Meningie

It's our 3rd day in Meningie SA, and the weather has turned a bit yucky. Yesterday was warm and muggy, about midnight last night the wind blew up and we had to race outside to roll the awning up before it blew off. Today is cool and windy and it's just started to rain.

We went for a great drive yesterday out to the barrages and through the Coorong, we crossed between Lakes Alexandrina and Albert by ferry and passed Australia's only inland lighthouse (in fact the only one in the Southern hemisphere) before heading home. We had dinner with friends who live here whilst Trevor manages Coorong Dairies-the Lake Alexandrina Station milks 3000 cows and that is taking about 18 hours a day at the moment!

Last night before dinner Russell took the dog to the vet for a check up of her leg and came home with a rabbit he bought at the local butcher, so it's rabbit for us tonight which is one of our favourites!! I love SA when it comes to food-they kill and eat almost anything that has 4 legs and rabbit is so much easier and cheaper to buy than at home.

Day 4 in Meningie, and our rabbit was wonderful. We cooked a Stifado, which is a Greek style recipe containing tomato, red wine sauce, whole onions and a few different herbs and spices.Yum
Tonight it's nice to say we are having a BBQ with our neighbours Ross and Pam who were from Shepparton until they sold out to go on the road permanently. We are taking our meat and a coleslaw next door to eat with them. When they had a look at our van, they took us to theirs to show us they are basically exactly the same-except for a wash basin and a partition between the bed and rest of van. Pam designed their van after seeing one similar but about 15 years old. She tells us it is a very uncommon floor plan, but wouldn't change a thing after living in it for 9 months!

Meningie has been great. Anyone passing through should stop and buy a pie or pastie at the bakery, or visit the butcher shop where they only sell meat they slaughter themselves and so sell at a really reasonable price. They were only too happy to cryovac us a few small packs of meat and some fillets of local Coorong mullet to take with us too which will be really handy. Don't be put off by the shop-it seems like it is their office, tea room, and the wife had her sewing machine and computer to keep her busy in the quiet times. The Coorong mullet is highly recommended by anyone local you speak to.

We were also able to get 1kg of cooked yabbies to take with us tonight to the neighbours. They cost us $12 and look yummy, but I'll let you know.