Thursday, March 26 (... start at the beginning)

Well, here it is, our last full day in Australia. When we got to Hobart, I discovered the hotel wanted to charge 50 cents a minute (!!) for an Internet connection, so I thought I would wait until I found something more reasonable, like the McDonald's here in the Sydney Entertainment Centre that offers it for free!

What I did in the meantime was record things off-line every day and now that I've got free Internet access (although nowhere to plug my computer into, so I'm at the mercy of my battery), I'll post everything now. So, here it is:

Sunday, March 22

We got up to a cool, rainy morning in Swansea, a complete switch from the bright warm sun of yesterday. Nevertheless, we got going around 9:30 and headed back up the road about 3o Km to the turnoff for the Freycinet National Park. A 25 km drive down the road brought us to the visitor's centre. The main draw here is Wineglass Bay, apparently, and according to to the visitor's centre, there are two walking tours available: a hour and a half return up to the lookout and a three and half hour (!!!) trek up to the lookout and then down the other side to the beach. We decided to drive down and see. Play it by ear. On the way, we came to a turnoff for the Cape Tourville lighthouse, which, according to my handy-dandy visitor's guide, had a 20-min circuit walk around the lighthouse. Feeling that this was a little more within our range, we gave it a go.

Here are some of the pix:

As we left the lighthouse and drove back down to the main park road, we decided that it would be a shame having come all this way if we didn't at least drive down to the start of the Wineglass Bay walking trail and see. We still had the drive to Hobart ahead of us and we didn't want to get there too late in the day, but we thought that perhaps we could squeeze in the hour and a half walk up to the lookout. Well, the weather decided things for us, as by the time we got there, the rain had picked up into a serious steady downpour. Plus, being the main attraction of the park, there were crowds of people. So, I'm sure Wineglass Bay is lovely, but I will have to save it for my next trip to Tasmania.

In all seriousness, I would love to come back some day. It's absolutely beautiful. It would be great to have a couple of daysjust to explore Freycinet Park. As it was, by this time, we were both getting a bit peckish, so we thought we would start our journey to Hobart by driving back to Swansea and stopping at the bakery for a late breakfast. Colin had a sausage roll, a Cornish pasty and a flat white. I had a sausage roll, a cottage pie (steak and cheese topped with mashed potato -- sort of like a shepherd's pie) and a flat white.

Then, it was on to Hobart. Lots of twisty roads, sheep and gum trees, but not much else to report. We reached Hobart in the early afternoon, which gave us time for a nap and then a stroll around Battery Point, near the harbour. Up a rather steep hill and we were at Arthur Circus, a small circular street around a small park that is home to a collection of small cottages that are the last of Hobart's original homes. Then back down to Salamanca Square, a number of converted warehouses and old stone buildings that now house artsy-craftsy shops, cafes and pubs. Stopped for a pint (of course!).

Tomorrow, as our plane back to Sydney doesn't leave until 5pm, we are hoping to get a tour of the Cadbury's chocolate factory in the north end of the city. Since it's Sunday today, it's closed, and we have to book in advance, so that will have to be done first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully, they can fit us in.

The internet connection charges here are outrageous, 50 cents a minute, so I am writing this offline at the moment and will post it when I get back to Sydney.

Monday, March 23

Well, the Cadbury tour was interesting, but not what we thought it would be. We ended up watching a video for about 20 minutes about how chocolate is made and then we got to go to the company store and buy all sorts of chocolate. No actual tour of the factory due to health restrictions. Oh well. Nancy, you, Naz and the fashionistas would have a field day in this place -- it's a chocoholic's dream-come-true!

Since that killed all of an hour-and-a-half, we had plenty of time to get to the airport, drop the car off, check our bags and relax before our flight back to Sydney left at 5pm. Fortunately, this handy-dandy 'lil notebook computer has Spider Solitaire on it, so Colin amused himself while I read.

