Kazza's Australian Holidays

Wednesday 4.11.26

I emailed Blue Lagoon to ask for a refund, or at least a partial refund, on account of they will charge people to stay the night if they're stranded on the island, effectively "double dipping".  They emailed back to say too bad so sad bye bye.  They must relish flight cancellations as it means doubling their money for each night people are screwed around.

I went to the Qantas website and they had a very nice webform option to put in a request for a refund - one of the options was "Delay your flight to the extent that you have to cancel your travel".  Which fits us perfectly.  I told them my story but she literally didn't listen to me and I had to repeat everything a couple of times.  I was on hold for a while before she eventually said she'd call me back.  After 6pm she eventually called me back and said, oh ok, we'll pass this through to the people who do refunds. Cool. So got put through to them and they were like, well you boarded the plane you only get half the refund. And I'm like NO, YOU DIDN'T FLY ME TO LORD HOWE ISLAND!! They were trying to say it was a "flown" flight and I'm like, sure I got on a plane but you didn't give me the service. She kept putting me on hold without telling me she was putting me on hold, the phone would just go silent. And then after like 40 minutes she cut me off (or it dropped out, dunno). So now I have to waste more of my life tomorrow trying again. I HATE QANTAS SO MUCH!!! They are one of the most evil companies I've ever had to deal with.

Thursday 5.11.26

Called Qantas again.  Talked to someone who was a bit calmer and easier to understand which was nice. But my case is "complicated" so she said she'd do some investigation and call me back. Spoiler: she never did. 

Saturday 7.11.26

Called Qantas after lunch (third time lucky?). This time he read through the whole history and then tried to get onto Skytrans but gave up waiting and said he'd just process the refund himself now.. hurray! Have to wait 14 business days though.

Awake from ~2:40 for a couple of hours.

Got up and ready and blogged yesterday.

Mum went off for a bushwalk around 9, and we repacked and cleaned shoes and got ourselves organised.

Left Mum's around 10:40 and headed for the airport. OMFG they've widened President Avenue! It used to be a dinky little 1 or 2 lane road, now it's three lanes in places. Also Sydney is a riot of purple at the moment with all the jacarandas in bloom.

Stopped for petrol at the big servo on General Holmes Drive. But then coming out the GPS didn't start (it's trash anyway) and I forgot you needed to exit to the right for the airport. So we had to go around the block. Pretty big block too. Whoops.

Then had to try and find where to return the car. We knew it was in the big parking stations but Sydney Airport is trash and didn't have clear signs where to return the hire car. In the end we went around THREE times in different lanes trying to find the right place to go.  Hopeless!

Got up to checkin and saw the same lady from Sunday. The flight was going ahead today (they'd cancelled another flight this morning although apparently that was an engineering issue). I was looking at the wind movements on windy.com and thought probably the right side of the plane would be better, but the lady said the most common approach means the left side of the plane is the best for the view (which was the case in 2007 and I missed out because I was on the right).

We grabbed a sandwich on the way to the gate to have for lunch.

Once the opened the gate we piled onto a Rex bus to drive us round to General Aviation (almost back to the Ibis hotel!) to board the plane.

The flight was scheduled for 12:55 but we didn't start moving until 13:20, with a 13:30 takeoff.

Took off to the north on 34R and headed north. Because of the weather they needed to refuel in Port Macqaurie.

They gave us some water and a packet of nuts once we were in the air. 

Bizarrely, even with two cancellations in the past two days, there were still eight empty seats on the plane!

At one point they made an announcement about the storms but the speakers were a bit trash and we couldn't hear most of it.

So then we started the descent. But we were nowhere near the coast. WTF? Turns out we were going to Tamworth.

!!!

Once we landed in Tamworth they started the refuelling. We were there for a while and the cockpit door was open so I wandered up to say hi. Had a bit of a chat to the copilot and he said it was looking very unlikely that we'd make it out to Lord Howe Island. There was a massive line of storms all up and down the coast that they'd have to fly through, plus it was starting to get late and they were getting worried they'd be stuck on the ground after sunset (LDH doesn't have any lighting on the runway).

