Category Archives: Australia

Taking the walking tour. Of sorts.

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I thought I’d take my life in my hands and trust the Lonely Planet walking tour as I’d previously done in Singapore and Hobart, amongst other places. This one gives a walking distance of 4.5km and recommends “all day for walking and grazing” which – to be honst – is fair. Given that the stop-off’s include a gallery, two museums and a zoo I can see this being a day-long adventure if the mood takes you.

There was every likelihood that I would start to flag in the early afternoon as I’d awoken at 5:50 to see Delphine off on her trip north to the red centre and beyond. I’ll catch up with her in Darwin in two weeks’ time where I expect to hear good things and see photos of the Adelaide to Alice part. There are still some major road trips to be done in Oz – Great COast Road, Adelaide to Alice, Perth to Darwin and also the Kakadu / Darwin / Litchfield safari. Yes, I’m going to have to come back here.

My first stop wasn’t actually on the walk itself. A local bakery were doing a promotion which had been advertised at the hostel. Today only, approach the counter and say “Mother says there are 100 chocolate chips in every choc chip hot cross bun” and get a free second bun and can of energy drink. I had a feeling I’d need the sugar.

Then I got sidetracked. I wandered down to Fowler’s Live to buy a ticket for tonight’s Reel Big Fish gig, but they don’t have a box office. I’d tried to book the ticket online the night before, but the web site was insisting that I have the ticket delivered. A little awkward on the day of the concert! At the time of writing I’m still not sure if I can be bothered walking back to the venue in the evening to see if they sell tickets on the door.

I wandered off up to the Museum, which is on the walk, and then decided I’d just pick out the highlights as I’d already wandered along about 3/4 of the route with Delphine over the last few days.

The museum’s a good one, though a little small. Still, it’s free entry and the layout is superb. I really liked the giant squid exhibit which runs vertically up four floors alongside the lift in one corner of the building. Touch-sensitive computer screens next to the exhibit give information on various critters that can be seen in the glass tube while lights highlight the fishy thingy you’re being given information about. Very smart.

At points in the main exhibition halls there are comfy seats with more computer screens bolted to the. This allows you to sit and “virtually wander” around some of the exhibits. Smashing idea.

Next to the museum is the art galler – also free – but the only thing that interested me was the collection of Egyptian art on loan from the Louvre. Sadly, despite an impressive list of about eight official sponsors – it was $18 to get in so I U-turned and sat down with my hot (now cool) cross buns and can of Mother.

The buns were delicious, the energy drink amongst the worst I have ever tasted.

Next I popped into the State Library. This is quite small compared to others I have visited – about the size of Low Fell library back home. Still, the variety of books is good. And they have free internet access including wireless. So for those of you with laptops, this is definitely somewhere worth traipsing to. They even provide comfy seats and power points!

I took a couple of photos of some statues on the way back to the hostel – Robbie Burns and the national war memorial.

The afternoon was spent sat on a comfy couch in the lounge reading Dave Gorman’s Google Whack! Adventure from cover to cover. And also mixing Nutella and crunchy peanut butter. Possibly the sickliest foodstuff in all creation. Between that and the energy drink I must be pushing sugar overload.

The hostel runs a quiz on Monday evenings and I’m happy to say that despite being the only person playing solo I didn’t come last! Still, I didn’t win anything but it timed well with Craig (who I know from an age-old newsgroup) being free for a beverage. Or four.

It was great to finish my stay in Adelaide with a few pints of Pale when we eventually found a bar that was still open. I also found out that Craig’s mum works in the YHA tour office. I may pester her in the morning just to annoy him!

The rest of Adelaide – a quick catchup

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To fill in some empty bits from the last couple of days and ensure I haven’t missed anything (and to have a rant):

Last night after I posted the blog up, Delphine very kindly made me dinner. Now, I’m not sure if this was return payment for my (in)famous stew to which I treated her the previous night; or whether – as is more likely – revenge. Whichever, I ended up with more pasta and bacon than enough to choke a large cow.

Don’t get me wrong. It was delicious. I just notice that I had as much on my plate as was on Delphine’s and her friend’s combined. Now I know I look like I’ve lost weight recently, but that’s just taking the Michael. Having said that, I did manage to get about 2/3 of the way through it out of sheer stubborn-ness and force of will.

And just to make a point, I ate 4/5 of a foot-long jam swiss roll. Of course, I gave the remainder to the chef. Nice, but needed custard.

The other thing that springs to mind about the hostel is the dodgy wireless. The staff here aren’t IT-trained, which is fine. It’s not their job. The problem is that the guy who does maintain the network is a one-man band and the wireless keeps dying. The usual solution is to reboot the little white box on the counter.

[Warning: technobabble]

This box is only a wireless hotspot, it’s not a router. As such, it doesn’t provide IP addresses to computers. It simply links them to the network at which point another machine does the DHCP work. So problems come in two varieties – no network connectivity (Netgear at fault) or network available, but DHCP failing (big silver PC at fault).

