Kazza's Australian Holidays

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.

Earlyish night, but awake from dentist time for a while and somewhat restless.

Went out for a little walk in the morning to see the marina and barrage, but also saw a dolphin which was pretty cool.

Left around 10:45 and headed for the city.

Found a park pretty easily on Plane Tree Drive.

Then had a super long wander through the Botanical Gardens with various coffee and lunch stops and a detour to Rymill Park which had been taken over by the Gluttony Festival. I may have gotten something if I hadn't just eaten lunch. We saw at least four or five weddings too. Craziness.

I wanted to go over to see the Torrens but our 4P parking had just about run out, plus we were both super tired.

We did drive around to Veale Gardens and managed to get a park right outside. And there was another wedding there haha.

Then we headed back to the flat.

There may have been beer and chips and Mythbusters and then we cooked some Dr Octopus pizzas and watched BBT while doing GPS/photos/blogging stuff.

Slept relatively well - til 7:15! Out the door just before 10.

We took a nice slow drive up the coast - Adelaide's coast is essentially one massive long beach.

Stopped at Semaphore and got out and had a look at the historic semaphore and walked out along the jetty. We tried to find the Wonga Shoal light but there's like three or more structures out there that kinda look the same.

Ended up at the Outer Harbour lookout. Watched a firefighting vessel come up the channel which was pretty cool.

Had some snackages there because the park was quite nice.

Also saw some musk lorikeets which are little turds and you can't get photos of them among the leaves. Well not easily.

Next we headed out to Garden Island to have a look at the "ships graveyard" which was a bit muddy but very cool.

Tried to get close to the historic ketch Falie but couldn't get near it.

Then we had a look at the historic cranes, the City of Adelaide clipper (didn't go on it) and the Nelcebee.

Then into the historic Port Adelaide district. Had a look at the lighthouse.

I also walked all around the historic buildings.

Next we headed out to the Dry Creek wetlands. There's a bird hide 500m north of the car park which was fun in the heat (and Stu walked into a huge spider web across the path). Pretty much all we saw there were magpie larks (and possibly a kestrel). Wandered back and saw some more interesting ducks, royal spoonbills, an Australasian grebe and an Australian hobby which zoomed right past us (so fast I didn't have a chance to get a photo).

Then headed back to the flat. Google maps took us on a pretty insane path through the suburbs. Does Adelaide not have major roads connecting northern and southern suburbs?

Dropped into Coles on the way back for supplies.

Dinner for me was some butter chicken and a salad I made up.

Then GPS/photos and watching crap on the internet because I was tired.

Awake half the night with restless legs. Even though the temperature was good and the bed was comfortable and the pillows were good. hrmm. Slept til like 7:46. Very slow start, out the door a bit before 11.

Walked up to the tram stop and caught the tram into the city which was a bit of fun. Took maybe 35 minutes to Victoria Square.

At the square I was trying to reproduce photos from 1969 and 1994, but firstly there was a circus with crap everywhere, but then none of the angles worked. So I Googled that crap. Turns out they fricken *moved* the fountain in 2014 from the north end to the south end.. WTF?!?

Next we wandered across to the Adelaide Central Markets. We walked all the way up and down all the avenues looking at things. Stu stopped for a coffee when we were done. Then he went to look at a book store while I had a look to see if there was anything upstairs (there wasn't) and got a chocolate (which was very expensive but very average).

It was after 13:00 by this point and we were hangry (and it was 25C and humid). Nothing really inspired at the markets and it was all too hard to decide in Chinatown. We ended up back at the markets at a place called Cumbia. We had some spritzes and some lunch of empanadas and meatballs (service was very slow so we were there for around an hour all up but at least we could sit and rest).

Popped into the lobby of our work building to get a photo next to the sign.

Then wandered all the way up to the Rundle Mall to find the pigs and the balls.

Had a walk past all the museums.

Then hopped on a tram back to Glenelg (we let the first one go because it as eight minutes late and the platform was packed, and got a seat on the tram that came a few minutes later).

It was about 17:00 by now.. probably too early for dinner.. maybe a drink though. So we went into El Mexicano and had a margarita each before ordering dinner. Stu got chilaquiles rojos and I got nachos and we ended up very very full. Whoops.

Got back to flat and did GPS/photos (iPhone is taking *forever*) then an early night (I was still full!).

