Sept. 20th
We headed out early and wound our way north to Grampians National Park. Unfortunately our Garmin was confused and gave us bad directions…we wondered why we kept going past the mountain range that was surely part of the park! We turned around and got our bearings right and headed into the park. Australia has a lot of national parks – I love that about it! The only thing is that their national parks are often more like what we would call national monuments or state parks in the states. They’re wonderful treasures, but they don’t have the extreme geographical oddities that our national parks seem to. I’m glad they’re preserving all this land, though. Here we were treated to a huge mountain range by Australian standards. Sadly, most of the roads up to them were inaccessible, so we stuck to the lowlands. We found our way to a fantastic billabong with a large mob of kangaroos basking on the shore. We got some excellent pictures of them, and then were treated to the company of a huge flock of cockatoos, hundreds of which coated the branches of all the trees. It was loud and riotous, especially when they decided to fly, but incredible nonetheless.
Then I saw it. A bird I had only glimpsed briefly before was hanging out near another car. This stunning bird was red of the brightest intensity with sapphire blue wings. A crimson rosella! I tried to get some pictures while not disturbing the family nearby. That’s when I saw they were luring the bird over with food, letting it alight on their hands! Now I’m not a fan of feeding the wildlife, but I just HAD to see this magnificent animal up close. I desperately searched the trunk for anything that might resemble bird food. But wait!! I had some granola bars that were full of seeds! Voila! So once the family bored of their fun, I went over and held my hand up to the duo of birds watching suspiciously from the tree. Suddenly one swooped down and landed on my hand, eagerly eating away. That about made my decade! Beaming, we continued down the road to a waterfall where we heard our first kookaburra! Nothing says Australia like that! We ate lunch at a café in Halls Gap where we discovered you really don’t get water unless you ask for it. It was too busy to ask, so I just waited until I got back to the car and downed a bottle or two there.
Continuing up, we left the park briefly and saw the world’s largest koala, which is a gift shop and petting zoo attraction. We just did our photo op before heading back into the park to do another, more strenuous waterfall hike. On our way out of the park, we saw two emus right near the road! So cool! From here, we drove and drove and drove, not seeing much of anything, but getting nervous as dusk settled because the danger of roos on the road increases substantially. We listened to Triple J, the Australian national music station and heard a lot of “Somebody That I Used to Know” and “Mr. Saxobeat”. We stopped in Bordertown, at the border of Victoria and South Australia. It seemed quite pleasant, though the name would make me picture something akin to Juarez or something. It was nightfall as soon as we left, and we made it a point to stop as soon as we saw a place. We were comforted (?) by all the signs warning about weary driving and how deadly it can be, but only because they were usually paired with a pull off where you could sleep if needed. Luckily, we found one of those generic bar motels sponsored by West End Beer in Tailem Bend. We checked in at the bar and found our way up to an incredibly skeezy room in a very dark corridor frequented by unsavory types. I wasn’t looking forward to using the communal bathroom, though luckily it was women only. We decided to go back down to the bar for a beer, since Nate wanted to try the beers from every state. While there, we were subjected to the newest episode of “Two and a Half Men,” which was the first to feature Ashton Kutcher. It’s funny, too, because we’d heard them talking about it on the radio, and we were discussing how much we dislike the show. I guess it’s all the rage in Australia, though, as was evidenced by everyone in the bar giving the tv their undivided attention. Then we called it a night.
Sept. 21st
Still in the first week of our trip, it felt like we had eternity ahead of us. Still, I knew this time would go by quickly, so I vowed to make the most of every moment. We headed toward the wine country of South Australia, bantering about crazy things as we often do. Things like whether the fish in the Pacific Ocean consider our Pacific Northwest the Pacific Northeast, because that’s what it really is! *sigh* On our drive we found ourselves in some of the most picturesque places ever! Lots of rolling pastureland full of sheep and cows and dogs and horses. It was so lush and comforting. I just imagined that the animals would wake up every morning and sing with joy about a brand new day in this little paradise. We set our sights on McLaren Vale, in the center of wine country, after reading that they offered camel winery tours. That’s right. A winery tour on camel back. I was DYING to ride a camel, and we enjoy winery tours, so how unique and perfect is this?! Unable to find any definitive info on this attraction, we made our way to the information center at the edge of town. They gave us the number to call, but unfortunately they no longer do the tours, but it gave me an idea for a side business out in Corrales, NM!
Slightly dejected, we wandered around the vineyards surrounding the info center and then proceeded to hike along the Shiraz Trail, a lovely path that skirts a number of private vineyards and looks out along the lovely countryside. This was heaven! On our way back, we stopped for two tastings: the Serafino Winery and another pretentious one whose name I forget. Then we had lunch at Oscar’s, an Italian restaurant, where Nate got to sample Vale Ale. I don’t think he was too impressed, though.
We left lovely McLaren Vale on our way toward the coast. We stopped along some incredible overlooks and geocached a bit. We espied some lovely views of Kangaroo Island. We’d considered visiting, but it was expensive and they required a stay of at least one night. We didn’t know if we’d have the time, so we opted against it. I had hoped to see some wild penguins, and I knew this would be our best chance, so that was disappointing, but at least we saw penguinland from afar!
That night we stayed at an ensuite motel in Glenelg that was suggested in our guidebook. It was decent, and we were glad to have our own bathroom again. After checking in, we high tailed it to the beach about 3 blocks away in hopes of catching the sunset. We just missed it, but we enjoyed seeing the fiery colors that persisted in the sky. It was peaceful and lovely as the Southern Ocean gently lapped the shore. Then we headed over to the Holdfast Hotel which hosts a brew pub. They seated us outside where we hoped to get dinner, but they seemed to forget about us, so we headed to the bar where we sampled their brews including something called a Frooty Tingle which resembled carbonated antifreeze, though I rather liked it. We got a mediocre pizza from a small place near our motel and called it a night.
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