Visiting Adelaide Australia

We spent the next two days, January 24 and 25 in Adelaide. Now here was another town that I had no idea what to expect (sounded like an old west cattle town) and I was delightfully surprised. It is located in the state of South Australia at the southern end on the Gulf of St. Vincent. The Indian Ocean lies to the south. Adelaide has a small town feel, even though it has a population of 1.3 million. It was one of the first planned cities. Like Melbourne it has wide streets with narrower streets in between. It was designed by Colonel William Light as a grid interspersed with town squares. Adelaide is surrounded by a green belt of parks and recreation areas and the Torrens River runs through the town.

Koala at Cleland Wild Animal Park

When we got there the city was impacted by the ending of the Great Australian Bicycle Race (or something like that), so we could not drive through the town. Instead we went to visit Cleland Wildlife Park. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we spent several hours walking around and looking at just a few of the unusual animals that make their home in Australia. We saw hairy nosed wombats, a monitor lizard, koalas, dingo dog, potoroos, several styles of kangaroos, cape barren goose, emus, and lots of other birds.

Don feeding a kangaroo

That evening we had a home hosted dinner in one of the northern suburbs. Jo and Kristy made the 8 of us who attended feel right at home with drinks in the back yard and a simple meal of chicken, rice, and salad. Dessert was also yummy.

On the second day, four of us took a prearranged tour of the wine country a little north and east of the city. We drove through the hilly countryside looking at all of the vineyards with grapes just coming into readiness. I was reminded of the

Seppeltsfield Winery

Napa Valley back home in California. We visited two wineries, Seppeltsfield Wines started in 1851 and Jacobs Creek Wine Visitor’s Center. They were both spiffed up for the tourist trade and presented us with some wine tasting.

Then we drove to Barossa Chateau which is a restaurant and winery. We enjoyed lunch - barramundi, goat curry, and kangaroo were a few of the choices. We drove on through the rolling hills to the German town of Hahndorf. Now I was reminded of Solvang in California! (Why did we come to Australia if it is just like home? I will tell you later.) Anyway, we enjoyed walking around, looking in the shops, and purchasing a few souvenirs.

A funny story about Adelaide is that one of the streets is named King William Road. Because no one is allowed to cross the path of a king, no road is allowed to cross this road! So, the street has one name on the west side and another on the east side of King William. Well, at least they have a rationale for changing a street name!

Adelaide Australia