Our travel plans for 1996 were accelerated by cut rate fares offered by Ansett Airlines early in the year. Since our anniversary falls in February, we thought that a good excuse, not that we really need one, to visit Adelaide and South Australia. Plans were somewhat rushed and throughout the government budget mess, we never knew if we were going to get our paychecks and if the government inspectors were going to come to the Embassy in Canberra or not. Finally we planned, backed our plans with travel insurance and took the trip anyway.
On Saturday, February 17, we woke very early to get to the airport for our 6:30 a.m. flight. Ansett upgraded our flights to business class making breakfast a little nicer and the newspaper free. Our flight stopped in Melbourne then continued on to Adelaide where we took a taxi to the Hilton Hotel, arriving about 10:00 a.m. It didn’t take long to get moving and we started a walking tour of Adelaide right away. We visited the Central Markets that are located at Victoria Square adjacent to our hotel. Adelaide is blessed with a mixture of ethnic cultures and good climate so that there was a variety of produce, meats and cheeses to satisfy the Oriental and European peoples. We walked down Gouger Street with its large quantity of restaurants, mostly seafood cafes. Then we walked north along the main King William Street to Rundle Street Mall. Nearly every large Australian city has a street downtown that is shut off to automobile traffic and turned into a shopping mall. Rundle Street Mall is the one in Adelaide. From there we walked along North Terrace by the University of Adelaide to the Botanic Gardens and stopped at a small restaurant in the gardens for lunch. We shared a ploughman’s platter and watched the exotic birds on the lake next to the restaurant. The weather warmed up quite a lot and we walked to the herb garden to sit under a shade tree and doze awhile.
After our rest, we walked along the footpath beside the Torrens River and south on Kintore Avenue where we stopped to visit the Migration and Settlement Museum. We walked back to our hotel and decided a dip in the swimming pool sounded refreshing. It was mid afternoon and the temperature was in the 90s by now. We swam a little but mostly sat by the pool reading our books and sipping on a pleasing gin and tonic. Finally we showered and went out to eat dinner. We ate at the Red Ochre restaurant which specializes in game dishes using Australian produce. Rita had barrimundi fish while I had grilled emu which tasted very nice. The emu was more like a red meat than fowl so we had a Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon with the meal. Since it was time for the Chinese New Year, Gouger Street was blocked off for Chinese celebrations. We saw a Chinese dragon dance with fireworks in the street along with food stalls and entertainers. We felt we needed to walk some more so we visited Hindley Street, Adelaide’s red light district. It seemed fairly tame but had its share of street walkers, peep shows and adult bookstores along with bikers and tourists like us taking in the sights. We went back to the Hilton and went to bed fairly late.
Sunday was another early rise to check out of the hotel (leaving some of our larger luggage) and get to the airport for our flight to Kangaroo Island. Despite our concerns about flying on an airline named after a flightless bird, we flew Emu Airlines to the small airfield at Kingscote. The flight was on a Cessna 410, very informal, and the pilot let me sit in the co-pilot’s seat! We were only four passengers on the aircraft. We flew at 2000 feet under perfect, clear skies for the 30 minute flight to Kangaroo Island. We picked up our Hertz rental car and were told that we should occupy ourselves until 1:00 p.m. to check into our bed and breakfast room. So we drove into the sleepy village of Kingscote which says they are the oldest town in South Australia. We drove to Beatrice Point and saw the old, original pier, a monument to the pioneers who settled Kingscote and the old mulberry tree that was planted by the pioneers and is still growing. We drove to Emu Bay on the north coast stopping to have a close-up look at a salt lake on the way. Next we took the North Coast Road (much of it gravel) to Stokes Bay. We saw a large goanna lizard in the road too. At Stokes Bay we walked to the beach through a small tunnel formed by falling rocks. Then we drove south to Playford Highway and headed back towards the small airfield. We think we saw three, rare, glossy black cockatoos flying but we couldn’t verify that. We took backroads to a bee aviary where we saw the Italian honey bees at work and purchased some honey. The bees were brought from Liguria in 1881 and, because of their isolation, have not mixed with other breeds of honey bees.
