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Published: February 21st 2011
Adelaide Food Market
Thought of you Dave!Monday 14 February
We fly out to Adelaide which takes just over an hour and we also go back half an hour because of the different time zone in South Australia. We are here until Sunday but during this time we have arranged a 2 day trip to Kangaroo Island and a day wine tasting in the Barossa Valley.
Adelaide is quite a bit smaller than Melbourne but nevertheless has many attractions and during our first couple of days we visit many of these including an Aboriginal Heritage museum, a huge covered food/craft market and Adelaide Botanical Gardens. We also visit Ayers house which is owned by the National Trust (yes – we got in free again) - an Englishman by the name of Henry Ayers was the most influential resident of this house in the late 18th century and was the Premier of South Australia on no less than 7 different occasions. In addition he had that rock in the middle of Australia named after him before of course ownership reverted back to the Aboriginal people with the name once again becoming Uhuru
We are staying in an apartment in North Adelaide which is within easy walking
Botanic Gardens
David "Jude" Bellamy distance of the city centre via some attractive parks. There are some good places to eat including a pub called ‘The British’ and one almost next door which has some very good live music every night. The whole of Adelaide is buzzing at the moment as they are in the throws of the ‘Adelaide Fringe’ with entertainment all over the city.
Wednesday 16 February
We are up at 5.00am for our coach trip to Cape Jervis and onward ferry to Kangaroo Island – we arrive at about 10.00am. We will be seeing the main attractions by coach tour and we learn a great deal about the island from our excellent driver Dave. KI (as the locals call it) is the 3rd biggest Australian island measuring 155km long and 53km wide but more interestingly it is like stepping back into time – there are 4,400 residents - the majority of who live in 4 small towns: there are some tar-mac roads linking the 4 main towns but many are gravel roads/tracks: there are no traffic lights, roundabouts or stop signs and only the occasional give way sign: there are 4 schools and 3 policemen and electricity only arrived on
Kangeroo Island
Baby sea lion looking for mummy the island in 1966.
In addition we learn from Dave about the vast numbers of animal and plant species that reside here and he is very keen to tell us about the sexual habits of the Kangaroo, wombat, Koala and seal – to name but a few. Dave is a complete mine of information which is surprising seeing he has only lived on the island for 7 months – of course, he could be talking bollocks and making it all up!!!
The island got its name from the English Explorer Matthew Flinders (there are loads of things named after him all over Australia) who in 1802 landed with his hungry crew on the island and was promptly met by thousands of kangaroos bouncing around the beach. The ship’s crew were subsequently employed in a mass slaughter for the supply of nutritional sustenance and in gratitude for this; he named the place ‘Kangaroo Island’
Our 2 day tour takes in some beautiful coastline scenery viewing including the “Remarkable Rocks” and “Admirals Arch” which are both very unusual rock formations. We visit Australian wild life parks, go seal spotting, see a birds of prey display, watch some very hungry
pelicans being fed and visit some caves. We find out about Eucalyptus and honey production, and all you ever need to know about milking sheep!! (Yes – there are other uses for them). Whilst we never actually saw any seals on Phillip Island we saw hundreds here – 2 different types – Australian sea lions and New Zealand fur seals – the latter being a smaller and more smelly variety.
Sheep farming is the main business here but vast areas of the island are bush and National Parks – fishing and tourism are the other main sources of income. We learn that about 20% of the island was affected by a massive bush fire some 3 years ago and whilst re-growth has taken place the damage done was plain to see. The firemen on the island are all volunteers and during this fire fire-fighters from all over Australia were drafted in. Shortage of water is always a big problem on the island and we are affectionately told “if it’s yellow let it mellow – if it’s brown flush it down”!
The last attraction before we left the island was the Pelican feeding on the shores of Kingscott (the
Kangeroo Island
Driver Dave and view from "Remarkable Rocks" island capital) – this was utter mayhem with this crazy guy up to his waist in water with a huge cask of fish – he gave us a running commentary as he showed us pelican ‘feeding skills’ and on some occasions being completely engulfed by these hungry huge beaked birds – he nevertheless survived and will do it all again tomorrow.