I'm not sure if this made the news in Canada or not, but yesterday there was a biker gang shooting at Sydney Airport. As we've already had shark attacks, bush fires, cyclones, floods and earthquakes, somehow, this doesn't surprise me. I am travelling with Colin, after all!

Tuesday, March 24

Tasmania was wonderful, but it's really nice to be back in Sydney again where the roads are straight and relatively level. Today was another beautiful cloudless day in the high 20's, so it was back to shorts and T-shirts again. Not that Tasmania was cold, but it was definitely cooler than Sydney.

We decided to check out Chinatown and the Hay Market area, which are a few blocks west and south of our hotel. Found a McDonald's in the Sydney Entertainment Centre (Sydney's answer to the A.C.C.?) that has free (!!!) wireless (yesssss!!!!). The hotels in Adelaide and Melbourne each offered complimentary wireless access, as did the Melbourne airport, but apart from that, I've had to pay various rates, from $12 for 24 hours to the outrageous 50 cents a minute (which I refused).

Anyway, after an Egg McMuffin and a flat white (yes, even McDonald's does them, and very well, too!), we toured Chinatown, which was, well, Chinatown. The Hay Market area is actually a flea market that is only open Thurs-Sun, but it has a large 3-storey mall on top of it, a bit strange, but there it was. Basically a huge food court on the first floor, factory outlets and an IGA grocery store (??) on the second floor and a large cineplex on the top floor.

That done, it was barely 10:30am, so we headed back to the main downtown area and over to Hyde Park to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. We entered Hyde Park at the St. James subway station and had to stop and take a couple of pictures of the fountain and the Sydney Tower behind it.

Through Hyde Park to the other side, we found the trees full of galahs: noisy, white parrot-like birds with blue rings around their eyes. Very pretty, but man do they make a squawking racket!

Then it was across the street and into the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. The barracks have served a number of purposes over the years. They were built between 1817 and 1819 to provide secure night lodging for the male convicts shipped from England and served as such until 1848. At that time, the great Irish potato famine sent many young women and girls to Australia and in 1848, the main barracks building became the Female Immigration Depot. The surrounding compound buildings were renovated and repaired as offices for the Government Printing Office (1848-1856), the Vaccine Institute (1857-1886), District Court (1858-1979),NSW Volunteer Rifle Corps (1861-1870) and others. (In case you're wondering how I'm such a font of history here, I am transcribing this info directly from the barracks tour brochure!).

From 1862-1886, the barracks became a government asylum for aged, infirm and destitute women. Many of the young Irish girls and women who had escaped the potato famine met male convicts, married and raised families. Many, however, did not and returned to the barracks by themselves where they found shelter. It must have been a very hard life.

In 1887, the barracks compound was converted into courts and legal offices and remained that way until 1979 when the final conversion was made to its present incarnation as a Museum.

By this time, it was early afternoon, so we toddled back through downtown and found a nice pub where we had lunch. Colin had a chicken schnitzel, which he says was wonderful. A nice-sized piece of chicken breast, breaded and cooked to perfection, not greasy at all. I had fish and chips and it, too, was done perfectly. And with home-made tartar sauce, no less. And this was the first time, I have to say, that we saw actual bottles of Heinz Ketchup. They call ketchup 'tomato sauce' down here and usually (especially in bakeries, cafes and fast food places) charge extra (usually 30 cents) for it. They'll ask you if you 'want sauce with that' (meaning do you want ketchup for your fries?). I made the mistake soon after we first got here of asking for ketchup and the waiter looked at me like I had just fallen off the moon. What we think of as tomato sauce, like you use for pasta, is also called tomato sauce, so I have no idea how they tell them apart. Hmmm, maybe they don't and it's all ketchup.

Anyway, lunch was very good and after a pint each, we were ready for our afternoon naps, so headed back to our hotel.

Tomorrow, we will catch a ferry to Watson's Point and from there we will stroll down to Lady Jane beach for a bit of sun and then back to Bondi Beach in the afternoon.

