Wine tasting in the Clare valley, enjoying staying in one place for a while, catching up with friends, going out to party with wine students, tasting wine at Renee’s vineyard, enjoying fresh food from the Adelaide markets, watching wonderful sunsets.

Day 70 (10/11/10) Clare valley

Clare valley has to be the nicest wine region that we have visited so far. It has rolling hills and is very green. The people are not snobbish we met a nice couple from Sydney that gave us lots of tips on where to go once we get to Sydney.  We spent the afternoon wasting wines and visiting a brewery. In the evening we headed into Adelaide where we choose a campsite very close to the town centre as we plan to spend at least a week here. After dinner and a shower, we met up with my friend Renee, who I have not seen since the last time I was over in Cairns, about two years ago. It was nice to chat and catch up with what is new in each others lives. We will be going out with her in a few days to party after she finishes her exams (she studies wine making).

Day 71 (11/11/10) Adelaide

There is something I have to say about Adelaide, it has British weather and is cold and rainy a lot of the year, even now in the spring time it is cold, we have to wear jumpers and sometimes that is even not warm enough, it seems that this city is trying very hard to hold on to its colonial past. We visited the city centre, the buildings are very British and for a moment you can forget that you are in Australia and imagine you are in a British town, or Scotland. On the main shopping street they are status of pigs, we played with them for a while, posing by them, making funny faces. We found the library and became members so we can use internet for free, yes at last we are connected to the world again! Lunch was giant Maki rolls; I really miss my weekly sushi night with my friend Osky.

Day 72 (12/11/10) Adelaide day 2

Today we headed down town again; it is raining; now there is a surprise. We spent a large part of the day at the immigration centre, trying to find out what options we had to stay and work out here. After finding that out we went to the library again to use the internet to try and a find accommodation in Sydney for the Christmas holidays, this seems more difficult then we imagined. We headed back to the camping afterwards, and then went shopping to beer and dinner. Not a very exciting day.

Day 73 (13/11/10) Rainy Saturday

There was a Christmas parade in the centre of Adelaide that we wanted to go and watch, but no buses came by our stop all morning, so we could not go into town. It was another cold and rainy day, so we took refuge in a shopping mall close to where our campsite is and brought our 3G internet key so we can be connected to the world once again. For dinner we made a very nice dinner of pancakes with cheese, egg, ham in them and banana flambé ones for desert.

Day 74 (14/11/10) Wine Tasting at Murry Street Vineyards

Today we spent most of the morning in bed just relaxing and looking at things on the World Wide Web, we had a big lunch because after lunch we went to the Murry Street Vineyard, where Renee works. It is a very nice vineyard, we sit down and taste wine here, compared to other places where you stand up and taste. We spent the afternoon talking about wine and good food with Renee and we started to miss good French food.

Day 75 (15/11/10) Renne’s end of exam party

Today Renee had her last exam, this meant only one thing, it was time to party! So that is what we did. After spending the day doing research on the internet we went down to the pub where we met up with Renee and her other wine making class mates. We stayed at the pub for a few hours before going to a nice restaurant in town, where we had Black Angus steak for dinner. It was great, we also had great wine. After the restaurant we went to another pub and got roped into trying different Australian sprites. We met a very nice taxi driver that told us about Australia history on the way home.

Day 76 (16/11/10) Brunch and Roast dinner

Having really missed eating good food, last night we came up with a plan that today we would go down to the markets and buy some fresh food and have a gourmet brunch. So that is what we did, we went down to the markets and picked out, fresh cheese, fruits, vegetables, smoked ham, eggs, bread and pastries. Armed with our goodies we went home to Renee’s house and made our great brunch. After which we watched my favourite TV series Dr. House and relaxed for a while. We then headed to one of Renee’s friends house that was having an afternoon snack of French cheese and wine, so we continued to eat and drink until it was time to leave and go over to my friend Shannon’s house. He cooked a roast lamb for dinner for us; we spent the evening talking to him and his friends. It was a great food overdose day, just what we needed. I think tomorrow we will stay ‘home’ all day and recover.