So a little later they made the announcement that the flight was cancelled and we'd be returning to Sydney.

Our trip was over. There would be no getting to Lord Howe Island.

We decided we'd go home that night. I called Murrays to ask for a change to a 19:00 coach that evening.

They let us off the plane around 15:42 to wait in the terminal while they waited for a landing slot in Sydney. They said to meet back at the apron gate around 16:45.

I immediately called Skytrans to discuss the option of rebooking for a future date, and they said that would be no problem, and they'd even offer a full refund. But when I said we'd booked through Qantas they said I'd need to talk to them. Sigh. I *hate* trying to talk to Qantas, you're always on hold for hours.

I also called Murrays again to change to an even later coach (time was marching on and I didn't think we'd be back by 19:00). 22:25. ok.

Now that was all sorted I relaxed. I'll still ask Blue Lagoon for any sort of refund, but *hopefully* it'll be covered on travel insurance. On the plane and in the terminal we started chatting to various other people who had been equally screwed over. Such sad times for everyohne.

They had some water and snackages laid out for us in the terminal which was nice.

At 16:45 we headed back out but not everyone was there, and neither were the pilots. So we wandered back to the terminal. Turns out they weren't in any hurry because we still didn't have a slot for Sydney.

Eventually a bit after 17:00 we got back on the plane (no security recheck, funny stuff).

At 17:21 I got an SMS from Skytrans that our flight had been rebooked for Friday the 6th.  Remember we were due to come home on the 7th.

They had the APU going so there was aircon, but it was still pretty stifling. After about half an hour they said the storms were still over Sydney and it was chaos, so we'd need to wait a bit longer.

So we got off the plane again haha. The terminal wasn't open this time but the sun was setting and it was very breezy so it was a lot nicer than being on the plane (Stu waited on the plane though).

There was a super cool little bearded dragon (or similar) literally sitting on the apron gate. I may have picked it up. Chatting to various people while we waited.

Stu was watching the flight trackers, it was definitely chaos in Sydney. Lots of planes were in holding patterns waiting for the storms to pass and the ground stop to lift. The scheduled Qantas flight from Tamworth to Sydney that left while we were waiting was looping around as well.

Eventually a bit after 19:00 we got back on the plane again and started off around 19:15.

The sun had just about set by the time we left so no good photos, and we could see the storms and lightning off to the east. They gave us some more snacks and complimentary wine/beer which was nice.

Our flight was simple and straight in, landing on 16L and at the parking spot around 20:23. Just a bit of rain around but easing. Back onto a terminal bus around to T2. Got our bags and wished everyone luck.

Stopped at the Inbound Convenience cafe to grab a light dinner and a drink.

Then around 21:25 we went out to catch the transfer bus around to the international terminal to get our coach. It was running a bit late, not even arriving until after 22:25. Just before it arrived I had another look at my latest email from this afternoon and realised they hadn't changed the date, only the time. So were still booked for Saturday, even though I said tonight. Had a bit of a panic that we'd have to stay the night in Sydney. Luckily they just called the office and moved the booking and we got on. Phew! Left around 22:34.

I was ok for the first hour but at 23:27 the restless legs started. So the next two hours were torture.

23:58 passed Sutton Forest (half way point) and at Jolimont at 01:32 (and no red lights all the way down Northbourne until our turn off). Stu managed to get us an uber in like a minute, and home at 02:00.

Awake from some time after 3 and really didn't get back to sleep at all. Maybe a few minutes at one point. Mostly angry at Skytrans for not just delaying the flight til later or running another flight the next day, but also angry at Blue Lagoon who likely double dip on the situation (I guarantee they'd charge anyone who got stuck on the island for the night, as well the people who don't turn up) and also got hungry a couple of times. Hurray.

Went to The Scottish Restaurant for breakfast.

Then headed into the Royal National Park. I probably haven't been in at least 30 years. We stopped at the visitors centre at Audley and paid the $12 park entry, and bought a map as well.