Thursday, March 27

Well, this is our final full day in Australia. Our flight home leaves at 3:15pm local time tomorrow and we get in to Toronto somewhere just before midnight. We actually go back in time as we leave here at 3:15pm Friday afternoon and get into San Francisco at 10:30am Friday morning! Then it's on to Washington D.C. and from there home sweet home.

Anyway, yesterday was a beach day. We caught a ferry out to Watson's Point and spent a few hours on the beach and wandering around the point. Some very nice houses out there with incredible views across the harbour to the bridge, Opera House and the city. Worth a pretty penny too, I'll bet! From there we caught a city bus down the point to Bondi Beach. This is all still within the city limits of Sydney, so the area is served by transit. Bondi was just as nice the second time around, although the water was a lot colder than it was a couple of weeks ago.

Today, we had a lazy morning and got going around 10am. Caught the subway up to Circular Quay and explored the Sydney Opera House. What an amazing building. Even though from a distance it looks sparkling white in the sun, it's actually made up of small, cream-coloured tiles. We thought about going on a tour of the inside, but at $35 per person for a 1-hour tour, decided against it.

So, we headed across to The Domain and the Royal Botanical Gardens. The Domain is a large park that runs along the harbour east of the opera house and back into the city. It's quite large -- about the same size as Central Park in New York City, although irregular in shape.

Toward the city side edge of the botanical gardens lies Government House, which served as the residence of the governor of New South Wales until 1996 when the government turned it over to the public. It is now open for viewing on Fridays through Sundays (and, of course today is Thursday), however we did get to see the grounds and gardens surrounding it.

Walking further through the botanical gardens brought us back into The Domain proper, on Mrs. Macquarie's Point. With a fabulous view of the city (similar to the homes on Watson's Point, the next point to the east), it is named for the wife of Australia's first governor, Lachlan Macquarie.

The Macquarie name is everywhere in Australia. Most major cities have a Macquarie Street. Sydney also has Mrs. Macquarie's Road, which runs out Mrs. Macquarie's Point past Mrs. Macquarie's Chair (a rock formation the old girl was apparently fond of sitting on). There's also a Macquarie Bank (surprised it doesn't have an ATM beside the chair!), not to mention the Macquarie Building and Macquarie Towers.

It was a lovely walk, but rather thirst-making, and us hikers were wondering if there was a Mrs. Macquarie's Pub around. Alas, not, but we did find a city bus nearby that was just getting ready to return downtown, so we hopped on and after a short ride, hopped off near the Sydney Town Hall, where we found a nice cool pub serving nice cool pints.

And now it's back to the hotel to relax before dinner. As it's our last night here in Sydney, we figured we'd find a nice place nearby on Oxford St. and then check out some of the nightlife (if we stay awake that long, that is!).

This will be my final blog entry before we come home. I can't believe 4 weeks has gone by! It's been absolutely wonderful, a trip of a lifetime, and I would come back in a heartbeat. I certainly hope to sometime in the not too distant future.

Meanwhile, I hope you've gotten rid of all the snow and cold for us. We've forgotten what it feels like, and quite frankly, I'll be just as happy to forget about it now for another 6 months! Hope you've enjoyed my blog. Talk to you soon.

Saturday, March 21

Yesterday, we flew from Melbourne to Launceston, Tasmania where we picked up another car, stayed overnight, then took off this morning in a circular-ish route along the A3 up to Scottsdale, across to St. Helens, then down the coast to Swansea, where we are staying tonight.

On the map of Tasmania I posted a few days ago, if you scroll up and to the right from Launceston, you should be able to follow the route we took.

While waiting to go to the Melbourne airport, I took a couple more shots. This is one of St. Kilda Road, near our hotel.

