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Drinking wine with the family
Entry 65 of 88 | show all | print this entry |
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The last portion of our road trip took us into South Australia making that the 3rd state in Australia we'd pass through (New South Wales and Victoria being the other two). We stayed the night in Mt. Gambier having no idea that it was such a cool place, geologically speaking. It is at the center of the Limestone Coast and is home to volcanic craters, lakes, limestone caves, and underground waterways. (If you've been reading our blogs for a while now, you are familiar with limestone as we've encountered it quite a bit along the way). The huge wedge of limestone that lies below the city acts like a sponge holding the city's rainfall underground while the water slowly makes its way south towards the ocean. Over thousands of years, many caves have formed in the limestone and brave people are able to explore via cave diving (with scuba gear and all). Due to the action of the water over the limestone, the upper layers of the caves are susceptible to weakening and dissolving which then causes the top of the cave to fall inwards, creating a sinkhole.
There are 2 well-known sinkholes in Mt. Gambier, one of them known as Cave Gardens and is smack in the middle of the city. Beautiful flowers and grass grow all over the area making it a pleasant place to visit or relax and it also acts as a filter system taking the runoff from the city water into the Blue Lake nearby that holds the city's water supply. The other sinkhole is called Umpherston Sinkhole. It is a very cool place to check out as it is a beautiful sunken garden...and home to many possums at night who are often fed by tourists. We chose to skip that opportunity for obvious reasons.
The best attraction in the city, in my opinion, is the Blue Lake. It mysteriously changes color each year so that from March to November it is grey and the other months it turns a glorious turquoise blue which we were fortunate to see. There is no concrete explanation for why it does this, but many theories exist and the most common one holds that the top layers of the lake warms in summer creating a chemical reaction with the cold bottom layers and this turns the lake to its amazing blue color. The geological explanation gets way more technical but that is the version I understood the best.
Moving on from Mt. Gambier we headed off to the city of Adelaide for our last few days in Australia. It took us about 5 and a half hours of driving to get there and we noticed that the temperature outside was increasing as we got closer to the city. It turned out to be a pretty intense heat wave while we were there, jumping from a nice 77 degrees before we got there to a toasty temperature of 98-102 during our stay. It was a dry heat and one that made us thankful for air conditioned places. One of the reasons we were excited about being in Adelaide was to meet up with some friends we had met earlier in our travels. We met Mark and Karen at a hostel in Costa Rica on a stormy night in September and at that time we were both heading to Ecuador with plans to go to the Galapagos Islands. We would have loved to have done a boat trip with them in the Galapagos but we had forgotten to exchange email addresses so we had no way of connecting. Unbelievably, we we ran into them again about 6 weeks later in a restaurant in the south of Peru! It was incredible to see them again and this time we connected ourselves. When we met Mark and Karen had just left London after having lived there for the past 4 years. They were making their way back to Australia (via 6 months of travel in Latin America). After knowing one another for 10 years, they were also planning to get married once they got home! Very exciting for them.
They returned to Australia in November and since then have rejoined the Monday-Friday workforce (boo hoo) but fortunately we were able to catch them on a Sunday so we had a full day to spend with them. They took us to check out the Cricket Oval, the stadium where the very long cricket matches take place. We contemplated seeing the match that day between India and Australia but it was SOOOOOOOOO hot out and there is no shade and the match is 8 hours long! We were so glad to finally have an explanation of the rules of cricket, thanks to Mark, so when we watched a bit of it later on TV we actually knew what was going on. It is a hugely popular sport in Australia and the Aussie team is ranked the best in the world. The matches can last a few hours up to 5 days long...and sometimes without a winner. That seems crazy to me. The crowds often times stick it out, drinking beer all the day long. I cannot imagine the combination of beer and exposure to that heat for such long hours. Scary. We would love to see a live game, however, perhaps in Sri Lanka. We also spent some time wandering the beach before heading "home" with them.
Since Mark and Karen are saving money to buy a house they are living with their parents right now in the Barossa Valley about an hour from the city. The Barossa Valley is known for its wineries and we were excited to do a bit of tasting of the fine Australian wines. We stayed a couple nights at the home of Brian and Marg Harris, Mark's parents, and we had such a great time. They are an amazing family and we were spoiled to be able to share great family dinners with them out on the back patio amidst kangaroos (yes, they came for a visit) and beautiful sunsets. We also got to try our cricket batting skills in the backyard thanks to the stellar lessons from Matt, Mark's brother, and we even went "roo" spotting at dusk trying to find the wild kangaroos in the nearby fields. We visited the Whispering Wall, somewhat of a joke to the locals but a hit with the tourists. It is a concrete wall that serves as a dam to hold the reservoir water in place. The wall is curved and has incredible acoustic properties such that when 2 people are standing at either end of the wall, 460 feet away from one another, they can literally talk to one another. Speaking at a normal voice volume, you can have a full, clear conversation. You can actually whisper too although it is more difficult to hear. It was pretty impressive.
The many wineries in the valley are within close range of one another so we just hopped from one to the other, tallying 3 in our afternoon tour. We were big fans of the chilled wine called rose (accent over the 'e' so it is pronounced "rozay"), pink in color but all the wines were rather good, I must say. We splurged on lunch at the Jacob's Creek winery and tried kangaroo meat. Sounds terrible of us, I know, but it was actually delicious. The meat is pretty much fat free so it is good for you too. I am not sure how many Australians really eat kangaroo meat but we couldn't resist the chance to try it! We also visited a winery called St. Hallett and learned that they just finished a 3-month stint with the P.F. Changs restaurant chain in the U.S. so if you had a glass of wine there recently it is very likely you tried their brew!
You would surely agree with me that after any length of travel away from home, you look forward returning to the comforts of your home and your cozy bed, so you can imagine that after nearly 7 months on the road we CHERISH being in a spacious, well-lived in, well-loved home...and add the family members to it and we were pretty much in heaven (of course missing our own families even more). It was such a good couple of days and we felt so welcomed and loved by the family. Being that Brian and Marg also share a love for traveling, we bonded quite quickly with them as we shared stories and reminded ourselves of the joys of traveling and how it truly changes and enriches your life.
Thank you Mark and Karen for sharing your day and your family with us!
Wrapping up our time in Australia, we headed back to the city of Adelaide to do some last minute prep for our journey to Southeast Asia. In total, we tallied a whopping 1,973 miles of driving in 15 days. We were so thankful for safety on the road and are so grateful for those of you who have been praying for us.
The journey continues into Thailand...
Latest Comments (2)
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Yo Himay! (reply)
Feb 21, 2008 23:08 EST by funkiplanet
Thanks for the email. I've been checkin' out your blogs from time to time. It sounds like you guys are doing great.
All's well up here in the wild and wooly north. We've had our fair share of snow this winter but we're enjoying it.
We look forward to hearing a lot more from your travels.
Your mom sure misses you. She tells me how much every time we talk on the phon... show all
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Come back ! (reply)
Feb 21, 2008 20:29 EST by margharris
Hi Tristen and James, Oh how we miss you guys! We had such an amazing time while you stayed with us and feel so privileged to have met you. Thank you for the lovely note you left us we will always keep it. Scott is thrilled with the camping gear and doona and says thank you. You have put such an incredible effort into the blog we enjoyed reading your entries. Don't forget James to write your les... show all
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