Nancy's Travel Journal

On our last day we got up about 5:00 AM because we were meeting the Adventure Tours van at 6:30.  The good news was that we were departing only a few doors down from the YHA.  As Chris, our driver and guide loaded the van, we looked around and quickly realized that we were the only travelers above the age of 30!  Well, maybe Chris was in his mid 30s.  At least we got the seat just behind the driver which enabled us to watch the road and upcoming sites.

As we drove through the countryside leaving Adelaide, we saw fields and fields of yellow canola growing in patches everywhere.  As we passed through the Clare Valley, stopping at the town of Clare, Chris suggested that we stock up on “adult” beverages before getting too far out of town.  In Australia, Woolworths is one of the largest grocery stores and has an extensive liquor and wine store attached.  Since the Clare Valley is famous for its Reislings, I picked up a bottle of Annie’s Lane Reisling because I liked the name.  Price and labels are my determiners of wine purchasing here.

We stopped for a “pull-out” lunch at a really small town on the edge of Clare Valley, noticeably drier terrain.  A pull-out lunch is just what it says, really not much different from a picnic.  We all took turns slicing tomatoes and cucumbers, setting out cheeses, meats and condiments, and opening cans for vegetables and fruits.  (can’t really upload pictures at this point, will have to share those later).

As we rolled along after lunch, we began to notice abandoned farm houses, made from brick and in shambles.  Chris told us that farmers in the early part of the 20th century came out to this area, tried farming for a few years, but had to finally give up for lack of water.  The crumbling houses with no roofs reminded me of those we saw in Ireland a few years ago.  It was really kind of sad, imagining family dreams of a good life slowly dissolving.

After a few hours, we stopped at the Youramboulla aboriginal site.  It is the only one where permission has been given to enter and photograph.  This is possible because ceremony has not been performed here since the 1950s.  We were told that the paintings here are no elaborate because of the harsh life style.  Searching for food and water left very little time for drawing and painting.  Like the American Indian, everything is tied to the land.  Stories were not written down.  They were passed from story to song to painting.  Most of those stories are beyond the knowing of those outside the tribes, and even outside the knowing of most tribal members, only known to the elders.  Until recently, the stories had been called dreaming or dream time.  But, some folks now feel that it is condescending  to say it is something as simple as dreaming.  That terminology is still used by most folks.  He compared the complexity of the stories to those in the Bible, encyclopedias, and other reference books of our age.  Everything about their lives are in these stories…kinships, navigational signs, animal behavior, what to eat…everything!

At the end of the day’s trip, we arrived in Parachilna, population 5!, But, what a unique place it was.  The Prairie Hotel had recently undergone significant renovations, adding several upscale guest rooms out back.  Since Bill and I had upgraded from dorm accomodations for three of our nights, we had one of these rooms.  The rest of the folks were housed in a nearby dorm like accomodation.  As we checked in, we were told that an art show was happening in the dining area.  Must have been some important folks there, since we saw a helicopter parked out back and several rental vans coming from who knows where.  They were all gone the next day.

After taking some time to rest and refresh in our room, we joined the rest of the group for dinner.  And what a dinner it was!  Chris had cooked emu, kangaroo, and camel.  With the right seasoning, it tasted quite good.  In fact, I  had a second helping of camel!!.

After dinner, we took some time for a short hike around town, actually that meant walking over to the railroad track to watch the train go by and the sunset.  There was a large structure that once held a water tank featured in the movie “Rabbit Proof Fence”.  The structure became rusted and unsafe.  Despite the fund raising efforts of some well-meaning folks, they were unable to secure enough money to save the tank.  So the foundation is all that is left.  I did manage to get some pictures of that.  Then came a wonderful desert sunset.  As we sat on some railroad equiptment with a glass of wine, the sun slowly sank on the horizon.  What a special time.

A bit later, after we had visited the pub and the sun had disappeared, we walked outside again to watch the train go by.  It is the big excitement two times a day.  It rarely stops at Parachilna anymore.  Then we were awed by the unbelievable Sourthern Hemisphere stars and “I saw the Southern Cross for the first time”. (Seems like I remember a song about that!)  Knowing that we had a long day ahead we retired early and fell asleep with smiles on our faces and thankfulness in our hearts for a wonderful experience.

Friday, September 14, 2007

This will be a short post since we are leaving at 6:30 AM tomorrow for our 6-day road trip to Alice Springs.  Posts may be few and far between during this time as we will be in very remote places.  I will keep good notes on how we fare in the outback.  We will see Coober Pety, Uluhru, and uniquely Australian sites.

