So Many Places, so Little Time

South Australia has a concentrated wine region featuring the Coonawara, Barossa, Clare and Mclaren vignobles we got some serious sampling in, even buying a more expensive bottle of shiraz. Now we are just waiting for the right occasion to drink it (this will occur shortly). Clare is should be famous for its graffiti covered rocks, it appears that the whole valley is covered with people's comments, interestingly many of the towns and cities have murals which are done by the schools or community centres. It's something like investing in your town but the graffiti doesn't quite fit in with this.

Adelaide Classic Shopping

Port Augusta which is known to those outside it as por' gu'er (the t's are not being pronounced) and we have to agree it's a bit of a dump. The hostel/motel we found seemed pleasant enough since we got our own room, but the kitchen and other areas were hardly friendly. It should also be said that the owner, a previous mayoress, of the motel was never around so checking in was a bit of a mess. One other point of interest is her painting in the entry, a full size with her in full regalia and caressing a panther!!

Adelaide Post

Murray felt something like aix en provence with its tree lined streets, of course these were red gums. This is a very good area for farmland since the murray river runs through town, in fact it crosses three states and empties into the sea just south of Adelaide. We visited the river with Anna a wee lass we met.

The Grampians are another walking area with some pinnacles which once again proved windy, grey and cold. Interested in rock climbing this area will meet expectations with well over 300 climbs. Our host even spoke some French (in fact not bad at all) and holidays for about 2 months per year somewhere in the hexagone.

Adelaide is another small city with a port, it's got a lot going for it in a gastronomic sense as well as a drinking sense. The central market is fantastic for fruit, veg, bread, coffee, etc... we must have spent over 3 hours here. There are a huge number of bars and cheap places to eat, however there is something tricky going on with the drink measures here, a schooner would be a pot in the other states and their pints are only schooner size. Certainly makes for confusion and so there is nothing bigger than 40cl. We discussed this naming issue with Lisa, a local whom we met previously in Coober Pedy, she came up with a wheat called a schooner or the fact that the original wheat came on a boat, quite an impressive feat of trivia.

Beehive Corner

Adelaide is also home to the Coopers brewery which although expensive has the best beer in Australia (at least amongst those which are massed produced - 1200 bottles/minute). The tour was fun with six samples at the end, afterwards we had to hunt down a bus to get back. There's a heritage trail in Port Adelaide which has 11 pubs in the space of a 30 minute walk which makes it perfect for a pub crawl.

Dom and the Rock

Donuts Forever

Emus in Mumbray Creek

Grampian View 1

Grampian View 2

Heads

Murray Trees

National Park 1

National Park 2

National Park Sunset

Out with Friends

Robe Obelisk

Simon on the Rocks

Strathablyn

Two Armed