Author: rogerluedtke

Because we had a 6:30 am sunrise tour we got to the restaurant at 5:30 for the special pre-hike menu – our choice the granola and yogurt – everything with extraordinary flavor, variety, and creativity (more on that later). We joined the energetic and animated Julia, our guide/driver for a pre-sunrise ride with others in a van to Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) where the sun was just below the horizon.

Julia, who had begun her narrative in the car, continued at the Uluru sunrise viewpoint as the sun began to glow on its cliffs.

She covered so much geological and cultural info and stories, all woven together, that it is impossible to present a comprehensible summary. Wikipedia has a good one.

More importantly, we are not supposed to recount the cultural things we learned. For more info, one can visit uluru.gov.au. The best I can do is post the images from our 10k (7 mile) hike around it. What I can say is that the vertical striations on Uluru are due to a massive tectonic shift that stood its strata entirely vertical.

The whitish trail that can be seen going up the steep grade on the right in the last photo is the old climbing route that has been closed since 2019.

Somewhere near the photo we came across this Oak Processionary Moth in its larval stage.

Fascinating critter. .The base trail was entirely flat, but Julia set and maintained a brisk pace, with only a few info and rest stops, and so it was a challenge for us.

When we finished (late-morning) she dropped us at the lodge for lunch. I had an octopus creation…

“creation” being a deliberate word choice. Every dish is exactly that. While they do have a small standard set of choices on a card, every meal also has its own separate menu with a choice of two main dishes, carefully explained by the waiters and clarified before they go back to the chef with the order – including confirmation of the non-option courses (usually 3 for lunch and 4 for dinner – the one in the photo our desert) – so that the chef does not create something that is not wanted and eaten.

After some time recuperating and catching up we were back to the lodge for an afternoon cultural walk at Uluru…

with two guides, Tim and Sam, who filled our heads with more history and beliefs , as we more closely examined the sites around the base that were accessible to outsiders and not sacred to the point of barring photography.

When we arrived back at the lodge, one more unique experience was waiting for us, a guy playing a didgeridoo…

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Not an Aboriginal (but married to an Aboriginal woman), he is largely self-taught, creates his own stuff, and uses the hand gestures for show – the sounds are made by buzzing his relaxed lips while blowing air into the instrument with circular breathing. Per Wikipedia: “Circular breathing is a wind instrument technique that allows the player to sustain a tone for an extended period of time. This is accomplished by storing air in the mouth (inflating the cheeks) and using this reservoir of air to inhale through the nose while air is still coming out the mouth.” Don’t try it at home, unless you’re a wind instrument player.

After another 4 course creation, on the long walk back to our tent we lingered under the ever-present light-pollution-free sky and I took another photo of the Southern Cross (circled) in the Milky Way…

and added a screen shot of my Sky Guide view on that portion of the sky – Crux being the Cross.

After I forced myself to take a much-needed shower we collapsed into our huge bed.

Early start to the day, but enough time for another Crown Plaza excess – the buffet.

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We were picked up for the drive to Yulara (Ayers Rock Resort town)…

on time by Bee (aka Queen Bee), a guide/driver, quite proficient at both, especially the latter. Key points: 1) huge aquifer underlying the whole area causing upside down rivers and water just below the surface that emerges occasionally, explaining the name Alice Springs where there is no spring; 2) heavy rains recently, explaining the lush greenery; 3) huge “truck trains” that we meet can sometimes have 4-5 trailers; 4) the Royal Flying Doctor Service (established in 1928) is an NGO that supplies all types of medical care throughout the Outback; 5) the School of the Air (established 1929 with radio) provides schooling for Outback kids, started with radio, now uses the internet (was satellites, now Star-link), and cell towers; 6) the Finke River that we crossed is the oldest riverbed in the world; 7) desert oaks are not oaks, but are extremely interesting plants …

that will appear throughout the pics and vids in these posts – need a wikilook.

As we neared Yulara (Ayers Rock resort town) we passed Mount Connor, which tourists often mistake for Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock).

Bee led us across the street to a viewpoint that many tourists miss…

overlooking a salt flat…

that is quite evident on satellite views…

where Dana demonstrated the Aussie wave that is axiomatic for relief from the bush flies that haunt the area after rainy periods, like the recent one that was responsible for all of the greenery.