The big silver PC doesn’t have any power lights, a monitor, a keyboard or a mouse. So when it falls over, it’s impossible to tell what’s happened. Cycling the power is the only way to remedy it and even then, if it fails to boot you just don’t know why.

One of the staff was looking on while I did my best to tinker and said that their system was overly-complex but they needed all five (five!) machines because of the tasks involved:

Booking system

Network for staff

Network for guests

Wireless network for staff and guests

Internet connectivity

He wholeheartedly believed that they didn’t have the budget for a new machine capable of combining all these into one system. As it would need a “twin processor, giga-something, huge machine”.

Hum. I was running NT4 Server on a Pentium-90 maybe eight years ago. With two network cards in, it would be perfectly capable of running two (bridged or unbridged) networks and – I believe – providing DHCP to both. Of course NT4 is moth-eaten by now, but even Win2k Server would suffice easily.

Internet connectivity would best be handled with a combined wireless router / firewall box. Belkin, Netgear and so forth sell these for small change these days.

The booking system would run on a 486, so at most a separate low-spec PC just to keep it separate for redundancy reasons would be fine.

Anyway, I’m not the guy in charge and I’m fully aware of how protective IT staff get over their pet projects. I’m just the same myself! As they say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The thing is, this network keeps breaking…

[end of technobabble – sorry about that]

At the footie, drinking a beer

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Here’s an unusual sight – people watching football in the sunshine. Traditionally, it’s supposed to be raining and cold. But then, traditionally, you play football with your feet and there are goalkeepers and a rectangular pitch and a round ball.

Today I went to see Australian (i.e. “No”) Rules Football which was on my “to do” list since I arrived in Oz. I won’t go through all the rules – yes, there are some – instead referring you to the AFL page on Wikipedia.

Some hints for those visiting Adelaide to watch the sport:

The AAMI stadium (I assume this will change name as it changes sponsor) is located about 20-30 minutes’ bus ride out of the city. The big, oval cricket ground-shaped thingy near the festival centre… is a cricket ground.

You need to catch the 113, 118 or Footie Express for $3.80 each way from Currie Street. The Footie Express starts running 2 hours before kickoff and departs every 20 minutes. The last bus leaves 20 minutes before kickoff. Miss this and you have to resort to the 113 or 118.

Yeah, OK. Guess who missed kickoff? My main regret is that by the time I got there all the match day programs were sold out and I’d have liked one as a souvenir. Ah well.

But what an afternoon. 43,064 fans at a sell-out opener (though I wasn’t sat in the correct seat so some people hadn’t turned up) and no segregation. Home and away fans sat mixed up like M&M’s in a big bowl and no trouble was had at all. Families were there as groups and I hear tell that at times over 50% of the crowd at AFL games is female. Hugely different from back home.

Another major difference is the ticket pricing. I paid less than $30 including booking fee for my ticket. This is approximately £12 at today’s prices. A Premiership (or Championship/Old Second Division) ticket in the UK will average at £35 per match. Aussies on the whole don’t earn that much less than a Pom in the same job, so I guess it comes down to the way the sport is run.

AFL players aren’t paid extremely stupid amounts of money in comparison the “proper” footballers. Teams don’t shell out millions to buy players from other teams or to grab kids while they’re barely in their teens. Instead, the system works like the American Football draft where the team that finishes lowest one year gets first pick of the fresh talent the next. A much fairer system and proven by the huge variety of teams who’s won the cup over the last umpteen years. How many different clubs have lifted the Premiership trophy back home in 15 years? I think 4?

I got a barracking for saying this to a Crows (Adelaide) supporter, but watching them reminded me of watching Newcastle United. They were outplayed continually by a team which actually seemed to know what it was doing. They came second best at most challenges, lost the ball too easily, didn’t have the kicking accuracy of their opponents… Yet the fans didn’t give up yelling for them. Even with two minutes to go and four goals (24 points) down, the two guys in front of me were saying “two quick goals and a bit of luck and we can make something of this”. Our equivalent back home was a 4-0 drubbing at Anfield a few years back when the entire away section was singing “5-4! We’re going to win 5-4!” as the clock showed 89 minutes.

Final score: Adelaide 74 – 105 Essendon.

As is my tradition, I picked up a keyring as a souvenir of visiting a new football ground. OK, it’s not proper football but “as in Rome/Adelaide”…

The transport back to Adelaide was well organised with a huge bus concourse outside and staff ensuring as many as possible got onto each coach before it set off to be replaced by an empty one. Bus lanes meant that those who’d opted to come by car were sat sweltering as we zipped past them.

Overall, I still prefer “real” football but watching AFL was a hell of a lot more pleasant. I think I saw about four police all day and they were just wandering around trying to get a good view of the game. Now, if they can start getting these kinds of crowds for the A-League and stop calling it “soccer”…

As an aside, something I forgot to mention yesterday. Down a side street near the hostel Delphine spotted a wall covered in toy cars. An outdoor brick wall. Appoximately 1 gazilliong cars of various shapes and sizes. Held on with blu-tak. We could tell this as some had dropped off. There were no signs to say who or why, but… cool.