We drove across the little bridge and down to Wattle Forest. The only really interesting bird we saw was a green cat bird. But then a lace monitor came wandering through and the ravens and the cockatoos were NOT happy about the situation. One raven was chasing the monitor and trying to grab its tail, and the monitor kept its tail curled up as it moved. The cockatoos were SCREECHING and then one flew down and was screeching and had its wings out trying to scare off the lizard. It was hilarious to watch!

Next up we headed down to Garie Beach. We didn't find any emu wrens or other wrens, the only really intersting thing we saw were a couple of raptors (including a sea eagle being chased by a raven). We walked a little bit of the way to Little Garie to get closer to a young great cormorant but then turned back.

We stopped at Governor Game Lookout on the way out.

Then we drove all the way up to Bundeena for lunch (Stu wanted fish and chips, which we found at P&P Kitchen). Got some ice creams from the IGA and walked down to the bay, but there was a film crew on the beach so we didn't go down.

Instead we drove out to Maianbar. It was super high tide which meant no wading birds on the mudflats poking around. But right at the end of Deeban Spit we saw a couple of chestnut teals (they followed us all the way out), a couple of pied oyster catchers, and then a heap of eastern curlews, bar-tailed godwits, a few greater crested terns, a few caspian terns, and one gull-billed tern (the later ones being quite rare here apparently). So that was pretty cool. And on the way back we saw this poor white-faced heron being yelled at by noisy miners. Funny stuff.

Then back to Mum's to download all the photos and give some to Stu for uploading to ebird. I also downloaded my GPS. Not sure what happened but I don't have any track for yesterday. No idea what happened, I was sure I started/stopped it. But then I was in such an altered mental state yesterday anything is possible.

Slightly earlier night.

Had trouble getting to sleep - the pillow was *very* thick so I can never really relax.  And of course I'd wake up hot.  Not that it was the hotel's fault for that - the airconditioning worked beautifully and the room was lovely and cold (19C).  A storm went through The Shire at one point which distracted me with the lightning.  Early in the morning I fully closed the blinds which were actually pretty good blockout blinds.  I must have slept deeply enough at some point so that this morning I woke up with quite a sore neck.  Hurray.

Went back across the road to The Scottish Restaurant and picked up breakfast for us which we ate in the room.

Checked out and wandered across to the airport, T3 this time.  Walked all the way past the regional airlines to Qantas, where they said, oh you need to go back to Skytrans, so walked all the way back.

There was no queue, just one person in front of us.  But as she left she said to us .. it's cancelled.

And my heart sank.

So we talked to the staff.  They said they'd just cancelled due to "weather", and they weren't running a recovery flight, and we'd have to find our own accommodation because "weather", and all the flights for the next day were fully booked so earliest option *might* be TUESDAY, and they'd probably email us in an hour or two.

Hurray.

So we went across the terminal to sit and wait.  Of course then I descended into misery thinking of all the money that's suddenly been wasted.  Even if we got to fly out on Tuesday that's two days out of our six just GONE.  We would have had five full days on the island, but now we'd only get three.  We couldn't cancel ourselves because we'd lose everything.  Sure the airline could get us there two days late (pfft maybe) but the flights are literally the most expensive part of the trip.  By far.  The cost per day is mostly influenced by the flights.  Spending $4500 for four days is a LOT more expensive than $4500 for six days.  We're literally not going to have enough time on the island to see everything.  To come back again would mean spending all of that flight money AGAIN.  

I called the Blue Lagoon to let them know what was happening and ask what our options were.  They were like, you lose, too bad so sad bye bye.  So if we don't make it out there at all we lose like $2300.  If we're just late by two day we lose those two days.  If we try and claim on travel insurance there's the excess which would take a chunk of it anyway.

EVENTUALLY (we didn't get an email like the airport staff said we would) Skytrans SMSed us to say "your flight has been cancelled".  And that's it.  No other options or what to do.  So then had to call them.  And spend like half an hour on hold.  While we were waiting another group of four came past and asked us if we were also on the cancelled flight.  So were they.  They'd gone through Oxley Travel, who'd cancelled the whole thing for them and was going to organise a refund through travel insurance.  I asked them where they were staying and until how long.  Maybe we could take their accommodation if we could wrangle another couple of days to make the trip worthwhile.  They only had an extra day, but maybe if we even actually make it out to the island we can ask about it.