Today we visited several places in Adelaide.  Perhaps the most poignant was the Migration Musuem.  It was housed in a former school for aboriginal children, abandonded in the 1850s when the Aboriginal people realized that the colonials were attempting to destroy the culture by basically kidnapping the children and not allowing visitation for years.  The school closed and the Destitute Asylum was opened on the site.  This was a place for abandonded children and pregnant unwed mothers.  It was a squalid place unfit for the children or mothers.  I plan to research this when I get home.  I did learn about Zonta International, http://www.zonta.org/site/PageServer, an international women-helping women group.  An important project of the Adelaide group presently is the birthing kit.  For one dollar, a kit can be purchased and given to needy women.  I plan to research this as well.

There is so much more to tell about this day, but my time is running out on the computer.  Hopefully I will be able to post in a few days.

Oh, I forgot about Bill’s floater pies.  He had been telling me about this split pea and pot pie dish served up on a food cart by the post office.  We were finally able to enjoy one tonight.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Today we slept in for a while, not making our way to breakfast until about 9:00.  As we sat enjoying coffee, a young woman from the UK joined us.  Gita, a dental nurse (hyginist in US), came to Perth for a 4-week vacation and has been here almost six weeks.  While she says she is now homesick, she will be in Adelaide several more days, a week in Sydney, and leaving from Perth to return to England.  During her time here, she has decided to go back to school to be a dentist.  We also talked with an older couple we had met earlier.  They were off to Glenelg as we were.  These are the kind of stories and people you meet at a YHA.

Walking about three blocks to Victoria Square, we took the 20-minute tram ride to Glenelge, a popular seaside resort for South Australia.

Seems like hunger comes around very often when you are on the move.  So we found the Gourmet Goose, a sidewalk cafe to our liking and settled down to some delightful, huge sandwiches.  Bill had the Aussie burger again, consisting of hamburger, beets, cheese, tomato, eggs and lettuce.  I had a similar dish, but made of ground chicken, tomato, rocket (arugula) and sauteed asparagus.  Wonder what I will weigh when we return?

After lunch we strolled over to the fountain in the plaza.  We were treated to perhaps the best entertainment since coming on this trip.  A three-year old, named Phoenix, under the amused eyes of his parents, was jumping around in the fountain.  The water came up sporadically from various places.  He was trying to figure out where they came from.  Each time he would see a spout come up, he would run there, only to see it go back down. He drew quite a crowd as we all laughed at his antics.  His parents wished for a video camera.

After the water show, we strolled out to the beach and jetty (called a pier in US).  I just had to put my feet in the water, as cold as it was.  As some clouds were rolling in, we decided to walk back toward the Town Hall, built in the 1800s, now a called the Bay Discovery Center.

What a great bit of local history we found.  Glenelg is the home of the Kaurna people.  In 1802 Captian Matthew Flinders landed on Kangaroo Island, making way for sealers in 1806 and settlers soon after.  They made their way to the Glenelg area on the HMS Buffalo and other ships, finding fresh water and fertile soil.  The town ultimately became a popular vacation spot for South Australians.  The jetty in the foreground of the picture was built in 1969 after a hurricane had destroyed the original one in 1948.  Now there are several luxury hotels and apartments along the shore.  While we enjoyed the historical artifacts and videos, the best thing about the visit to the museum was the group of guides we met while waiting out a sudden rain storm.  The woman was a cyclist who had toured all over the world, except the US, so we had a lot in common.  One of the gentlemen was just about Bill’s age and just as anti-technology!  We probably talked for 30 minutes before the tram returned and we braved the blowing rain storm to hop aboard.

Watching the rain pour down on our ride back to the city, we wondered how we would avoid getting soaked from the tram station to our YHA.  As things most often do work out, the rain stopped just as we disembarked and started back.  Passing the grocery store we bought some food for the night, along with some sweet rolls for breakfast and made our way to the next adventure.  Yes, there was one more that day, or should I say that night!

Each day, the YHA has a special event.  Thursday night was no exception.  We played Bingo with about 40 other folks in the commons area.  Bill won an hour free internet!  Well, guess who got to use that!!  After a long day and one more glass of wine we retired with smiles on our faces.

Wednesday morning dawned sunny and warm, no clouds in the sky.  (Temperature is measured in celsius.  The rough translation to farenheit is to double the current temp in celsius and add 30-so 20 C would be 70 F.)  The van picked us up around 8:30 for the tour I had been waiting for since leaving Georgia.

The Barossa Valley is about an hour’s drive northeast of Adelaide, with about 70+ wineries located in this region.  It was first settled by German Lutherans, who came to this area in the 1840s to escape religious persecution.  The architecture, Lutheran churches smoked meats, fruit preservation and sweet breads reflect the unique culture of these people.  The charm of the culture was somewhat marred 1915, when a wave of anti-German sentiment swept through the area.  This sentiment was reflected in the changing of many of the town names.  For example, Gnadenfrei (meaning “freed by the grace of God”) was changed to Marananga.  Later some of the names, but not Marananga, were changed back.