(including our own personal itinerary).

We moved on to the very private, gated, Longitude 131, according to Bee the most exclusive in central Australia, where she dropped us at the turnaround and had to immediately leave as we were greeted by Pam, the general manager, and hot face towels by an aide. We went to the lounge dining hall

for our introductory drink and briefing after which we had lunch (more on the total true gourmet experience here later) and were led to our “tent” named Jane Webb.

Per Dana’s unshakable arrival ritual we immediately set out on a walk, on the Longitude Loop

A little later we gathered at the central lodge for a sunset viewing of Uluru…

followed by a stroll through the Field of Lights ( an artistic creation that underwhelmed me – due to its invasion of the land with kilometers of wire and lights – but was quite a spectacle.

We then went for an outdoor dinner at a little patio under the stars (Table 131), where we had a terrific 4 course dinner huddle under gas heater stands that constantly blew out due to the wind and were restarted by the staff (consistently amazing group of friendly, polite, smart, diverse people)…

followed by sky viewing…

and a fascinating indigenous astronomy talk by staff member Mikela.

We returned to our tent where an outdoor fire and sleeping bag were waiting with drinks and popcorn,

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but it was too cold, too tired, and abstinent, and so we crashed in the huge bed.

A somewhat restless night with the clattering (we had a loose window in addition to the RR track noise) and jostling, and then a final waking when the train stopped at 4:00 am. Odd that the silence was an issue, but it happened, possibly because I knew that we were likely stopping to set up for the traditional sunrise viewing at Marla.

That was scheduled for six am, but the crew had to set up for it with a bonfire and coffee, tea, and snacks. The sun was just below the horizon in the northeast when we all detrained.

The “star “ in the middle of the upper sky, as I found out with my Skyguide app, was actually Venus, tightly aligned with Saturn and Neptune, screen shot here:

The bonfire not only added welcome warmth. It also produced sparks that I swear I’ve seen considered significant in aboriginal practices.

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In any case, it produced dramatic light for a lot of selfies.

The red earth added color to the scene…

as did the Ghan itself, its aluminum sides and roof reflecting the early light.

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The attendants walked around with copious little scone pies – the day’s brunch not to be served until 10 am. Nonetheless, by 9am there was quite a throng gathering in the lounge car, waiting to get in on the first seating for it.

None as ready as Dana, however, who managed to be first in line when the call was made. I quietly slipped in with her.

We wound up sitting with an interesting “couple”: two clergymen from San Francisco: one an ancient Irish Catholic gentleman (heavy Irish brogue) who had been a cruise ship chaplain – who knew that was a thing? The other, his companion apparently, was the odd little India guy who had over-kibitzed at our card game yesterday. A nice person actually. They were going to visit the 600,000+ acre cattle ranch of the Irish guy’s nephew. He said they needed 1000 acres per cow on the place.

I spent much of the next hour watching the landscape as it got more interesting, with the red and green contrast growing.

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Ironically, it got greener as we went farther north into the Outback, especially as we approached Alice Springs.

The area was known as Mparntwe to the original inhabitants, which translates as “watering hole” likely for a perpetual pool in the otherwise dry Todd River. But the current greenery may have more to do with current water conservation and restoration efforts.

A dramatic rock formation came into view as we entered the town…

a harbinger of things to come.

We were two of the few people detraining here, most were going on to Darwin. We had been told to arrange our own taxi to our hotel, but that proved to be problematic. None were at the station, and the Ghan staff there said they could just give us the taxi phone number. I had trouble with the prefixes and a guy helped me call, but the dispatcher said they would out us on a list for the first cab available.

Meanwhile, Dana talked with a guy who said a shuttle was coming and we should take it, which we did, and we got dropped outside the Crown Plaza, Lassiter, which turned out to be a rather extravagant place clustered around a casino. Our room is a huge suite, really an apartment, with excessive amenities and great wifi. The light system is a little odd, but we’re not complaining.

We had dinner at an open bistro type place in the resort, learning how to deal with the bush flies that are likely to be with us for the rest of our time in Australia. Ignore them and they go away, unless you’re sweating – they’re after the water. Actually, use deet.

We again turned in a little early from a long day.