So FINALLY I got through to Skytrans and said WTF and they said, ok we've rebooked you on Tuesday's afternoon flight.  Assuming they even go on Tuesday.  There's meant to be storms.

Another sad thing is we're going to miss the boat trip round the island and out to Balls Pyramid.  Because that was meant to be on Tuesday.  And we tried for Friday but there was only one free space.  So Stu is reserved for that, and I'm on a waitlist.

So bottom line is, if we don't go we'll lose everything, if we do go we'll still lose a lot.  Yes, we have travel insurance, but if we choose to cancel it's on us.  Literally noone will take responsibility.  The airlines are like "weather, too bad", Blue Lagoon is like "too bad", and no matter what happens we're already out of pocket hundreds.

Anyhoo.

So we thought well, let's hire a car and go birdwatching.  So went over to the other terminal to Europcar to hire a car.  No issues, other than the fact that I explicitly asked for a car that we could hide all our bags in a boot... they gave us a "mid sized suv"... fine...  it had a boot... WITH NO EFFING PARCEL SHELF!!!  Like I literally asked for something that we could hide our luggage, but we didn't get it.  So it meant we couldn't really go anywhere and leave the car unattended.  Because, Sydney.  Not to mention it was hot and we weren't dressed for any sort of walking in heat.  Ok it wasn't HOT but we both had black jeans on and it was certainly hot in the direct sunlight.

We thought we'd try Kurnell.  I haven't been to Kurnell since .. I don't even know when, probably since I was a teenager.  Maybe 1988.  

We tried Bonna Point first but the vibe was all off.  It was crowded and hot and it didn't look very birdy.  So we gave up on that.

Then tried to park near the Captain Cook obelisk.  Did that and I went and had a look.

Then thought we'd go out to Cape Solander.  $8.  

Again I was stressed about leaving all our crap in the car.  Not just because of the theft risk, but because I had a suitcase full of chocolate and chocately nut bars that I thought would melt.

But.

There be whales!!

Also ospreys and white-bellied sea eagles.  Well one of each. 

It was like 16:00 by this point and we'd only eaten some snacks so we went back to Taren Point Subway.  Which was full of bogans and it was noisy and they coudn't be arsed cleaning tables or emptying the bins.  Disgusting.

Then we dropped into Dan's and Woollies for wine and ice cream respectively and then to Mum's (we couldn't stay at Mum's last night because she was away).  It was nice to be able to just dump our crap.  Stu hung out on the balcony for a while and I drank wine and downloaded photos and ranted about how awful travel is and how I literally never want to travel again.

I never really know whether to count the trip to Sydney as part of the "holiday" or not. Or maybe treat it as "Day 0" (like I did for Japan 2009).

Anyhoo.

This morning was just packing and cleaning the house. We were ready a bit before 13:00. At 13:00 Stu booked an Uber and it turned up literally within a minute. So off we went!

It rained all the way into the city. The driver dropped us at Jolimont and I got the sweetie an ice cream.

Boarded the coach a while before 14:00 and left on time.

Several people were coughing hurray. Of course my mask was packed in my suitcase under the bus wasn't it. Hurray. Bit of road works at Marulan which slowed things down a little but otherwise a fairly uneventful trip. I got through a chunk of my book and had to slow down so I'll have something to read on the plane tomorrow. Watched a very black blob move across the radar north of Canberra.

Arrived at the international terminal a bit after 17:00 then wandered down to catch the T-Bus around to T2 domestic. Then a 15 minute or so walk to Ibis. Maybe a bit longer as we were walking pretty slowly. At least it wasn't raining.

Got to the hotel and checked in. Our room is small and simple but the bed is nice and firm which is nice.

