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It’d been almost five years since we’d been over to Navan to visit the Browns. The last time we were on the farm was on a quick trip to Yorke Peninsula as part of a visit to Australia for Max and Lilia’s spring break in 2017. My how time flies… Amazing to see the Brown kids all grown up: Max (Brown) with his driving license and ready to head off to boarding school, and Eleanor towering over both Lisa and her mother Rebecca. I have so many fond memories of spending school breaks over on Yorke Peninsula, it was great to be able to expose Lilia and Max to many of the things I remember from my time on the farm as a youngen. Whipping around on dirt bikes, moving sheep in the utes, zipping down for a swim at Port Rickaby, big communal dinners of farm-butchered lamb… Lilia and Max loved all the farm animals, especially Tiny Brown the pet lamb, and have been haranguing us about getting dirt bikes of their own ever since we pulled out of the driveway to head back to Adelaide!
During one of our days at Navan we trekked to the southern tip of Yorke Peninsula to enjoy some of the stunning beaches of Innes National Park. Becky steered us all on a new adventure – a spot where none of us had ever ventured before – to Shell Beach at the westernmost end of the national park. The beach was so picturesque, with its turquoise water fringed by white sand, and the pools in the rocks at the northern end of the beach were a big hit with all the kids (and adults). The diversity of sea life in the largest of the pools pictured below was quite amazing, it was like an aquarium in there with all manner of juvenile fish swimming about. Pretty cool to be able to enjoy somewhere as magic as Shell Beach in the middle of the summer school break and have the place almost to ourselves. The emus putting on a show by the side of the road on our way out of Innes were also quite the highlight (last few pics below).
Never a family to pass up an opportunity to patronize a brewery, after some mulberry picking near Hardwicke Bay one afternoon we enjoyed a few beers at Minlaton’s Watsacowie Brewing Company. The tap room was tucked into an industrial district off Minlaton’s main drag and served up some excellent libations, everything from lager through to New England IPA and cider. I was tempted to grab a six pack for the fridge at home but had a little sticker shock when I saw the takeaway prices (and this is nothing unique to Watsacowie, craft beer prices in Australia are incredible): at A$27/US$19 for a six pack of cans I decided to enjoy the beers on tap rather than grab a sixer to go! There was a local gent serving up curry and rice out the back, and plenty of room for the kids to roam. Definitely a worthwhile stop on the route down Yorke Peninsula.
It was a lot of fun to take a break from our laundry list of chores to spend a few days with the Browns on Yorke Peninsula, we always feel so welcome and love being able to expose Lilia and Max to a true blue Aussie farm. It’ll be great to be able to repay the Browns for all our farm visits when we eventually get settled in the McLaren Vale area. Couldn’t have asked for a better final Our Walkabout Two adventure before school starts next week!
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