Glen sent us a message in the afternoon to say the Central Highlands Water crew had been working since the call and had located the leak under a gum tree. She was without water, but not otherwise inconvenienced, and was able to park in our driveway, as our street was full of men & machines.
We arrived in Robe at 4pm after a good trip, with lots of rain, but very little traffic, and parked outside our unit at Robe Marina, only to find we were next door to Judi & Michael who were finishing a holiday with a night in Robe. We ended up spending a very pleasant couple of hours in The Black Swan, which serves an incredible variety of spirits and wine by the glass, and shared some yummy plates of food.
The next morning we discovered our air-conditioning unit had been leaking water, so we turned it off, contacted the management and mopped up the mess. We are most impressed with the owners of these self-contained units, as our message was replied to @7.30am and a technician came at 10am. We went out to breakfast and a visit to the historic cemetery. When we returned, the unit was fixed, and we had fresh towels in place of the wet ones. The only damage we suffered was wet caps, which had been sitting on a shelf directly under the unit.
After this water episode, it was wonderful to hear from our plumber, Gary, that he had successfully completed the work to redirect our water from under the driveway to over the carport and under the house. We were very grateful and look forward to returning to normality, instead of having to sweep out puddles of water two and three times a day.
Our next port of call was Wangolina Winery about 30 minutes from Robe. I think it is the most exciting winery we have ever visited. When we went there in April, we tried their whites, of which they have a wonderful variety. This time we tried the reds and were equally impressed. Dan, the manager, told us we had to try their latest white, 2024 Fiano, and he was right - another gorgeous & different wine. We took three bottles with us & arranged for the rest to be delivered when we arrive back home. We opted for a quiet afternoon as we were still tired from the previous day, and had pizza for dinner.
The next morning we walked back into the main street, and had breakfast at Drift again. There is a good choice on the menu, the staff are young & keen to please and I'm told the coffee is very good. We'd decided to have a drive-free day, so read The Age, and settled in with books & hot drinks. Around lunchtime we went for a long walk around the cliffs and wondered whether we would get back to Robe again. We're not coming here when we visit Adelaide for the AFL Gather Round next April, and the Ashes Test is a daytime match just before Christmas, so we are giving that a miss.
That evening we headed off early to The Black Swan, but it was unexpectedly closed, so we ended up with fish & chips back in our room and a glass of Tempranillo to wash them down. The flake was caught locally and very plump & flavoursome, but Peter at our local fish shop has much better batter and superior chips!
On Wednesday morning, we had breakfast at Drift yet again, finished packing and were on the road by 9.45am, heading to Adelaide. Wes did most of the driving, but I was able to chime in with an hour along the Coorong.
We headed straight to the Adelaide Central Markets and had a wonderful experience at the Smelly Cheese stall. Wendy, who served us, got on our wavelength very quickly, and we bought 4 very different & interesting cheeses, a baguette, a pot of raspberry & gin jam, and a small bottle of Fig Gin. We walked to the next stall to pick up some fruit & tomatoes, and then across to the second-hand book stall, where I spotted 5 books by favourite authors and we had to beg for a bag from the owner as we were running out of hands to carry everything.
We arrived at Athelney Cottage to find it nice and cool and well-stocked as usual - a bottle of Sav Blanc in the fridge, along with butter, milk, bread, condiments, chocolate, and ground coffee. We unpacked and enjoyed sitting quietly reading until it was time to spread out the cheeses and have our picnic. Wes has been reading Ron Barassi's biography and he keeps having to share moments with me, as we are both old enough to remember the huge uproar when Carlton poached Barassi from Melbourne to become their Captain-Coach.
It was 38℃ on Thursday, so we headed to the Hoyts Cinema at Norwood to see the Hong Kong film, The Last Dance, which opened that day. What a wonderful film - set in a funeral parlour, it explores the partnership of a Taoist priest and a failed wedding planner, and so much more. We loved it, as did the mostly Asian young people around us.
That night we went back to Chef Dong, which we had discovered in April and had another wonderful meal of salt & pepper school prawns, oyster omelette and steamed beans, followed by the best red bean pancake ever.
Suddenly it was Friday morning and the first day of the second Test. We had planned on trying a new breakfast venue, but it turned out to be in the city with no parking nearby, so we headed back to The Flying Fig, where we ordered the house granola and waited 40 minutes for our meal. Everyone was most apologetic, especially the young trainee waitress who had confused the kitchen.
We came back here for a rest, before packing our bag and walking to the Adelaide Oval, a pleasant 30 minute stroll along the Botanic Gardens, the Zoo, and the University playing grounds. Our seats were on Level 1 in the Riverbank Stand, with a great view and under cover - as it was 38℃, that was a very good thing indeed.
What a wonderful first day we enjoyed - Starc with a wicket with his first ball, and the Indians all out for 180. Even better, we were 1/86 at stumps with McSweeney on 38 not out. We left the ground at 8.15pm and got back here just as night fell. We watched the rest of the last session from the comfort of our armchairs.
Prawns above and red bean pancake
Yesterday was hot, but not as bad as Friday. We decided to have a quiet morning here with tomatoes on toast for breakfast. I rang Leanne, who was thrilled to hear from me and we both finished books we had been enjoying. We headed off to the Adelaide Oval wondering what would happen, never dreaming we would see a wonderful innings of 140 by Travis Head that changed the game and put Australia in the box seat. When Head was given a very rude send off by the bowler, Mohammed Siraj, the crowd erupted in boos, which continued whenever he went near the ball.
We left at the change of innings and listened to the game as we walked back here. We arrived in time to see Scott Boland remove Yashasvi Jaiswal with his first ball, and then have Virat Kohli caught behind after Cummins & Starc had each taken wickets. The Indians are 5/128 still 29 runs behind our first innings, so they are facing an uphill battle to win this game, which will probably finish today, leaving us with a couple of extra days to enjoy Adelaide and all it has to offer.
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