Adelaide & the Great Ocean Road

From the Barossa Valley, we arrive in nearby Adelaide

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Adelaide GPO, where we pick up some mail

Poor South Australia often gets missed by overseas visitors – people with time restrictions usually limit themselves to the east coast. This state has so much going for it.

We take a tram out to Glenelg, where there is a beach.

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Glenelg foreshore

The water is a beautiful blue, but cold at this time of the year.

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Glenelg coastline

Yep, South Australia has it all; great seafood, rich wheat-belts, mineral wealth, superb wineries, opals, former nuclear weapon test sites, and a classy state capital.

We visit the National Wine Centre. Explains the history of the ever-more-successful Australian wine industry.

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38,000 bottles and counting

We take a city bus from our caravan park into town every day. Beside the bus stop is a palm tree that doubles as a sort of bird condominium.

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Rainbow lorikeet and pigeon share quarters

We depart for the Victoria border. But not before visiting one last South Australian wine-producing area: McLaren Vale.

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McLaren Vale vista

We restrict ourselves to a single vineyard, d’Arenberg. We already carry as many bottles of wine as we can reasonably transport. (But we make room for a few more.) The proprietor, Chester Osborn, is quite a character.

This is the visitor centre. It’s ‘different’, as my mother would say. It’s her polite code-word for ‘weird’.

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The Cube

Among its oddities is a smell-o-rama room, where you squeeze bulb horns (mounted on bicycle handlebars) to get a whiff of the distinct aromas to look for in wine.

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‘Fruity’ scents for reds…
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…’Floral’ scents for whites. Get it?

The urinals in the gents are, um, unique.

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Not something you see every day

It’s wonderfully warm in this part of South Australia.

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The layers start to come off

We arrive in the state of Victoria and follow the Great Ocean Road.

It has pretty coastal scenery, of course.

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Canola fields

Parts of the GOR pass though forests that look like Canada.

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Forest

There are grand views over the white-capped Southern Ocean.

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Lone ship offshore

Many remote rock formations.

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Bay of Islands
The grotto

We stop at the Twelve Apostles. (Spoiler alert – there aren’t actually twelve.) It is very popular, attracting the busloads of visitors that make us uncomfortable.

We hike to the beach below and try to keep warm in the cool drizzle by performing some interpretive dance.

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‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’
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‘La Mort du cygne’

The landscape in Victoria is a far cry from the parched rocks of central Australia in which we’ve spent so much time.

Verdant hills

We arrive in Geelong and visit the engaging National Wool Museum.

Sight or Insight of the Day – Adelaide & the Great Ocean Road

Until a few weeks ago. Beginning on the road to Norseman in WA, we start to see snakes both alive and flattened.

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Snake in the grass

This bad boy is a death adder. We can tell by the worm-like tail appendage (hard to see in this photo) that they use to lure their prey.

We hear snakes are appearing now after a winter spent semi-hibernating. Still doesn’t explain why we didn’t see any in the always-steaming North.