SomewhereSouth.net

Murf's turn, Adelaide

Well, I presume it's my turn again. Nicky still asleep in the backroom of Michael, her cousin, me behind his computer because some stupid dog next door didn't stop barking for the last 3 hours and I'm very awake (and anoyed) right now. So what do you do then, right, the same as at home when you can't sleep, boot up the nearest computer available (off course in this case with full permission of Mick) and do the usual stuff like email and weblogs. But first I'm gonna find some longsleeve and a map, my diary is still a couple of days behind (updated the 17th) and with a map in hand it's mutch easier though it's not too much of a problem now as the last few days where not THAT exciting. (Though fun, a bit of relaxing is not bad after a full month traveling.)

The last coupla days (we arrived here last friday, feb 18th) we spent in Adelaide, socializing with Michael and his daughter Jessica, shopping, visiting musea and relaxing. Today we're planning to bring the car away to the mechanic, to get it desert-ready. Actually we're planning that the last week since monday but going to town without a car is no fun as the area where Michael lives (Elisabeth Downs) is an hour driving from downtown Adelaide and we have absolutely no clue how the bus-system works here. Not really willing to find out either so today we probably stay in. The weather forecast is not that bad, actually we hoped for rain to give us another reason to stay in but it's just cloudy and 25 degrees. Next tuesday there will be rain, too bad we're probably in Port Augusta by then as we plan to leave on monday morning and then head straight to Port Augusta. After that nothing but desert for the next coupla thousand Km's... Oh, BTW, we're now in South Australia, that means the time above is not entirely correct. You have to add 30 minutes to OUR time. Ok, enough about now and here, back to where Nicky ended a week ago.