Once we were settled in at our hotel in Launceston, we set out in search of a bottle shop (liquor store) and dinner and found both at a pub just down the road from our hotel. Although no five-star restaurant by any means, my salmon fillet and fries was done to perfection. Colin ordered the roast of the day, which was beef. I will let him give you his own review: "It was possibly the worst meal I have ever had. If the vegetables had been cooked 30 seconds longer, they would have been vegetable soup. The baked potato turned out to be thickly sliced potatoes with (I think) cheese sauce (I'm not sure because it was burnt and I scraped it off). The roast beef was sliced and put on to a griddle top to re-heat and covered in a thick dark brown 'gravy' that looked more like chocolate sauce. The plate was so small that when cutting the beef, the gravy slopped over the side onto the table. Altogether, an unforgettable meal. Thank god we had wine to take back to the room with us!".

You can order bottles of wine and liquor from the bar to take away. We had each tried a glass of Tasmanian Chardonnay with dinner and neither of us cared for it. I found it very citrusy and overly tart. Very puckery. So, I bought a bottle of Rosemount Australian Chardonnay, which I recognized from home, so we enjoyed that back at the hotel.

This morning, we got up and got on the road. I needed to find an ATM (going through cash like water!), so while wandering the streets of downtown Launceston, I took this shot (the ATM I stopped at is just out of view on the left).

We headed northeast-ish out of Launceston on the A3 going towards Scottsdale. Along the way, there was a scenic lookout that we stopped at.

The name's Bond. James Bond.

After leaving the scenic lookout, we drove for about 20 minutes or so before we reached Scottsdale, a little town of about 1000. There was a nice little bakery cafe where we stopped for blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Colin had a large cappuccino and I had my usual flat white (really going to miss those when I get home!). Across the road was a bottle shop and I had the brilliant idea of running over and picking up a couple of bottles of wine so we wouldn't have to search around for one later in the day in a little village. Amazing! I bought a bottle of Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio for $12.95 AUS (about $9.50 CDN) and a Jacob's Creek Chardonnay for $7.95 AUS (about $6.00 CDN).

After leaving Scottsdale, the road narrowed and wound its way up into the mountains. This made for some very scenic, James Bond-ish driving which was enjoyable for the first little while, but after an hour or so of jostling up and down and left and right, we were both feeling a little queasy, so Colin pulled over at a guided forest walk and rested for a bit while I did the walk. Lots of very old myrtle trees and tree ferns.

After we had rested, we drove on to Pyengana, a tiny hamlet off the main road that has a wonderful dairy and cheese factory. They have about 250 cows that generate over 1 million litres of milk a year! And they use only their own milk to make their cheese. We bought some of their year-old cheddar and a bit of caraway cheddar to have with our wine tonight. Another 10 kilometres or so past Pyengana are the St. Columba falls. At 90 metres, they are one of the highest waterfalls in Tasmania. It was a 10 minute walk down the canyon to the base of the falls, but it was well worth it -- they are breathtaking!



After that, we decided it was getting on in the day and we had a ways to go to reach Swansea, so we drove straight there (well, non-stop anyway -- the road was anything but straight!) and got to our hotel (actually, they are a set of cottages) around 4pm.


Tomorrow, we will drive back up the highway about 30 km or so to the turnoff for Freycinet National Park. The drive into the park is about 25 km, but the scenery is supposed to be spectacular. After the park, we'll drive back down through Swansea again and on into Hobart.



So far, the weather's been fabulous -- sunny and warm. The only cool, overcast weather we had was back in Adelaide, although they're calling for showers here on Tasmania tomorrow.

Thursday, March 19

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After leaving Apollo Bay, we continued following the Great Ocean Road. This shot is from the car as we were just driving out of Apollo Bay.

The road hugs the coastal cliff closely from Apollo Bay to Torquay (the surf capital of Australia, according to the signs), then heads in a near straight line north inland to Geelong where it becomes the M1 freeway into Melbourne.



The views along the road are just stunning and I tried to capture some of the best views, but it was really tricky in a moving car going around hairpin turns and there really was no place to stop, so most of the images

images didn't turn out. This one happened to be on one of the short straight sections and it gives an idea of how the road clings to the cliff.




