Back in Adelaide

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I forgot to add a photo from the morning that Kelly, Chris and Ross went off quad biking on KI. It was Wednesday 2nd - the day after Ross stopped smoking. Shall I say that last bit again? Yes, he hasn't smoked for almost a week now. Not a New Year resolution as such, but something he said he would do sometime, so why not now?

Anyway, here's the photo of the three of them - David and Lorene had planned to join them, but David had been suffering with what turned out to be shingles - it was finally diagnosed at a late night visit to the doctor. His eye was virtually closed and it was beginning to look worrying, but thankfully he's on the mend now.

On Friday, we were all due to attend the Cirque du Soleil show Ovo, and we headed off for the giant marquees with the temperature reading in the car rising alarmingly to 45 C. When we got there, we were told that the show had been cancelled on health and safety grounds - hardly surprising really.

What else could we do but go and have a beer at Wright's Hotel - one of the places that had been closed last week when we tried to go there. From there it was just a short hop across to Central Markets and the Asian Food Court there. We'd been on previous occasions and had enjoyed it, and this was no different. Here's Jo and Ross enjoying their meals:

We managed to get re-booked to go back to see Ovo on Saturday when the temperature had dropped back in to the 30's. Here's the stage at the start:

Great show - the theme was the insect world.

Yesterday (Sunday) we drove back up to Lobethal to re-fill my Growler:

On the way back we popped in to stroll around Hahndorf, a pretty little German, touristy town - lots of places to eat and drink. We stopped outside the German Arms and posed in the stocks:

No faces in the son and daughter holes - Ross wasn't feeling too good at this stage - perhaps a little beat of heat exhaustion/sunstroke? - and Kelly had stayed behind to clean the house and prepare tea.

Kelly started to feel a little ill in the evening and went to bed early. She still didn't feel good in the morning - so poorly she never even went to the early morning gym session today.

Chris drove us down to Westfield shopping centre in Marion and we met his Mum and Dad for a quick lunch. David is definitely on the mend now and was a lot chirpier today.

Apart from that, we haven't done much today, although Chris is taking Ross out for a few beers and a pizza with his pals tonight. The rest of us had originally planned to go and see Les Miserables in the cinema but I think we'll put that off now.

We did have a short walk this morning - down the Parade and back up through the side streets. We spotted what I regard as a pretty typical old Adelaide house, complete with grey corrugated tin roof:

So that's me back up to date with my blogging again - bye for now!

KI (3)

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On Wednesday, we booked lunch at the Marron cafe/restaurant, which was 14 kms up a dusty, bumpy track. Marron are crayfish and they farm them here. We shared the special spreads:

Looks wonderful - and it was.

Soon it was time to head back again, with Chris leading the way:

We decided it was time we finally stopped off at Seal Bay, which was very near our resort. They've got nice boardwalks and look-out posts where you can watch the sea lions basking on the beach:

On our final day on the island, we packed up and headed off back to Penneshaw where we stopped for coffee then lunch, with a break in-between when I wandered off along the coastal track:

stopping at the viewing platform at the end, where I watched a school of dolphins at play:

Adjacent were the penguin nests:

The fish and chip lunch at FISH was excellent:

So that was it - back on the ferry and head for the heat of Adelaide city.

KI (2)

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Our first full day on the island was Hogmanay and we drove up to the "capital" Kingscote in the north to get provisions in for New Year. On the return journey, we stopped at Island Beehive where they produce honey from Ligurian bees. We had some nice tasters but we didn't do the factory tour. Their honeycomb ice cream was excellent however.

The next pit stop was KI Spirits - the smallest distillery you have ever seen. It was very homely, but production was little more than a domestic kitchen could do. The sampling session was good however -  we tasted their gin, but skipped their range of flavoured vodkas and went for their liqueurs:

We then compounded the felony and indulged in their Drunken Ice Cream - basically, it was the same honeycomb ice cream we'd already sampled at the Island Beehive, with added walnuts, doused in spirit - and just to make sure, some honey and walnut liqueur was poured over the top! Here's the ingredients:

It was a lovely way to spend an hour or so in a nice homely farmstead setting. Here we are with big grins after the tasting:

We shared dinner at the cabin and stayed up to see the New Year in - a fairly raucous game of cards helped keep us all awake.

On New Year's Day, we decided to head west. We made a quick stop at Vivonne Bay where Kelly and Chris had spent a few hours the day before. It's a gorgeous beach - Jo found a sea horse washed up:

We drove on and stopped for coffee at one of the few places open on this public holiday - the Koala Centre and Walk. We didn't do the formal walk - no need - there were 2 koalas in the trees where we parked - male and female apparently, although we learned that the female was probably sterilised anyway, as they had too many koalas on the island for the eucalyptus trees which they feed on, and they'd had to introduce a programme to ensure numbers didn't keep escalating.