Our early bird pattern continued, giving me plenty of time to work on the blog. I’d loaded all of the pics and videos for Saturday last night, so just had to add narrative and some pic titles which doesn’t need great wifi.

Xfinity mail problems from last night also resolved. Apparently Xfinity decided to require a new password “for my security” without telling me. Took me quite a while and some irritation to discover and fix that.

I also managed to solve a problem with my blogging app, Jetpack, (caused by my trying to switch from the phone to the iPad) in my usual way: tapping on stuff until it mysteriously takes me where I want to go.

After the buffet (which had a couple of snafus – now expected), we packed up and went to the waiting area, where our limo soon appeared. Quick drive to the RR station and into the Gold Premium checkin line for The Ghan.

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The Ghan (worth a wikilook) pronounced as in “Afghan,” so named for the Afghan camel drivers who played a crucial role in early Australian settlement.

Gold Premium is actually second class, next to Platinum, but the line was short and we quickly checked in – fortunately able to keep our smaller bags in our cabin. We found seats in the crowded waiting room but didn’t have to wait too long before a manager did a welcome over a PA, introduced the leaders of the huge train staff (663 meters long, with 28 carriages, carrying 190 guests, and a serving staff of 35), shouted “All Aboard” and we boarded – and then waited another half hour.

Our cabin, surprisingly, was really little more than a cubicle,

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but with an attached toilet/shower that was a marvel of ingenious use of space. Frankly, I was a little disappointed in the decor of the train, having expected it to have a more classical look, ala Orient Express. It was more deco-sterile, ala the 30s or 50s. On the other hand, things were in good shape and generally worked well, albeit requiring occasional instruction from staff to operate.

Plenty of outlets for plugs and charging cords, espresso machine etc at the end of each car, and a lot of convenience lights made it all pretty functional. The windows (with blinds) were large, but could have used a cleaning.

We were soon cruising along through farm fields with little of interest to see. A steward came by and, among other things, said there was wifi in the lounge. We were using the phones as hotspots and decided to try out the lounge, in part also to get out of the cubicle. Too many others had the same idea, and the drinking was heavy, the captive wifi not great, and so we went back to our cabin, which required passing through three cars. We were at the end of car B and the lounge (and dining car) were between D and E, all sleepers that make up the tail of the train, along with car A at the end. which presumably was Platinum class.

We had an allotted lunch time of 1:30 and went to the dining car punctually, where we were paired with a youngish French couple from Lyon (Nada and Joe – Nada originally from Morocco).

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The lunch was quite showy (probably good advertising), and also quite good: three courses, comp drinks (all day).

Conversation, which included politics (Trump not the only problem, our France and Morocco experiences, their USA travel) lasted quite a while.

The scenery started getting a little better…

including some windmills at one point…

and then we stopped in a small town, sat until an announcement that we had arrived early and had to wait for the replacement driver to arrive, which we did – seemed like a long time. We finally got going again, I got the cards from the room, and we played two games of Rummy 500…

but Dana wiped me, and a weird little India guy started hovering a little too close, and so we went back to our cabin.

I stared out the window at the developing scenery for quite a while – American SW, reddening dirt – and I took some pics…

finally getting to the beginnings of a sunset….

that improved before terminating.

Then a 7 pm dinner where we got paired with an ex-California couple that had been nomads for several years with no home address. One can’t help thinking of fugitive status. The woman was quite nice and interesting – the guy an ex aircraft mechanic with a relentless sense of self-importance and unbridled hubris. I was forced to subtly confront him several times but I’m not sure he realized it until after the fact.

The dinner was quite good, again showy, several courses, and it took a while. We excused ourselves at the first opportunity (which came around 8:30) went back to the room (which had been converted to bunks), hooked up our devices, read in bed a bit and did lights out a little early. D was in the lower bunk…

and I was in the upper, which was cramped. Can’t imagine how the other passengers, all a lot bulkier than us, managed. As things quieted, the noise and jostling of the train became surprisingly pronounced, but I was sleepy from the dinner, especially the desert, and I nodded off quickly.

Another shot at the Mayfair buffet. Good fruit and yogurt selection, but the coffee machine failed – no big urns. Our driver/guide, Joe, was early. Good jovial guy, pleasant company. Nice Lexus with a mysterious dark green color that looked like black from another angle. When he selected it he thought it was black.

