DISCOVERED: the town in Australia where John wants to live

We began last weekend with some good drugs. Legal drugs of course, but good nonetheless. Ellyn had been sick all week and could not seem to shake a cold she was getting. She went into the local “chemist” (pharmacy) and asked if they recommended anything (thinking they would respond with something similar to DayQuil). The woman behind the counter simply said, “Would you like day and night time treatment?” Well, both, of course! So she asked for Ellyn’s ID and later returned with a miracle. Ellyn took one dose and lie down for an hour and immediately felt better. So we proceeded to our dinner reservations at a local Italian restaurant. It is a local, very small restaurant with few items on the printed menu and a large specials chalkboard. The dinner was amazing. We left there though to go to Cocolat for dessert and over our delicious chocolate, we contemplated opening one in Greenville…

Saturday morning, we got up, packed our bags and headed to pick up our car. We had to take the bus to the airport as the city rental location did not have any cars available. As we were riding to the airport, an interesting gentleman got on the bus and sat in front of us. John and Ellyn were chatting about the bus going to the airport and where it would stop, etc. when the man turned around and tried to explain where we needed to get off and where we were to get the rental car. (As we’d already done this before, we knew exactly what we were doing but being the good Southerns we are, we politely thanked him.) He then asked where we were from and when we said the US, he asked if we hated Canadians. To which we promptly replied, “No, John’s family is from Canada.” Then he asked how we felt about people from the Middle East. Before we had a chance to respond, he pointed to a woman about two rows behind us that had a turban around her head and said, “What about her? How do you feel about that?” Then looking at John, he said, “What would you do if she wore one of those? Would you let her?” Really!? We practically ran off the bus as soon as it stopped.

We picked up our car (finally!) and headed out to Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary about 20 minutes outside of Adelaide in Stirling. We purchased a bag of food and headed into the park. The kangaroos were hopping all over and as soon as they saw us with the food, they came straight over. (See John’s first shot feeding the “roos” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KmuSmGSY0o .) We continued to walk around the park and saw some different birds wandering around and a koala sleeping in the tree and another creature that Ellyn thought looked cute at first until John pointed out it kindof looked like a rat. Not so cute anymore. (See creature… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvogHgJ2bCo .) John also tried to pick up (unsuccessfully!) a kangaroo… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AqAVXDI61Q . There was a duckbilled platypus that lives at the park but he never came on the surface for us to see him. All in all, it was a great visit and fun to get so close to the wildlife.

John and a kangaroo at Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary.

We headed south towards Victor Harbor and saw some beautiful countryside (with “heaps” of cows and sheep). As we headed down, Ellyn read in the Lonely Planet that there was a great brewery in a small town near our destination. So we decided a short detour would be nice! As we pulled into Goolwa, we laughed as we read that Goolwa was the “Tidiest Town” (of what region, we cannot remember). Headed through town and toward the wharf, Ellyn looked over to the left and saw a footy game in progress with a large audience. She commented about it to John (remember – he has declared this the Greatest Sport of All Time). At the next left, our car makes a quick turn and we head to the game! We get out of the car and Ellyn was shocked that in actuality, it doesn’t really look like that many people are watching the game, despite cars all around the field. John apparently was more observant and suggested we grab a beer. What? As Ellyn wondered where that comment came from, she noticed the large bar at the end of the field with a big patio filled with spectators. A beer it is! We manage to get a few beers (some of the cheapest we’ve found in Australia) and headed back out to the patio to enjoy the game. We aren’t sure why but we are pretty sure we stuck out like sore thumbs at this game. We don’t look that different from the Aussies and we were drinking Australian beer and cheering on the home team but we still got the feeling they knew we didn’t belong. At what we thought was the end of the game, we left (apparently it was really just half time, so maybe we don’t understand the rules as well as we thought we did!). We drove around Goolwa (because we were a bit turned around but it was nice nonetheless) and saw the yacht club and vacation homes and the “best beach on the southern coast” (according to the Lonely Planet) before finally making it to Steam Exchange Brewery. As soon as we pulled up, Ellyn was in love. It was a large metal building with huge windows (that presumably open during the spring/summer months) overlooking the bay. The inside was very basic – a bar as soon as you walked in and then barrels for tables and director style chairs scattered around, near the windows. The back of the building and all along the wall opposite the windows housed the tanks full of beer and the lines where the beer was bottled. There was a great crowd just sitting around enjoying a few drinks. We decided to do a taster of all the beers. Ellyn enjoyed the IPA the best while John preferred the Stout. The Stout was delicious and had a coffee/chocolately taste. So it seemed appropriate to have another beer given the great atmosphere and the fact that we really didn’t have anywhere to be!

