On a lighter note, I have much more travel writing to do. I'm hoping to wrap up Australia in this one, if not begin New Zealand too.
So, we were waiting on the floor of Cairns' Airport about to fly, via Sydney, to Adelaide. Having completed that particular flight, the second shortest of our trip at 4/5 hours long, with a brief stop-over at Syndey airport, we arrived in a shockingly cold (actually cold this time, there was rain!!) Adelaide and found our way to Annie's Place; our lovely little, very hippie-fied hostel at the far end of one of Adelaide's main streets. (That should give you a sense for how small Adelaide is, or if not, know that one can walk the length of Adelaide in 20-25 minutes, comfortably.) Having checked in there, discovering we were, comparatively, far from anywhere of interest, I needed to make myself feel a little more human, not to say anything of warm, so I hopped into the shower while the other three disappeared off to a market we had been told about. A short while later, feeling a whole world better, I went of to meet them and after some searching found them deep in a fantastic food market trying to avoid spending lots of money on chocolate, cheese and other such delicacies.
To just change time, place and people for a moment. I spent a year in France during my degree, specifically in Grenoble, wherein I met two Australians, who live in Adelaide... You see where I'm going with this...
So, having gotten ourselves settled in and adjusted to time difference, climate and lack of sleep, I got in touch with them and we organised to meet up for a drink and a catch up that evening. So, while meandering through Adelaide's very pleasant Rundle Mall; the pedestrianised shopping mall that runs most of the length of Adelaide, we made our way to the Austral pub and met up with said Australians for a much needed catch up. After quite a few drinks and a good long catch up about all that had gone on between the last time I had seen them (May 2009) we parted ways, the four of us heading straight to bed to crash out after a rather long day and them back to their respective homes with a firm agreement that we would meet again tomorrow evening and go to the Tap Inn (prizes if you guess what the theme of the pub is)
Having recovered somewhat we spent the following day exploring Adelaide, which can be done very easily by foot and in a fairly short space of time. Nonetheless, it has a very nice feel about it and I must say, despite the initial shock, I did enjoy being a little cooler and actually being able to wear jeans, jumpers and even a hat in comfort. Once we'd got the car sorted out for our coming road trip, spending the day doing not much more than wander around exploring, taking photos and a bit of shopping was a really pleasant change of pace to the trip. Anyway, the evening rolled around and we met up again with my friends and headed off to the Tap Inn, just a bit further out on the outskirts of Adelaide. The theme of the pub, if you haven't guessed by now, is golf. So it's got a driving range attached to it, which for a not terribly considerable sum of money one can pass the evening on, quite merrily (in all sense of the word), whiling the hours away. Eventually, it got to the point of the evening when, after large quantities of liquid have been consumed, when nature calls and so off Bobby disappeared (I only mention this because it's humorous, don't worry). Now, we had noticed that at the far end of the driving range was a window, with 'Best Seat in the House' written over it. Now, I, in my naivety, had thought it was part of the bar, a cubicle or some such thing, but no no, it was the men's toilent cubicle. So you can sit on the throne, while you watch people hit golf balls at you. Having all had a great time, we once again parted ways and with a new CD to entertain us on our coming trip, kindly put together by a friend of my friends, we headed back to the hostel once again to crash out.
We only had one morning left in Adelaide and had a very specific objective in mind; the legendary 'pie floater'. Now, Cam, one of my Aussie friends, despite living in Adelaide all his life, his parents doing likewise, had never eaten a pie floater, so we made it our mission to find one. Eventually Cam found out that we could get one out on an industrial estate in a cafe there, that people apparently come from miles around to get them from. So, we turned up, were duly directed into a parking space and went inside to queue up to get our 'pie floaters'. It's a this point that I should probably mention, a pie floater is an upside down pie, floating in pea soup, with ketchup squirted all over it, which I'll grant you doesn't actually sound that appetising, but actually is delicious.
Having devoured our pies, we went back to our hostel, rounded up our stuff and piled into our hired car, to begin our three day journey along the Great Ocean Road, to Melbourne, where our Oz Adventure would end.
The first thing of note that happened while on the road between Adelaide and wherever our first stop would be, aside from being dumbstruck by the beauty of the South Australian countryside, was in the middle of nowhere, while driving across some swampy land just in from the coast, the skies opened and for a while it became almost impossible to see while driving due to the intensity of the rain. Then, once we had passed through it, we came found ourselves looking at the most incredible rainbow and so, it being an apposite moment we stopped and took a moment just to marvel at where we were and what we were doing:
We drove on through the Australian countryside, continually being struck by the beauty, variation and sparsity of population all along the Great Ocean Road. Eventually we needed a break from the drive and so pulled over into a pelican colony by the roadside, where we took the opportunity to stretch our legs, see a bit of wildlife, including the now rather mundane kangaroos and a complete lack of pelicans and to just enjoy some time out of the car. By this time it was starting to get late so we piled back in and carried on after a little while, still with nowhere in mind to stop that evening. Eventually we made a decision to stop in a tiny little place called Robe, where we were informed by the guide book that there were various B&Bs, hostels and hotels. So, we checked a couple of B&Bs, found them rather too expensive and so decided to go and check out the Lakeside Manor YHA, Robe which it turned out was a beautiful old 19th century house, complete with library, that had been converted into a fairly upscale hostel. After a little haggling, we all decided to stay the night here and then press on in the morning. It turned out to be one of the most interesting places we stay, with massive halls, wide enough to drive a car down (we didn't try, don't worry), beautiful grounds including, unsurprisingly the lake and a beautiful drawing room, library and bathroom with enormous high ceilings and wonderful bay windows. Waking in the morning to a beautiful clear day, looking out over the lake was stunning and it's somewhere I would highly recommend to anyone doing the route we did. Not least because the owners are so friendly and accommodating.
I'm going to leave it there because I'm exhausted, and I've got quite a lot more to cover.
Bon nuit, tout le monde!
Joe
xxx
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