Dear
Friends, we did enjoy our Mothers’ Day, especially sharing breakfast with Judi,
Glenn, Gillie, Aileen & Barbara. Judi nearly didn’t make it as one of their
dogs, Major, had a seizure, but he recovered quickly and she decided to join us
as Michael could look after the dogs and they would take him to the vet on
Monday. However, Judi was the bearer of the very sad news that our friend,
Lorelle Hall, never came out of her coma and had died the day before. Lorelle
was a vibrant, clever, educated and challenging person, who left an impression
on everyone she met. Her husband, David, will be devastated to have lost her.
My favourite photo of Lorelle was taken at the Robbie Burns night at Gracenotes Café in 2009.
We
had been invited to share Peter Widdop’s 72nd birthday soireé, so I
spent a very quiet afternoon doing crosswords and knitting until it was time to
go at 5pm. We had a wonderful time catching up with Penny & David Reilly,
Glenda & Joe Rozen, Linda & Ken Gillies, and Linda & Allan Straub.
Another old friend of theirs, Pam, arrived later, as did Peter’s former wife,
Astrid, who now lives in Daylesford as well. Peter had created umpteen yummy
pizzas and the bubbles and conversation flowed. Linda had baked a beautiful
chocolate cake covered in strawberries in lieu of her signature Portuguese
custard tarts. We lasted until nearly 7.30pm before tiredness kicked in
big-time for me.
Monday
was cold early but turned into a beautiful day which enabled Wes to spend some
time in Barbara’s garden as well as on the computer, where he found another
cousin (6 times removed) from Leeds. I did some supermarket shopping and washed
& ironed everything in sight preparatory to packing for our six days away.
One of our beautiful
cherry trees celebrating Autumn in style
That
night Carlton managed to score an easy win over St Kilda, so Wes was a happy
boy again. It wasn’t pretty football by any means and St Kilda are depleted,
but the four points are in the bag.
On
Tuesday we were all up early to do last minute packing, which included taking
the laptop and making sure we have backed up our own computers. It was a cool
misty morning here but we set off expecting 21° in Adelaide. We drove in convoy
to Ballarat, dropped off Bilbo, left the Mazda 6 at Eureka Kennels and headed
off for Adelaide.
Our
first stop was at Great Western for a tea, coffee & biscuit break and we
fell in love with the place. We have vowed to make a trip there sometime soon
and buy up on sparkling shiraz. We stopped again right on the border for more
hot drinks & biscuits and apart from filling up with petrol, and changing
drivers, went through to North Adelaide where we were staying at the Majestic
Old Lion Apartments. I had asked for a ground floor apartment and we were
impressed with the size and comfort of our accommodation, which included a
full-size fridge, oven, microwave, K-size bed, washing machine & dryer. We
were too tired to do anything except drink wine & eat a local pizza.
Wes at our rest spot
at Great Western...sadly the Magpie didn’t bring us any luck...
We
slept until 8am on Wednesday, had a light breakfast and set off walking for the
Botanic Gardens. Danny Moynihan had suggested we go to the Zoo, and as it was
right next door to the Gardens, we went in. What a wonderful Zoo it is – we enjoyed
the Giant Pandas, Wang Wang & Funi, and spent about 3 hours in total there.
For the most part the Zoo has been modernised and the animals are in great
enclosures and seem very happy. We fell in love with these two otters – one has
lost the sight of an eye and is very nervous, so his brother looks out for him.
Wes
remembered we had enjoyed a stunning long lunch at the Jolley Boathouse about 20 years ago, so we walked around the river
until we found it. Sure enough it has the same owners, better chairs, a great
wine list and stunning food. We shared 3 different types of oysters before Wes
settled on kangaroo tail with Chinese dates and jasmine rice, and I had a
perfectly cooked piece of barramundi. We drank a bottle of Prosecco, which was
the perfect accompaniement.
Then
we walked to the SA Art Gallery, which has an amazing array of artworks,
including many Australian paintings we have never seen before. The building is
splendid and the paintings are hung up nearly to the ceiling. We walked back to
our apartment and had a very quiet night.
On
Thursday we met Danny Millman at the Adelaide Central Markets, where we
strolled and chatted for a while, before making our way back to the Art Gallery
and a cuppa at their lovely café before spending time at the Museum, which has
a particularly good permanent exhibition celebrating the achievements of Sir Douglas
Mawson.
We
ended up having lunch at a stunning Italian restaurant called Pranzo, where the waiter was brilliant
and gave us some suggestions for wineries to visit in McLaren Vale. We walked
through the Botanic Gardens and Danny took the brilliant photo below in the
lily pad house. Then off to the Australian Wine Centre, where Ben Lazzaro
joined us for a drink. He was in Adelaide for an Australian Made Board meeting and was going to the
footy that night as guest of the chairman.
