To Adelaide

Sunday 8th March – to Adelaide

Woke up slightly earlier than expected as Southern Australia is 30 minutes behind Victoria. Toured around the parts of Robe we hadn't walked to the previous evening, it's a very pretty and well-heeled town in contrast to many we've been though.

Drove westwards along the Koorong, a desolate area where the longshore drift sandspit has trapped a lagoon between itself and the old coastline about a hundred miles long. The lagoon has partially evaporated due to the drought so is lined by large areas of salt pan. Inland is flat and mostly used for cattle grazing except some areas where there are very productive vineyards.

The day was hot and sunny for a change and I thought it would be nice to go for a swim, so we headed for a beach. As we drove down the road, an unexpected ferry occurred. We didn't have a good map and it turned out the once mighty Murray river was in the way. Luckily it was a free cable ferry ( like a chain ferry but faster and quieter), and due to the drought the river wasn't very wide.

We stopped at Strathalbyn for a picnic lunch with table and benches in the central park. It was a very pretty little town, people strolling in the park, children playing. Originally settled by Scots it sits nestled in hills but was considerably warmer than Scotland, about 28 degrees centigrade.

The information centre told us of a good bay to swim in, but it would have meant a 150 km detour so we decided to head for Adelaide instead. Probably a good decision as we arrived in the late afternoon still with enough energy to walk around town in the evening.

Found the 'Breakfree Diirectors Appartments' easily, well appointed quiet apartments on a street full of restaurants of almost all cuisines.

Monday 9th March – Adelaide

Walked to the Botanic Gardens. Superb, on a par with Montreal and Singapore. Inclusive collection of cycads, lake with huge carp and turtles, beautiful old palm house and the best collection of cacti we have ever seen.. All in a manicured setting with well maintained paths and walkways with parakeets. swooping through the foliage The bicentennial glasshouse is perhaps a triumph of containment over content, but with very striking architecture and climate control. The water lily building is a sublime confection of steel and glass.

Then on to the Art Gallery and a large collection of silverware as well as Australian art from Victorian to contemporary. Possibly the most difficult to hang was a full size fluorescent blue rhinoceros set horizontally with its feet on a wall about a metre above the floor.

Then the museum. We found that a new geological period had been agreed a few years ago, based on trace fossils found in the nearby Flinders Range. The Ediacaran precedes the Cambrian and we saw the fossils of the creatures that preceded the trilobites.

In another gallery was the skeleton of the largest marsupial yet found, a horse size beast with crossed over leg bones.

There was a good mineralogical collection, but for me the star of the show was a diffusion cloud chamber. This is a detection device that allows you to see the tracks of sub-atomic particles from local sources probably including some of the nearby uranium ore samples as well as from cosmic rays from interstellar space.