Left the sweetie to collapse for a bit and went down to the "bar" downstairs. Except it's not really a bar. I mean there's a tap there. But no humans. You're meant to go pay for your drink at reception, they give you a bar card and a plastic cup and you go serve yourself. For $13 you can get a whole 100mL of white wine. It was a bit of a joke and I was done in just a few mouthfuls. Hurray.

So went back to the room for a few minutes then we headed out to dinner. Stu didn't really feel like going to the restaurant that's supposed to be in the Mantra next door, the only other options were The Scottish Restaurant and KFC. So we went to The Scottish Restaurant.

We may have had Krispy Kreme for dessert. The dude very sweetly gave us an extra plain glazed which was lovely, except we'd ordered a plain and a biscoff creme but instead had three plain. So I went back for that and so we ended up with four doughnuts instead of two. Winning heh. Although we did bring one back for tomorrow. They're so fresh at the airport store, on account of not being a day old or more.

Then back to the room with really nothing much to do except blog the day and have an early night.

So the temperature of the room when we first got there was over 27C. With the aircon on high set to 18 it cooled down to 24.8 by bed time. "Cooled". I didn't think I'd be able to sleep, but funnily enough I did. Til about 2. Then I was awake for hours. Got a bit more sleep before waking up at ~5. By which time the room had finally cooled to under 20C.

Yeah so zombie morning. Worst of the trip. Couldn't even face breakfast (I had the last of the milk as a drink).

We checked out (I let the owner/manager know that the aircon in that room was pissweak and she said thanks for letting her know) and drove off around 8:55.

Crossed the Might Murrumbidgee at Balranald just before 9:00, and saw some bouncy bouncies just after.

Then we just drove through torrential rain.

We crossed the Murrumbidgee into Hay around 10:20 but it was pouring so it was all too hard to stop to find somewhere to eat. In the end we just went to the big servos just south of town and got some petrol and snackages from there.

It rained. A lot. I was watching the radar and it was like we were matching the band of rain moving across the state.

Had a bit of a pitstop just south of Nerrandera

We were going to take the scenic route through Temora to get home but there was just too much rain so we decided to go via Wagga Wagga and the Hume.

Did I mention the rain?

Stopped at the Scottish Restaurant in Wagga for a snack and to re-setup the audio book which had lost its place. Did I mention we put on Stephen Fry's "Heroes" for the drive home? The Maccas pissed me off though because they wouldn't stop the damned alarms so they were blaring the entire time we were there. #grunt.

The rain eased up a little out of Wagga Wagga so then it was just driving and audio book.

And lolzing at the sheep which for the entire day had just been *standing*. Normally when you see sheep they're mostly grazing, but no, flock after flock were just standing there miserable in the rain.

Filled up with petrol just before we got home, so I'll be able to see how much we used and how much it cost us. Also so that hopefully we won't need to fill up again for a while. We sure did pick the wrong week, er, month, for a road trip. There was a 90c/L difference between early March and late March in terms of cost. Craziness.

Got home and it took us like five or six trips to bring up all our crap from the car.

Went over to Chris's for milk and oj. He said people have already been stocking up on toilet paper and canned food. I can understand why.  I reckon if things go on we'll be in for a much worse situation than during covid.

Turned on my computer and sat down and was amazed how soft and squishy my chair is compared to all the chairs I've sat on in the past month for doing computer stuff. Also my keyboard! And mouse!

So 28 days. Exactly four weeks. It was a pretty relaxing holiday all up. Tried to take our time so it wouldn't feel too rushed (well, except for Kangaroo Island), but we still didn't see nearly all that we could have. We did see a lot of coastline that's for sure! Stu's back mostly held out although the last couple of days have been a bit bad. I've got a few days off work now to try and catch up with life again...

Slept mostly ok for a nice change. Got ready and drove off at 9:14, nice and early.

So then Google Maps sent us on a magical mystery tour of Adelaide. We wanted to head out the northern route, and it started ok, sending us west around the airport, but then it sent us *south* like it wanted to go an entirely different way. We stopped for petrol and reevaluated it, and it's like, oh no I really did meant to send you north. Why the hell it didn't just send us up the Anzac Highway I have no idea. Apple maps sure would have. So we literally wasted 45 minutes of driving AND PETROL. I was enraged. I think Google must be in cahoots with oil companies to milk people for all those extra dollars.

