Adelaide

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After settling in at our very lovely hostel, My Place, we headed out to explore the city centre. We spent a lot of the day wandering the Central Market, which consists mostly of stalls selling incredible fresh produce (meats, fruit'n'veg, olives, cheeses, choccies, bread, cakes etc.), cafes, restuarants, Asian supermarkets and bargain souvenir shops. Having not eated Asian style since Malaysia, we couldn't resist treating oursleves to some cheap but fantastic Laksa (Laura) and Bee Hoon (Luke) - delicious!

The next day we hopped on the free hostel bus to Glenelg beach - a 15 minute drive form the city. Still feeling tired from the train, we had a fab day swimming, sunbathing and exploring the town (a bit like Freo). Oh, and after 2 1/2 months, Luke finally got his bushy barnet cut! Hooray.

Much to our delight, there are a number of wine regions near Adelaide. These include the Barossa Valley, McClaren Vale and the Clare Valley. We really like the idea of exploring the McClaren Vale of bikes with a special picnic box from the local cheese company, but this turned out to be a pricey option and the public transport made it even more of an effort. So in the end, the bargain Groovy Grape tour to the Barossa Valley was too good an opportunity to miss!

This tour took us to 2 commercial wineries, Jacob's Creek and Rockford, and 2 family run wineries, Vine Crest and Bethany Wines. Just like the tour we did in the Swan Valley, we enjoyed numerous samples of whites, roses, reds, dessert wines and ports. We also enjoyed a great BBQ where we got our first proper taste of delicious marinated 'Roo. Another glassed of wine quickly washed away the guilt, having only been feeding and petting them a couple of weeks ago - oops.

We also visited Oz's largest rocking horse (very random) and the whispering wall, a dam wall that has perfect acoustics so you can stand 50m away from people and have a normal conversation. This was apparently discovered when the wall was being built and one of the workers was complaining about the foreman!!

Laura was in her element when she discovered that 2 people in our group of 9 were/were soon to be fellow health professionals - physio and speech for those of you who love to talk shop!! NHS politics was in much discussion after a few samples...

Next stop, Alice Springs and the Red Centre! (Pro's: Uluru, culture, scorchio weather. Con's: more trains, flies, scorchio weather.)

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Photos

Hong Kong?
No, Chinatown in Adelaide!

Glenelg Square
Far too many tasty treats in such a small place.

Giant Rocking Horse
The biggest in Australia, don't you know!

The Whispering Wall
Shhhhhhh

Groovy Wine Dudes
Preparing for our first tipple at 10 a.m. at Jacobs Creek!

Wine Tasting
I'm tasting: oak, raspberries, hollyhocks, vegemite and salt and vinegar crisps!?

Wine Tasting
Bottoms up, darlings!

Comments

[Mum N]

I WANT TO GO TO JACOBS CREEK !!