We had received great service from Qantas on the flight over from Christchurch and just as we were descending into Sydney the thick clouds parted and revealed a great view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. The transfer was very easy and soon we were climbing through that thick blanket of cloud again and heading for South Australia.
The first face I saw as I stepped off the plane in Adelaide was that of Sir Donald Bradman, a nice welcome! Adelaide was the perfect introduction to Australia, I was much more impressed than I expected to be. Quite a flat city with a sort of sandstone hue about it, very clean and in some parts very pretty. We borrowed bicycles for free from a council project to get people cycling and made our way along the bank of the Lake Torrens river, winding through the bushes and gum trees amongst locals taking a lunchtime stroll. This ride was bookended by visiting the Adelaide Oval at the start and the Royal Botanical gardens at the end. Unfortunately we could not take a tour of the Oval due to a Foo Fighters concert but we did get the chance to wander around the Bradman collection though I suspect Monika was more excited about wandering around the botanical gardens! Two of Adelaide’s more urban attractions are the Rundle street mall and the Central market. The mall is simply the centre-piece of the downtown shopping area and was full of the usual joys of Christmas shopping whereas the market was far more exciting, rows and rows of fresh fruit and veggies, tasty bakeries, whiffy fishmongers and bloody butchers. It reminded me of Borough market on a more affordable level.
After a couple of days acclimatisation we headed straight into the Outback, driving north of Adelaide on the Stuart highway, which leads all the way to Darwin through strange places like Coober Pedy, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek. Despite the reputation of the red centre for being hot and dry we had a couple of overcast days and even a few thunderstorms. Our first stop was at Mt Remarkable national park where, on a hike through the disturbingly named Alligator gorge, we met our first kangaroo, snake and legion of irritating flies. Continuing along the Stuart we passed dozens of dead kangaroos by the roadside, no doubt many of them coming to a sticky end on the front of one of the behemoth road trains that rumble along ominously.
Coober Pedy is surrounded by mines supplying 80% of the worlds opals, and is famous for being an underground town. This probably sounds more unusual than it really is as most of the underground homes are dug into the side of hills, in a similar way to the cave houses of Cappadocia. It does mean that the town itself looks very flat from the viewpoint at the Big Winch. Although the ‘underground’ buildings, including many churches, hotels, a bar, bookshop and even a campsite, are very impressive the highlights for us were in the area around the town. First of these is the dog fence. This is a two metre high wire fence that stretches for over 5500km from the east coast, somewhere near the New South Wales/Queensland border, inland through to the north of South Australia, reaching the South Australia coast somewhere halfway along the Nullabor plain (apparently the longest fence on earth). Why? It was built to keep the dangerous dingo populations of the north away from the sheep flocks of the south. Built during the late 1800’s apparently it has worked very well, although it does mean that the emus, rabbits and kangaroos of the south are protected also, and provide competition for the sheep as regards water and pasture. The section we visited near Coober Pedy looked pretty intact but apparently wild camels have been knocking a lot of the remote sections down. The actual fence is fairly mundane compared with the bizarre story behind it. Far from mundane is the landscape that the fence passes through, known as the Moon plain due to its otherworldly appearance. This area has been used as a location for many apocalyptic and sci-fi films such as Mad Max and Pitch Black, a spaceship from the latter has crash landed outside a hotel in town! The centre-piece of the plain is the Breakaways Reserve, unbelievable scenery of rocky outcrops and hills in a spectrum of Martian shades.
We had to make an unscheduled trip back to Adelaide due to a cracked windscreen but we made up for that by visiting Vili’s pie cafe. Across South Australia one thing you are bound to find in even the most fly-blown of outback stations is a shop selling Vili’s pies and in Adelaide there is a cafe at the factory which seems to be perpetually packed, so much so it has to open 24 hours a day to satisfy demand! Their signature dish is the Pie Floater, a meat pie drowned in a stew that tastes just like my Nans pea soup with a large dollop of ketchup on top. I have always wanted to try one since hearing Mark Little describe them on the Big Breakfast a couple of decades ago! It was worth the wait. We thought that the seaside suburb of Glenelg would be a good place to walk off such a feast but when we got there we found it lined with packed bars and clubs and with police stopping every car on the way in. We didn’t stay long and instead made our way back up north to Flinders Ranges national park. We had been recommended the Flinders by many people as one of the most beautiful places in Australia and perfect for a few days trekking. With such expectations the reality was always going to be slightly disappointing but the walks around Wilpena Pound were still quite enjoyable, especially the 20km trek over Tanderra saddle (we didn’t climb to St Marys peak as it is apparently a place of significance for the local aboriginal tribe).