Crossed the Mighty Murray at Blanchetown and then again at Kingston.

Had lunch at KFC in Renmark. Then we went down to the waterfront briefly.

Then crossed the Mighty Murray again out of Renmark.

Stopped at the SA/Victoria border just because. Except I forgot to change all the clocks forward half an hour until just before Mildura.

In Mildura we also stopped at the Mighty Murray briefly.

Then crossed the Mighty Murray again for the fourth time today, this time into New South Wales.

We saw some emus, and a LOT of trucks. Mostly road train trucks. I seriously worry about how our food is going to get to us if there's no diesel for all these trucks (and trains, and ships) to get around.

Got to the motel at Balranald around 18:00 and checked in and dumped our stuff.

Then headed out to find dinner and beer. The IGA delivered in spades. They had McCain's veal cordon bleu tv dinners!! For $6!! This is the first time I've seen them in weeks.

Chucked stuff in the esky then we headed down to the Mighty Murrumbidgee. Which is pretty cool because if we just followed the thing upstream we'd get home. Crossed the Ben Scott Swing Bridge and tried to find birds other than the screeching corellas. Didn't find much though.

Back to the motel and it was HOT. The back window faces northwest and the curtains had been open so the room was like 27C. The room is quite well appointed (typical of most motels, but it also has crockery and a microwave and even a toaster which not all places do). The downsides are the aircon is struggling to cool the room, there's no power points near the bed (!!!) and the wifi is pretty much unusable (I had to tether to Stu's phone for internet on the laptop).

I went to connect the GPS to the computer and found it was off. I thought maybe I'd just forgotten to turn it on this morning. But it had 271km for the day. Seems probably the little battery I plug it into had died, taking the GPS with it. I hadn't charged the other battery for a couple of days but thought it would last longer than that. Sigh. Stu assures me he has a track on his radio so hopefully can get that. Otherwise I'll be guessing where I took those photos of those emus...

Suddenly it's after 20:00 and so far we've just had beer for dinner.. Had our veal cordon bleus for dinner and a somewhat late night (22:00).

Had an early night and got to sleep ok for a change, but then awake at dentist time for ages, then on and off. Slept til 7:53 though. Out the door around 10:00.

First stop was Lights Vision. I'd only just been here last year so was hoping the sweetie would come with me to have a look. But he didn't. Oh well.

Then down the road a bit to St Peter's Cathedral. It was open so we went in. They even provide you with a little brochure on the features of the cathedral which is nice.

Then across the road to the Cross of Sacrifice Memorial Gardens.

Next up we headed back to the City of Adelaide clipper ship because Stu wanted to see inside it. It's one of only two remaining clipper ships, the other one being the Cutty Sark in London. Had a bit of a tour with a couple from New Zealand which was pretty cool.

Headed out to St Kilda next. We ended up at an epic playground where we had some salad for lunch.

Then tried to see some birds but it was epic hot, and it was low tide so all the birds were a long long way from shore. I nearly burst into flames it was so hot.

Headed back to the flat after that where Stu collapsed.

I, like a mad dog or an Englishman, headed back out into the heat for some photos of Glenelg in the sun.

Came back to the flat and we had happy hour beers.

Then went back to El Mexicano for dinner. Stu got the Chilaquiles Rojos again and I got a fried chicken taco and a kraken taco which were both very nice.

I wanted to see sunset over the water, because it'd be the last chance we got to see the sun setting into the water in a long time. Sadly it'd clouded over so it was blocked. Oh well. It was still pretty though.

Came back for more BBT/GPS/photos (ran out of space again on the laptop so abandoned the effort).

Took hours to get to sleep - restless legs. Then awake from after 3 til after 5. Hurray. Slept in til like 7:30, out the door around 9:50.

Went to the United down the road as yesterday it was 239.9/L while everywhere else was 249.9/L. Guess what. Today it was 249.9/L same as everywhere else. Sigh.