20:30 in bed, 21:00 lights out. But epic restless legs so couldn't get to sleep. Then restless again around midnight. Slept mostly ok after that though.

Cereal for breakfast again, packed up and out the door a bit before 10:00.

We headed slightly out of Goolwa to look at the Kessell Road Ponds. But when we were near this car was going really slowly and eventually pulled off the road to let us pass. But that was distracting for us and we missed the entrance, so then *we* had to slow down and figure out how to turn around. We got back and found the slow car was in our fricken spot. So we went up to the other end of the place and had to wait for them to leave, because who the hell wants to hang out with other people in a bird hide. Only one of the ponds had any water in it, and there wasn't much birdlife around (other than hundreds of corellas) and nothing new and exciting. Left there a bit after 11:00.

Had a pretty drive north through forested farmland and a bit of rain and even some fog in places.

Got to Hahndorf and found a park on the main street, which was a bit of a feat considering how crazy the place was, even on a weekday. Walked all the way up and down having a look at the buildings.

We stopped in for lunch at one place that Stu liked the look of. I'd been hoping all day for a pork knuckle with crackling, but this place did it the traditional way with no crackling. And they didn't have anything else on the menu with crackling either. What's the point of a good German restaurant if you can't get crackling??? I was epic disappointed and it put me out of sorts all day. Stu ended up getting the pork knuckle anyway and the meat was very nice (just no crackling). I got what amounted to a parmi which wasn't very exciting.

Then we drove on to Glenelg.

Found the flat first go. It's very old. It's been partially renovated, but it still feels old. And it's got two doors (with a regular key not a security key) and like ten windows. Doesn't feel secure *at all*. Literally no view other than brick walls. The laundry is in a common room out the back, but they still charge $4/load for washing and more for drying (at least there's a clothes line and they provide some pegs). On the plus side, the cooler works well (although for the whole flat not just the bedroom), and the kitchen is well appointed.

Left the sweetie to have a sleep (he slept for like three hours!!) and went for a walk around the place.

Got back and downloaded stuff (phone took like half an hour as per normal) then we went out for another walk.

We may have had ice cream for dinner.

Dropped into Coles for milk and OJ then another early night.

Slept mostly okish. Got a bit of a sore spine at times. The aircon worked fairly well although it seemed wrong to be running it when it was 21-22 inside but 16 outside, but can't really leave the door open and windows only circulate so much. And it was a bit noisy so left it off after running it for a while. Also the wifi signal is very weak, the phone can barely pick it up.

Left around 9:45 after cereal in the room.

We drove down through Goolwa and ended up stopping around the wharf area and I had a bit of a walk around. Because bridge.

We stopped at a bird hide on the way to the barrage. We saw a few new birds the sweetie could add to his list so that was pretty cool.

Then onto the barrage. Sadly there were no boats going through the locks so couldn't reproduce any of those sorts of photos.

Also had a look out to the ocean from near the barrage.

Then we crossed the Mighty Murray again and went out to Hindmarsh Island.

First stop was the lookout on the western end of the island for a look at the bridge and back to Goolwa.

On the way back to the car Fines Victoria called me. They were like, they couldn't find anything under my name, and I'm like no kidding Sherlock. I'm like what the hell was it for, but they said because it wasn't under my name they couldn't tell me.. WTF.. even though it was on MY credit card. Useless. They said I'd have to take it up with my bank to get a refund, and I said I'd already done that. But seriously, who would use a stolen credit card number to pay a speeding fine, they'd be able to trace that in seconds.. surely..????

Had a bit of a drive around Coorong Quays to see how the other half live (most of the properties in the real estate agent window in Goolwa were million dollar places.. craziness!!).

Stopped at the Sturt and Barker memorial. It was put up in 1930 to mark the landing of Sturt in 1830. Coming up on 200 years since the event!

Went out and had a look at where the Mighty Murray exits into the ocean. Except so little actually exits into the ocean they were dredging the channel so it doesn't silt up completely.

Went back to the lookout and had a bit of lunch there (it was covered and not too windy).

Then we headed back across the Mighty Murray and alll the way around to Clayton Bay to look at Hindmarsh Island from across the channel. And look for birds.

Went up to Milang and had a look around there as well.

Then back to Goolwa for a walk around town.

We may have stopped in the Corio pub for a beer.

And had fish and chips (well actually chicken for me and calamari/crab/prawn for the sweetie).

Then back to the flat to do gps/photos/blogging.