Hahnsdorf, South Australia
Hahnsdorf, South Australia Oct 11th
Yesterday at 95 was the hottest Oct 10 in the history of the region. Wow! Did I bring it from home? Trip continues well. This is a little German settled village in the midst of the glorious wine region.
NOW for me, a subject very dear to my heart....Adelaide is a user friendly, nicely situated city with the ocean to the south and west and with lovely green hills to the N and E.... I am in those hills at a little village settled by German refugees from Silesia...that province which, after the Germans wrested it from the Austrians kicked all manner of religious dissidents out. The village is in a bower of greenery...a bit kitsched up for tourists now but not as bad as Lancaster County...it is VERY near the choicest vineyards and this has been my GREAT revalation:
the utter sumptuousness of the mostly boutique vinyeard wines of S Australia....I wrote about how cooking has had a renaissance, a change which that word does not exaggerate!
Yesterday I got up at 5:45 AM and caught the bus down the pretty Fleurieu (I hope I am spelling is right) Peninsula enroute to the ferry to Kangaroo Island.... villages with little stone cottages from the 1840s and 50s....pleasing countryside, not remotely dramatic...nothing around here is and my analogy to the Texas Hill Country is a bit apt though today in the Adelaide Hills the countryside IS prettier than that, almost up to Mt Magazine but not quite... Brad Horn told me that Kangaroo Island is an absolute must to understand Australia in that it is its own miniature ecosystem having almost all (no Tasmanian Devils) of the Australia fauna...I found it disappointing...some of the coast is dramatic in a sort of Gaspe way (but not quite) the the weather is so unseasonably hot that the animals are in hiding...did spot some Koala...some kangaroos....glad I flew back on Regional Air's 20 minute flight to Adelaide.
The island is one of those places which probably reveal itself slowly and then becomes utterly beguiling: I may be giving it a bad rap.....but today I went to a terrific wildlife sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills and saw everything much more up close...it is NOT a zoo....and is very well done...it is lunch time...everyone on my tour is chowing down on German victuals and I am typing away. My hay fever is making me flow like the Hochstrallbrunnen in Wien and I don't even HAVE hay fever usually...the tours are intelligent, mobbed mostly with local tourists, Kiwis and Japanese....As you can see I am doing nicely, feeling pretty good except for my whitewater nose....to Melbourne tomorrow...the Hilton has been great to me: free happy hour, a cooked lovely breakfast and a major upgrade.
Yesterday at 95 was the hottest Oct 10 in the history of the region. Wow! Did I bring it from home? Trip continues well. This is a little German settled village in the midst of the glorious wine region.
NOW for me, a subject very dear to my heart....Adelaide is a user friendly, nicely situated city with the ocean to the south and west and with lovely green hills to the N and E.... I am in those hills at a little village settled by German refugees from Silesia...that province which, after the Germans wrested it from the Austrians kicked all manner of religious dissidents out. The village is in a bower of greenery...a bit kitsched up for tourists now but not as bad as Lancaster County...it is VERY near the choicest vineyards and this has been my GREAT revalation:
the utter sumptuousness of the mostly boutique vinyeard wines of S Australia....I wrote about how cooking has had a renaissance, a change which that word does not exaggerate!
Yesterday I got up at 5:45 AM and caught the bus down the pretty Fleurieu (I hope I am spelling is right) Peninsula enroute to the ferry to Kangaroo Island.... villages with little stone cottages from the 1840s and 50s....pleasing countryside, not remotely dramatic...nothing around here is and my analogy to the Texas Hill Country is a bit apt though today in the Adelaide Hills the countryside IS prettier than that, almost up to Mt Magazine but not quite... Brad Horn told me that Kangaroo Island is an absolute must to understand Australia in that it is its own miniature ecosystem having almost all (no Tasmanian Devils) of the Australia fauna...I found it disappointing...some of the coast is dramatic in a sort of Gaspe way (but not quite) the the weather is so unseasonably hot that the animals are in hiding...did spot some Koala...some kangaroos....glad I flew back on Regional Air's 20 minute flight to Adelaide.
The island is one of those places which probably reveal itself slowly and then becomes utterly beguiling: I may be giving it a bad rap.....but today I went to a terrific wildlife sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills and saw everything much more up close...it is NOT a zoo....and is very well done...it is lunch time...everyone on my tour is chowing down on German victuals and I am typing away. My hay fever is making me flow like the Hochstrallbrunnen in Wien and I don't even HAVE hay fever usually...the tours are intelligent, mobbed mostly with local tourists, Kiwis and Japanese....As you can see I am doing nicely, feeling pretty good except for my whitewater nose....to Melbourne tomorrow...the Hilton has been great to me: free happy hour, a cooked lovely breakfast and a major upgrade.
posted by ultimatetraveler at 1:06 PM
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