Adelaide

Our time in Adelaide was dominated by the trips we made with a company called "Bums on Seats", kindly booked by Jean as our Christmas and Anniversary present. Another major factor of our stay was the "Tour Down Under" which was happening throughout the week. It's an annual cycle tour in stages, a bit like the Tour de France, and including this year a farewell appearance from Lance Armstrong. It was a novelty getting into a hotel lift with a lycra clad cyclist holding his bike (upright since it wouldn't fit in).

The first day we took a tram to the seaside area of Glenelg, a lovely sunny day but windy and we had an enjoyable walk along the beach. It was the first place where Europeans settled in South Australia and still looks quite elegant along the seafront. The city of Adelaide is lovely with extensive parks and lovely gardens. It should have an "in bloom" award if they exist here. It was certainly a pleasant place to walk around.

Our first trip outside Adelaide was to the Murray River. We had a pleasant run through the hills to the north east of the city, then over some very dry country to the river, which we crossed on a chain ferry. The river was full and fast-flowing but most of the locals were expecting much more water and floods in a couple of weeks when the water reached them flowing down from the interior. We then crossed back over further downstream, but not at the town of Murray Bridge where we had previously crossed it in the train, because the road bridge was closed for maintenance.

The next day was spent mostly in the town of Hahndorf, which had been settled in the 1840's by German immigrants, and still had many German characteristics. While we were there the Tour Down Under passed through. We are reliably informed that Lance was there but 100 plus cyclists passed us in the blink of an eye, so we had no chance of recognising anyone. The trip also included visits to various South Australian wineries, very educational!

On our last day we took a train to Port Adelaide where we hired a double kayak for a couple of hours and visited, among other things, a mangrove swamp within the port area, and a number of shipwrecks. All this in stifling heat.