Finally On The Road

On 21 Feb we finally moved out of the house completely and into our trailer full time. For the first seven days we stayed close by at Mount Barker as we waited for the bank to resolve some contract settlement issues. We wanted to be handy just in case they required additional documents, signatures etc.

Mount Barker was very hot for most of the week, reaching 40 Celsius during the day and cooling only slightly in the evenings.  Lucky we were connected to 240v so the aircon in the trailer got a good old workout. We were on an oval so Cooper was in doggy heaven –  random ball games at anytime of the day.

We left Mount Barker on the morning of the 28th Feb and headed South East down the coast of South Australia. All went well for that short 200km drive.

Gemini downs is a working cattle and sheep farm of around 5000 acres on the Coorong.  We pulled in there, had a chat to the manager and decided to stay the night. The weather had turned quite a bit and was getting cool and as windy as a four year old on baked beans.

In the morning, I got up around 7am and took the Kawasaki for a ride around the paddocks (or paddicks as some pronouce it – go figure). After a while I came across a rather strange site, there was this bloke driving a new Rolls Royce convertible (which I found out later was valued at $1.2m) around the farm. He was dressed to the nines with black shirt, tie, yellow vest, hat and dripping with gold chains etc, taking pictures of farm buildings, woolsheds etc.

We got chatting, me on a trail bike, not shaved, shorts, crocs, hash windcheater, and it turns out he was looking to buy the farm to add to his portfolio. His name is Lance Vater a bit of a business guy around South Australia. He owns quite a few companies including a massive aquaculture operation, RoBarra, breeding and growing Barramundi fish which are sold live to restaurants around the world.

Anyway, he wants the farm to use for student education, he has tapped into a deal where he can have 300 high school students for 37 weeks of the year from Eastern states private schools. Each student would spend a week with his operations, the time would be spread over the barramundi breeding centre in Adelaide, and the sheep and cattle farm at Gemini downs. I told him that if he bought the farm I wouldn’t mind 100 acres, he didn’t commit to that, but he said that if the sale went ahead he would need someone to manage the place for him as he summed me up and down. Anyway we exchanged details, I’ve sent him my CV and he knows I am available –who knows.

After Gemini Downs on the Coorong we drove on to Kingston S.E, a sleepy little town on the coast (but it does have 2, yes 2, pubs). So we are staying 2 nights, 1 night in the caravan park, 1 night free camping next to the jetty – I tried fishing for about 20 minutes in the 60kmh breeze, but gave up and went to the fish and chip shop instead.