Tuesday
4th November
Our plan was to reach Adelaide around 5.30pm, where my/our friend Haley was off work and could host us for as long as we wanted. Within the last days it has been easy to tell that we’re approaching one of the more populated parts of Australia. There is more traffic on the roads, the distance between gas stations isn’t far anymore, which means we don’t need to plan beforehand where to fuel up. The landscape has also changes into big flat stretches of corn fields and green fields with cows, small hills with windmills and we suddenly have got clouds over us again. It actually feels like home, apart from the ‘missing’ rain. We have been driving on the most empty roads for such a long time, so concerning the traffic, we had to be much more concentrated now than what we had been used to. Before this we could drive up to 50km without meeting any other vehicles, now they are everywhere.
Most of this day we spend on the roads, only with a small stop at a roadhouse, where we were meant to spoil ourselves with a nice meal, and by putting our expectations to high (cause we were so hungry) we were also in the risk of getting disappointed. It was undoubtedly the most boring overpriced food we have tried in a long time, but the staff was nice and friendly, which made the experience better. Just north of Adelaide we drove by a pink lake (salt lake), it looked so unreal that we had to pull over several times to stare at it and take pictures, of course.
We reached Adelaide as planned, around 5.30pm. When we pulled up in the driveway on De Laine Avenue we weren’t exactly sure if we were in front of the right house or not, but then when I heard a little happy scream and someone coming running through the door, we knew we were right. Haley ran out the door, hugged me and had the biggest smile on her face, the reunion joy was big.
I met Haley in Banff 6 years ago. Last time WE saw her was 2 years ago when she visited us in Denmark. Currently she is living with her dad and sister Renee, but soon she’s living and working in Ireland. So we got here just in time to catch up with her, before she’s gone travelling again. Little travel bug!
Anyway, her dad was away (working in the mines), so it was just the four of us.
She quickly offered us her bed and she would then move into her dad’s bedroom. The Aussie hospitality is just continuous and we appreciate it a lot. Our mattress in the car has become a bit of a pain in the ash - it’s not as comfortable as it was in the beginning, so off course we said yes to her offer. Otherwise the plan was to take the car mattress out and sleep on it, in another room they provided for us. But now we both got Haley’s bed to sleep in and the other room to put all our stuff in. How lucky are we? All that extra space quickly got very messy but that’s another story.
This day was one of the most special Aussie days (apart from Australia day) since the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s major horserace was over, it was a big party day even though it was a Tuesday.
We felt a bit underdressed when we (Haley, Renee and us) approached Warradale Pub, all the ladies were dressed nicely in fancy dresses, high heels, modern hats, and fourteen layers of make-up.
We came in jeans, worn out jackets and natural faces - usually Erik wears make-up when we’re going out, but not this night!! It was a bit of a fancy pub, but oh my god the food was fantastic. To every meal there was also a buffet included, and that was actually the best part of it. It had warm creamy potatoes, roasted beetroot, six different mixed very special salads all consisting of at least one thing that we rarely have had in salads before. They were so amazing.
Sometimes I find it hard to catch up, when you haven’t seen people for ages, like what are you gonna tell into details and what should you refrain from telling. This was NOT one of those moments. With Haley it just seemed so relaxed and natural… And it felt like we saw each other yesterday. She’s still the same lovely girl that I met 6 years ago, and we both very quickly felt completely comfortable in her and her sisters company.
We rolled out of the pub, all so full and tired and we all wanted to escape from the drunk and uncontrolled people. Haley had to work the next morning so it was a quiet one for us… Exactly what we needed.
 |
| A spectacular and colourful minesite |
 |
| The pink lake |
 |
| Our new home for a little while
Wednesday
5th November
After
sleeping like the king and queen, we dragged ourselves out of bed. Renee drove
us up to the mall, where we did some groceries. We really miss eating bread and
cold meat for breakfast. It’s just one of those things that we really
appreciate – and now we had access to a fridge, which allowed us to buy this
type of food. It also made us really full and exhausted afterwards – since
we’re not use to it, it felt like the yeast kept raising inside us.
We then
took off to Harbour Town – a big outside mall near the coast in Adelaide. Our intentions
here were to shop around for a light “summer” jacket for Erik, and for a bit
warmer jacket for me. Since it’s the start of the summer here, we found that
all jackets were on sale, even those ones we call “summer jackets”, because
here that’s a spring/autumn jacket – it’s simply not necessary with a jacket in
the summer time here! We both ended up finding a jacket that we liked – and
just as important, they were cheap. I bought a leather jacket (not real leather
but looks like it) for 40 dollars in kids size 14, and Erik got a light
“summer” jacket in size xxs for 30
dollars. This brings me to the next subject, the Australian sizes! It reminds a
lot of American sizes, because normally in Europe, we would both need a medium
size in jackets. So there’re really some BIG people Down Under!
