Sunday, April 1st, 2012: Kingston to Adelaide
Bob: I find it is always hard to stop and see the local sights when I am en route to a big destination, and I think that is why we did not take the time to walk around Kingston before charging off down B1, the Princess Highway toward Adelaide. We had chosen that route because it was recommended in our "Back Roads Australia" book and it was right along the ocean seashore, so we hoped to get nice views of the part of the Southern Ocean that extends up into the Great Australian Bight. For the most part, however, the ocean seashore was obscured by a high row of barrier dunes. We did detour over to stop and view the seashore at a beach labeled "The Granites", where we saw several large, and presumably granite, boulders at the shore's edge. Three young guys were braving the ocean water at the beach, but they looked like they were really having a hard time of it so we were not really tempted to join them! |
Monika: We had another day of driving ahead of us to get to Adelaide. The first part was along the ocean. This area was called the Coorong and had been made a National Park. The Coorong is a narrow and very long peninsula that lies in front of a very narrow lagoon. It is also a bird sanctuary. |
Bob: The highway North from that point was extremely straight, level, and deserted. In one way, that makes the driving very easy, but in another way it becomes very difficult to stay alert and focused on the driving. I have heard that called "road hypnosis", but whatever the name I certainly was glad when we hit the little hamlet of Salt Creek and we could pull over for a bathroom break. When we saw that there was a re-created oil-drilling derrick beside the road, we of course had to check that out. Apparently, the first attempt at drilling an oil well in South Australia was done in the Salt Creek area. More titillating, if less historically significant, was the 1850s saga of a man who stopped at the local inn and then murdered the innkeeper and married his wife! What was astonishing to me is that he got away with it for the next several years (the wife didn't SAY anything to anybody???), until he murdered one of the waitresses at the inn, whereupon he at last got his just deserts, which in those days would have probably meant hanging. We also found an informational plaque about a short trail out into some interesting looking small ponds that lay between the road and the line of barrier dunes, so we decided to stretch our legs a bit and follow that trail. We found out that those ponds were the southernmost part of a huge, shallow, inlet called the Coorong, that lies between the barrier dunes and the shore for around 90 kilometers! The Coorong is only 1-3 meters deep (10 feet at max), but is a very productive wetlands environment, especially for birds. We certainly saw plenty of waterfowl in the ponds as we walked around them. Clearly those ponds produced enough plants to feed the local ducks and black swans, and enough fish to feed several comorants who were drying off their feathers on a dead tree beside one pond. |
Monika: We stopped at a place called Salt Creek where a little creek almost made it into the lagoon. Well it used to make it, but with irrigation further upstream it now ends at a little lake just short of the lagoon. But that made for a very nice loop walk down and up the creek, enjoying the variety of waterfowl along the shore and wading or floating in the water. |
Bob: Refreshed by the walk, we continued driving North and saw the unmistakable "V" pattern of four or five pelicans flying in formation just inland from the highway. Since there was another overlook at a pelican breeding grounds, we also stopped there, but it turned out that the breeding season was long since past and no pelicans were there, darn it! The Princes Highway finally veered due North away from the Coorong, and we stopped for lunch in the town of Meningie. I had a huge "Yiros" which seemed to be an Australian interpretation of what we would call a "gyro" sandwich back home, kind of a big pita bread wrap around a lot of meat and salad. But the Australian version used chicken or beef instead of lamb and had no sauce of any kind. Monika had a "Hawaiian Choock" which turned out to be a chicken burger with salad and pineapple slice on it. Both were very satisfying. |
Monika: Thus having stretched our legs, we kept going. We had read at the information booth, that there was a pelican breeding colony up ahead. And as we came closer, we actually saw a pelican patrol flying away from us. We stopped at the car park and decided to walk out to the observation post, although this time I was pretty sure we would not see pelicans, having learned my lesson with gannets back in Portland. But it was still a nice walk with plenty of interesting informational signs about pelicans. We finally left the coast and turned northward at Meningie, where we stopped for lunch at another little take-away place. Bob had a yiro (a gyro) and I was intrigued by the Hawaian Chook, remembering from Nev our Australian friend that a "chook" is a chicken. And indeed it was a chicken burger with the usual lettuce and tomato and in addition pineapple (to make it Hawaiian, I guess). |
Bob: We stopped once again when we arrived at the mouth of the Murray River, which empties into Lake Alexandrina that also forms the northernmost part of the Coorong system. We drove across some historical bridges over the Murray to finally get to Adelaide and our hotel for the night. Since I had been driving the better part of two days, I was glad to stop for the night and put up my feet and rest. |
Monika: North we went along Lake Alexandria. Here the mighty Murray ends. In Tailem Bend, we actually saw the river and watched a ferry crossing it. Since one of our quests on this trip was the Murray, we made a little detour to Murray Bridge where the first bridge across the Murray is still there after 150 years and still being used. From there we got onto the M1 motorway and joined the crowd that came back to Adelaide after a Sunday out and about. We wound our way up into the Adelaide Hills and then came rather steeply down. Trucks were told to drive 60 km/h only while everyone else sped along at 110. So staying in the leftmost lane (remember left hand driving) was dangerous because you did not know what was crawling along there just around the next bend. Bob stuck to the middle lane and that seemed to work fine. I was amused that what we call in America a Run-Away Truck Ramp was here designated as Arrester Bed --- yes I guess we do speak the same language. I had booked a hotel on Glen Osmond Road since it seemed to be convenient to the city and I was hoping for a bus nearby. I was surprised that the GPS seemed to indicate that it was right on the interstate. But about 1 km before we got to the motel, the freeway ended and soon afterwards I spied the motel and we pulled in for the night. Our reservation was in order and we received our key. However, after having been welcomed by friendly, gregarious landlords all along, who were eager to help, I was a little put off by the rather reserved demeanor. I later figured the hotel was run by Koreans rather than Australians and they seemed to have a different way of interacting with the public. But the room was clean and the air conditioning worked. So Bob in particular was happy to put his feet up and have a bowl of noodles for dinner. |
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