But since we were driving, we had to stop after that and head to Victor Harbor. We checked into our hotel, which was a typical Australian hotel (hotel rooms on the first floor and a restaurant and bar on the first floor). We enjoyed a glass of wine and some cheese in our room before bundling up to head over to Granite Island to see the Little Penguins come home from a day of feeding. We joined a tour of about 12 people and headed out for a short walk. We immediately saw 2 adult penguins coming in and heard the cries of the baby penguins. We then saw 2 child penguins waiting in their burrow. They crawled out and stretched their arms for the first time! The tour guide said she’d been watching them all week and this was the first night they’d come out of their burrow. It was awesome to watch when the adult came home and feed the babies. We continued on our tour and saw a few more penguins walking around and some waiting in their burrows. We also learned that in just 10 years, the population of the Little Penguin on Granite Island had declined from over 2000 to fewer than 200. Very sad but it looks like the weather (rainwater will wash fish into the sea) this year may be helping them. We’ve been trying to think about this as we complain about all the rain we’re getting!

We headed back to the hotel and changed clothes before heading to dinner at The Anchorage, which was recommended to us by the receptionist at the hotel and the Lonely Planet (which is basically our travel bible over here!). The atmosphere was great, with a nice big fire next to where we were seated and a bar that was made out of a old wooden whaling boat. We enjoyed some fabulous drinks – Ellyn could not make her mind up about anything and luckily John befriended the bartender early and so he gave Ellyn a “taste” of everything she thought she might like to try. Ellyn tried some fabulous sparkling wines and John got to try quite a few new beers. Our dinner was delicious and we decided to stick around for dessert and some fortified and dessert wines, all of which were great. When we finally decided we’d done enough damage, we went to pay. Our bill was ½ the price that it should have been! We both insisted that the bill was incorrect (the only items on the bill were our first round of drinks and our main courses) and that if we could see a menu, we’d point out all that we’d had. The manager looked for evidence of another bill that related to us but not being able to find one, said for us not to worry about it, it was our lucky night. We’d say so!

Sunday morning we got up and walked around Victor Harbor and stopped in a little bakery for breakfast. We then headed back to Granite Island. This time though, we took the Horse Drawn Tram! It is an 1894 double-decker tram pulled by a Clydesdale (our “driver’s” name was Bill). It was cold and windy but we didn’t let that stop us from riding on top for most of the ride over the causeway! (At this point, it should be noted that Ellyn was dressed like someone straight out of the 80’s. Her outfit for Sunday was one that was suitable for wineries (skinny jeans, tunic sweater, flats, etc) and obviously not appropriate for hiking in the cold weather. So, after breakfast, she changed from her flats into socks and tennis shoes. The entire morning she kept talking about how crazy she was going to look and John kept saying he was sure she’d be fine. As soon as she stepped around the car with her skinny jeans and big white tennis shoes, he died laughing and at once knew what her worries had been!)

Horse Drawn Tram to Granite Island

Ellyn's awesome 80's outfit...nothing like skinny jeans and tennis shoes! (And the toboggan and red gloves help the look too!)