Oh, and don’t buy Coles’ “Sherbet Bombs”. They’re crap.

Getting a feel for Adelaide

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Not a lot to say today, really. Delphine and I took a walk into town where we watched a street entertainer escape from a strait jacket, and then I bought the new Machine Head album.

We had a walk down to the AAMI Stadium where I’m going to the AFL game tomorrow, watched Port Adelaide beat Freemantle on the TV, ate a nice stew dinner (got to teach the French how to cook sometime) and typed all this lot up while listening to aforementioned album.

And that’s the lot, really!

Rocks, capes, arches and seals. And no platypus.

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We began our day with a hearty and healthy breakfast then packed our stuff into the trailer and headed for Weir’s Cove. Another great photo-op with some wonderful scenery.

At the end of the cove are the Remarkable Rocks; a series of standing stones of various unusual shapes that have eroded in a way that really doesn’t make sense. Some are larger than others, all are very solid and stable, yet many look like they should just tumble and fall. I’m rather glad they didn’t while I was there.

We were warned several times about walking too close to the edge and slipping down. No guard rails are in place to protect the stupid… as one German tourist found out several years ago. He thought he knew better than the tour guide and went too far to get a photograph. And slipped. And fell. And landed on the rocks below being battered by heavy seas.

And survived.

The tour guide and another tourist who jumped in after him, however, were not so fortunate. Both perished. A plaque to them both is situated near the information point in the car park.

What I regard as the worst part of the story, however, is that the German returned to Australia some months after his ordeal and attempted to sue the tour company for not keeping him safe enough, going so far as to blame the guide who gave his life for not providing enough warning.

Fortunately, every single other member of the tour group stood up in court and said he was full of… lies. His case was dismissed and hopefully it cost him dear financially. It obviously didn’t weigh heavily on his conscience that his own stupidity had cost the lives of two very brave people, one of whom he tried to besmirch.

Anyway.

The rocks are cool. We took a group shot on one of the larger ones. If I can get my photo up here, you can play “spot the Iain” on it.

All rocked out, we were next driven to Cape du Couedic. This part of the coastline features an old – though still operational – lighthouse. Originally it burned kerosene, then acetylene and now runs on electricity and is pretty much unmanned except for maintenance.

A wooden boardwalk zig-zags down towards the Admiral’s Arch – a stunning natural arc decorated with a gazillion knobbly stalactites – past some astounding scenes of saltwater violence. The coastline here is craggy and rocky with a small island maybe 200 metres offshore. Watching the waves batter at both provides a real respect for the power of water.

On the way down and underneath the Arch itself it is possible to see many New Zealand Fur Seals resting up (or growing up). The occasional one even slips into the stormy waters. Rather them than me.

We spent almost an hour around here before David “COOOO-EEE”‘d to round us up and we jumped aboard our Kanga-Coach to the picnic ground near the Flinder’s Chase visitors’ centre. Here we rattled up a lunch of chicken wraps while throwing rocks ate magpies to stop them stealing the food.

Two kangaroos, a mother and a joey, hopped around nearby fairly tamely. Neither was in the best of health as they were used to being fed scraps. The thing is, a lot of food that’s good for us is unhealthy for them in the same way that feeding bread and milk to a hedgehog can kill it. Still, it’s easier for them than foraging and the stuff must taste nice as they keep coming back for more. And people keep ignoring the rules and feeding them.

Humans, eh? Who’d have them?

Bellies full, Dave dropped us off at the start of the Platypus trail. No promises were made, as platypus are usually nocturnal, but daytime sightings had been made in the area.

Not when we were there, they weren’t. Still, you can’t set your watch by mother nature. Real animals don’t act on demand. It was still a lovely walk through some interesting vegetation with some nice birds to spot.

Final stop of the day was back at Little Sahara, this time armed with sandboards! These are more similar to wheel-less skateboards than snowboards. The technique is the same as for the others, though. In the case of our group this involved parking your bum on it and sliding down the hill.

Except me, of course. My bum didn’t touch the board once. OK, it did slam into the ground hard on my third run when I hit a bobble and fell off, but the other three runs were perfect two-footed ones from top to bottom.

Snowboarding’s still better as a) the hills are higher and b) you have a lift to get you back to the top. Still, I missed out on sandboarding in Vietnam so I’m glad to have tried it!

Evening, by now, was closing in. We had two drop two people off at the airport as they’d opted for the 26-minute flight back to the mainland. After that, the rest of us were taken back to the dock to catch the ferry, and then the coach into Adelaide.

I snoozed on the coach and woke up as if I’d been on a flight – that is, my contact lenses dried out and uncomfortable.

I was exhausted, but sleep didn’t come as easily as I’d hoped predominantly because of some drunk kids in the room next door. They’re now on a final warning – one more complaint and they’ll be searching for a new hostel at 3am…