Our Southern State is seriously underrated!

We went for a little trip last month. Just a week.

South Australia really has some stunning scenery. We hit the Fleurieu Peninsula, Barossa Valley, Flinders Ranges and topped it off Cage diving with Great White sharks in Port Lincoln. Quite the whirlwind.

I thought I’d share some nice spots & shots if you choose to do a little road trip of your own.

We stayed at Collingrove Homestead in Angaston (which is somewhere around the Barossa Valley.)

Riddled with history. No ghosts (I was hoping for clanging keys and the like). The original owner came over from England back in the 1800’s and built the house in the English style to make his wife feel at as home as possible. Because of the tremendous contribution the owners and land provided to the are, the government have ensured that it’s been brought back to its original state after a few years of abandonment.

This room had a prince stay in it back in the day.

This family ended up owning 14 million acres of land which has since been sold off over the years.  It’s no wonder they needed their own petrol pump.

I just loved it everywhere I looked.

We caught a cab to ‘Appellation’ for dinner at The Louise. It’s renowned for its exceptional food. And it was superb. SU-PERB I tell you! We did the chef’s tasting menu. It was the first time A had tasted Lamb’s Tongue. I’ve never seen it on a menu before but growing up with my father's love of it, we often had it on sandwiches for lunch. The whole meal was the best I’ve had in a very long time and it gave us a great opportunity to taste test some of SA's great wines.

Driving from the Barossa to the Flinders Ranges is great. The landscape changes from rich greens into reds, purples and pinks. Kangaroos and emu’s dart about. It was baby lamb season. They are the cutest things snuggled into the grass – so small that all you could see was the tips of their heads. If you have children and plan to go, do it this time of year.

Those little lambs are a sight to see.

The old stone homes are everywhere and I didn’t tire of admiring them, or the crazy amount of cool old clapped out cars.

We had big intentions of doing the walk to Wilpena Pound but time did not permit. Next visit. We stayed in one of Rawnsley Park Stations Eco Villas which has glorious views over the ranges. On the other side of these ranges pictured is Wilpena Pound.

Wine and cheese was provided in our room to enjoy the sunset – which we happily did. The roof above the bed opens to clear glass so you can ‘sleep under the stars’.

This was the way out from Wilpena on the way down to Port Lincoln. Wilpena Pound in the background there. 'A' knows how to use the landscape thing on the camera. Fancy.

Shark diving was tops. They are enormously enormous. So much fun. They drop the bate right in front of the cage so you see the sharks mouth open, eyes roll back and their jaw protrude onto the bate.  It’s not at all scary but very invigorating – we felt 200% safe in the cage. There were about 5 sharkes cruising around when we were down. Very cool. Most definitely worth the drive to Port Lincoln.

The cage is pretty big and so is that gap. A smaller shark swam up slowly between myself and the guy next to me and nudged the cage just below the gap. If i were a shark - i would've aimed better. Thank goodness he wasn't that smart because i'm sure his head would've fit through it. The largest shark of the day was a monster at 5.5m long.

We enjoyed Oysters at Coffin Bay on the last day of the season at Oyterbeds Restaurant. Coffin Bay, 30mins out of Lincoln is very quaint and have super cool old beach shacks right on the water's edge.

We pub hopped in Adelaide down lane ways into the warmth of Art Deco hotels and that was the trip done and dusted.

There's more to SA than the Barossa.

Black Bathrooms

I like black. Since we renovated upstairs and I painted the bathroom cupboard black, I had visions of the downstairs bathroom being painted black - the visions are still there.

I googled images this morning in an effort to convince 'A' that a black bathroom is in fact for everyone ..... do you think this cuts the mustard? Because this is kind of how I want it all to roll out .... colour wise grey and black and stone.

Not every inch of the place'll be black. Just the main wall and shower unit.

A deep grey wall and black vanity & mirror is another option which I really like too.

Will I have the guts to do this or will I just fall back on grey and white? 
I know what A will say.

"Would you buy a house with a black bathroom.....?"

Building is Commencing - Stable door find.

Our builder commences in 2 weeks to build in underneath the house.

With the tweaking of plans a weekly occurance (by retentive me) we're good to go. It's hard to change bathroom layouts when the slab and plumbing have already been put in.

5 years brings new/better/more affordable and more convenient ideas. Let's hope anyway.

I've had a win this week. I found the external laundry door.

This is it.

It's an old dutch door (stable door). $160 Demo yard. Woo! This type of bargain brings me so much joy. Particulary after signing off on the windows and doors for the rest of the house. Wooden framed = exy.

I was having one quoted to be made and to have something this sturdy, with this kind of glass and this detail - it'd be over $1000 and that's money i'f prefer to use for better tiles in the bathroom. On the back side of the bottom door, it has nicer detailing for inside. I'm most pleased.

I'm intending on using this entrance for any garden dirty feet work - a small version mud room, so in order to keep the dog out and still capture a breeze it's a great option for us.