Farewell from McLaren Vale

A little surreal that this journey of ours has come to an end. Eighteen countries across three continents and more than seven months on the move. It felt like it went so quickly, but when I look back at all the adventures we’ve had, all the wonderful foods we’ve sampled, the incredible people we’ve met along the way, the stunning natural scenery, the beaches and mountains, we really did pack a lot into this second chapter of Our Walkabout. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about chapter three already.

We’d been keeping our eye out for a property in the McLaren Vale wine region for a few years. There were a handful that peaked our interest while we were living in California, but due to COVID travel restrictions we were unable to hop on a plane to see them in person and were a little trigger shy when it came to buying real estate sight unseen. So, for the time being we’ve settled into a wonderful furnished rental house one block off the main street in the quaint country town of Willunga. The four of us have been thoroughly enjoying the town with its handful of restaurants, two craft breweries and three pubs within a few minutes walk of the house.

I’ll admit I was brought down to earth a little when we arrived in South Australia after more than seven months of being footloose and fancy free: the laundry list of things we had to take care of was decidedly daunting and pretty stressful. Drivers licenses, tax file numbers, Medicare applications, school enrollment, looking for property, getting new phone numbers… A lot of mind-numbing minutiae. But we managed to secure ourselves a couple of diesel Toyotas – something that was unavailable to us in California with the tighter emissions restrictions in the States – and have enjoyed exploring the McLaren Vale surrounds as we’ve settled in, so it wasn’t all work with no play.

It’d been more than two years since we’d seen Granny Jenni and almost three since we’d seen Pops John, so there was a lot of excitement for the big reunion when we landed in Adelaide following our brilliant week in Sydney. We celebrated a delayed Christmas in true Aussie style with stunning beach weather, delectable local seafood, yummy champagne, and an afternoon swim at the beach after gifts were opened. The grandparents and Steve made up for a couple of years of not being able to spoil the kids, both of whom made out like bandits when it came time to open gifts. A fun day for all and a nice way to celebrate all of us being together again after all the lockdowns and border closures Australians have had to endure over the past couple of years.

Even though we had an extensive laundry list of moving-related items to take care of as we settled into our new digs, we did manage to mix in plenty of time at the beach during our first few weeks in South Australia. The Adelaide Mid Coast – stretching from O’Sullivan Beach to Sellicks Beach along the western edge of the McLaren Vale wine region – boasts (in my view) some of Australia’s best metro beaches, where we were able to sneak in a swim almost every day since arriving. We’ve all been feeling quite lucky to have such a brilliant selection of swimming spots within 15 minutes of the house in Willunga. Without a doubt the kids’ favorite has been the reef and jetty in Port Noarlunga, where we’ve enjoyed a handful of days snorkeling on the reef and boosting ourselves off the jetty into the deep. We also managed to catch up with a few friends here and there in-between chores, which I’m sure we’ll do plenty more of as the kids start school this week and we get into more of a routine. The day we spent on Sellicks Beach to celebrate Australia Day with the Littles and Will Perkins was one of the most memorable celebrations of Australia’s founding I can recall: beautiful beach weather, great company, kids in heaven in the surf, and a few libations to celebrate. Australia Day at its best.

The Adelaide Central Market is one of Lisa and my favorite places to visit in the greater Adelaide region, especially if we can manage it on a Friday evening for the late night markets with dinner mixed in. The quality and diversity of food on offer is always exceptional, everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to smallgoods and seafood. I hope we can make Friday night trips into the Adelaide Central Market part of our routine as the school year gets underway.

It’s been quite the rollercoaster of emotions for all of us during these first few weeks in our new home. It’s been great to be back into summer weather after six wintery weeks in the UK and Ireland, and wonderful to be able to see family and friends after Australia’s multi-year border closures. But we’ve all definitely been missing family and friends in California now that we’ve slowed down and have been settling into our new world Down Under, which of course we all expected. A good friend of mine who is another member of the California diaspora and now lives in Oregon mentioned to me the other day the one thing that is the most difficult about moving to a new place is the time it takes to build community. I couldn’t agree more. But that will come with time, and for now it’s great to see the kids so enamored with the beaches and being able to reconnect with their grandparents. The COVID situation here has been somewhat frustrating: it feels like we’ve stepped into a time-warp, where everything here in Australia is about a year behind the rest of the world. I was watching the NFL division championships this morning and noticed not a single mask in the crowds of tens of thousands of spectators jammed into the football stadiums. One can only hope that life in the most vaccinated country on the planet can return to some degree of pre-COVID normalcy sometime soon.

That’s about it from the Valtenbergs clan for the second chapter of Our Walkabout. A special thank you to all those who suggested places to visit and things to see along our route, this trip wouldn’t have been anywhere near as memorable without all the crowdsourced travel advice. Thanks to everyone who housed us and fed us along the way, and for all the emails and comments everyone posted to the blog. The four of us so enjoyed everyone following along as we traveled, it was such fun to read comments from people who had visited the same spots or added one of our locations to their bucket list after reading about our adventures. We’re looking forward to finding something a little more permanent after our initial stint here in Willunga, hopefully something with a guest house for all the international visitors who keep telling us they’re coming to visit. We can’t wait!