Monday, April 2nd, 2012: Fleurieu Peninsula
Bob: Hearing that the temperatures would climb well into the 80s (30 degrees Celsius), we decided to delay our walking around downtown Adelaide as we figured that would be hotter than Hades. Neither of us does very well when temperatures rise above 70 degrees or so, and we wanted to enjoy our day in Adelaide. Instead, we opted for a driving tour of the Fleurieu Peninsula modeled in part on Drive 13 in the Back Roads Australia book. Monika guided me East and South of Adelaide through rush hour traffic, and I was very glad when we got far enough down the coast for the traffic to thin out. Our first stop was Old Noarlunga, a small town on a bend in the Onkaparinga River. We parked at the nice park in the center of town and were pleased to find a riverside path to amble along. Monika took some very nice pictures of a small version of a Blue Heron as well as the usual ducks, coots, and so forth, as we walked downstream for a couple of blocks. The trail seemed to end at another, smaller park, so we turned around and retraced our steps. A group of high-school age teens were getting into kayaks and starting to paddle downriver just as we returned to the park, so we stopped and enjoyed the teenagers' hijinks and high spirits for a bit before climbing back into the car. |
Monika: We had booked the hotel for four nights, so we had three days in the Adelaide area. I thought we would spent two in Adelaide and one driving around the Fleurieu peninsula. Since the forecast was that today would be the hottest day of the three (around 90) we decided to do the driving, since the car had really good air conditioning and would give us a chance to cool down between stints outside. The Fleurieu Peninsula lies south of Adelaide and ends in Cape Jaffe and a ferry to Kangaroo Island which is just off the peninsula. Our first stop was Old Noarlunga and old town along a river. They had a nice river walk and we saw a heron and an ibis. When we parked we also saw a group of high school students who were unloading canoes. When we came back from our walk they had put them into the water and were having a great old time paddling along. |
Bob: The McLaren Vale was just a few kilometers down the road from Old Noarlunga, but had a completely different atmosphere. Instead of a sleepy old river crossing town, McLaren Vale is the vibrant center of a large valley that is maybe 80% covered in vineyards. We stopped at the Information Center, which I noted offered free WiFi, and asked about walking or driving tours of the area. In the end, the driving tour seemed to be the best bet, so we circled the valley counter-clockwise on a network of nicely-paved and quite empty country roads. The number of wineries in the valley really was astonishing, and they ranged from what I would dub "Mom and Pop" boutique wineries with just a couple of fields of grapes, to huge, almost industrial, complexes with fields stretching in every direction and large processing centers in the middle. Each one seemed to offer a "cellar door", or a direct sales plus wine-tasting locale. Monika tried some of the locally-grown shiraz and reported that it puckered her mouth a bit. I was tempted, but as I was Designated Driver, I had to abstain. |
Monika: Our second stop was at McLaren Vale, a little town in the middle of wine country. When we pulled into the car park I finally knew I had truly arrived in Australia because there was a flock of Gallah birds. Gallahs are very beautiful, parrot-related, birds that are grey but with bright pink breasts. I have never seen them anywhere else besides Australia and they enchant me every time. In the Information Centre we were given a map for a scenic tourist drive through the area, and they even had a free wine tasting. I indulged, Bob, having to drive, did not. The grapes around here mainly produce Shiraz, and I again found out that I preferred mixtures with the least amount of Shiraz. The tour took us all around McLaren Vale and there really were a multitude of wineries. One note to non-Australians, when you see a sign saying "Cellar Doors" in a wine region, that means it is a store and tasting room associated with a winery. And boy did they have a lot of Cellar Doors in this region. |
Bob: At the end of the auto tour we stopped in town to wander about a bit, and I found it an economically vibrant and charming town. The town businesses did include, however, a chiropractor, a naturopath, and a couple of other Alternative Nonsense types of businesses, so there were apparently some nuts mixed in among the fruits and berries. |
Monika: When we got back into town, we parked the car and took a walk around town. It was a typical upscale tourist town, i.e. no t-shirt shops but lots of little boutiques and New Age stuff. |
Bob: We drove on down the peninsula looking for lunch and finally stopped in the small village of Myponga where they featured not one, but two "Take Away" shops. These shops reminded me of the old German Imbisses because they did not serve you at a table but rather sold you the food, which you could either carry out or eat at a table or counter as you wished. I had a chicken cutlet over a bed of chips (American: French Fries) soaked in gravy. I found that the gravy was a perfectly acceptable substitute to ketchup in giving a bit more flavor to the deep-fried potato slices. Monika had a basic, no-frills hamburger but shared my French Fries, and although there were tables inside we chose to sit out front in the beautiful warm sunshine for our meal. Finishing lunch we continued driving down the coast, stopping off at an overlook on the beach that featured some really HUGE Norfolk Pines and a simple naval memorial. After that the road curled around the end of the peninsula and we started working our way back. We tried to drive to a beach overlook that promised kangaroos, but were thwarted by road road construction and had to give up that idea. |
