Blogs from Adelaide Hills, South Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 7

Finally the rain came and the week after we headed to the hills to see the colours of Autumn. You really can't go past Mt Lofty Botanical gardens - it has a large number of northern hemisphere trees that put on a stunning display - and it aslo includes part of the Heysen trail. You can revisit our last blog about the gardens Apple picking and Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens We saw numerous glimpses of southern brown bandicoots - see pictures scurrying around the place. Rat-like but with short tails. We visited Fern gully - although it took quite a bit of effort to get there - and found it as delightful as ever. This "Dan says..." is a video as he has gone to bed and if I don't get these blogs done now - ... read more

We had the best day at Gorge wildlife park. It's set up in the hills and we had great views on the drive there. The weather again was perfect for sightseeing sitting at around 31 degrees. When we got to the park we bought biscuits and peanuts to give the animals as treats. I was in charge of the biscuits but now being an adult I didn't do the old 'one for the duck, one for Beccy' routine! (A joke my family have enjoyed since I was little!) But anyway, we started off holding the koala Molly. She was 6 years old and so cuddly and gentle. It was great because we weren't at all hurried and had time to cuddle and take pics and film so that was really nice. Laura loved her first ... read more

The last few years I have been trying to do something a little different to celebrate my birthday, in 2005 it was rock climbing, last year an assault on the Fringe Festival this year I decided to put a line through another thing I have been meaning to do forever. So Ruth and I packed a bag and headed up into the hills no more than an hour from home to visit a place called Warrawong, its a fully enclosed feral proof animal sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills and has an excellent supply of rare native animals. We arrived in the late afternoon and checked into a nifty little eco cabin that sleeps about 20 and then went for a walk around the sanctuary, it was exciting when we saw our first Betong, hiding under wooden ... read more

My new years resolution is a quest to find more on my family history... So off I trot from Nelson, New Zealand to see my Papa, wife Heidi, and half brother Paul. They pick me up from the airport and drive me half hour into the adelaide hills to a cute 'hick' town full of history itself; Kanmantoo. The original streets are dirt roads, dry stack wall fences, and some of the locals still live in the first Bluestone and limestone houses from the early settlers (1840). They are so old they look like they're about to fall over... the houses, not the locals! The bright blue skies are filled with the squarking sounds and colours from the flocks of pink and grey Galas, and they nesstle in the tall gum trees. Down the road they're ... read more

Introduction A couple of weeks ago we followed Ania's recommendation and headed to Chamber's gully for our walk - see . When we checked with her later, she said that she had seen our blog, but that we had gone on a different track than she normally took at Chamber's Gully. Apparently we needed to go out of the gully and up to the ridge top to get some good views and exercise (and avoid the bikes). We decided to give it a go. How to get there ... This walk is at the top of Greenhill Road - but for more information refer to our earlier journal entry . What happened ... This was a delightful walk - taking just over three hours. It combined some familiar areas but also added the climb as an ... read more