Adelaide - more than just churches

Last night’s dinner was made more interesting to say the least by the constant rocking from side to side that the train was doing; even the staff were having problems serving the drinks and soups. The meal was very good as usual but you just had to drink up quick once you got a full glass of anything and as you can imagine the tablecloths got their share of spills. After dessert we were informed thanked for travelling on the Indian Pacific and informed that we should turn our watches and clocks forward by 1 ½ hours to match Adelaide time and that we would be delivered breakfast packs at 6.30am since the train was due to arrive in Adelaide at about 7.30am. So suddenly it was nearly 10.30pm and we had just finished our meal but we weaved along the corridor back to our carriage and got ourselves ready for bed hoping to get a good night’s sleep before our wake up call. Unfortunately the rocking on the train was not of the ‘gently to sleep’ type and, coupled with the fact that the cabin was remaining a warm 21 degrees, it took a while to get to sleep after finally deciding that the sheet alone was a better option than with the doona. It took me ages to get to sleep and then it was fitful and disturbed by the train stopping in what seemed a sudden manner but probably wasn’t really, just my impression as I woke up to it coming to a full-stop. It stayed in the one place for ages, obviously loading and/or unloading things then moved on after a while then stopped again. I got up and unwound the blind to see where we were and could see lots of city lights and a siding with rail stuff there. I couldn’t get back to sleep so brought Harry in with me (read my Harry Potter book for a while)then Fin woke up wondering what was going on & I told him & he looked out etc. then returned to bed and sleep, lucky thing but I still could not sleep and had to read for while longer. I think I may have had about 3 or 4 hours sleep so was feeling a bit seedy next morning when we finally got our car from the train and headed off to Mount Lofty.
Mount Lofty Summit is a mountain about 15 kilometres from Adelaide, is 710 metres above sea level and offers great views of Adelaide and its coastline. Unfortunately the air was a little hazy this morning, I am not sure if it was smog or what but it did spoil the views a bit. It was still worth going up there to see the views and we took a little nature walk too which was quite nice with several different native flowers growing including Victoria’s floral emblem the Common Heath. Both the lookout and the walk had information boards for visitors to gain an understanding of what they were looking at too.
Next we headed off following Tom’s instructions to the McLaren Vale area but had some major problems because the freeway we were meant to go on is closed to one direction between certain times of the day and then to the other the rest of the time and Tom just wouldn’t find another route until we got well clear of it but kept trying to make us double back to the freeway entrance – another flaw in the GPS systems unless I guess if we could subscribe to traffic information but I don’t think that is available in Australia yet. We finally got to our destination, had some lunch in a bakery then headed off to look at the wine producing area. I have never seen so many grapevines all in one mass; they looked really amazing with the rolling green hills behind them. Since we are not wine drinkers the cellar doors that were open were not much enticement to us but it was interesting to see a wine growing district such as this.
Next we headed to Glenelg to check out the famous beach district. I was amazed how much it reminded me of our St Kilda with its tall palm trees, cafes, beach etc and the next few suburbs one way are North Brighton, Brighton and South Brighton! The place was buzzing with people sitting at cafe tables, walking along the pier, swimming and lazing on the beach, or getting on\off the tram. There were a lot of young people; I think they are on school holidays too so a 30 degree day was perfect to go to the beach. Once we had looked around we were going to go to our motel and book in there but I noticed that we had to virtually pass the door of a friend of mine so we looked up her address and decided to pop in on the way past. We were in luck and Lois was at home having just come back from a walk. I was thrilled to see her and I think she was happy to see me too and showed us lots of her wonderful craft, drawing and costume work that she does. She is an amazingly talented lady and is still very creative and active in her senior years. If I am like that at her age, I will be a happy old lady! Lois and I share a keen interest in butterflies and we say we have a “Flutterby Connection” even though we live in separate states over 700 km apart. It was great to catch up with her!
Following our visit we went to the motel and booked in; 4th floor – bummer! Well, we rarely have done that to ourselves, usually we get places that are ground level and have parking almost right at the door. Only 3 sleeps left now till we come home – it will be strange after all this time but wonderful to see everyone again! Hooray!