After
a rest that afternoon, we set out for the game, along with most of the other
visitors in our accommodation. There was much excitement in Adelaide with the
first night match at the refurbished ground and over 50,000 of us crammed into
it. We were up on the fifth level, but in comfortable seats with a good view.
The Crows were easily the better team and it was obvious from the start that we
were going to struggle to beat them. The result was exactly what the AFL would
have wanted and guarantees good crowds for the remaining games at the Oval.
The
next morning we picked up Danny from his hotel on North Terrace and drove to
Victor Harbor as we had never been there and it was over 30 years since Danny
had visited it. We had a long cuppa break at Port Noahlunga, which was a pretty
little town. At Victor Harbor we were amazed to see a Clydesdale drawing a tram
over the bridge to Granite Island. We walked over the bridge and would love to
go back as there is a penguin colony and some wonderful walking paths to take
and explore.
We
had lunch at one of the local pubs and then drove home, running into Friday
afternoon traffic as we got close to Adelaide. We spent the evening watching
Freo beat Geelong and enjoying the celebration of Matthew Pavlich’s 300th
game & 600th goal.
The
next morning we checked out and set off for McLaren Vale, where we had booked a
B&B for the night. We visited the Info Centre, where we were armed with a
large map and very helpful advice. We were amazed at the size of the area (once
again we had never been there) and started at Alpha Box & Dice Winery, which came highly recommended by our
Italian waiter. There are no grapes growing here, but the young interesting
winemaker experiments with blends and names them after letters of the alphabet.
We didn’t like their white, but bought a mixed dozen of their 4 reds.
They
recommended another winery, which our waiter had also mentioned, Battle of Bosworth, but the young woman
looking after the cellar door, made a disparaging remark about Alpha Box & Dice, which put us
offside from the beginning. She was very busy with an unexpected group who
walked in behind us. We tried some of their wines and bought a couple of their yummy
shiraz. Then off to Samuel’s Gorge,
which everyone recommended, but it was shut, as was Chapel Hill next door.
The
lady at the Info Centre had suggested we include Angove’s Winery in our list so we headed there, and are we glad we
did. They even make a passable rosé, but their reds are something else and we
quickly became Friends, and ordered
up big. The last time I was this excited about a winery was the day we walked
into Cofield Winery in Rutherglen
about 3 or 4 years ago, and we both love all their wines.
We
ended up having a very late lunch at Fino,
in Willunga, where we kept the Richmond supporter waitress up to date with the
scores from that game. Wes tried the Angus Scotch fillet, while I enjoyed Coorong
mulloway, with a glass of local cab sav. We couldn’t resist the Rocquefort and Italian
goat’s cheese afterwards. By the time we had driven along Aldinga Beach, we
were ready to check into Bellevue B&B,
where we were greeted warmly, given hot drinks & home-made cake and allowed
to settle in. Our room was very comfortable and unlike many B&Bs, suitable
for a long stay, as the two bedrooms have been purpose-built. We retired to bed
to watch the footy and get a good night’s sleep before our long drive home.
Breakfast
was stunning – fresh fruit and cereals, toast with home-made jams, crepes with
home-made apple pureé, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon and
endless cups of tea and coffee. The owners, Kieran & Ros, pride themselves
on setting their guests up for the day and they certainly did that for us.
We
had a lovely drive home through countryside and Wes had a delightful surprise
for me – at a little town called Wellington,
there is a free ferry which travels 24 hours every day and takes about 4 cars
at a time across to Tailem Bend. We
thought that was just perfect and so unexpected! When we arrived home here last
night we discovered our Icelandic poppies had started to bloom, and our lemons,
which are now in the Lemon House for
the Winter, were yellowing very nicely indeed.
This
morning we drove to Ballarat to collect Bilbo. I drove him back here, while Wes
went to Bunnings to pick up my Mother’s Day greenhouse. Bilbo didn’t say a word
on the drive home, leapt out of the car, checked out every room in the house
and then waited at the front door until Wes arrived back, whereupon he wagged
his tail madly and hopped into bed for a serious sleep.
Wes
cooked us a yummy pasta dish for lunch and he has done a quick mow of the
longer grass in the backyard, so everywhere is looking fabulous. I’ve been
washing and will tackle the ironing after I finish this.
We’ve had a wonderful
time away and highly recommend Adelaide, Victor Harbor and McLaren Vale if you
are thinking of a short break or planning on going to the footy.
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