The one place we did stop was at Split Point, near Anglesea, to take a look at the lighthouse.



This is a view from the base of the lighthouse looking west back towards Apollo Bay.







This is the lighthouse itself. After a couple of cool, overcast and rainy days in Adelaide and the Barossa Valley, we had an absolutely cloudless sky on our drive to Melbourne. I love the bright white and red of the lighthouse against the blue sky.





We arrived in Melbourne at around 2pm yesterday afternoon and after checking into our hotel, we dropped off our car.

Our hotel is south of the downtown core on St. Kilda Road, a wide, tree-lined busy thoroughfare that reminds me of University Avenue in Toronto with a streetcar line running down the middle of it.


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The drop off for the car is on the northern edge of the downtown core, so it was a bit of an adventure in navigating, creative driving and a little blue language, but we made it. Colin appeared quite ready to give up the car for a few days.

The good news is that the cold that I've had since we left Cairns is almost gone now. The bad news is that Colin is just getting it. Oh well. I found some homeopathic stuff in the drugstore that I think is the Australian answer to Cold-FX. It certainly helped and I have enough left over to give Colin, so hopefully he won't be bothered by it for too long.

Anyway, this morning, we got up, grabbed our usual breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches and flat whites (regular brewed coffee with steamed milk), then caught the tram up St. Kilda Road to Flinders St. where we caught the free City Circle Tour tram. Melbourne has got a very extensive network of trams and subways and a day pass costs $6.80 AUS (about $5.50 CDN). In addition, they have a free tour that travels in a circle around the downtown core and has a recorded guide pointing out the various sights. You can hop off and hop back on at will. It was a great way to see the city.

On the tram, the recorded guide mentioned a shop where you could learn all about opals, which is something Colin had wanted to do while we were down here, so after we finished the tour, we got off a short stroll away from the opal shop, so of course we went in to look.

After that, we crossed the street to the Flinders Street Railway Station and took the subway a few stops back south towards the hotel. The station that we got off at was a couple of long blocks east of St. Kilda Road, where our hotel was, but it's in a rather funky shopping section called Prahran. The street we strolled down, Chapel St. reminds me a bit of Queen St. East in the Beach, but without the beach.

Stopped for a sandwich and a pint at the Prahran Market, a huge indoor food market, (twice the size of St. Lawrence, maybe?), then caught a tram out to St. Kilda Beach and walked out to the end of the pier where we rewarded ourselves with a cocktail before heading back to our hotel.

No great gastronomic delights to report. We decided to stay in tonight and take it easy, so I ran next door to Barbarino & Wong's and got some take-out: Thai green curry chicken and spring rolls. Really nice.

Tomorrow, we're off to Tasmania!





Prahran Market


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The City of Melbourne, as seen from the end of the St. Kilda pier.

Tuesday, March 17

And a Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all! Here we are in lovely Apollo Bay, a little seaside resort town on the southern coast.

Before leaving Mt. Gambier, we took a trip up to see the Blue Lake. Even with the overcast sky, it was quite a breathtaking blue. I would love to see it on a sunny day. Apparently, it goes gray in the winter months and changes to its spectacular blue over the course of a few days each November. The blue lasts until late March when it starts fading back to gray, so perhaps we are catching it as it's starting to fade. At any rate, it's still quite a sight.

After leaving Mt. Gambier we drove south east towards the coast. After a couple of hours or so, we reached Port Fairy, where we stopped for a light lunch at the local bakery. The bakeries down here do a wide selection of individual savoury pies, like steak & potato, chicken & leek, shepherd's pie, pasties, etc. Colin had a chicken & leek pie and I had a chicken curry. Both were very tasty, and with a cup of tea, just enough.

