and found that, being Monday, the choice was limited. I decided to go to a place called Skillogalee for lunch. The name comes from a Cornish porrige but the food was not Cornish, rather Australian International and was good. The wine was excellent. I chatted with an American couple from Seattle, and I bought a bottle of 2002 Gewurztraminer.
I drove back to the Barossa planning to stay in a motel and visit the Bethany Winery. Motel's don't come cheap in this high tourist area so I found the cheapest and, having had a good lunch, dined in my room on fruit and iced coffee. The airconditioner worked overtime and I was comfortable.
In the morning I revisited the Bethany Winery and bought a couple of bottles of 2000 Barossa Chardonnay.
I took the road through the Adelaide Hills and stopped at the Gorge Wildlife Park for a quick visit. Though this had been recommended by a Volunteer Guide at Adelaide Zoo as a good place to go, I was most disappointed. I know that running a private zoo is a very difficult business but that doesn't alter the fact that most of the enclosures were of a very low standard and most of the animals looked pretty seedy.
I rang the Mazda place to confirm that the truck would be ready but, when I turned up to collect it, I found that they had had a problem at the end of the job and had to order in from Melbourne a new clip for the gear linkage and I would have to return on the morrow for a few minutes for them to complete the job. It was good that the vehicle was mobile so I was able to park up next to a park in a back street near the Mazda place where I had a comfortable, if very hot, night. The only problem was that I had parked in a street which is a short-cut used by high-speed hoons.