Finally we drove to the town of American River where our bed and breakfast was located. American River was settled by American whalers in the early 1800s. We were greeted by our hostess, Margaret King, who made us feel quite at home. Our room was nice, bright and airy with a nice breeze. We had a great view overlooking the American River and Eastern Cove. We decided a short nap sounded good and, after we woke up, it felt good. We drove into the little town of American River for the 4:30 pelican feeding. The local bait shop feeds the pelicans (and of course the seagulls show up too) every day and they begin arriving about 15 minutes early. It was a good close-up view of pelicans and we also were allowed to feed the seagulls in mid air.
In the late afternoon we drove to Penneshaw. We viewed the Frenchman’s Rock where one of the French crews that explored the island carved their names on a rock. We had reservations at the Old Post Office restaurant where the hostess chatted to us quite a lot and the cook, her husband, came out to serenade the diners with his guitar. This was my introduction to a local South Australian fish called the King George whiting. I liked it immediately since it was a firm, white flesh without a strong fishy taste but still a definite taste. Rita had shrimp and we had a Wolf Blass dry white wine to accompany the meal. It was a great meal, nicely prepared. After eating we walked to the location of a penguin tour. We walked along with a ranger guide shinning a flashlight into their burrows. There weren’t very many since they had just finished molting and were out at sea for several days. But we did see some at a very close range.
Driving back to our room, we saw kangaroos, an echineda and a possum. We stopped in the darkness, shut off the car lights and watched the cloudless sky for a long while. The Milky Way was quite visible since there were no ground lights at all.
Finally on Monday morning we could sleep in late. The bed was big and fluffy, the air was cool and we didn’t want to get out. But we arranged for breakfast at 8:30 and Margaret prepared a large plate of fresh fruit, cereal and juice. Then she asked if we wanted eggs and bacon or King George whiting for breakfast. We chose the whiting of course.
Our package included a picnic lunch which Margaret arranged for us. We had to drive back to the airfield where we met Tony who gave us a very nice picnic basket and cooler that had enough of a picnic lunch for two days. Margaret also gave us a bottle of Australian champagne so that went with our picnic. Tony told us to just leave everything in the trunk of the rental car at the airport and they would sort it all out later. It seems there is a small population on Kangaroo Island and everyone knows everyone else. All the local drivers wave at oncoming cars like the locals do in many rural places.
Anyway, we headed south on gravel roads (most of the roads are gravel and windshield insurance is advised) to Murray Lagoon where we saw some water birds, especially a large flock of Cape Barren geese. Then we drove to Seal Bay for one of the highlights of the trip. We took a ranger-led tour to the beach where hundreds of sea lions were basking in the sun and swimming in the ocean. We saw baby sea lions nursing with their mothers and surfing on the waves. We could only approach as close as the ranger would which was about 25 feet away at the closest. We sat on the beach and watched the activity and when the tour was over, our ranger said if we wanted to we could sit back by the dunes by ourselves and watch longer. We would have but we had more of the island to tour. It was a great tour.
We pressed on to Vivonne Bay with great views of the ocean and small harbor. At Vivonne we had our picnic lunch of champagne, cold roasted chicken breast, salad, rolls with butter, cheese and crackers and lamingtons (an Australian cake) for dessert. It was a very nice, civilized picnic.
We continued to Flinders Chase National Park and drove south to Cape du Couedic with the strange Remarkable Rocks formation. We also drove by the lighthouse and walked down to see Admirals Arch. It was very windy so the sea was choppy but fur seals still were swimming and sunning on the beach. We drove back to Rocky River park headquarters where we saw kangaroos, emus and koalas. We walked three kilometers to a water hole to look for platypus but no luck. On our drive back to American River we saw an eagle alongside the highway. We had dinner at Matthew Flinders Terrace. Again we had shrimp and whiting for dinner with a Queen Adelaide riesling.
