Adelaide
October 30 - Adelaide
The Ghan arrived on time into Adelaide and we jumped in a taxi. The taxi took us through the center of Adelaide so we had a quick preview of the city before arriving at our next B & B - the Kirkendale. The Kirkendale is located in an upscale residential area called St. Georges about five miles from the city centre. It's a private home with a seperate two bedroomed unit attached to the house.
Our host Jenny Studer
(husband Steve was too shy for a picture)
After sleeping in eight beds in eight nights, counting this as number eight, we were both ready for a break. In fact, we spent the rest of the day working on this blog - at least through our last day in Alice Springs. Kris worked on it for about four hours and I worked on it after that for another two and that was enough for one day
Kris working on our blog in the kitchen / living room of the Kirkendale.
October 31 - Adelaide
Next morning we took the bus into Adelaide to see the downtown (or CBD - Central Business District as it's known). Adelaide consists of a fairly small city centre surrounded on all sides by parks. Now there's a good idea ! The city center has obviously undergone a renaissance in recent years with several streets closed to traffic and lots of new and older renovated buildings. Like many cities, there was a time when old buildings were seen as a liability and were often torn down and replaced by modern buildings. Although that seems to have started in Adelaide, it's clear that many old buildings have been saved and when cleaned up, probably look better than they did when they were first built.
One oddity we found was a Darwin to Adelaide car rally which we had actually seen starting in Darwin before we left. The peculiar thing about this rally is that all the cars (if you can call them that) run on sunlight ONLY. Obviously, they are purely experimental and have no potential use as transport, but you have to give the teams (mostly University students) credit for their efforts. Would YOU want to drive something like this over 2500 miles ?
November 1 - Adelaide
Still pretty burned out from our marathon between Cairns and here, we had a "down" day. I don't mean we were down, just lazy. It's Sunday so we bought a newspaper and read it from cover to cover (good article about Obama !) and started planning the next section of our trip. We actually ended up spending a lot of time in front of the computer researching and booking the next part of our Aussie adventure, renting a car, booking a ferry crossing to Kangeroo Island deciding (and booking) where we want to stay. Still - all done for the next week.
November 2 - Adelaide
During the evening and all through the night the weather went wild. No rain but very gusty winds which rattled the house and shook the trees. There were a few downed branches on the street next morning but we did see a downed tree just up the road. Felt like a hurricane but of course it wasn't.
Next morning, we went into town and bought a GPS. Now we at least shouldn't get lost and I won't get mad when Kris holds the map upside down and sends us in the wrong direction. We also picked up our rental car - an automatic this time. No problem with that but when I drive from the right hand seat, my body tells me there should be a clutch and a gear lever. I keep pressing down with my left foot and there's nothing there. I'm sure I will get the hang of it sooner or later.
We took a little drive up the coast, to see what the beaches are like. Actually very nice and the water was very clear, but not many people out on a Monday.
We headed back to our little apartment and spent a couple of hours napping (me) and reading (Kris). When we went outside it was COLD - the temperature must have dropped 25 degrees in a couple of hours. We wrapped ourselves up warmly and went back into town, this time in our car, for dinner. We picked a small sea food restaurant and both had something we hadn't tried before. Kris had whiting, which tasted a bit like cod to me. I had Moreton Bay Bugs. I had to ask what they were before ordering them. They are like small lobsters - crayfish perhaps. They didn't taste like lobster - less sweet, more nutty. Still, they were good.