After that, we entered Flinders Chase National Park and headed down to the south west corner of the island to see what they call Remarkable Rocks - and they were. Formed naturally millions of years ago, there were some very strange shapes on view:

We picnic-ed there too:

After lunch, we headed back to the Park HQ and Jo and I went on the 4.5 km walk out to the Platypus watering hole. It was a lovely walk, but it was still way too hot to see any animals - they only appear when the sun goes down and it begins to cool off. Here's Jo at the watering hole:

So that was it - now back to base camp where Ross was taking a day out, chilling and reading.

Kangaroo Island (1)

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On Sunday morning, we drove both cars down to David and Lorene's in Port Elliott, where we transferred stuff from Kelly's car to David's and then headed for the ferry at Cape Jervis for our hour long sail to Kangaroo Island. It wasn't a huge ferry but its manoeuvrability in the tiny port was amazing - it had to turn a complete 180° to get the car ramp facing the right way:

There was a bit of swell on the crossing, but nothing much - just enough to keep Jo quiet for a while, though:

Notice how focussed Jo is, whilst everyone else is chatting away?

The landing at Penneshaw - although a small port, it's not as tight as Cape Jervis:

We made a slight detour to an Arts Centre that Lorene wanted to see. At its entrance was a stone octopus:

KI is quite a big island and we had to make our way all the way from Penneshaw in the far north east down to Seal Bay (near Vivonne Bay) in the south:

We checked in to our cabins near Seal Bay - there were only 6 of them, and we had booked 2. They were basic, but functional, and would be fine for our short break. They had a nice decking overlooking the bush, facing mostly east:

For our first night, we dined at the resort centre. It was fairly basic, but it did the trick. Kelly and Chris took a shine to one of the old benches:

Whilst the rest of us sat at another table:

So that was day 1 - arrival. More to follow.

Between Boxing Day and KI

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Thursday 27th was a quiet day. Kelly and I walked to the park that surrounds the city centre, then  Kelly went off to meet one of her pals, whilst I sat in the park and read - at least until the workers who were erecting stands and fences for New Year finally got to me and I wandered off. It was nice for a while though.

On Friday, we all headed for town in different ways and different times. Kelly, Ross and Chris walked in, whilst Jo and I sauntered down the Parade and then jumped on a bus. Would they take our Senior Bus Passes? Sorry - got to be Aussie ones.

We strolled around the city centre and bumped in to Chris and Ross a couple of times, finally all meeting up in the Exeter Hotel for a beer - a place we had visited before - a bit grungey - not at all up-market, but fine by us. We decided to try somewhere else for our next beer and lunch, but the 2 places we chose were shut until 4 pm! Never mind, we found a nice little Greek restaurant and had a nice time.

When we were at Rundle Mall, there was a petition to save a historic old fountain which they are now planning to demolish for some reason. Here's what might be one of the final sightings of this:

In the evening, we just ate in Kelly and Chris' back court. Ross was making Cuba Libre's:

On Saturday, Kelly stayed at home and chilled out, whilst Chris drove Ross, Jo and I to the Barossa for some more sampling and viewing.

Our first stop was at the famous Jacob's Creek. We didn't really want to taste any of their wines, but thought we would look in to their new visitor centre anyway:

Next stop was an altogether less industrial winery, recommended by Chris - Rockford, located in farm/steading type buildings - look at their front web page - http://www.rockfordwines.com.au/

What a beautiful place - and they had a sideline in preserves as well, so we did a fair bit of shopping here.

From wine to beer - we arrived at Barrosa Valley Brewing (http://www.bvbeer.com.au/Display/) in lovely Tanunda. Great place, super beers and sampler trays too - what's not to like?

We left there to head for the other Barossa brewery in Greenock. We'd been there before but it was shut - and it was again this time, so there's no way we're giving them a 3rd chance. We then hotfooted it back to Tanunda, but also stopped off at another of Chris' winery recommendations  - Torbreck (http://www.torbreck.com/) - super place and quality again.

Back at the brewery, we had hoped to fill our Growler (we'd bought one at Lobethal Bierhaus on Sunday) but they didn't have the licence to do this, so we just settled for another quick beer:

So that was Saturday - the following day we were heading off to Kangaroo Island for 4 nights, including New Year.