Monika: We weren't ready for lunch so we decided to drive over to the coast, down to almost Cape Jaffe on the west coast of the peninsula and then back up the coast on the east side. Finally, we were getting hungry and stopped at a Take Away place, of which we are getting very fond. I had a hamburger plain (having learned my lesson) and Bob had a chicken Schnitzel, meaning a good sized piece of fried chicken with lettuce and tomato on top and an order of chips with gravy which he shared with me. Having gravy instead of ketchup was different but very nice. Driving back down the coast we stopped at a scenic overlook. The coast looked rugged and very arid. There was a row of Norfolk pines which had been planted but not much else. There were houses on the beach and I wondered who would want to live in such stark environs. Our next planned stop did not materialize, since after having followed an unpaved road that was supposed to lead to kangaroos and a beach, the road finally was just closed for road repair and we had to turn around. |
Bob: Next, we turned inland to find a trail to a waterfall, and that we did find. Unfortunately, as a local Aussie put it, it had about as much water as a garden hose flowing over it. Still there was a pretty little pool of water at the bottom, and I thought it was a rather pleasant place. Our final stop of the day was an attempt to get a look at some famous cliffs back on the sea shore. We MAY have found the cliffs, but even with the GPS we weren't really sure we were at the correct headland, and therefore not sure we were looking at the right cliffs. Still, they were rather impressive and if it had not been in the 80s by that point we would have walked along the coastal path a bit to get some more views. But hot it was and Monika was getting tired, so we wended our weary way back home for the evening. |
Monika: But we did find the road to a waterfall. Unfortunately, it was not the rainy season, so water trickle would have been a more appropriate name. But the scenery was still quite pretty. Back along the beach we made a final detour to find King’s Head, some supposedly impressive cliffs. There was a path along the cliff, but by this time I was getting tired and hot and we decided enough sightseeing, let's get back to our nice air conditioned car and air conditioned room. |
Bob: We arrived home without incident and had an uneventful evening snack. But then we decided to try to hard boil some cheap eggs we had purchased down at the On The Go gas station just up the street ($2 Australian per dozen). I decided to try the "punch hole in top and insert into hot water in carafe" method while Monika tried the "insert in cup of water and boil in microwave" method. I used my Coleman camping knife (knife, fork, spoon plus other things) to drill a small hole in an egg and carefully drop it into the carafe after boiling water in it. The air bubbles came out satisfactorily and the egg settled gently on the coils in the bottom of the carafe, so I thought everything would go OK. Monika then put her egg in water in a soup cup and covered it with a plate. This combination she carefully inserted into the microwave and turned it to 7 minutes. We both settled in to read while waiting for results, when suddenly we heard a "BOOM" and much sloshing coming from the microwave. Monika's egg had, unfortunately, exploded, sending half-boiled pieces of egg plus much water into all four corners of the microwave compartment. What a mess to clean up that was! But neither the cup nor saucer had broken, so at least nothing was hurt. And the good news was that my carafe method seemed to work perfectly if we left them in the just-boiled water for 20 minutes or thereabouts. So in the end we successfully hard-boiled 11 out of the 12 eggs to use for miscellaneous meals for the next couple days. Putting all those into the refrigerator, we worked on our journals and read a bit for the rest of the evening. |
Monika: Back at the hotel, we wandered over to the gas station and bought eggs to hard boil them. I thought the microwave would be just dandy, and Bob decided to use the hot water method since we had a hot water heater. I put the egg into a cup full of water and put a plate on top of it and set the microwave on high for 7 minutes, figuring the water would dampen the microwave rays into the egg. Bob had put a hole into his egg and carefully inserted it into boiling water with the water heater turned off. After a minute I was just going to check when the door of the microwave flew open with a loud boom, the plate came out and water and egg was all over the microwave. Obviously the egg had exploded and taken the plate with it. Luckily nothing broke, but it was a mess to clean up. Bob let his egg sit in the hot water for 20 minutes, and it was really hard boiled. So we decided to use the successful Bob-method for the other 10 eggs. |
| 3Previous Day |
| Next Day4 |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Drive in Australia | Map of Transpacific Cruise | Epilog |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||