First site the Adelaide Central Market: huge indoor space that has grown from a place where farmers sold produce right off of their trucks. Joe’s dad did that and he had fond memories of joining him.

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The place is now way upscale – a tourist destination – and the selections and presentations are extraordinary.

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I mentioned a pleasant smell and Joe led us to a nut shop…

where he bought a bag of warm mixed nuts for us.

We moved on to the Botanic Garden – midtown unlike the Mt. Lofty one. Part of the Adelaide park belt that surrounds the central city – more on that later. Many interesting plants:

including several in a really neat conservatory

Joe talked a lot about the park belt, which was quite noticeable as we drove around. It was a brainchild of the town founder, Col. William Light in 1836 – his statue here – and has been fiercely defended against development ever since, most recently when the police wanted to build an installation in it.

We had lunch in a popular wine bar in a pedestrian mall in the yuppy-vibe East End, and then drove to and walked around on a street with “cottages” built to house skilled tradesmen during the building of the city public spaces snd infrastructure

They have been renovated and are now occupied, at great expense and with many restrictions, by wealthy residents, and travelers through Booking.com etc.

We had the German village of Hahndorf in the Adelaide hills on the itinerary and Joe took us there and led us around in it. A huge throng of tourists were browsing the German style shops and eateries. I was only interested in this cuckoo clock shop…

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and a little museum that described its Lutheran Prussian roots. Felt close to home – several names ending in “ke” like mine.

On the way back into Adelaide we stopped for a view at the summit of Mt. Lofty (700 meters)

and did a mini hike…

where we saw this Crimson Rosella.

Then Joe dropped us at the hotel where we had an uneventful night.

At Liane’s suggestion we made a stop at the restored Wisanger School that Rick had not known about. I was skeptical, D was not, she was right.

The front door was open and the interior was a nice little museum …

with some period writing tools…

rather explicit instructions for teachers…

and a modern resident, a huntsman spider. Worth an Ai look.

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We moved on to Kingscote, where we saw some Australian black swans and Australian Pelicans…

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did a stroll through the Encounter Marine Park…

and admired the mural on this old grain silo and shed.

Next stop was Pelican Lagoon for some fine beach scenes…

and then D’Estrees Bay…

where we saw more of the perished fish that have been on all of the beaches here – caused by a toxic micro-algae bloom.

The bloom has disappeared with the colder weather and wind of approaching winter, but it had killed a lot of fish, by clogging up their gills.

We had a lunch there (sampled some kangaroo meat, like beef but darker, more dense, and with a slightly sharper flavor), dropped by the place Rick was building nearby (with creative solar and rainwater collection), and then went on to the Kingscote airport, did thanks and farewells to Rick, agent-checked our bags, and encamped at our departure gate, where there were USBC recharging outlets but no working security checking equipment (or maybe not used?) – haven’t seen that anywhere since 9/11.

The flight was so short that the FAs started the cookie service as soon as we hit cruising altitude and the pilot ordered prep for landing as soon as they finished. At the Adelaide airport our uniform driver Ajit met us at baggage claim and drove us to the Mayfair where we checked in (Rm 1101, same one we had before).

Good news: the Ipad had arrived. I did some blogging on it, D announced that she was not hungry, and since I really wasn’t either I munched on some chips, an apple, and trail mix, and then went down to the “business center” (little room with two computers and a phone) to load the images and finish the previous day’s blog.

Five am start for us again.

Dana went off for a walk while I enjoyed the sunrise view from our balcony.

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Nice full breakfast, attended by Liane, Tony’s gracious and cordial wife, highlighted by her homemade granola and croissants.

Rick arrived on time, with our companions for the day, Kevin and Tracey, interesting, nice kids from Atlanta. He was a dancer with the San Francisco Ballet until he broke his foot, now in real estate management in a family business, she a nurse practitioner in child oncology.

We set off on a wildlife day. First stop presented the best koala encounter to date.

Next was a somewhat rare treat, three or four of the extremely rare (~400 of the Kangaroo Island sub-species) glossy black cockatoos…

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one of them chewing vigorously on its only food: allocasuarina seeds.

Then a stomp walk across a bull ant nest, giving them what I am sure is a much needed emergency defense drill.

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Then a visit to Seal Bay,…

to watch some rather active Australian Fur Seals and guess at the meaning and intent of their behavior….

