Woonona Mob "Zig Zag Oz": Adelaide and beyond.(New & improved, now with 15% less fat...but same great taste!))

Croquet any one? Adelaide is one of the few places that actually play that game.

It is quite the place though, with trams going every-which-way, expensive mansions left-right-and-centre and shopping centres to get really lost in!

Besides all that, I really liked it here.

I was lucky enough to have my ears pierced while I was here! It felt very weird, but it was quick and the nervousness went away as soon as the needle came out of my ear, now I have a beautiful pair of dark blue studs, mum still thinks the good ‘ole sleepers were better.

Mum left us for 3 nights to go to a cousin’s wedding in Noosa, while the rest of us had a wonderful time without her.

While she was gone we went to the zoo there and saw the only Giant Pandas in

Australia

, called; Wang Wang and Funi, we also saw Sumatran Tigers, many exotic and native birds, an extremely long Anaconda and lots of other animals all in lovely botanic surroundings. We caught a tram into the city and visited the museum there, with one particular exhibition all about The Kraken! There was one exhibition full of stuffed animals from all around the globe, Tapirs, Tigers Grizzly Bears, Gorillas, Lions, Moose, potato, Moose, Moose, Potato, yep you name it, it was all there.

We got out of the Museum just in time just as the doors were just shutting, just like Perth! (sorry about all the “justs”)

We went out to dinner a couple of times each came with the complaint from Ellie “But I don’t wanna go out!”

We stayed in a very “Resort style” Caravan Park, with two large jumping pillows, a TV room and Games room, a large Playground, a tennis court, 2 swimming pools, a mini Basketball Court, a huge Skate Park right next door and a GIANORMOUS laundry, most of it was a child’s dream come true, correction, Ellie’s dream come true.

I loved Adelaide

By Maeve J

From Adelaide we headed for the Coorong National Park, renowned for its bird life. It is a series of long, thin lakes, fed by the mighty Murray River, and separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of sand dunes. We were lucky to spot a rare and endangered Mallee fowl. They are a large bird, larger than a duck, which build huge mounds, like Brush Turkeys. To get to the Coorong we crossed the Murray by punt not that far from the river mouth at the small village of Wellington and hit the Princes Highway – which, incidentally, could have taken us if we so chose, all the way home (but we’re not ready for that just yet).

From the Coorong we headed for Naracoorte Caves NP, via the town of Kingston SE (we couldn’t find out what “SE” stands for, but guess it means South East). Its claim to fame, as well as fine limestone coast wines, is as home of the Big Lobster. Naracoorte was the 8^th world heritage site we have visited on this trip, and is paired with the better known Riversleigh Fossil site we visited earlier in western Queensland. Both sites are on the world heritage list because of the information they have yielded on the evolution of Australian fauna. Naracoorte is a group of limestone caves which is the site of megafauna fossils, including the Diprotodon (an extinct giant wombat) and several other extinct mammals. One resembled a small hippo and another, a tapir. At least 3 species of extinct leaf-eating kangaroos (twice as large as today’s kangaroos) have also been found here. There’s a fantastic interpretive display here with full-sized moving models of some of the fauna in their recreated habitat from the world of several hundred thousand years past. We were able to explore two of the caves, one of which is still being investigated by palaeontologists. Their dig sites have inspired Nellie who is considering this as a future career.

From Naracoorte we headed to a cold and drizzly Mount Gambier, via Penola and the Coonawarra wine growing region. We stopped at the Mary Mackillop centre in Penola to pay our respects to the country’s first saint - ie investment in a few souvenirs. This was where St Mary of the Cross, as she is now known, first set up a school and founded her order of Josephite nuns. Mount Gambier is a picturesque city (South Australia’s second largest), set around three volcanic calderas, one of which is the famous Blue Lake, due to its amazing colour. The city is built atop even more limestone caverns and underground lakes. One of the most interesting is the Umpherston Sinkhole, a large open cave where the roof has collapsed (long, long time ago) leaving a huge limestone-walled hole in the ground about 100 metres in diameter and 15 to 20 metres deep. It was transformed in the late 1800s into a mini Hanging Garden of Babylon, with a series of below-ground terraces with garden plantings and is now freely open to the public. We had planned to revisit it after dark when apparently the possums come out to feed in their hordes, but the damned freezing temperatures here sort of cooled our enthusiasm. We hope the possums are also as sensible. We head for Victoria and the Grampians tomorrow. In all our 7 months of travel we have not resorted to a single fast food joint, no Mcdonalds or similar junk has tempted the girls, and they are very proud! Another interesting observation is that A.C.T. number plates are the rarest to find.

Solar challenge car from University of Chile, staying at same caravan park in Adelaide

A Proud Achievement

The old tramway connecting Victor Harbour to Granite island where there is colony of Little Penguins. (Looking back towards Victor Harbour)

One of the hundreds of Shingle Back lizards that inhabit this area. The girls had fun patting them.

Crossing the mighty Murray River by punt.

Looking across the Coorong towards the narrow sand dunes separating lakes from the ocean

A Mallee Fowl mound

One of the giant leaf eating kangaroos. Notice the skulls on the left? They are modern grass eating kangaroo skulls....notice the size difference? Thus is a single skeleton, found in the cave.