We left Port Fairy and headed down the highway where we eventually picked up the Great Ocean Road. There wasn't much to see in the way of ocean until we hit the little village of Peterborough where the road actually started running along the actual coast. Most of the time it was difficult to see the actual ocean as the landscape is covered with brush and the road runs along the top of a cliff. Every so often there are parking areas with walkways that take you down to the cliff edge and sometimes even down the cliff.

The first spot we stopped at is called the Grotto, for obvious reasons.

The next stop is called The Twelve Apostles, again, for obvious reasons. This is one of the main attractions in the area and has the parking lot to prove it!

Mindful of the time, we continued on our way towards Apollo Bay. The Great Ocean Road turns inland soon after The Twelve Apostles and heads into the Otway National Forest, so the landscape changes drastically.

Densely forested and very hilly, The Great Ocean Road twists and winds its way up and down the hills of the Otway National Forest. It's a great drive and Colin thoroughly enjoyed driving like James Bond.

Tomorrow,i t's on to Melbourne.

Monday, March 16... later

Later that same day...

So, here we are in Mt. Gambier, about a 5 hour drive from Adelaide, Colin says it's 447 kilometres. Parts of it were 4-lane divided highway, but a lot of it was 2-lane and a lot of big trailer transports. No, I didn't drive. Colin was quite happy to do the driving and still is, which is fine by me because I'm still having trouble crossing the street as a pedestrian! As for Colin, once he gets the turn signal and the windshield wipers sorted out, we'll be off to the races. As it is, every corner we turn, the windshield gets cleaned.




We passed through another wine region, the Coonawarra, where Lindemans has a large vineyard at Padthaway, so if you happen to have a bottle of Lindemans kicking around, check the label and see if it says anything about Padthaway.

Jacobs Creek and Penfolds also have vineyards here, but only the smaller wineries seem have cellar tastings in this area. We stopped at Penley Estate where we tried a rather nice sparkling Cabernet Shiraz, a really lovely Merlot and a very good Cabernet Sauvignon. They only bottle a small amount of Chardonnay and were unfortunately out of stock today, so we bought a bottle of their 2008 rose and a bottle of their 2005 Merlot. They do have a distributor in Canada and they gave me the address in Toronto, so I will definitely check them out when I get back.

Still hankering for white, we continued on down the highway to Katnook Estate where we found a treasure trove of white wines. We tasted and bought their 2005 Founders Block Chardonnay, which is very lightly oaked in comparison to their other, premium Chardonnay.

Colin and I both tasted both Chardonnays and we vastly preferred the lighter, fruitier Founders Block Chardonnay to the premium. (Note to Dave: A cheeky little wine, etc. etc.). Actually, they gave us copies of the tasting notes for each of the wines we bought and for the Chardonnay, it says: Appearance: Brilliant straw yellow, Nose: Vibrant fruit aromas of melon and peach with light toasty oak tones. Palate: Fresh fruit flavours of peach, melon and hints of grapefruit. A light creamy mouthfeel and subtle toasty tones underscore through to a lingering finish. Hang on a sec, let me take another sip... yep, that's about right!

The other white we bought is a blend of 71% Semillon, 21% Sauvignon Blanc and 8% Chardonnay. According to the tasting notes: Colour: Pale straw with light green tinges Nose: Subtle herbaceous fruit aromas - light grassy and lemongrass with hints of gooseberry Palate: The subtle array of herbaceous fruit flavours, including subtle gooseberry, light citrus complement the complex yeast aged tones. Definitely an insouciant little wine, but forgot to ask about availability in Canada. DOH!!

Although we seem to have come down the hotel chain a few rungs (it's okay, but it's a Quality Inn and after the last few places we've stayed at, this is a definite comedown), the restaurant looks rather alright and the menu looks good. The Tamarind Chicken Curry caught my eye, so that's what I think dinner is going to be.
Tomorrow, our drive to Apollo Bay is only half that of today's drive, so we'll have plenty of time tomorrow morning to check out Mt. Gambier's main attraction, the Blue Lake.

Ta!