The next morning we could sleep in late again and again we had whiting for breakfast. We met Margaret’s husband, Ian, who is the harbor master for Kangaroo Island. We checked out with a full day to complete touring as our flight left late in the afternoon. We drove to nearby Mt. Thisby which was formerly called Prospect Hill by the British explorer Matthew Flinders. We climbed the 512 steps to the top for a good view of both sides of the island, the view Flinders was greeted with in 1802. We drove to Pennington Bay for a pretty view of the ocean and rocky beach. We drove back past the airport to the town of Parndana where we purchased and sent postcards from the general store. We drove back to Stokes Bay and had another lovely picnic lunch with views of Stokes Bay and a nice sea breeze. We drove to an area where the black glossy cockatoo nests and waited for a while but the time of day was not good and we didn’t see any. We drove to Cygnet River and visited the Island Pure Dairy. We saw baby lambs, sheep getting milked and sampled their feta, fried halloumi and other sheep’s cheeses. It all tasted very good. We made one last drive through Kingscote and Brownlow before returning to the airport and turning in the car. We caught the Emu Airlines afternoon flight back to Adelaide and once more I got to sit in the co-pilot’s seat. We checked back into the Hilton Hotel at Victoria Square. For dinner we walked down Couger Street and selected Paul’s restaurant for a seafood dinner of shrimp cocktail and, yes, King George whiting. Love that fish! It was over 100 degrees in Adelaide and we were thirsty so we drank the local East End beer with our meal.
Wednesday was our 32nd wedding anniversary. We had breakfast in our hotel then made one last walk to see the Parliament building, train station and stop at the Tourist Center for more brochures. We went back to the hotel and checked out while Budget delivered our rental car to the hotel. We headed south stopping in the town of Reynella to sample wines at Chateau Reynella, the oldest winery in Australia. We purchased a 1993 basket press cabernet sauvignon and their 1987 vintage port. Next we drove to McLaren Vale and Willunga. We stopped at Wirra Wirra winery and purchased a chardonnay and sweet semillion. We had an excellent lunch at the Salopian Inn. We started with dukkah, olive oil and bread to dip. We both had good salads. Mine was lettuce, avocado, spicy almonds, roasted peppers and croutons. We had good glasses of Rockford white wine. After lunch we stopped at Coriole winery but to purchase their extra virgin olive oil. This area reminded us of southern France or Italy. We drove by Seaview winery, Normand winery and through the pretty town of Clarendon. We took windy back roads through Coromandel Valley, Blackwood to Craftes where we checked into Mt. Lofty House hotel. It is a very nice hotel that burned down in the famous Ash Wednesday fires of 1973. Strangely enough, today is Ash Wednesday! We drove to the German town of Hahndorf, parked and walked around town. It was settled in the 1830s about the same time as the German communities in Texas where my ancestors settled. There were lots of stone buildings and German influence. We returned to our hotel and cleaned up for dinner at the Hardys restaurant in the hotel. For starters Rita had vegetable soup while I had a goats cheese soufflé. For our main course we both had excellent beef fillets with a bottle of 1992 Henschke Mt. Edelstone shiraz, a great wine. For dessert we had a rich chocolate soufflé and coffee. It was a nice anniversary dinner.
We started Thursday morning with a soak in the spa in our room then a nice breakfast in the hotel. We drove to Bridgewater and stopped at the Old Mill but the Petaluma winery was not open yet. We drove on to Verdun, Balhannah, Oakbank, Woodside, Lobethal, Cudlee Creek, Chain of Ponds to Gumeracha where we stopped at the toy factory with the largest rocking horse in the world. We drove on through pretty countryside to Birdwood, Mt. Pleasant and Springton where we stopped to view the tree the Herbig family lived in for five years. We drove through Eden Valley to Keyneton on the edge of the Barossa Valley and home of Henschke winery. We stopped to sample and bought an expensive 1991 Hill of Grace shiraz and a 1993 Lenswood Abbott’s Prayer merlot/cabernet sauvignon. We stopped in Angaston for a light lunch then to the Wolf Blass winery for more tasting. Then we drove to Seppeltville with the road lined with palm trees. The Seppelt winery was very pretty and after sampling there we purchased a port and a 1988 Dorrien cabernet sauvignon. We visited the little winery of St. Hallett but they did not have the wines I was looking for so we went to the Rockford winery and purchased their 1993 basket press shiraz. Finally we stopped at the large Penfolds winery and tasted several fine wines. We bought their 1991 Magill Estate shiraz and a 1991 Leo Buring Leonay riesling. We drove through Nubiootpa and Tanunda to Lyndock where we stayed at the Woodlands of Lyndock bed and breakfast. The temperature was over 100 and we were hot and tired after so much wine tasting. We drove back into Tanunda for a light dinner at the 1918 restaurant. We sat on the verandah and cooled off then walked around town after dinner and watched some distant heat lightning.