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Then things kicked up a notch when we slipped into a Broombush thicket for Wallaby sightings.

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And then a real stroke of luck when the prize performer of the day showed up – an Echidna. A very cool story (the only mammal other than a platypus that lays egg.) Maybe even more adorable than the koalas, it favored Dana and me with a little promenade, right toward the camera.

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Rick had been telling us that the animals react to good pheromones emanating from humans, which in turn are produced by calmness and confidence. I dare to think that the otherwise nervous Echidna in this case became pretty comfortable after cowering at the base of a tree.

We’ve seen kangaroos everywhere (most common road kill) but today we saw two in a new light: 1. getting food from a tree…

2. a pregnant female licking sap (gum) from a pink gum tree .

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A break for lunch.

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And finally, back to the koalas, various shots throughout the day.

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Back to the Providence Guest House where Dana got a warm welcome from Charlie…

an excellent dinner by and with Liane, joined by Tony, lively convos after, especially with a happily assertive Leeann, and, after some attempts at blog drafting, sleep.

Once again, both of us made it through to 5am – me with meditation, sans the Aleve. Hotel wifi still not working so after the shower etc I went down to the lobby, got into the business center and finished yesterday’s blog. Also, settled the bill and gave them the tracking info for the iPad. Desk clerks seemed efficient and genuinely concerned.

The buffet opened and we went in. Looked good…

but was mediocre, except for the scrambled eggs. Heard later from a reliable source that although the Mayfair once was excellent it had declined to the point that tourist agencies were no longer sending people there.

I went outside to get a pic of the Mayfair street facade…

and saw a limo with a uniformed driver in the hotel’s little courtesy parking area to the right in the photo. It was ours – arrived earlier than expected. So we connected with the driver Mati (from New Delhi), went up, got our stuff, came down and took off for the airport.

We got quickly to the Quantas desks which was using kiosks (must be the new thing); with the help of an attendant checked our bags, got through security and made our way to our gate. After a half hour or so we boarded and then had a short flight to Kingscote.

Rick, of Exceptional Kangaroo Island, was waiting for us, and after getting our bags we got in his company SUV and we took off for our tour of the day. Rick turned out to be an excellent guide, knowledgeable, articulate (even with the Aussie accent), talkative, with calm, focused energy and a pleasant demeanor – and an excellent driver. Good – because he’s our guide for the three days here.

Quick entry to canopied roads…

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and then, depending on elevation and other factors, roads lined on both sides by mallee, a lowish-growing eucalyptus variety. Rick gave us a quick eucalyptus primer. There are many varieties, commonly referred to here as gum trees for the sap they emit.

We stopped in a gum tree grove…

…at a little bush camp his company had set up, and he got out gear to make good coffee for us.

A koala was snoozing near the top of one of the gum trees…

in one of the akimbo poses they often wind up with during their umpteen hours of daytime sleep, necessitated by their diet of low-nutrient, hard-to-digest gum tree leaves. A few beautiful colored crimson rosellas flitted by too quickly for a photo (we’re likely to see more), and Rick heard a glossy black cockatoo, which we also hope to see.

We moved on to Vivonne Bay for some nice beach scenes…

a lot of cuttlebone, the bones of cuttlefish – mineral rich, used for toothpaste and anti-acid, today for pet bird diet supplement…

and a picturesque pier used for unloading rock lobster fishing boats.

We moved on to Finders Chase NP – along the way seeing these Cape Barren Geese who were in a usually-grassy patch that is now truly barren due to a prolonged drought plaguing the island.

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We stopped at a neat little picnic spot, where Rick got out a whole bunch more gear (had to use a wheelbarrow at the site to haul it from the SUV) and fixed a gourmet lunch.

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Two FCNP highlights were: 1) Admirals Arch, with its convenient approach…

surprising (beneath these steps), spectacular presence…

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populated by a thriving New Zealand Fur Seal colony …

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featuring this pup playground…

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and 2) Remarkable Rocks…

fractured granite boulders resting on a dome and covered with orange lichen.

From there, since it was getting late in the afternoon, Rick drove us to the Southern Ocean Lodge, a posh place where, on checking in, we discovered that we were not booked. I looked at my itinerary, which said we were supposed to be at the Providence Guest House – Rick’s office had given him the wrong info.

