Blogs from South Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 265

G’Day from Oz! Yip, it’s us!! Have been experiencing a few technical hitches with the Internet but we’re up & running now!! (Hopefully!) Well, what can we say? Its horrible here, the weather is awful, our accommodation is really bad, no one speaks to us, the food has given us stomach ache & we’re allergic to the beer! Not!! It’s bloody brilliant!! A cold winter’s day is 15oC, warm & sunny, & still the locals complain…should have left all the winter clothes in the UK! If this is winter what the heck is summer going to be like? Our temporary accommodation: We wish…maybe the next place… So this is it - 3-bed house - not bad hey? Cost of living a lot cheaper here - housing, transport, food, alcohol etc. And the shopping...fantastic! A real shopoholic’s ... read more

Departure Date: November 17, 2005 Continents: Five Countries: Twelve Cities: 20+ Luggage: One backpack, one daypack Essentials: Passport, Plane Tickets, Digital Video Camera, Digital Still Camera, Wallet Current Itinerary: 17/11/05 - 27/11/05 - Shanghai, China 27/11/05 - 30/11/05 - Beijing, China 30/11/05 - 3/12/05 - Hong Kong 3/12/05 - 9/12/05 - Tokyo, Japan 9/12/05 - 13/12/05 - London, England 13/12/05 - 18/12/05 - Paris, France 18/12/05 - 23/12/05 - Madrid, Spain 23/12/05 - 1/01/06 - Buenos Aires, Argentina 1/1/06 - 9/01/06 - Patagonia, Chile 9/1/06 - 12/01/06 - Santiago, Chile 12/1/06 - 19/1/06 - Rio de Janeiro 19/01/06 - 3/02/06 - Peru: Lima, Cusco, Macchu Picchu 4/2/06 - 8/2/06 - NYC, USA 8/2/06 - 17/2/06 - Denver / Carbondale, USA 17/2/06 - 21/2/06 - Los Angeles, USA 22/2/06 - Arrive home in Adelaide, Australia Care to ... read more

(Dave writes...) I'm sat in Adelaide, in Hallet Cove Beach (or thereabouts). We've done quite a lot since our last entry, I'll fill you in on our last week in Sydney first, then our week in Tasmania, before Gem covers 5 days in Melbourne and on the Great Ocean Road, and finally Adelaide where we've been staying with Gem's second cousin Sue and family for the last few days. Be warned, this is a long entry! On our penultimate weekend in Sydney we decided we had to see the administrative capital Canberra, despite some people's warnings to the contrary! We caught the greyhound down there on Saturday 6 Aug, nice drive of about 4 hours and stayed in a youth hostel there on the Saturday night. Canberra is quite bizarre: a planned city along the lines ... read more

Preamble- the walk plan This is walk number 1 in the '50 real bushwalks around Adelaide' by George Driscoll (5th ed). It is a brand new one to us though. Part of the excitment of our walks is when we go somewhere we have never been and 'discover' it for ourselves. This walk is 16 km north of Kapunda, about 1.5 hours North of Adelaide and takes in part of the Heysen trail. It goes over private land (Huppatz family) and there is a restored hut called Marschall Hut. Hope the weather holds out. Learn more about Kapunda at this Wiki and read a walker's description of the Heysen trail. What happened: Well there was lots of gums and cows - so it was a good exemplar of the Heysen trail url=http://www.angelfire.com/fol... read more

Left at 7am to go outback! Drove up and through Port Augusta first but then it was amazing how quickly if felt like the middle of nowhere once we turned onto the Stuart Highway which goes all the way up the middle of Australia. It's one hell of a big long straight road! It's great fun to drive - makes you feel like you're in a film. This area was still shrubby with the occasional lake (or layer of salt where a lake used to be) and distant table mountains which I still haven't worked out how they're formed. There was a roadhouse about every half tank of petrol - about every 200k. But we weren't even worried about breaking down - there was a car every 5 mins or so - it's really nice out ... read more