Adelaide

Photos:

Rodney at St. Mary’s Peak, Wilpena Pound

Anthea with Patterson’s Curse, Warren Gorge

Our van near Ayers Rock with drying clothes

Ayers Rock from our campspot

Anthea at Cheesefest, Adelaide

Simon Bryant (The Cook & the Chef TV cooking show) cooking demo at Cheesefest

Us with Michael Angelakis (Out of the Blue TV cooking show) at Cheesefest

Rundle St Mall pig

Anthea next to fountain in Rundle St Mall

Tuesday 12^th October 2010

Today we did the Wilpena Pound walk. It took ages, and was one of the toughest walks we’ve done so far, mainly because I read that the walk was classified as ‘easy’, and also because St Mary’s Peak is1170 metres high.

Atleast no creationists had been through scrubbing out the numbers preceding the millions of years on the signs. At King’s Canyon, someone had scrubbed out the numbers in the signs saying how many millions of years ago the rocks were formed and things like that.

We had dinner at the pub with our friends Heath & Heidi. Looking around we were just about the only people, except the staff that were under 65. This must be the place everyone goes before they go to a nursing home. It was raining and wet, and spent much of the evening warning the elderly about the slippery floor next to our table.

Wed

Today we chilled out to get over the big walk yesterday. We set up our makeshift office at the outdoor table & chairs near our campspot. Then I cleaned the van. I noticed a mop near the amenities so I borrowed it and mopped out he red dirt from our van. Then it was time to go. Where? I don’t know, just drive.

We drove back through Hawker & stopped at Quorn. After getting some food we looked on the map for a quiet spot and ended up in Warren Gorge. It was up a 20km dirt road and a little campspot. We set up had a bbq & got out the telescope to see the moon and stars, while a possum with emphysemia jumped from tree to tree trying to scare the life out of us.

Thu

We got up early 7am and did the walk around Warren Gorge, 5.2kms. We noticed there were other campsites around the back where there were a few campers. After breakfast of plunger coffee with French toast we started to drive to Adelaide. My parents were there, on their way to a 4WD holiday so it would be good to catch up with them.

As we got closer to Adelaide my dad called to say to meet them at the Hospital. Everything was ok, Mum just had to get an x-ray for a chest infection she was getting over. So as we got there, Dad jumped in the front seat, and Anthea went to the back, then we got around the front of the hospital and Mum jumped in the van and sat on the front seat, and Dad went to the back. So I was now illegally transporting my parents in Adelaide. They had no seatbelts, there are only 2 seats. It was my parents fault I would say to the police officer who stopped me.

While Mum and Dad conducted conversations from the front of the van to the back through the privacy curtain I was busy trying to find my way around Adelaide. We decided to go to Glenelg.

After having a cup of tea and a late lunch we walked to the main street and did some retail therapy. Books, shoes and clothes were bought. Then we had dinner in a Thai restaurant before running back to the van in the pouring rain. We drove to my parents hotel and humbugged a free shower. After we left we found a quiet spot near the racecourse just on the edge of town and we stayed there for the night.

Fri

We had a busy day ahead of us. There were a few things we had to get. First of all was the Central markets, where we came a few years ago and had a real Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. They didn’t have it this time but we still had a good coffee. Then we enquired about a battery charger for our DSLR camera. We ended up getting a universal camera that charges the battery by cigerette lighter or mains, and also charges AA batteries and some other types aswell. Then we got a new iphone car charger, because the one I bought before I left in Sydney, and the other one we bought at Ayers Rock doesn’t work. We also went to Kathmandu to get the buckle on Anthea’s hiking pack fixed. He wanted to sell us a new waist strap for $50 but it was just a buckle strap we needed fixed. So I just bought the buckle because we were missing ½ of it anyway for $5 and moved on. We went to the camping shop across the road. The guy in there cut us a length of the nylon strap and threaded it through the original loops. This cost $3. It was a good idea but it still wasn’t sewn in like original so we went to Spotlight. They couldn’t do it so they sent us to a hemmer. They couldn’t do it because the foam was too big to get into the machine, so they sent us to a bag alteration place. They could do it. Great.

After that we decided to revive the Friday night movie tradition. Our friend Tina who works plays viola for us sometimes and works at Hoyts gave us some movie vouchers. But there are no Hoyts in Adelaide city. So we found one on my iphone and went towards there. But before we had to have dinner. The weather was terrible. We still haven’t cooked in our van. We don’t want sleep where we cook. With Anthea’s eagle eyes we found a free bbq in a park on the way to the suburbs where the shopping centres with cinemas are. We had chicken burgers. It cost about $10 all up. Chicken rissoles squashed down, buns, tomato, cos lettuce & sweet chilli sauce. And free bbq. We saw the movie The Other Guys. It was quite a funny movie considering I don’t particularly like Will Ferrel & Mark Wahlberg didn’t take off his shirt and take the piss out on himself.

Sat

Oh, the civilities of Adelaide. Anthea was on a mission to get her violin bow rehaired, coz that’s what you do in Adelaide, not Alice Springs, Cooper Pedy or Port Augusta. So we tracked down the violin guy who used to have a shop in Rundle St Mall in Regent Arcade (the equivalent of Sydney’s Strand Arcade). He was now a few minutes by car out of town. So we got there at 11am, and 2 ½ hours late we managed to get out. Dante the violin guy was very interesting. He has master degrees in Education and Music, and is now studying by scholarship masters of medical science. He also teaches Judo and violin making and his 3 sons are all Judo champions. He gave us a very good insight into the musical scene of Adelaide which was very positive. So hopefully the violin & bow will be ready in a week, as he is pretty busy with study. Later that day we walked through Rundle Mall where Anthea ran into someone she went to UNSW with. Of all places! Then we went to the Adelaide Royal Botanical Gardens. There we observed a string quartet playing at a wedding, which was pretty good. We walked around for a few hours before driving to Semaphore, a beach town about 20kms away for some dinner.

Sun 17th October

From our racecourse mobile hotel room we woke to Adelaide cycle club criterion races. It was a good view from where we were. We had breakfast and got our selves into town where markets were on in Rundle St. We strolled around there before the main event – Cheesefest. It was $15 entry each but it was well worth it. We got a real wine glass each (have to be careful as it’s just about the only glass things we have in the van, besides our new coffee plunger). We sampled many cheeses and watched a cheese making demonstration. For lunch we had a cheese sample plate with wine. Then more wine. Then a stout beer for me. Then we saw local celebrity chef Simon Bryant (the chef from The Cook and the Chef with Maggie Beer) do a demonstration. We saw him before in Alice Springs back in August. We bought a huge hunk of blue cheese. After the demo we got a very gourmet pizza, with special cheese ofcourse, then watched another cooking demo with Michael Angelakis. After that we went to the Coles marquee where they gave out little antipasto plates with a free book about cheese & coles vouchers. I don’t think I learnt much about cheese, but it was a great festival, similar to the one we played at in Launceston Tasmania, but on a smaller scale.

By the time we got out of Cheesefest it was about 4pm. We decided to go see some live music. The Gov is Adelaide’s answer to the Annandale Hotel, opposite the entertainment Centre. There we saw Toast, a tribut band to 70’s music (Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, etc) then 3^rd rock from the sun (a very good Jimi Hendrix tribute band with excellent sounding Jimi singing) and Funky Monks the Red Hot Chili Peppers band, who were also excellent. Feeling pretty old going out to see tribute bands, but we enjoyed ourselves!