Somehow walking in Australia feels harder than anywhere else, the heat is debilitating so we rewarded ourselves with a tour through the Barossa valley, probably Australia’s most famous wine region. We visited a handful of cellar doors, the highlight of which was probably Murray Street Vineyards, and also the famous Maggie Beer farm shop. We had never heard of Maggie Beer but a few Australians had recommended us to visit her farm shop as she is some sort of Australian celebrity chef. Going by the tasty samples at her shop I can see why, the tomato and sultana chutney being a particular favourite.
Continuing towards Melbourne we passed through the coastal Coorong national park full of sea shanties, fishing villages, beaches, sand dunes and lots of birds, including giant squadrons of pelicans flying over in bomber formation. Further inland is one of Australia’s world heritage sites, the Naracoorte caves which contain dinosaur fossils, although we decided to visit the local open air swimming ‘lake’ instead saving our cave exploration for the Tatanoola caves which although they have no fossils are beautifully adorned with giant stalactites and stalagmites creating a fairytale scene. Also close by is the Coonawarra wine region, famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon, again we visited a few cellar doors with the most impressive being Katnook Estate where we picked up a bottle of sparkling Shiraz for Christmas.
Back on the coast for the final drive through into Victoria we stopped in Canunda national park, at the fishing town of Southend-on-sea. Totally incomparable with the other Southend, this is a stunning park of brilliant blue sea, sandy beaches and rainbow coloured rocks, with walking trails winding their way in between. Further along the town of Mt. Gambier is South Australias second largest city and the home of a few attractions itself, the Umpherstone sinkhole and the Blue lakes, both rather self-explanatory, and the nearby Picanninie ponds. These are touted as one of the worlds best fresh-water snorkelling sites although we were unable to find out due to the requirement of a full length wet-suit, which we don’t have in our backpacks. In any case they are a rather underwhelming site, looking something like Ranworth broad in all honesty.
Our first stops in Victoria were the pleasant towns of Nelson, Portland and Port Fairy, the latter having tiny Griffith island attached by a boardwalk, perfect for some afternoon wallaby spotting. Port Fairy is also more or less the start of the Great Ocean Road, the world famous driving tour. In shock at the sheer number of tourists we made our way past the various scenic spots such as London Bridge, the Loch Ard gorge, and the famous Twelve Apostles of the first half of the drive, and then the coastal towns and surf beaches of the second half including Bells Beach (supposedly the beach where Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze met at the end of Point Break. We also stumbled across bunches of cute koala bears in the trees around Cape Otway. The Great Ocean road ends up in the coastal town of Geelong, a nice enough place, before the road follows the coast of Port Philip Bay round to Melbourne.
We just passed through Melbourne on the way down to Wilsons Promontory, the national park popular with holidaying Victorians getting away for Christmas. Luckily there is a 450+ site campground at Tidal River, the main centre. It is popular due to the combination of powdery beaches and turquoise sea with great walking and wildlife, including wombats just wandering around the camp. Unfortunately the whole park suffered horrific flooding in March this year, destroying most of the roads and bush camps, cutting the Prom off from the mainland necessitating helicopter evacuations and meaning the park was closed off for a while. The northern half is now open again but the south remains closed. This unfortunately means the three-night Great Prom walk is also off-limits but we made do with stringing together some of the shorter walks to make a couple of full day hikes before we left the park, just as the legions of Christmas visitors were swarming into the park.
On the way back to Melbourne we stopped off at Philip Island, popular for its nightly penguin visits which sadly have become a tourist trap similar to that of Oamaru in New Zealand. I just don’t see the attraction of viewing penguins from some sort of grandstand with a couple of hundred other people. The rest of the island reminded me of a resort in Florida or South Africa, shops selling beach clothes and beer, wall to wall faceless restaurants and bars and a twee local newspaper keeping everyone informed of the latest gossip. We didn’t stay long, preferring to make our way slowly up the Mornington peninsular back to Melbourne, stopping at beaches for a BBQ or a swim.
Now we are back in Melbourne, just in time for Christmas and cricket. It has been weird seeing Santa dressed in shorts but we are just about ready. Unfortunately the Australian government and media chose this week to expose a really ugly, racist side. You may have seen in the news the shocking story of the boat that capsized on the way to Australia, packed with hundreds of people fleeing oppressive regimes and risking their lives for the chance of something better. Sadly many people lost their lives and others are lying in hospital but instead of focusing on peace and goodwill to all men in the festive season the Australian response has been to condemn those who died, complain that the border policy is not strong enough here and to react in such a way as to leave one wandering whether the country had just been taken over by a rogue bunch of Daily Mail readers. Such a shame.
On a similarly sombre note I would just like to mention how sad it was to hear of the passing of Vaclav Havel. A shining light for peace and freedom and someone who is thought of alongside Nelson Mandela as a symbol of the triumph of democracy over tyranny and dictatorship.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Vesele Vanoce a stastny novy rok
Gledileg Jol.
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