Very happy
with our purchases, we ended the shopping with ice creams from Mc D. Back at
the house again Erik started to make dinner, Danish meatballs (frikadeller)
with cold homemade potato salad. The dinner was a success, Haley and Renee both
liked it, though Renee only had the potato salad, because she’s vegetarian. We
rounded off the day on the couches, with a good movie.
Thursday 6th
November
After
another fabulous sleep-in, Haley dropped us off in Adelaide city center, where
we explored the free Australian Wine Center, which for our disappointment were
having a big conference, so the exhibition area was reduced down to only one
big room instead of the normal three.
We still learned some things about the
making of wine, and some of the many different grapes used. They had a test, on
a touch screen, where you could try to make you own wine, depending on how you
would like it (red/white, dry/sweet etc. etc.), and how much attention you’ve
been paying in the exhibition room. The finally result wasn’t very good at all,
I made an average wine, but Erik’s was very bad, almost toxic!
The Wine Centre is located just in the
outskirts of the botanical garden, so we had a walk through that, and found our
way up to the shopping streets. On one of the big restaurant and café streets,
Rundle Street, we found a sushi restaurant that had an offer we wouldn’t miss
out on. All plates on the sushi train, 3 dollars each! We emptied 10 plates,
and then continued our browsing through Adelaide CBD (Central Business
District).
We wanted to have a look at the nearby Central Market, and with free
tram rides in the CBD, this would by easy done. We found the tram, but weren’t
quite sure which direction to go, so when the first tram showed up, I went
inside it to ask a guy for directions – Erik followed me because he thought
this was the right train. As soon as we got in, and the guy told me that this
was going in the opposite direction, the doors closed, and the tram started
moving. Erik wasn’t so happy about that, especially when we could just have
asked some of the 10-15 people outside the tram. Well it was free, and only an
15 minutes detour.
We got to the market, had a walk around it, but left quickly
again, as it didn’t have anything special, just a lot of cheap Asian shops,
trying to sell you, everything that you certainly don’t need in your life. We
brought home some bottles of wine and beer, and for dinner we had left-overs
(meatballs and potato salad).
This evening was one of the funniest ones we’ve
had in a long time. We had a good amount of alcohol and played Pictionary (Tegn
& Gæt). Haley and Renee were against me and Erik. That combination is never
the best, because we are both very bad drawers, and playing the game in
English, didn’t help at all. Haley and Renee won in the end – but most
important was that our laughing muscles got put on a big test.
The botanical garden
      |
Friday 7th
November
Haley took
the day of work, so she could spend some time with us.
After our late night we
felt a bit lazy and wasn't keen for doing much. Haley and Renee on the other
hand were planning a day on the beach for us. The temperate should reach 37
degrees, so there was a good point in a beach visit and a place to cool off
when we got too hot.
We picked up some supplies (actually Danish Somersby
ciders and Carlsbergs) from a drive-in bottle shop, before our driver Renee took
us to Moana beach. The beach was wide and flat enough to bring the car down to
the waterfront, it was windy and the temperature felt 10 degrees lower than it
was. It’s a dangerous fact that skin cancer is one of the most common diseases
in Australia, especially the southern parts, where there is a big hole in the
ozone layer, which means it very easy to get sunburned (=skin cancer).
Obviously we were aware of this and made sure to put sun lotion on, basically
all the time. When we didn’t play with the footie (an Australian football), the
freeze bee or the hula hoop, we listened to music in our beach chairs with a
cold drink in our hand. The time was flying, as usually in good company.
Renee
drove us up to Brighton beach where we all ordered burger and enjoyed them on the
beach. It had been an amazing day, and the fact that Renee drove us around made
it so relaxed for us, and we enjoyed the tour much more, than we would have
done by ourselves. We weren’t worth much in the night, daytime drinking in the
sun had made us drowsy. We kept ourselves awake for a movie and when Renee was
off work Haley (and I) gave her a lift into the city – at this time we figured
that Haley digested all the alcohol she consumed earlier.. Maybe not 100%, but
Renee really wanted a lift and after driving us around all day it would have
been mean to say no to her.
The second heart-attack burger this day was
bought at Hungry Jacks (the exact same Restaurant as Burger King – just another
name). Oh my god, how unhealthy can we possibly be in just 14 hours. We felt
disgusting afterwards. It was around 1am before we hit our bed.