Our guide told us that this area has some of the oldest vines in the world.  This is a result of three things, never a war on Australian soil where bombs would destroy the crops, never a time of prohibition, and the absence of a certain fungus present in other parts of the world.  In recent years, with the popularity of olive oils, farmers have begun planting olive groves in the area, as well as wine.  They also grow sheep and alpacas.  One interesting fact about the alpaca.  When attacked by other animals, they gang up and fight together against the predator.

Australia is known for its “big” statues found in various parts of the country.  One of those is the rocking horse at a toy factory located in Gumeracha.  The Big Chicken in Marietta has nothing on this fellow.

In the town of Birdwood, we passed the Herbig tree.  It seems that Friedrich Herbig lived in the hollowed-out area of this redgum tree with his wife and two children.  When the third child arrived, they decided to move into something bigger.  It was probably a wise move, since they went on to have 16!  Today the tree is estimated to be 300-600 years old and old Friedrich has around 600 descendents in the area!!

Our little van stopped next in Angaston, named after Englishman George Fife Angas, who founded the town and sponsored many German and British immigrants who came to the region.  The town is full of jacaranda trees, that were showing their spring beauty.

The German culture is reflected here in the stately stone buildings and tiny shops like the one selling 17 varieties of wurst (German sausage) for 67 years.  We stopped at the Angas Park Fruit and Nut Company, where several of loaded up on the same, as well as some spiced mustards.  I hope they make it back to Metter.

As we rode along, our guide explained certain highway signs about the size of our mile-marker signs.  These indicate a location where there have been deaths and/or injuries.  Many of these accidents are caused by kangaroos, similar to our deer problems in South Georgia.

Our first stop was at the imposing and upscale Wolf Blass Winery, part of the Fosters Group.  In our “structured” wine tasting, we sampled several wines started with light whites and moving all the way to heavy dessert ports.  We were given the opportunity for just $5 extra, to taste the $135 dollar/bottle 2003 Cabernet/Saugivnon/Shiraz/Malvec and the Platinum Label 2004 Shiraz.  He got one and I got the other, then shared.  After tasting “ordinary folks” wine, this was quite a treat.  And, there really was a difference!

We are told that the Wolf Blass Presidents Selection is imported into the US, as well as the Red Label, in case some of you wine folks are interested.  We were also told about the switch to screw caps on wine bottles.  The only ones that are still corked from this winery are those exported to the US.  Screw caps allow for upright storage, keep freshness when a wine bottle stays open for several days (can’t imagine one lasting that long), and are good for the environment, saving the cork tree..  So there you have it.  Form your own opinion about screw vs. cork!

About this time, we needed a bit of food, so we stopped at Nuriootpa (Aboriginal for meeting place) at the Vine Inn Restaurant, where we were served a three course meal.  We both decided on Barumba (a fish) and steamed veggies.  We had a choice of several dishes, including kangaroo, which we politely refused!  As we were leaving, I spotted the bar off to the side.  A sign directed patrons to remove their caps/hats when entering the bar.  I asked the waiter about this.  There are security cameras in the bar.  If a person gets rowdy, they want to be able to clearly identify him/her.  We also found out that only law enforcement folks can carry pepper spray.  Glad we don’t have that in the US.

After lunch, we were ready for wine again.  Vinecrest is a family-run winery.  They bottle only their won grapes, but sell some to Penfolds for their premier wine, Penfold’s Grange at over $100 per bottle (some as high as $880).  We learned the importance of decanting red wines to allow them to breathe, thus releasing the full flavors.

From this winery, we took a side trip to Menglers Hill for a beautiful view of the Barossa Valley, only stopping long enough for a few photographs.

From Menglers Hill, we journeyed down to
Barossa Vines.  This time, there was not a structured tasting.  They just poured what you wanted.  It was here that we learned about the winery dogs.  There are all kinds of breeds and even a calendar featuring these wonderful pets.  By this time, I was a bit tired of wine (can you believe that!) so started photographing the grapevines.  Since it is still early spring, most had few if any leaves.

Our last stop was at Kies Family Wines.  While not as impressive as some of the others, I did find one bottle of 2004 Klauber Block Shiraz to buy.  It has a strong hint of black cherries, but is not sweet.  We will finish it before leaving Adelaide.  I was quite fascinated with  the vines themselves.  While I tried to capture the essence of the vine, I just can’t quite do it like Matt.  He has the right camera and quite the creative eye!

After this last winery, we were off to the Whispering Wall, a dam constructed in such a way that it creates an acoustical wonder.  You can stand on one side of the dam, speak softly, and can be heard on the other side.

Finally, we journeyed about 45 minutes in traffic back to Adelaide.  Being quite exhausted by this time, we stopped at Coles (Adelaide’s answer to Bi-Lo), got a frozen “gourmet” dinner and made our way back to the YHA.  All was not lost, since we added a delicious garlic bread to our meal.  Great meal!  Great day!