After my adventure up Mount Difficult (my wounds are healingg, my right knee however seems to have given up, as soon as I start walking it starts buggin' me, not very painfull but just a bit nasty an uncomfortable) and doing our groceries in Horsham (before that we actually visited our first aboriginal-art site, which was so dissapointing that we decided not to visit the next one) we went on. Back on the road again. Actually going back to the Princess Hiway, who follows a great piece of the aussie east and southcoast. That's where we started, leaving Sydney our first main road WAS the Princess Hwy and we followed that for a long long time, departing it only for a couple of detours, Tassie, the Great Ocean Road and our trip through The Grampians. Halfway on our trip, just before Bordertown we crossed the next state border, this time that of South Australia. I almost yelled Nicky's ears of, finding it quite exiting that we where now in the 4th of the 6 states we will visit down under. (The other ones are Northern Territory and Queensland, after we did New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia) No evidence however, you can't stop on a hiway just to take a picture of a roadsign saying "Welcome to XYZ". The hiways here are not more than a single 2-lane road which in Holland we'd call a B-road, that is, as long as you're in the country. Aproaching big city's like Adelaide they turn into our well-known multilane monsters. Smashed throuh Borderdown, headed off to the coast again to a nature reserve (Coorong NP). Actually that wasn't as exiting as I expected it to be. It was nice but it became quite clear that both of us where extremely spoiled by Tassie. Untill now nothing can even remotely compete with the beautifull nature we've seen there. As Nicky was VERY tired after 350Km of driving we decided to park in a rest area. Unfortunately not well hidden, with traffic passing us at 15 meters all night long annd no facilities whatsoever, only a litter bin, but it worked. Next day we did 2 walks in Coorong. The first one was through a previous Chinese settlement with a well and saltlakes surrounding. Learned some about Chinese merchants setting foot on land near Adelaide. The second one promised the view of pelicans but too bad. More funny that we walked into a german couple (45yo) kissing who felt kinda busted and talked in german to eachother wandering if we did see them kissing (or maybe even more?). Very unfortunate for them that we DO understand german ;-) Good, next stop Victor Harbour. A free ferry to cross the river, straight running into the famouns wine region of Australia. Not that we're really familiar with wine so we tried to skip the whole wine tourism and do alternative things. Harder than it seems, the region doesn't have much to offer if you're not interested in wine though we had some fun there. Slept on a hill 7km north of Victor Harbour, our first spot on the hill next to a couple who did a little more than just kissing. Decided to watch sunset and then go down the hill, to a less visible point behind a big bush. That worked, some privacy and the next morning just a couple of people walkin with their dogs and such. Next day visited the city centre to do some souvenir-shopping (that's addicting!) and to send out a couple of packages home with mainly our own memories in it. Impossible to take them all home ourselves this is the way we get important stuff home before we're there. It's not too expensive and hopefully the people at home even enjoy getting our memory-tubes :-)
Next thing sending home will be my photo's and negatives, insured and with a tracking ID on it. Should be around $20,- which is not too bad for sending 2 months of photo's to the other side of the world.
Cause we planned not to be in Adelaide before friday we had to spend another day in this area so we went too McLaren Vale. First through a small town which name I forgot to grab some info and visit a Catholic church. Off course we walked into the wrong church first, the one we where looking for was on the other side of the street. A small, lovely church with the windows somewhat different than usual. Normally they show holy bible scenes, this one showed scenes with the actual environment in it. The other thing special about the church is that there where sightings there. Off course we didn't see it but it feels funny to be in a place considdered very holy. Churches here are a bit different than those overseas. As the history of "modern" Australia started around 1800 all churches are much newer than those back home and the building style is different. The churches are small and more farmer-churches than the big and impressive 17th century cathedrals in europe. As with all the buildings here, you really can see that the modern Australia is quite young compared to europe. A big contrast here, on one hand Aboriginal Australia which is VERY old next to the modern Australia wich is very young. In that town we visited some small galleries, same as in McLaren Vale. I ran straight into a beautifull painting which I really wanted to buy but with a price of $1600 it was just a little bit above my budget ;-P (Though my late valentine present for Nicky, a couple of earrings, was much more affordable and bought in the same gallery.) The night we spent at a paid camperpark as so close to a big city there are not many free spots and I really was craving for a long, hot shower and drinking beer without beeing afraid to be chased away. Well, it was quite cheap, $18,- is definetely not a bad price for an unpowered site with all facilities you can dream of. Kitchen, shower and a nice (but small) camping ground. Friday evening we finally arrived in Adelaide. What a relief, the city is still a big city but MUCH smaller and relaxter than Sydney and Melbourne. Went shopping (what else do you do in a city) and at evening headed off to Michael and Jessica. Took us around 2 hours to get there with only a global map of the suburbs and 2 detailed maps of both downtown and Elisabeth. Ah well, we at least had the chance too see something of the environment. Both in a movie-mood we decided to take Jessica to the theatre on saturday. Not one but 2 movies! (Spanglish and Meet the Fockers) After that we made it a movie marathon at home, both girls convinced that I really had a lack in my movie-education. So off to the video rental and grabbing Lord Of The Rings 1 and 2 (3 was on their movie channel) and Shrek 2. Talking about cheap prices here, we got those 3 movies for a week (Shrek for 3 days) for just $6,-. How about that!? We got through the weekend with lots of movies, 7 in less than 36 hours as "George of the Jungle 2" was also on TV. I think I did some catchup now and as there are a couple of movies about to come out here we will visit the cinema at least every month but probably more often. Survived the weekend, the next days where filled with shopping, some more shopping and some cultural stuff yesterday. First headed off to an aboriginal centre which started off with a didge demonstration. That was faboulous, the guy really knew how to play his didge, takes a LOT of practise for us to achieve that and we didn't really practice the last 2 weeks. Ah well, we have a couple of months to go. The rest of the exhibition was a bit dissapointing though exept from the shop. Nicky ran into the shop, browsed through the paintings and fell totally in love with a painting. No way that she was leaving the shop without that painting and I must admit that I got the vibe to. After a moment of reality we decided to buy it... $220,- was left of the original $360,- and at the counter it got even better as she could take it home for $200,- Ok, not really cheap but I think the painting is really worth it and both beeing art-lovers sometimes you know you simply should do it. I almost did with my $1600,- painting but that REALLY was above my budget so I decided to buy a postcard, hopefully beeing able too reproduce that on A3 format. We don't have a picture of Nicky's painting though and right now it's already on it's way to Holland. Post-office across the street and too scared too damage it we decided to ship it over right away. Insured and with a tracking ID it's now somewhere on Adelaide Aiport, waiting to make it's 18.000Km trip home. Our next stop was the main Art Gallery in Adelaide with both old paintings and very modern contemporary art. The old section was interesting but I still go for the modern art thingies. Too much too see there, fell in love with lots of those paintings, photographs and other things, taking home just a $16,- souvenir made by Richard Tipping. A doorsign saying "Sorry, we're OPEN" on one side and "Come in, we're CLOSED" on the other. Yes I love those kind of mind-fucking things. Check www.artpoem.com for some more examples. And actually that's where my story ends. Not entirely, as Michael's stove blew up (really, while making dinner on tuesday we suddenly heard a big BANG from the kitchen, blewing the door of the oven open, rearranging the pots and melting the curtain to the wall, luckily no-one was inside the kitchen) we got to Red Rooster yesterday to have a fastfood-day here. And off course as my name is Murf they ran out of chicken... (For those not knowing Red Rooster, it's a bit like Kentucky Fried Chicken but then with the possibility to buy quarter and half chickens.) And that is really where it ends... Right now I'm going to the mechanic, leaving Nicky at home as we'd forget to ask Michael for some keys and we can't get in without them. Should be a walking distance back though I haven't got a clue where the mechanic exactly is. We'll see. (And when I'm back I start reading and answering my email.)

BTW for those questioning why we keep our lovelife a bit to ourselves, no worries, we're doing fine together. With the occasional fight here and there but most of all lots of love and hugs we're having a great time together. It's not always easy, living 24/7 in extraordinary situations with a person who you barely knew before you where separated for 3,5 months but we're working on it. Main reason not to mention it here too much is because SWS is not meant to keep wining and drooling about us, it's about our TRIP down under, not about our relationship.

BTWII
Though we have heaps of fun around here life is not always easy here and we DO miss you all at home. That's why we're sending out postcards and emails to get a more personal message out. We both have an addressbook filled with adresses but if you have the feeling your address is not in there please drop us a note. You might recieve a postcard from the southern hemisphere on one day...

BTWIII
We try to update more recent pictures today. As this computer has a USB connection we should be able to connect Nicky's digi straight to the computer to get new pictures online. Just hold on...

Miss ya all!

Murf

Murf | 23 Feb 2005 (Wed), 22:30 @ story