After such a
long day you should think that it was easy to fall asleep, well at least it was
for Haley and Erik. For some reason I couldn’t fell asleep, which was very
annoying cause we had another “busy” day tomorrow.
Drive-in bottleshop
Renee, Erik & Haley
Haley
Not the worst view to enjoy in the baking sun
Saturday 8th
November
When I
could hear the others starting chatting in the morning it felt like I just fell
asleep and was away for a few minutes. Well I had to get up because, apart from
meeting Haley, today was our highlight of visiting Adelaide… The Barossa
Valley! One of the world’s greatest wine regions, with hot, dry summers and
cool moderate winters they produce 21% of Australia’s wine, mostly big luscious
reds. Best known is their Shiraz.
It was 1½ hour drive north east of Adelaide,
Haley had offered to drive us around and visit a few of the 80 plus wineries,
60 of the with open cellar doors (which means free tastings). After a beautiful
drive through the Adelaide hills and seeing, and almost hitting the biggest
kangaroo ever, we arrived at the first cellar door, Shild Winery. We didn’t
hesitate when the guy asked if we wanted to try all their wines. Obviously we
said yes. He introduced us to a very special SPARKLING Shiraz. A strange taste
to begin with, but a very satisfying aftertaste. Apparently that little brewery
delivers wine to a wine shop in Brøndby (a suburb of Copenhagen).
Haley joined
us in the tasting but unfortunately she had to use the provided buckets to spit
the wine out again.. I felt sorry for her, but had to laugh of her spitting out
the expensive wines, it was definitely not her preferred way to do a wine tour.
We visited two other wineries; one of them was Jacob’s Creek. It’s considered
as some of the cheapest wine here, but since we drink it from time to time at
home we wanted to check it out. It was a big place compared to a lot of the
other wineries, we didn’t bother the free tastings, since there was a lot of better
options around. We enjoyed our lunch on a small café in the town of Tanunda.
Now time was running faster than us. We had to be back in Adelaide at 6.30pm,
to participate in a family party with Haley’s family.
We rushed up to Maggie
Beer’s Farm Shop, it’s one of the most successful places with a range of
condiments, preserves, pâtés and gourmet tastings. We rushed though the
delicious tastings and bought a few things as a present for Haley’s aunt and
uncle. Before we left the valley we had to visit Whistler Winery (recommended
by Haley’s mom), but by the time we arrived there we were a bit tired of wine –
never thought this sentence would come over my lips, but I had enough. We were
all wined-out at this time. We made a quick stop at the Shild Winery on the way
back, and bought some of that special sparkling Shiraz (also as a present).
Back
in Adelaide a bit later than planned we quickly dropped off our stuff, changes
clothes and picked up Renee and Haley’s mom. The family party was to everyone’s
surprise a lot bigger than assumed. It was said to be a going-away party for Haley’s
aunt Petra’s german sister, but we figured it was just an excuse to throw a
party. The house was full of people, and a lot of them were unknown to each
other. Even Haley didn’t know half of the people – so we fitted in just
perfect. The food was absolutely fantastic, five big tables spread out in the
living room and kitchen with the best finger food we’ve ever had. We ate so
much.
Jeff (uncle) and Petra was totally overwhelmed by our present to them. They
thought it was way too much, they hadn’t expected anything, he kept saying. So
before we took off Jeff opened the sparkling wine so we could have some of it
(the “tired of wine” time was passed already again), and then secretly Jeff and
Haley arranged that she should bring the other bottle home, so we could enjoy
it now that we bought such a nice wine. They DID appreciate it, but they knew
we were travelers and that the wine hadn’t been cheap ($25 per bottle = 130
kr). It was such a delightful party though.
We got in touch with a family
member that runs a surf school in Goolwa down south, he invited us down for a
free surf lesson (by the way we loooove free stuff, almost no matter what it
is). He ensured us that we would like surfing after trying it on this specific
beach. We told him already that we were done with surfing, but he made us
reconsider trying it again and give it the last change. After a silly dance
with a few kids and a lot of laughter we left the party around 10pm. Exhausted
and absolutely ready for our beauty sleep.
Shild Winery
Haley and her favorite bucket
Sunday 9th
November
Stayed in
bed and catched up on Facebook, when we all of a sudden heard a man's voice in the
hallway. Erik and I looked at each other and thought that their dad had come
home earlier than expected. We felt a bit awkward, cause we had our stuff
laying everywhere in the house, so we got up quickly and planned to clean up
straight away.