He notified the lodge and we set out on a mad 1 1/2 hour dash in the dark to the north side of the island, during which we learned why rental car agencies disallow driving at night on kangaroo island. Kangaroos, wallabies, feral cats, and other creatures crowd onto the roads, drawn by the standing water that runs to the sides of the tarmac. Thankfully, Rick knew the drill and with his sharp eyes, driving skill, and experience, was able to avoid mishaps despite numerous encounters, in one of them having to swerve severely to avoid hitting a large male kangaroo that darted into the path of the car.

We made it safely, and were impressed with the place, Spanish hacienda style. Our host Tony greeted us, showed us to the best room (we were the only guests), and we settled in and joined him for dinner, literally, that he cooked himself. The food was excellent, 4 courses, during which we conversed constantly, covering everything, including agreeing about Trump and co. I fell asleep trying to blog.

We woke up precisely at 5 am. D slept well – jet lag apparently on the wane. I asked her to use Siri to locate a bfast place and she reminded me that the Robe House stay includes breakfast, the catch is that it is self-serve. We began opening doors to find fixins, D made toast, and we started in on the yogurt and muesli. I cracked open one of the 4 hard-boiled eggs only to discover that they were not, got out a frying pan and scrambled them.

We packed up – Dana remembering the refrigerated thermos (she’s getting quite good at that), closed the place and loaded the car. The morning weather was a little cloudy, but dry and clearing. I did a quick pic of the historic Robe House…

to remember it in its humble setting (we drove right by it without recognizing it on the way back from dinner last night).

There was a humble little church across the street that looked to be from the same era.

This was our last DIY day – driving from Robe to Adelaide and dropping off the car – our longest driving leg.

As the map shows, the first half of the trip hugs the coast, along the Coorong NP, most of which is long, shallow salt lagoons protected from the sea by sand dunes. “Coorong” is an anglicized version of the local indigenous word for “long, narrow neck” referring to the shape of the whole feature.

In the park did a scenic drive that started several miles up along its side. The lagoons had their unique appeal:

and I got some shots of these waterfowl that my Merlin app said were Australian shellducks…

and of this heron Merlin could not identify…

but the huge groups of other species (like pelicans) likely have already gone north for the winter.

There were a lot of smaller birds flitting about, and we had an early siting of some spectacular blue- green lorikeet-like birds that moved too quickly for me to capture images of them.

I need to interject that as I’m writing this I’m having trouble uploading the images, after having excellent wifi in all the little places where we’ve stayed to date. That is unfortunately consistent with my prior experiences of poor wifi in large, expensive hotels.

More driving, a lot of it on good roads at the peak legal speed of 110kph (~68mph). Around noon we stopped for some Vietnamese food in Murray Bridge, but because we wanted to visit the Mt. Lofty botanical garden before going into Adelaide, checking in and getting the car to Avis by 5 pm, we did no sightseeing there.

The Garden turned out to be huge, more of an arboretum really, and on a really steep hillside. I did get a few shots of things that caught my eye:

(I’ve loaded these plant images in the morning in the hotel business center. Despite a guy coming to the room last might they couldn’t fix the room wifi.)

An odd incident in the garden: a tweenage kid came up to me with a big smile and hugged me. Another older kid with him gently pulled him away, saying “no Robbie” (not sure that was his name, likely autistic?). I was shocked, but not afraid. I said, “Does that mean he likes me?” The older kid said, “Usually.” Felt pretty good.

At the garden it was quite a chore to go down and up the switchback trails (we started at the top entrance), and time was moving on, so we opted to leave and go on in to Adelaide. We soon got on an incredibly long, steep downhill stretch into Adelaide – which was fortunate because the gas gauge was near empty.

My Google Maps app led us directly to the Mayfair Hotel, which, to my surprise had a very unremarkable and for me inconvenient street presence, cramped on a busy corner with only a few loading spots on the street. We hurriedly jammed our stuff from the car into our bags and a bellhop helped D get them into the hotel, while I drove off to turn the car in.