Friday 18 February
Having arrived back from Kangaroo Island late last night (we were last to be dropped off from the coach) we wake up in Adelaide to rain – we didn’t come to Australia for this!! It is set to rain all day and therefore our trip to the beach town of Glenelg is abandoned. – It looks like we will be having an irresponsible eating and drinking day!
Saturday 19 February
To-day is the day of our wine tasting trip to the Barossa Valley and the weather has improved. We have booked our trip with ‘Groovy Grape Getaways’ a company which boasts a desire to raise the standards in the backpacker market with ‘informative and adventurous’ trips – we felt sure we could keep up with those youngsters! It was a brilliant day
Kangeroo Island
Remarkable Rocks (in the background) out although it did drift off into chaos on a number of occasions.
Our scheduled pickup was over half an hour late and at one stage we did wonder whether the company had gone into liquidation the previous day. The mini bus finally arrived and we learn that the driver (this was her 1st unaccompanied trip) had got lost trying to pick up our fellow travellers – this did not bode well I hear you say!! Whilst no backpackers were on board we still managed to bring the average age up considerably. However, not wanting to let the side down, we soon settled in with the boisterous 4 or 5 Australian youngsters at the back of the bus. Our driver/guide soon made it clear as to how the tour would progress by saying that she wouldn’t be doing much commentary on route as she could then drive faster which meant we would have more drinking time! (You would have liked this tour John)
Before reaching any wineries we stopped somewhere in the Adelaide hills to view “The Whispering Wall” which is in fact a curve shaped Dam holding back a huge mass of water – if you stand
Kangeroo Island
The "Penguin Man" from Kingscott at one end of the wall you can hear someone speak perfectly clearly at the other end (some 300/400 metres away) – a bit like the whispering gallery in St Paul’s Cathedral. Anyhow enough of this sightseeing and onward we go to commence the wine tasting. In all, we were due to stop at 4 wineries; however, they did not appear to be the same ones as our itinerary stated!!
Our 1st stop was the massive estate of Orlando, home of Jacobs Creek where we got into the swing of things – our trusty driver told some of us (but not all) that this might be a good place to purchase wine if we wanted some with lunch as the wine at our scheduled lunch stop was a lot more expensive – we duly obeyed – although others on the tour who were not told, were less than happy when having to pay $36 for a bottle of wine later on. Back on the bus things started getting very relaxed with a certain amount of ‘tasting’ continuing to take place at the back. When we arrived at our 2nd stop our driver stated that she was off to buy
Barossa Wine Tour
Boisterous bus backseaters meat to cook on the BBQ while we were to continue sampling at the winery– she was away ages and on her return we all had to help prepare lunch or I think we still might have been there now. Lunch consisted of chicken, sausages and kangaroo – not quite the BBQ ‘extravaganza’ as advertised but nevertheless very welcome.
By this time the youngsters at the back of the bus had “adopted” us as one of their own as we ventured on to stops 3 and 4 – and it was then that I believe the singing started as the wine flowed. At the 4th winery (I think) we not only got to sample wine but also some very fine fortified wine which kept coming and coming! Looking at the itinerary again I see that at some stage we were meant to stop at Menglers Hill lookout to admire the views – we never got there! Whilst the tour company I’m sure could have been prosecuted under the Trades Description Act in a number of areas, we had to feel sorry for our poor driver who had a lot to put up with on her 1st tour and had
Tamsin
Ready for Yoga seemed to have been thrown in at the deep end – despite all that no one really minded as a brilliant day was had by one and all.
The boisterous theme continued on our journey back to Adelaide and having said our fond farewells to our newly found chums we got back to our apartment for a lie down.
Sunday 20 February
After our escapades yesterday and a low key evening meal we awake feeling a little weary!! – I wonder why. We leave Adelaide to-day after a very memorable week and arrived back in Melbourne early afternoon.
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Rosie
non-member comment
Bed
You obviously enjoyed Adelaide and looking at you in the back of the bus kept up the Whitburn tradition and made a good exhibition of yourself. As to Sunday did either of you ever get out of bed? Carry on enjoying yourselves love to everyone and I hope Tamsin enjoyed yoga xxx