Christmas & Boxing Day

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The heat of Sunday acclimatised us quickly so that when we drove down the Fleurieu Peninsula on Xmas Eve, the drop in temperature and the sea breezes made it feel almost chilly at times. We had rented a house at McCracken Country Club and it was a monster:

Chris' Mum & Dad and Uncle Colin came over to meet us and we all popped over to the clubhouse for supper.

On Christmas morning, we headed over to the Steele's house in Port Elliott for our first Aussie Christmas. David and Lorene had prepared cold seafood starters - shell-on prawns and crayfish caught by David. Colin - Lorene's brother - had stayed overnight and we were joined a bit later on by Chris' brother, Matt, his ex-wife Amanda and their daughter Abigail.

Lorene had worked so hard to get everything ready - even the tree was home made:

The wreath was home-made too:

as was the Gingerbread house:

but not the trout in pastry, which Chris had bought:

Some traditions, however, span continents - the trifle was classic - and alcoholic:

After all that and the buffet meal, most of us felt a little bit of exercise wouldn't go amiss and so we headed for the cliff and beach walk - here's some of the scenes:

So that was it - a lovely day.

Boxing Day was time to pack up and leave our rented house and head back to Adelaide, but not before Kelly and Chris took the opportunity to take us to lunch for our Ruby Wedding Anniversary at the beautiful Star of Greece restaurant, sited on a clifftop overlooking the beach.

We had a couple of pit stops on the way - firstly for coffee in the pretty little town of Willunga, where the only place open on this holiday was a rustic little organic coffee shop:

We also re-visited the Coriole winery in McLaren Vale and sat in our favourite corner again:

Chris had bought a special edition bottle - Australia's National Wine Poet, Andy Kissane had a different poem on the back of each bottle:

After lunch, we went for a stroll on the beach and paddled in the water. The sea rescue/shark helicopter had been hovering around but eventually thought it was safe enough to come in and land and do some PR with the kids:

This morning (Thursday), Chris, his brother Matt and Jo and Ross all headed off to the cinema to see the Hobbitt. Kelly and I weren't interested and so she walked me down to the park where I read my book for a while as she headed off for a hike with her pal.

Christmas Eve

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I'm now sitting outside Kelly and Chris' pad as the temperature has finally dropped as what they laughingly call a cold front has moved in over Adelaide. Yesterday's 42 C temperature meant we hibernated/slept the afternoon away. Today we're driving down to Port Elliott to stay in rooms at McCracken Country Club (http://www.mccrackengolfclub.com/).

Forecast is to be a lot cooler today - maybe even as low as the low 20's down by where we're headed, with Christmas Day in the mid to high 20's - that's perfect.

Kelly and Chris have gone to their gym and Ross is now making smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for our breakfast - attempting to match Chris' fine fritatta yesterday.

The journey was not too bad, all things considered - although I wouldn't want to have to do it cattle class. The 12 hour flight from London to Kuala Lumpur was in the huge A 380 - how those monsters get off the ground, I'll never know. The space in our cabin was fantastic and the food and service were like a 5 star hotel. We had a 3 hour stopover in KL before boarding the slightly smaller A 330 for the 7 hours on to Adelaide.

Our only travel problem was in the UK. First of all, our flight to London was delayed, but we still had plenty of time to catch our connection. The main problem was getting from T5 to T4 - nightmare. Not at all well signposted and the advice we got from the local staff was contradictory and confusing. Tube or bus - which is best? It transpired that the Heathrow Express wasn't running, so bus had to be the option - but the local staff didn't seem to know anything about it. We made it in the end, but we were sweating for a while, not knowing how long check-in and security would take. Of course, flying Business Class means shorter queues all round, including Fast Track through security, so we had no real need to worry.

Staying awake all day Saturday was a problem, however. We lasted until about 7pm, I think, although I had played the nodding donkey routine for quite a while before this. We had a brief walk up to see the waterfalls on the trail up Mount Lofty in the afternoon, which kept us awake for a while. Here we are at the viewing platform at the top of the first waterfall:

On Sunday morning we drove up to the Adelaide Hills to Lobethal where we had booked lunch at the lovely Bierhaus. We made a short stop en route and visited Melba's Chocolate Factory - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0vpYaOxhZI

The Bierhaus was great, although we arrived a little early - before they were officially open at noon. We had allowed some time to go round the Lobethal market, but it was so small and quiet it took us no time at all.

The toilets in the Bierhaus are lined with jokes, like these ones:

The place soon filled up - just as well we had pre-booked.

So that's me up to date now. Have a great Christmas everyone - and watch this space.