Adelaide

Adelaide Hills Wine Country

After our ferry ride from Kangaroo Island, we arrived at Cape Jervis on the mainland and drove two hours to Adelaide, home to Liz and Walter.  We met this wonderful couple in 2017 during our trip up the Canadian and Alaska marine highway.  Before leaving the States, they spent Thanksgiving with us, and we showed them a bit of Texas.  It was then that we hatched the idea for us to come to Australia.

Liz, Walter, David, Morgan, and me in during our 2017 trip

The four of us had been planning the details of this trip for nearly a year.  For the next five weeks, Liz and Walter would travel in their rig with us through Australia's Red Center, a vast red desert that begins just north of Adelaide, through the Northern Territory, and ending along the upper coast around Kununurra, in Western Australia.  From Kununarra, the four of us would travel west toward Derby, where we would part ways.   David and I would head towards Broome while Walter and Liz would leave for the Brisbane area.  This would be a true outback experience for David and me, and we were excited to start our journey.

We had a bit of cleaning up to do before we began, however.  Liz and Walter were gracious hosts, opening their  lovely home to us, along with their much-needed laundry facilities.  We arrived on a Friday and planned to leave for this new segment of our Aussie adventure on Tuesday morning.

Saturday, Liz and Walter took us into downtown Adelaide.  They live close enough to city centre for us to ride the bus.  We began at the city market then enjoyed the outdoor mall area, with all its music, statues, and vibrancy.

Adelaide City Market

City Market Musicians 

Adelaide outdoor musician... a pirate with a didjeridoo 

Rundell Mall iconic pig statues

Adelaide is a planned city that was settled by the British in the 1830s.  At that time, the city was unique because it was developed for free people rather than convicts.  It was named after the wife of King George IV and was the first city in Australia to be incorporated.  Today, Adelaide has about 1.4 million residents and is the fifth largest city in Australia.

On Sunday Liz and Walter hosted an open house so that we could meet some of their friends and family.  They offered a strictly Australian fare, including a variety of meat pies, kangaroo steak, and vanilla slice.  The vanilla slice, a custard sandwiched between two layers of pastry, was decadent.  Liz made so much of it that we ended up carrying the remaining vanilla slice with us until we were all sick of its sweetness and began giving it away to other campers.

On our final full day, we visited some of Adelaide's famous wine country, including the d'Arenburg Cube, a unique building with a museum and restaurant.  The top floor was dedicated to wine tasting.  This was our first wine tasting experience during our entire trip.  As David said, with our driving on the left-hand side of the road, we didn't dare try wine tasting on top of it!

Vineyards north of Adelaide 

d'Arenburg Cube

With both rigs loaded and ready, we left Adelaide Tuesday morning.  Our first stop on our Red Centre tour will be Coober Pedy.