Haley and her sister were in the garden, probably with their dad
so we walked out there to greet him. The next sight wasn’t anything like we
expected. Renee was cuddling with her python snake, and it wasn’t their dad but
their older brother Josh popping by. Luckily for us – then we could still feel
at home and leave stuff everywhere. Renee had tried to convince herself to take
the snake out a few days before, but she hadn’t got the balls to do it. She
absolutely loves her snake, but can’t convince herself to put her hands into the
cage and grab it, but Josh apparently didn’t mind.
The snake was hanging out
with us most of the ‘morning’, he seemed mellow, but I didn’t feel like holding
more snakes, been there done that. Erik wasn’t in the mood either, but he didn’t
want to appear as a chicken, so at one point he gave the snake a cuddle anyway.
Then Erik disappeared for quite a while, no one was sure what he was doing, but
later we found him in the driveway, where he had taken the front wheels of the
car, fixed the brakes and serviced the car. There was a good reason for this
though. He had put the car for sale in Melbourne, and there were already a lot
of people interested in it, so he wanted to make it ready for the next
travelers.
Haley’s friend Hayley (pronounced the same way) came around and hung
out with us, so after washing the car we drove up to Hahndorf - Australia’s
oldest surviving German settlement, a pretty little town with European trees
and German shops, with sausages, sauerkraut, chocolate etc. It was a sunny day
and the main street was booming of tourism. We sat down on the busiest café on
the main street, and enjoyed a big mug of beer for $13,5 (70kr) each. In a
butcher store we found one of our favorite sausages – liver sausage, perfect
for the last bit of bread we had at home. The Aussies found it weird to eat
cold meat on bread in the morning, so we had it all to ourselves.. Even more
perfect!
The 2 x Haley talked about going for a sunday session, apparently that’s a hip
thing here in Australia. It was the same we did in Perth. So it’s basically
just getting together with friends and going out on a sunday. Sundays are
always cheaper as well, so it makes sense. I bet the employers aren’t big fans
of it though – from the stories we heard there’s a lot of monday sickness.
Anyway, for once I offered to be the driver – time to make a big X in the
calendar. The suburb Glenelg has a beautiful square with bars, restaurants and
easy access to the beach. The Jetty Bar served $5 (25kr) drinks, so the girls
and Erik were in for a treat. We did some serious people watching this
afternoon.
Later back home I made red curry for us all, the best I have made so
far. While Erik planned to go to bed early - in order to get up and watch
Formula 1 at 2am, the girls and I planned to finish those Somersby and the
sparkling Shiraz (that Haley had brought home from the party). We skyped with
Steffi in Berlin for an hour and arranged to meet up in Europe, when we get back home and Haley is in Ireland. Hurray for future travel plans!
Renee was trying to do the dishes, but had to give up halfway, the snake needed her attention..
Meanwhile Erik was giving Migaloo a service
 |
| Afternoon beers in Hahndorf |
 |
| Old cars in the streets |
 |
 |
| 2 X Haley and me (taken with Iphone, which explains the bad quality) |
 |
| Ice cream, I am not even sure we have in Denmark..!?
Monday 10th
November
Even more
people started replying on the car add online, so we started to prepare
ourselves for selling the car in Melbourne. It means if we sell the car, we
have to buy some bags for all our stuff, since our backpacks are back
in Sydney. So we will have to take a bus or hitchhike as gypsies back up to
Sydney.
We planned to leave Adelaide tuesday morning, so this day was dedicated
to get the car ready and packed again. Already back in Sydney we have heard
horror stories about a movie called Wolf Creek, it’s based on a true story
about tree backpackers that got killed in the outback by a local freak, that
original should “fix” their car. Apparently so scary that we were warned by
several people not to watch it, before we were done with our travels around
Australia.
We are in the end of it now and it’s not even close to being as remote here as the northern parts, so we felt like it was about time to watch this horror movie. It was freaky enough, and we’re glad that we didn’t watch it before, because the murder reminds us of some of the personalities we've met north – they are a bit strange and have that strong Aussie accent, but the movie wasn’t as horrifying as we thought. As all four of us love sushi, there was no disagreement when Renee suggested sushi for dinner. It’s so cheap here anyway, one roll is between $ 2,50 – 4,5 (13 – 23,5 kr). Usually 3-4 rolls are enough, but this night Erik and I shared four rolls and got full. I reckon it had been a long week for all of us, Renee and Haley seemed just as tired and exhausted as we felt.
Tomorrow
was time to leave and do the last part of our road trip around this massive
country.
Beautiful avenues in Adelaide
South Australia Video |
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar