ADELAIDE – CLOSED ON SUNDAYS

Adelaide was founded in 1836 by Colonel Matthew Light and has a population of just over one million with the highest ratio of cafes and restaurants per resident than any other Aussie city. It is also known as Australia’s City of Churches and I guess that this is why to all intents and purposes, it was closed when we arrived one Sunday morning and doesn’t seem to liven up much on the other days of the week either. Laid out in a very orderly grid fashion on both sides of the Torrens River, Adelaide is ringed by a green belt of parks and Colonel Light is honoured in the form of a sculpture called Light’s Vision above the city. He holds a set of plans in one hand and points down into the city with the other – I’m sure that he’s pointing right at the Lindt Chocolate shop, or it could well be the nice shoe shop next door.

Being Cardi Backpackers (can there be a more tight combination?), our first foray into the city was to the marvelous State Library where they offer a free internet service! At the Library, we also found a fascinating exhibition of memorabilia and bits of kit belonging to Sir Don Bradman – Australia’s greatest sporting hero and the world’s best cricketer, including the bat that he used to score about 6 million runs against England in the famous Bodyline Series. Even I, who finds it impossible to understand how two teams can play cricket for a week and still end up with a draw, was engrossed - praise indeed!

One ‘must do’ for every visitor to Adelaide is to spend a day on the superb beach at Glenelg which is a thirty minute tram ride from the city. The tram ride was hyped-up to be part of the experience and I quote “the 1929 trams have original fittings, red leather seats and wood paneled compartments …” The tram that arrived forty-five minutes late was a modern steel and plastic grey thing – not an original leather hanging strap in sight. The glorious old-timers have been replaced by these boring things following an efficiency review – ha! The beach was gorgeous and we really did try our best to stay but we were sand-blasted off after a couple of hours, hair & ears, books & bags, nooks & crannies all filled with sand. Disappointment now complete, we traipsed back to the hostel, to make sandcastles in the shower with all the sand that we’d carried back.

The Adelaide area is home to the world famous wine producing Barossa Valley, first settled in the 1840’s by Germans fleeing religious persecution at home, hence the snappily titled Die Deutsche Post fur Die Australischen Colonien, the first non English language newspaper to be published here. Today, the valley with more than 50 wineries, ranging from multinationals to tiny specialists, produces 80% of Australia’s wine. 80% of this is exported direct to the Tregaron area of mid Wales and purchased by an undisclosed buyer (well, most of us have a good idea).

We had chosen to join the Groovy Grape Tour for a day of wine tasting and enlightenment and were picked up from the hostel at 7.45am (yes, I know) where polite greetings and pleasantries were exchanged with fellow tasters as they boarded the minibus. Given the early hour and the fact that the sun wasn’t even in sight of the yardarm yet, we had a couple of stops at non-alcoholic attractions before the main event.

The first was at a wooden toy factory which had an enormous rocking horse as tall as a six-storey building as its ‘tourist trap’ on the roadside. We took the obligatory photo, resisted the impulse to purchase a wooden train set and an abacus then went to see something else far more interesting they had to offer. In a huge enclosure of several hectares, kangaroos wander around alongside peacocks and other furry and feathered creatures. We bought a bag of feed and went in through the gate where we were almost immediately ambushed by kangaroos snuffling their way into the brown paper bag. They were cheeky little chappies that sat there to be patted and tickled under the chin and their coats were far softer to the touch than I’d expected but underneath, they were as solid as whippets (is there such a comparison, or have I just made that one up?)

Then back on the bus and to the Barossa Reservoir on the Yetti Road (he’s behind you …) The Reservoir retaining wall is a perfect ellipse which means that sound waves are carried perfectly from one side to the other across the 140m span. Some walked across to the ‘whispering platform’ on the other side to talk to the wall (see, it works sometimes, stick with it) and amazingly their voices could be heard as clearly and loudly as if they were standing behind us. Our driver, Irish boy Tom had suggested that we whisper a dark, deep confession across the wall, like “I’m not wearing pants”. I suggested that even better would be “I’m wearing your pants”.

Back on the bus and down to the business of the day, first call at Jacobs Creek. Just incase you’re wondering, yes, there is a Jacobs Creek but given the current drought conditions it would be more accurate to call it Jacobs Creek Bed. We had a bit of spiel before getting down to the nitty gritty – 6 samples and none of this spitting out business either. We sloshed it about, stuck our noses in and held it up to the light in a very knowledgeable fashion before the tasting and delivering the verdict. Marc liked these wines but I wasn’t so sure – nothing really sweet enough for this Asti Girl. No purchases were made at this winery as Tom had told us that we could buy it cheaper at the bottle shops back in town. A bit of cheery banter ensued as we got back on the bus and onto our second watering-hole. Vine Crest is a delightful boutique vinery with wines to match. We sampled lots of lovely stuff, including some excellent white port that is fantastic served on the rocks with fruit and cheese. Lots of animated and lively tasting took place and the bus eventually bounced down the lane from Vine Crest to the sound of rattling bottles and loud laughter.

Onto Richmond Grove winery which was a bit more serious as we had a bit of a tour which involved the guide telling us the tale of the German founders’ quest to build a replica of a Bavarian chateau on the site etc etc. Bearing in mind that the temperature was by now well in the 40’s, there was a lot of yawning and leaning on things and each other as we waited for him to finish and lead us to the next batch of grog, which I’m afraid were all too dry for me again, but I stuck with it - just to be polite you understand. While we were busy increasing our levels of gaiety, Tom was busy preparing a huge BBQ for us down by the river, where we enjoyed roo, snags, prawns and an feast of other delights. Some played Frisbee and some just lazed in the shade under the trees (no need to guess who did what out of Marc and I!) Back onto the bus, by now everyone being bosom buddies and exchanging e-mail addresses, promising to come and visit when they got home.

Our last stop of the day was Bethany Vineyard – another boutique winery with the best wines of the day. To give us an idea of the size of their operation in comparison with the big multinationals, we learned that Bethany’s whole annual harvest could be processed by Jacobs Creek in 9 hours. The tasting structure was different here in that there was no structure. In all the other wineries, 6 bottles were lined up and tasted in a particular order. Here, you just got the list and asked for whatever you wanted and not just stopping at 6 either.

All good things must come to and end and reluctantly, we all clambered back onto the bus, but Tom had one more surprise for us and took us up to Menglers Hill lookout with its unparalleled views of the valley and vineyards. As a grand finale, Tom did ‘donuts’ in the bus round and round the tiny car park to lots of cheering and shouts of ‘woo-hoo, one more time’ before heading back to the city. We were all snoozing happily within five minutes.

That evening, there was a Twenty/20 cricket match being played at the Adelaide Oval (where the last Aussie/India test was played this week) and fresh from the Sir Don’s exhibition, we went along and watched the South Australian Warriors get the hiding of their lives from the West Australian Redbacks in a superb evening of entertainment. When the Warriors were all bowled out for 98, the man sat next to me just stood up with a resigned look on his face, shook his head and left the stadium. He did leave his programme behind though which was a good thing as there were none left by the time we’d arrived.

It was so hot in Adelaide that somedays it was best to stay indoors until it had cooled down a little (but it’s still blinking hot). It was in these ‘cooler’ evenings that we enjoyed walks around the parks, the cathedral, the North Terrace with its majestic old buildings and the Arts and Convention Centre which is situated on the banks of the lovely Torrens River. It was on one of these walks that we received possibly the best piece of safety advice of the trip from a local boilermaker – Never be the Last One in the Water …