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Published: February 11th 2015
Adelaide is the epitome of a grandly planned city. The biggest battle in the planning process was whether to locate the city shore side or inland. Because of swamps and bugs, the settlers called the area where they landed “Port Misery.” The inland backers won out and thus Adelaide is situated between the ocean and the Mount Lofty Ranges and the city is totally surrounded by peaceful parks and bisected by the lovely River Torrens. The residents are proud to point out that Adelaide was never a prison colony but was settled by fine upstanding folks from England. And because of this Adelaide is the most British of all the major cities in Australia. It is a very user-friendly place with shaded sidewalks, free tram service and friendly citizens. There are benches where you would expect along with water fountains that work, convenient public restrooms, pedestrian shopping streets, a huge market and a very nice Chinatown.
We took the tram down to the seaside town of Glenelg. The palindromic name means “by the Bay.” It is a typical beach town with a large expanse of white sandy beaches lined with beautiful Victorian cottages trimmed with iron lace porches. This is
GLENELG BEACH
We had a nice walk on the white sandwhere Adelaideans come to play and to stroll the pine-lined beach promenade.
We had a very short stop in Port Lincoln which is the homeport of a huge tuna fishing industry…or as they pronounce it here “tuner.” After the tuna are harvested, they are kept in floating pens until ready to be shipped to Japan where they are sold at astronomical prices for use in sushi and sashimi. Because of that, there are reportedly more millionaires per capita in Port Lincoln than anywhere else in Australia.
The local tourist board gave us a warm welcome. Even the Mayor was at the bottom of the gangway to greet us visitors and the city supplied shuttle buses to take us into town. This unpretentious town is filled with big box stores such as Target, K-Mart and Woolies. So it was a good place for passengers and crew to stock up on essentials.
The Silver Whisper cruised over pretty decent seas while crossing the Great Australian Bight. We had a Cruise Specialists party to welcome our new guests who had boarded in Sydney. As we rounded this country’s southwest corner into the Indian Ocean, many passengers were awakened by the
ENGLISH STYLE CITY HALL
Typical of the stone masonry buildings built in Victorian times smell of smoke. Thinking that there was a problem on the ship, a number of guests reported it to reception. Actually Western Australian is being plagued by huge bush fires and as we found out, the smoke can be smelled for miles off shore.
Now we sail on to the great twin cities of Fremantle and Perth, our last call in Australia.
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Bob Christofk
non-member comment
Down Under!
I am envious that you guys are enjoying Australia so much right now. Wish I could return to Perth & Fremantle with you. I read about the fires and hope there is not too much damage. Typical Australian summer experience.