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Published: April 27th 2010
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On Monday night there was a travel auction at the Adelaide hostel. A guy gave an interesting slide show on various tours available throughout Australia and gave away free wine during the show. He was then meant to auction the tours off with starting prices of approximately 50% of the normal charge, but there were not many of us there so I managed to get 3 tours in Queensland with a total saving of over 350 dollars (I am there in July). Two are day tours - a full day snorkelling trip on the Great Barrier Reef and a day tour by 4x4 going North of Cairns to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. But the best bargain of all was a 3 night sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands on a full masted tall ship, which was something I have always wanted to do. Great bargains and a fun night with lots of laughs as the small group of us that were left at the end stayed chatting for hours.
It was time for a beach break so I booked 3 nights at Port Elliot. I had been on time to catch the bus to Port Elliot, unlike last
week when I was way too early for the wine tour bus as nobody had told me that there was a 30 minute time difference between Melbourne and Adelaide. What kind of nonsense is 30 minutes, pah! Its was an easy 2 hour bus trip from Adelaide city and I got to see most of the Fleurieu Peninsular as the bus took a circular route along the coast and then through some of the central valleys. We passed through McLaren Vale which is the main wine growing valley of the area, with big names such as Rosemount Estate and made several stops, including the nearby Victor Harbor which is a slightly larger town than Port Elliot.
I don’t often give rave reviews in my blog for accommodation, but the YHA Beach House at Port Elliot deserves a mention as it was fab. It sat on a promontory with the sea and stunning beaches on three sides, all within a couple of minutes walk and was newly refurbished with cool furniture, modern equipment and clean bedrooms and showers. The village had everything you need for a couple of chill-out days and was just 10 minutes walk from the hostel with
a grocery, bakery (great meat pies) and some cute little shops to poke around. There was a sweet railway track where you could take rides on the Cockle Railway to the towns on either side of Port Elliot. The hostel had a small garden with deckchairs and a first floor verandah with a sea view and comfy lounging chairs. At the front of the hostel was a wide lawn with a viewing telescope overlooking Main beach below with several routes down to reach the sand via stone steps or winding paths through the pine trees. I even had a sea view from my room..
Luckily the weather was good and from the second day we had hot temperatures of 30 degrees and blue skies. Although the sea was chilly it was a welcome relief to cool down with a paddle after sitting in the sun, which was very strong. There was a short pier that had a bunch of men sitting on it all day long drowning worms (actually they managed to catch considerable amounts of fish) and down on Main beach was a small cafe next to a surf school, so I had hours of entertainment sipping coffee
or milk shakes while I watched a wide variety of people falling of their boards in the waves.
I found several great bench seats along the 2 coastal walks that I did, some in the sun and some in the deep shade of tall pine trees, that were great spots to read while you listened to the surf and the birds. At the very end of the peninsular was an area of huge boulders in the sea, where the waves crashed loudly and created spray that caught the sunlight and made mini air-rainbows.
There was a restaurant just down the road that served good food and I grabbed a couple of delicious lunches there. In the evening I cooked light suppers in the hostel or had cold cuts or cheese and biscuits while I watched TV or chatted to the nice crowd of people there. A few if us did go down to the local pub one night but it was dead and lacked atmosphere. My 3 day stay at the seaside hostel was all good, even if it did still smell of paint from the recent redecoration.
The trip back to Adelaide was uneventful but the
weather had changed to rain and was much cooler. I had found a good deal for a hotel on the edge of the city so booked in for 3 nights, however it was not as good as I had expected as it was shabby, but it was lovely having my own TV for a while. I spent the next 2 days dodging rain showers and exploring the city centre which is pretty small. It was a holiday weekend and there were lots of sales on in the shops on Saturday, so I took advantage and bought a couple of cheap tops. Naturally everything was closed on Sunday and Monday, including the restaurant in the hotel which was a pain as it was a long wet trudge to the centre of town and the open eateries.
Sunday was Anzac Day and although it was showery I donned my raincoat, caught the tram to the other end of town and found a good corner spot on the main route where I could watch the parade that started at 9.30am. I stayed for about 2 hours watching all manner of people and vehicles passing by while listening to the wide variety of
bands playing rousing marching tunes. There were many veterans proudly wearing their medals, some marching, some in mobility scooters or wheelchairs and some riding in jeeps. Every arm of each of the services were represented from all wars, from the Second World War through to the present day engagements in the Middle East. Also every age group was involved, from veterans in their 90’s to young cadets or band members not yet in their teens. Many relatives of the fallen were there to remember their loved ones by joining on the parade too. The rain didn’t dampen anyone’s spirit so the atmosphere was great, the crowd clapped and cheered the passing marchers and it was a colourful and happy experience. The sombre part had happened earlier at the Dawn Remembrance Service, which I didn’t get up for.
Anzac Day is one of only 3 days during the year when its legal to play and bet on the game of Two Up, which involves staking your money on the toss of a handful of coins and which way up they fall - don’t ask me any more as I don’t know the rules. Throughout the city (mainly outside pubs) there
were noisy groups of people huddled in circles laying their bets and shouting wild encouragement at the coin Tossers and getting quite excited. Beer was flowing freely and it was good natured.
Last night some old friends of a neighbour back home took me out for dinner at Glenelg, the seaside area close to the city that is full of nice restaurants and bars. There were 6 of us and we started off with drinks at the Oyster Bar where they have an ice mountain behind the bar that continuously feeds more ice from the top, causing a constant slow flow of ice down to the bottom - within the ice are lots of different bottled beers set in racked tiers. It was fun to watch but actually we all chose to drink wine. We then went along the road by the marina to Outback Jack’s restaurant where we had some great steaks followed by a yummy dessert of cold vanilla icecream with a shot of Tia Maria and a shot of hot espresso coffee poured over it. .The company was great, the food and wine was lovely (particularly the local Church Block shiraz/merlot) and I had a great
time. I was spoiled as our host Bob picked up the majority of the tab and they dropped me back to the hostel at the end of the night, so only had to stagger up the stairs to bed.
I have a horribly early start tomorrow to catch the famous Overland train from Adelaide to Melbourne, a journey of just under 12 hours but a great opportunity to see more of the interior of the States of Southern Australia and Victoria.
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