First stop was Windy Point. Was able to reproduce photos from 1994 (daytime ones) but you can't take a full panorama there because there's too many trees in the way.

Then to Waterfall Gully to the First Creek waterfall. I wasn't expecting it to be flowing, but it was, so that was nice. Looked for birds too but there weren't many about.

It was 12:00 by this point so kept an eye out for places to sit and have our lunch.

Drove along the top of the Adelaide hills which was quite pretty.

Dam 1 - Kangaroo Creek Reservoir. Stopped at the lookout behind the dam which has great views of the back of the dam wall, but there's nowhere good to see the front of the dam wall. Looks like there used to be a lookout at one point but there's nowhere to stop anymore.

Dam 2 - Millbrook Reservoir. I'd already poked around with Google Street View and it looked like you can't get anywhere near the dam wall. So we just drove round the back to get a photo that Mum got in 1969. Lots of trees in the way and again nowhere to stop.

Finally at Williamstown we saw a park with a picnic spot and shelter. Yeah nothing else in the two and three quarter hours since we started looking. So had our salad lunches at 14:45.

Dam 3 - South Para Reservoir. Both Google Maps and Apple Maps suggested you could drive right up to the dam to have a look. But the only road that wasn't fenced off had a big red sign saying "No public access". #fail

Dam 4 - Barossa Reservoir. This was the one I was most looking forward to. The structure of the dam wall has a quirk in acoustics where someone speaking at one end of the dam wall can be heard like a hundred metres away on the other end of the dam wall. But guess what. It was closed. I was PISSED. Their excuse: closed for five weeks from February 23 for "saftey improvements". Sigh.

Continued on to a couple of points in the Barossa that Mum took photos at in 1969.

Then the long drive back to Adelaide. Well, maybe like three quarters of an hour in the countryside (saw some bouncy bouncies and an echidna) and the rest of it through Adelaide peak hour traffic. Why doesn't Adelaide have any sort of decent ring roads? Everything is just one big grid and while traffic does generally flow ok it's still a lot of lights to get through. And don't even get me started on how hard it is to turn across traffic when you can be sitting there for minutes at a time waiting for a break in traffic.

Got back to the flat. Stu collapsed. I went out for beer and dinner. Had that while watching news and other tv and doing gps/photos.

Early night again, but took forever to get to sleep again, with restless legs again. Sigh.

Headed out some time after nine and headed south. We ended up at Maslin Beach, which is a rather spectacular beach with colourful cliff faces around it. The water was fairly cold but we had a swim anyway so that was quite refreshing.

Then a meandering trip back north where we stopped and walked up to the Marino Rocks Lighthouse, which also has great views over Adelaide (although the lighting is all wrong because it faces north).

Made it back to the flat earlyish afternoon and had some cheese and bacon bread rolls for lunch.

Then I debated what to do. I still had some city photos I wanted to get, but I was tired, but I also didn't want to waste an afternoon of perfectly good sunshine.

In the end I hopped on a tram and went into the city. I got off at Festival Square and wandered down to the Mighty Torrens (so mighty it's mostly just a stagnent lagoon, and we drove past the outflow to the bay the other day and it doesn't even flow most of the time, probably only after storms and heavy rains). There was an AFL game on at Adelaide Oval (Port Adelaide vs Essendon) so every so often there'd be roars coming from it. Still, the walk along the river was nice (except for the heat of the day, I must be a mad dog or an Englishman) and I think I reproduced all the photos from 1969 and 1994.

Took a shortcut through Adelaide University up to Rundle Mall and dropped into Kmart to find some more pj bottoms, and couldn't help myself and dropped into Lovisa for more earrings.

Then grabbed a tram back to Glenelg, luckily securing a seat, although the seats on Adelaide trams aren't very comfortable (rock hard, too high off the ground, no leg room).

Got back to the flat just before 18:00. Stu didn't feel like going out, so we ended up having cheese and crappers for dinner.. dinner of champions! Then BBT while doing photo and gps stuff.