P.S. Just got back from dinner at the hotel's restaurant and it was great! Rather strange, it's like a five-star restaurant tacked on to a three-star hotel. We both started off with the soup of the day, which was potato and bacon. Colin had the lamb fillet and tells me it was beautiful and tender served on a bed of vegetable couscous. Not liking lamb, I didn't try it. I had the Tamarind Chicken Curry and it was wonderful. It was a very mild curry, but very tasty. The chicken was cooked to perfection, tender and juicy, and it was served with perfectly sauteed mixed veg and rice. Excellent!

Tomorrow, after the Blue Lake, it's onward to Apollo Bay.

Monday, March 16

G'day mates! Apologies for the lack of pictures in the last posting, but I was in the Cairns airport at the time and for some reason it wouldn't let me upload pictures. Anyway, I've added them now, so you can go back and check them out if you like.

Meanwhile, here we are in Adelaide, getting ready to leave today to start our drive along the Great Ocean Road back to Melbourne. This ought to be a bit of an adventure as I've never driven on the left before or had to drive through a roundabout. Colin, since he's driven on the left before will drive us out of the city and let me take over once we are on the open road. Stay tuned.
Anyway, yesterday we went on a wonderful bus tour of the Barossa Valley. Like Cairns, Adelaide is built on the flats near the coast and is backed by hills, so the scenery is quite nice. The Barossa Valley lies within the hills northwest of Adelaide and is quite large, comprising three townships and over 50,000 acres of vineyard. The largest wineries in the Barossa areJacob's Creek (there actually is a creek), Penfolds, and Wolf Blass where we stopped for a tasting. Most of their wines are available in Ontario as the LCBO is one of their biggest customers, although I did try a really nice Cabernet Shiraz that they don't export.

Next, it was off to Kaesler's, a smaller winery, for lunch. With apologies to our foodie friends for the lack of gastronomic news coverage in this blog, we had a choice of kangaroo fillet, baked chicken breast, both served with potatoes and steamed veg, or a smoked chicken salad. Colin went for the kangaroo, but I figured it would be a bit too gamey for my taste, so I went for the smoked chicken salad. I did have a bite of the kangaroo, just to try it, and yes, it is definitely gamey, but it reminds me of a very soft textured beef. It actually wasn't bad, but I don't think I would like a whole meal of it.
My smoked chicken salad was very nice, shredded smoked chicken served on rocket with a mustard vinaigrette and shaved fresh parmesan. Dessert was a wonderfully rich sticky date pudding, served with custard and caramel sauce.

On the way back to Adelaide, we stopped for about an hour at a little town called Hahndorf, whose main industry is obviously tourism. Lots of funky little shops, cafes and restaurants. The area was originally settled by Germans, and their influence is readily seen in the Bavarian architecture, oom-pah-pah and polka music and the vast array of bratwurst, knackwurst, knockwurst, thiswurst and thatwurst at every eatery. Didn't partake, although we did stop at the Hahndorf Hotel for a pint. We each had Cascade Ale, which I found very nice. Reminded me of Steamwhistle.

To backtrack a bit, we arrived in Adelaide on Saturday evening around 6pm and by the time we got settled into our hotel, it was closer to 7pm. All the shops close at 6 here on Saturdays and are only open from 11am -4pm on Sundays, if at all. Luckily, the restaurants stay open longer and we found a wonderful hole-in-the-wall type Italian pizza & pasta place right next door to our hotel. Colin and I both went for the mix & match pasta & sauce. Colin had linguine Marinara which was chock full of shrimp, scallops, mussels and calamari in a tasty tomato herb sauce. I went for the tortellini al Salmone which had big chunks of salmon and mushrooms in a rose sauce. Huge, delicious portions, both!

I'm going to keep this relatively short as I've had a cold since we left Cairns, so I'm finding my patience with the Internet is pretty limited at the moment.
We are driving to a place called Mt. Gambier today, so depending on what the set-up is like, I may get back on after we've settled in there.

Cheers!


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