Friday was another hot day. After a very large cooked breakfast at our B & B, we drove back into Tanunda and mailed a few postcards. We took a scenic drive that took us through the Grange vineyards. We stopped for a look at Richmond Grove and Peter Lehmann wineries but no tasting so early in the morning. We followed the drive through Seppeltville again and into Nubiootpa. We stopped at the Kellermeister winery and sampled some wines but didn’t care much for them. Our B & B provided us with another picnic basket so we stopped at the picturesque Chateau Yaldara winery and had our picnic lunch. We sampled their wines but didn’t like them. We left the Barossa Valley and headed through Gawler, Templers, Tarlee, Auburn and Leasingham in the Clare Valley where we turned off to the pretty town of Mintaro. This town is a historic trust with pretty slate buildings everywhere. We stayed at Martindale Hall just 3 kilometers out of Mintaro. Martindale Hall was the girls school in the movie “Picnic at Hanging Rock”. It is a mansion built in 1878 and is open to the public from 10 to 4. We couldn’t check in when we arrived as it was still open for touring so we drove to the pretty copper mining town of Burra. Many of the buildings here are on the historic register too, although the mines gave out long ago. This is a very pretty town and is the location for the movie “Breaker Morant”, another Australian movie. Next we drove to the town of Clare in the Clare Valley wine region and sampled some good wines at Tim Adams winery. We saw the Sevenhill Cellars and church in Clare but it had just closed for wine tasting. We drove back to Martindale Hall and checked in. We were one of two couples staying for the night. They put us into the huge master bedroom. We talked a lot with our nice hosts, Les and Carole Rooney, who run the place. We dressed up for a nice formal dinner with Les in a tuxedo and Carole in a maids costume. Our five course dinner was too much. We had soup, then I had shrimp in coconut, followed by pork fillet with vegetables, a chocolate strawberry dessert and a cheese platter. With the meal we had a good Grossett Polish Hill riesling. After such a large dinner we couldn’t go to sleep for a long while. Les let us shoot billiards on the antique billiard table in the men’s lounge and just asked if we would turn off the lights and lock up the doors when we sent to bed. They stayed in a house out back. Since the mansion was pretty much as it was built, it did not have air conditioning. As hot as it was, we went outside to watch stars for a while and cool off but our room was still fairly warm. We didn’t sleep well that last night but it was quite an experience.
Saturday morning we were given another big cooked breakfast. We were getting sick of so much food. We walked around looking in all the rooms once more but had to check out by 10 when they opened to the public. We drove back through Clare to Gawler and Elizabeth to Adelaide. We had time to kill so we drove to the seaside palindrome town of Glenelg. For about an hour we walked around the town and ate an ice cream cone. Then we drove back into Adelaide and to the Central Markets to get some Kangaroo Island halloumi cheese but the shops were closing up already. We killed some time driving around town but finally went to the airport and checked in the rental car. Our flight back to Canberra via Melbourne was uneventful and we arrived home about 9:00 p.m., unpacked, showered and went to bed. Once more we enjoyed our Australian trip. We found Adelaide a very nice, livable city and wish we could have had more time to stay for the Adelaide festival which takes place the month of March. Maybe another trip?
No comments:
Post a Comment