Once on the island, we did the Kaiki Walk around the island and saw some seals swimming in the waves and lots of granite rocks worn into interesting shapes by the weather. As we were walking along one portion of the walk (John insists we were not on the trail but Ellyn thought it was just a “smaller” trail), Ellyn was almost attacked by a bird that presumably thought she was coming after her nest. This bird was circling John and Ellyn and making terrible screeching noises and flew EXTREMELY close to Ellyn’s head multiple times. There were people on the other trail stopping to watch! Ellyn had to resort to ducking and covering her head before finally just sprinting through the bushes onto the “big trail”. Not cool.

John in one of the granite rocks.

We left Victor Harbor and headed to Port Elliot where we’d been told whales had been spotted as recently as the day before. We were both super excited about seeing whales. We hopped out of the car and headed straight to the beach. As soon as we got to a good lookout, Ellyn looked at John and said, “Do you see anything?!?!” To which he replied, “I think we may have to be a little patient.” Oh; okay. So we waited. And waited. And waited. John was enjoying the nice weather by lounging on the rocks. Ellyn was on guard looking for the whales and refused to sit down as she might miss something. After a while, we decided today was not our day for whale watching and headed to the booze…McLaren Vale!

We’d previously found a great boutique beer, Vale Ale, that we learned was brewed in McLaren Vale, which was on the way to Adelaide from Victor Harbor. So we decided to stop in the brewery and a few wineries on our way home. We stopped at the Visitors Center to get a map of the area. We were informed that there wasn’t an actual Vale Ale brewery open to visitors but we could visit the Salopian Inn, which is the official “home” of Vale Ale. We asked if there was a good place to go for lunch. The Salopian Inn but, “They’ll be booked today so you should try…yada yada yada.” The thing is, we like to eat at a place that is hard to get in because obviously, that means it good. So where do we head? To the Salopian Inn. We’re not exactly sure what she meant when she said they were the “home” of Vale Ale. We were able to get a table in the bar area but being that it was small restaurant, it was still a great table. They had two different types of Vale Ale on draft (the Pale Ale and a Mystery Brew) but both of the kegs were gone. One would think if it is the “home” of the beer, they might have a few more kegs in the back?! Oh well, they did have the Vale Ale in bottles and a great wine list. So we each ordered drinks and a local platter. It was similar to what we’d had the weekend before at the winery. Local bread, cheese, olives, some duck and rabbit pâté like thing, duck potatoes, and fresh olive oil. Yum!

We left the Inn and decided to head a winery that John thought the name and sign looked cool - Hugh Hamilton wines. He was apparently the black sheep of his family and the winery’s mascot is a black sheep! The cellar door was amazing…literally situated in the middle of the vineyards, it was a round building with windows all around. We spent a while in there enjoying the wine and view but if we were going to make it to another winery, we needed to get moving. As we were purchasing some wine before we left, an older woman walked up on her way out and said to John, “I sure hope you enjoy your time in Australia.” Apparently, when we were walking into the cellar door, he held the door for her and she said, “You don’t have to wait for me; I’m kindof slow” and John replied, “I have all the time in the world.” Such a gentleman!! But we tell you this so you can visualize the next scene. As we are walking out, there is a statue of a sheep on the steps. John proceeds to straddle the sheep while Ellyn took his picture and who was waiting at the bottom of the steps for her ride? Yep, the sweet old lady!! Haha!

John on the Black Sheep at Hugh Hamilton Winery.

Ellyn with one of the sheep signs at Hugh Hamilton.

We decided to just drive and stop at the next winery that was small and sounded cool. After a few that didn’t have the feel we were looking for, we headed to d’Arenberg, a favourite of Ellyn’s from last time. We went in and began on the very large tasting list. We found a few that we liked but nothing compared to the final dessert wine. We each took a sip, looked at each other and then said, we’ll take a bottle of that! We finished our tasting and headed back out to the car. We stopped at the restrooms on the way out. When Ellyn came out of the bathroom, she was looking for John when he came strolling out of the winery with a box in his hand. He’d decided one bottle wasn’t enough and we needed a few more!

Back to work this week and it’s been a pretty long week. Apparently the Aussies have decided to work a few more hours since last time Ellyn was here! But both John and Ellyn’s biggest clients are set to wrap up this week, so hopefully the hours will scale back.