Onkaparinga River National and Recreation Parks

Final blog from Adelaide. For the last two days I visited these parks and adjacent coast. Yesterday it finally heated up and it got to 37 but it was windy and it was a dry heat so wasn't too bad. During one of these trips I noticed a full scale giraffe - not real. Also today in the national park didn't see anybody but did see a kangaroo and joey plus a very small but fast moving snake. Access has been made difficult to the park as floods washed out the bridge to the part of park I visited today. Didn't complete the full loop walk as the track got a bit sketchy in the river gorge.

Some observations.

More Hotel Whinging

Of course breakfast is not included in the room rate, instead you can pay $20 for a continental breakfast or $27 for a cooked breakfast. They must be flying in the bread and jam daily from France. Also, of course, they charge for Internet use but they gave me a voucher for free internet access for 24 hours. Only problem is that there is no wi fi access in the room? They could probably improve the economics of the enterprise if they didn't have the airconditioning on all the time at what feels like 15 degrees.

Schnitzel

The availability of schnitzel is more common here, reflecting the German influence in SA,They don't really have chicken parmas here as such though. You have the choice of beef or chicken schnitzel,  and parma is just one of the optional toppings. But I think Victoria does parmas much better anyway. The last place had an innovative type of schnitzel - it was heart shaped. I have never seen that before.

Local News

According to a story on the news, most car accidents in Adelaide are caused by cars hitting stationary objects. I have noticed a distinct lack of optometrists here and some very aggressive advertising for the few that there are.

And here are some pretty pictures...

Mount Lofty

Walked the majestic Mt Lofty which is actually only 710m high but gives great views of Adelaide and the coast. Very popular as you can drive or cycle up the road to the lookout. I took one of the shorter walking tracks up from midway and walked all the way down which is not very far.

Some observations...

Retired Colleagues

I think I must look like I am retired. Twice I have been approached by fellow retirees who were obviously in need of a chat. One was cycling while childminding his grand children and the other one was driving a bus to fill in the time. They were quite friendly and personable but inevitably the conversation gets around to personal ailments.

Public Transport

On my way back from Mt Lofty by bus I noticed an older person with grey hair with blonde tips on the top. I figured he must have been drunk at the time of getting his haircut until he went off the bus and I noticed he was wearing a poncho. He didn't look Mexican.

Part of the freeway to Mt Lofty is very steep and so they have installed a number of emergency ramps in case a heavy vehicle such as a truck loses its brakes or something and can't stop. At the last ramp there are numerous signs warning that this is the "Last Chance" to use an emergency ramp. I wonder what the point of this is. If you are careering out of control I don't think you will be plicking and choosing which emergency ramp you'll use and in any case if you were behind the wheel of a vehicle that couldn't stop the last thing you want is the added pressure of a sign telling you this is your "Last Chance".

Gullibility

I must look gullible, a 200 kg man called me over and asked me to give him some money as he was starving.

Glenelg and Hahndorf

A rest day yesterday so visited the beach resort of Glenelg, 40 minutes by tram from the city, and Hahndorf, a town founded by German speaking immigrants, also a short bus trip away.

Some observations...

Glenelg

It was very windy when I visited but it has lots of fish and chip shops and ice creameries, which are sorely lacking in Adelaide. I am a bit concerned that they may have a sugar and/caffeine additction problem there though as somebody asked me to buy them a can of coke at 9 in the morning.

Hahndorf

My kind of place, lots of German food, chocolate and ice cream. They even had two piano accordion players in the streets, one of which was Father Christmas. An old woman was with him and I thought she was just there for moral support until she got out a tuba and started playing along. The Christmas market was also on and so it was very busy.

Adelaide Buses

Well organised, as most of the public transport is buses. The stop signs have large numbers, so it is easy to know ywhich stop to get off at and most stops have timetables. I am not sure whether Adelaide's roads are really bumpy or the suspension on their buses are shot, but I had a very rough ride on occasions.

Weather Forecasting

They seem to have a different approach here. Apparently, if they say it is going to be a sunny day, iit in fact means that it will be mainly or substantially a sunny day.. Such a forecast does not preclude it being cloudy for half the day or for there to be showers in the morning.

Interesting signs

Saw a place that was advertising karaoke and Internet. Not sure whether that means you can or must sing while using the Internet. 

A sign at the side of the road advertised Shooting Star Safaris. I can see what they are trying to do with that name tbut I think the name is a bit ambiguous.

Went past a building called the Multicultural Hall. I guess it might have been a monocultural hall previously.

Saw a business called Happy Herbs, with a sign that made it quite clear they weren't into selling those nasty things, pills.

And finally I have seen a few signs advertising raw cakes. That's misleading as they clearly don't mean unbaked cakes!

Anyway, on to the pictures....

Glenelg

Hahndorf

Kangaroo Island

Hello, because of a logistical problem (i.e. I don't drive) I went on a day tour to Kangaroo island in order to visit the Flinders Chase National Park (in particular Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch, see pictures below). This involved a bus and a ferry to get to the island and then a bus tour on the island. The highlight however were the dolphins that on seeing the ferry swam across excitedly and then swam just in front of the bow of the ship. Kangaroo island is a great place for a holiday, well recommended.

Now for som observations...

Bus and Ferry Trip

The trip commenced at the Adelaide Central Bus Station and on one of the walls they have all these nonsense signs (see picture below). I don't know why, the signs aren't really funny, just unintelligible. 

Everybody had to check in at the counter and it appeared to a lot of them as the best time to find out the details of the tour rather than find out before they booked or read their documentation. Then there were the rebels: the ones that turned up at the last minute, clearly they had had navigation issues or suffered from some sort of visual impairment as they couldn't even find the open door to the bus which was right in front of them. And of course there was one that got on the bus without checking in, so a further delay.

When we finally got to the ferry departure point, one of the passengers pushed past everybody and rushed to the terminal building. Obviously, he had bowel problems, he did the same when we got to Kangaroo Island even though the ferry had toilets.

The ferry itself was quite large, with it carrying vehicles as well, including a semi-trailer. Apart from the dolphins the ferry trip was uneventful, the sea was calm but even so the ferry rocked from side to side. 

The Tour

A lot of foreign tourists on our tour and other tours that were visiting the same places as us, some notable headwear: a person wearing a fly net on his head and another a hat with corks. I don't know what their problem was, the flys were worse in Adelaide. But the most intriguing headware was a person with intricately plaited "hair" that looked to me like wool rather than hair. The headband raised further suspicion. It wasn't as if I was looking for this, she sat in front of me.

More generally, these foreign tourists, mainly European, seem a bit distant, when an Australian speaks to them they just stare at them. I don't know whether Australia attracts dumb tourists or they can't understand anything we say to them as the English we speak bears little resemblance to the English they were taught and know. That's because we tend to run all of our words together - and it is up to you to untangle them. A guide worked this out and spoke to them as if they had some sort of impairment. I don't know whether that's the solution, it sounded painful.

On the way back to Adelaide the bus driver was performing extra duties as a postie, taking the Kangaroo Island mail and stopping at a small town and clearing out the post box.

And now more importantly, those photos...