Continuing through green civilisation
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Fri 6 Oct 2006 00:07
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City Life and
greenery
Melbourne
5th October 2006
Driving south from Port Augusta towards Adelaide
all looked well with the countryside. Neat well tended fields were green
or at least were not brown. However all the water holes were empty and
closer examination showed that the spring crops were very thin and patchy and
that sheep were grazing in what were obviously fields of wheat. This is
part of the great drought that is affecting this continent. Now, spring
here, the reservoirs should be full after a winter's rain and the grass and
crops should be growing well. however there has been little or no rain
this winter over much of South Australia and also in the wheat belt of
WA. This morning's papers are full of pictures of sheep beeing sold in
Wagga Wagga for knock down prices as farmers sell due to lack of feed, even in
Spring. The mineral side of the economy may be booming here but the
agricultural is not. We are however doing our best to see that the grape
growers get rich!
Three days of walking the hills that surround
the Barossa Valley wine area combined with a little bit of sampling plus some
excellent meals was a good entrance back to a very different type of
travelling. The outback was temporarily behind us, civilisation
beckoned.
 Many countries have their jewels and to our mind
these lovely old
country houses are some of Australia's loveliest
architecture. This one
is surrounded by pasture and acres of
vines.
 The hills that surround the valley provided some
excellent and quite 'fit making'
walking.
After several nights in a very comfortable B&B
in the Barossa we then treated ourselves to another four nights in a hotel in
the heart of Adelaide. This city proved to be much more of a delight than
we were expecting. Again good food, ranging from Belgium 'moules and vin
blanc' through to Indian via a very interesting French restaurant run by an
elderly Frenchman and his rather younger Australian wife.
 The tropical house in the Adelaide Botanical
Gardens.
Being early spring we were three weeks too
early
for the rose gardens to be at their
best.
 I make no excuse in including a statue of
Flinders. This man achieved more than most in his rather short life.
With the possible exception of Cook his name is used more often to than anyone
else on this continent. Reading of his travels and discoveries he
certainly deserves it. He started off from London with a young wife aboard
his ship. When he stopped off in the West Country some spoil sport told
the Admiralty. He was given two options: give up your wife or your
command. Luckily for future generations he chose the former course of
action. Readers of this blog will remember that we anchored under a hill
called Flinder's Peak on an uninhabited Recherche group island south of
Esperence. He was a well travelled man. Probably not one Australian
in a thousand has been to Middle Island.
Motoring on, I was by now almost beginning to miss
the corrugations and bull dust of the northern roads but Annette was not,
we carried on down the Great Ocean Road that runs from near Adelaide to
Melbourne although it is the part nearest Melbourne that is the most
spectacular. Amongst many sights we stopped at on this remarkable road were
the Disciples. Here are two of them.
 Southern coast of Victoria, west of Cape
Otway
 And taken one hundred and eighty degrees round
from the above picture are another 6.
Later we camped by the coast just behind Cape
Otway. Ten kilometres into the Cape Otway National Park and then
about three down a dirt and rock road and we came out on a small camp site where
we were allowed to have a fire, we could see the sea which was a two
minute walk away and in the trees we saw our first wild
Koalas!
 Mummy and baby Koala
 Dad was a few trees away and made the most eerie
grunting noises
 The Koala pictures were taken about one
hundred meters
behind here. The beach is fifty meters
beyond the camp fire site
There were just three other camping families in
an area of about five acres.
I must be honest it was by now rather cold at
night!
Many more kilometres of sightseeing and we were in
Melbourne where we have been for the last few days. This time we are
staying with Tony and Linda a delightful couple we met on
Deal Island on our way across the Bass Straight to Hobart. They were then
doing a three month stint as custodians of this small uninhabited and rarely visited National Park. I have just returned
from the city where we have experienced IMAX cinema for the first time,
fantastic, and visited the 1935 to 1945 Picasso exhibition which has moved here
from Paris.
 Passing the RMIT where Nicholas did a semester as
part of his
architectural diploma.
So I am being called to get ready for the trip to
Gipps Land and our friend's farm. Next week we will start the trip back to
Perth whic is some 4000km away from where I am now sitting. I will
try and send another offering from the expanse of the Nullabor
Plain.
David and Annette
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