That turned out to be one of the toughest tasks of the day, even though the hotel was only a block and a half from the Avis office. Due to the traffic routing I had to go around several blocks – all the while being fastidious to avoid a last minute mishap – and when I got to the Avis office I had go into a one way street that was no more than an alley, and park partly on a sidewalk while I ran in to ask the one clerk on duty what the hell to do with the car. He said to go through the alley, make two right turns and go down to a parking structure where Avis had some spots on the fourth floor.

I did all that and found the Avis spots, even though they were really on floor 4 1/2, and both the ramp up and the spots were really too narrow for newer cars, even smallish ones like the MG I was driving. I took the keys to the office and walked the block and 1/2 back to the Mayfair.

We relaxed in the room for awhile and around 5:30 went down for dinner in the hotel’s bistro, which offered another surprise. We were the only people in the place, but after we ordered the waitress came back to tell us they were out of that dish. D ordered a caesar sald I ordered fish. The waitress then came back and said they didn’t have the fish on the menu, so I said ok for the other one, neither of which I’d heard of before. It wasn’t great.

Then back to the room. D crashed early and I worked on the blog. It may be noticeable that I’ve upped the verbiage. I’ve decided that it’s just more fun to dwell on the observations and impressions a bit more now while they’re fresh in my mind, and likely to be more enjoyable to read in my dotage.

Blogging started early for me, trying to catch up after crashing trying to do it last night. Dana dealing with jet lag that woke her up at 2 and wouldn’t let her get back to sleep.

We ventured out for breakfast at about 7:30. The Seacombe House’s colors looked good in the morning sun.

It was established in 1847 as The Stag Inn by a sea captain who had ship wrecked nearby and decided to stick around, and it has undergone a lot of ownership and purpose changes over many years.

We found the main street still asleep except for one little coffee place, in a doorway essentially, serving people waiting on the sidewalk. We ordered coffees and some almond croissants. I noticed people now sitting at tables outside another cafe nearby that we had walked past early when it was closed, and so we went there and sat at a table. To justify our usurpation I ordered a salmon and cream cheese omelet and a yogurt, muesli, and fruit cup for Dana. The waitress ok’d it but had us pour our coffee into their cups, to not advertise competitors. Generally speaking I think that south Australia is one of the least anal Anglo places I’ve ever visited.

We packed up our stuff and drove a few blocks to a parking area near a bridge to Griffiths Island, where a lot of people were doing early morning exercise walks, many of them with kids in strollers. I liked the lighting…

and the bird life, although the migrating Shearwaters that gather here by the thousands were not around. There were a lot of other birds that were tough to photo, but I did get a clip of this little thing that my Merlin app says is a white-faced heron.

https://videopress.com/v/XlvHuBKw?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

On the road, our first stop was in Portland, where we visited a nice local history maritime museum, the highlight for me being to feel real whale baleen (had the texture of toe nails). The hostesses said they often have visitors ask where the Japanese Garden is – mistaking the place for Portland, Oregon.

Next stop was Mount Gambier, which, to my surprise was not a real mountain but rather the name of a city that contains an extinct volcano caldera filled with pure water that turns a stunning blue in November and then greys over the following months. It was still a little blue when we saw it.

The town is famous for another geological feature, the Umpherston Sinkhole, which has been converted into a surprisingly pleasing garden…

with hydrangeas being the seasonal bloom.

We pushed on to Millicent for a quickie tour of its impressive local and regional history museum. We liked the carriage collection…

especially this hearse…

and the formal dress collection.

We drove on for quite a while – our longest travel day so far – giving me the time and incentive to figure out how to use the cruise control, turn off an annoying lane warning beep, correct the low beam light angle, and set up my new smart phone holder on the dash for GPS navigation.

We finally got to Robe (one syllable, like the garment) – and found the Robe House, our lodging for the night. Also historical, it was the first substantial house in Robe, built in 1847 of local sandstone, with floors of lime ash, and it served as the home of the governor resident. Like many of the South Australia historic buildings we’ve seen, it is one story, low to the ground – not that impressive outside but well-preserved and presented inside for contemporary B and B clients.

And it has excellent wifi and even an Apple Homepod that we have yet to figure out. I thought I had it when I told Siri to play Hound Dog and it did, but soon discovered that that was coming from my iPad.

We had a quick dinner at Olive’s, one of the many good local restaurants, and returned to our historic pad to fight off sleep as long as we could – me lasting a bit longer in a dogged effort to finish this blog, which I just did.