Glenelg Beach and the Tour Down Under

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After the night in Mt Gambier and finishing the Great Ocean Road, we were hyped to get to Adelaide and the small beach area of Glenelg. The rest of the drive was nothing scenic, just miles of highway. We did pass a bunch of huge vineyards...South Australia is known for it's wine production. GB did some research and some SA people he knew recommended to stay at Glenelg Beach rather than in the city of Adelaide. Their advice turned out to be gold...Adelaide is a smaller city with not a whole lot going on. It is known as the "city of churches", which obviously did not interest us at all.

Glenelg was awesome...a cool little beach town in the outskirts of the city. We stayed at Glenelg Beach Hostel, which was a great place. It was about a football field's length from the beach!! Good thing we made reservations in advance, it was all booked up for the long weekend. It was Australia Day on Monday!! It is a national holiday similar to July 4th in the states...I am pretty sure it represents when the boats first landed in Australia, even though they were setting up a penal colony.

A friend of GB's set us up with her friend from the area, so we had a local to show us the spots. There was a good choice of restaurants and very good nightlife for the small little town. We had a great first night and hit the beach the next day.


On Sunday we had to go into the city to return the rent-a-car. We had perfect timing and location as we walked two blocks to catch the beginning on the final stage of the TOUR DOWN UNDER. It is a cycling race that was getting more than usual press coverage as it was Lance Armstrong's first race back from retirement. As I truly admire his foundation and all the money he has raised for cancer awareness, the race really wasn't a top priority to see. But the timing was perfect so we checked it out. We got up close before the race began and got to see Lance signing autographs which was pretty cool. We then stayed to watch the first 5 or 6 laps of the race as they embarked on the final stage of the grueling race in that South Australian heat.

The next day was Australia Day and we hit the beach early. It was hot and sunny, beautiful beach weather. The water at Glenelg was warm and calm, not many waves...but perfect for lounging in the shallow waters. All in all, it's a great spot. We definitely had the correct advice in staying there...and we all agreed that we would return sometime to Glenelg for a weekend beach trip...whenever the flight prices were right.

We stayed three nights at Glenelg beach and left the day the heat wave began. Our flight wasn't until 6PM and we had planned for another beach day, but decided against it and went to the airport 5 hrs early to get out of the heat. It was 44 degrees Celsius (about 111 degrees Fahrenheit). It turned out to be just the first day of a nasty heat wave in South Australia. Was happy to get out of the heat and back to Sydney, although it was a great five day trip.

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Photos

Tour Down Under
Lance is back!