4 December 2011 - Belair National Park Caravan Park, Adelaide, South Australia

As I start this, mid Sunday morning, a day my husband would like to catch as much of this five day cricket test as possible, the temperature has only risen about four degrees from the 11 degrees it was at breakfast time. Despite the gloriously blue skies, the wind is bitter and there was not too much argument from me to stay inside. And yet, even I who am hopelessly ignorant of the ins and outs of cricket, it would appear that the test will be over today, in only three days, as the Australian bowler knocks the Kiwis out one after another. I suggested we turn the box off given the appalling massacre that is currently taking place, however it would seem that Chris would prefer to watch it all to its gory end.

Yesterday morning we had intended to catch the train in to Adelaide, but by the time we had caught up with Larissa and the kids on Skype, and checked out the Saturday timetable, we realised it would be more practical to drive ourselves in. We had been told about $2 parking at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre from where one can catch the frequent tram into the centre of the city for free. The run into town was fairly straight forward, certainly easier than negotiating one’s way about Sydney, but we then found the parking area closed, obviously because of the huge trucks with stage-set up for Sade who was to perform in the evening. We parked in the street close to the Serbian Orthodox Church and walked to the tram terminal.

 We alighted at the railway station and made our way along North Terrace, passing Parliament House, impressive with its great columns, Government House with its high walls to screen curious tourist eyes from expanses of lawns and a grand building, the National War Memorial, the State Library yet another wonderfully tantalising construction and then reaching the South Australia Museum. The walkway is wide, dotted with sculpture and really quite fine. The museum itself is a lovely old building and one can see that merely to walk North Terrace without entering the treasures that are accessed from here, is an excellent tourist attraction in itself.

South Australia Museum

We spent a couple of hours in the museum, poking about the displays of mammals which have been gathered from those that have come to their end in the Adelaide Zoo. While this is admirable (rather than having been hunted specifically for stuffing and display), they were obviously unwell or old, and are therefore not the perkiest of stuffed animals, but it was quite awe inspiring to be up so close to the lion and others, which one has seen in zoos before, but never really understood how huge these creatures are unless you are up close and personal.

Here is the world’s most comprehensive collection of all things aboriginal, the Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery, and we only managed to see about half of this before it was time to join the free guided tour. I actually had not been too keen about doing this, but was so glad I had agreed to do so. The guide took us right through the museum pointing out some displays we had already examined but more importantly making the sections covering geology and fossils so much more interesting than I would have otherwise found.

There is also an excellent display about the Australian Antarctic Expedition led by an Australian geologist, Douglas Mawson, in about 1912. This is an incredible story and I will be watching out for a copy of his account of it all. It has all the ups and downs of the Burke and Wills story, although was much better organised and does have a happy ending, at least for Mawson, if not a couple of his travel mates.

This same Mawson was later an honorary curator at this museum and it was he who established the mineral displays that caught my interest. We have seen many rock museums or displays; at Ngatea (in New Zealand), at Gympie, in Atherton and many others, and I have to say I tend to skip past them – more pretty rocks again. But these are beautifully displayed and not so numerous to invite boredom.

It was well after 3 pm when we finished the tour and we decided that more than four hours in the museum were enough, that we would have to return again, then perhaps again, to do it all justice, but for the time being would make our way home.

As we headed back to our vehicle and shared the tram with crowds of gaggling gushing noisy girls, all dolled up in very little, who all alighted at the Bonython Park to enjoy Stereosonic 2011, Adelaide’s version of Auckland’s Big Day Out. Across the fence we could see and hear the throbbing and thrashing of the fans in front of a huge stage. This was obviously a place we did not want to be.

Despite this event and the one that was obviously to happen later at the Entertainment Centre, we had no problems finding our way out of the city and home. I navigated us back by a different route, south east of the city on the Princess Highway, a multi-laned freeway up into the Mount Lofty hills. We came off at the Crafers’ exit and came back to camp along the Upper Sturt Road, which descended steeply back to our already elevated camp. I have done a Google Earth search on the elevations because we have been astounded at the hills we have had to travel around here; our camp is at 260 metres above sea level and the point we turned off the Princess Highway yesterday was 565 metres above sea level. I think it is safe to say that we are already in the Adelaide Hills, even though we have come to Adelaide, to stay in Adelaide, to travel out and explore the Hills.

Back at camp the kookaburras, Eastern Rosellas (quite different and more beautiful than their plain cousins who have managed to emigrate across the Tasman Sea), the crows, Butcherbirds and Noisy Miners all greeted us with their calls but after they settled for the night, all was quiet in this Family Camp.

Resumed later:

I was pleased to catch up with Kit on Skype after lunch, while Chris continued to watch the slaughter. But with the sun shining outside and the wind having dropped, it was a sin to stay indoors any longer so we donned our walking shoes and set off for a walk up through the neighbouring National Park.

Belair (prounced B’lair locally) National Park is the State’s oldest National Park (and the country’s second), established 1891, covering 835 hectares. Hidden away in the parklands is Old Government House, South Australia’s first official vice-regal summer residence, in use from 1860 through to 1879.

From 1879 through to 1885, a German chemist, Max Bernbaum, lived in the house. He converted the servant’s cottage into “The Bi-sulphide of Carbon Manufactory”. Thousands of gallons of poison were produced here and supplied to pastoralists battling with plagues of rabbits, at minimal cost. Work in the factory was hard and dangerous but lucrative for Bernbaum and his nine employees.

In 1886 the house became the residence for the nearby Woods and Forest Nursery. Here in the nursery, thousands of forest and plantation trees, date palms and vines for government schemes about the colony were raised, supplied to government agencies, local councils and private landowners. Today the nursery continues to provide advice and sell to the public.

The residence itself was restored in 1961 and is now open to the public; however we were more intent on getting the blood flowing through our sedentary veins so continued on walking the paths through the bush. We had been assured by the ranger at the Information Centre that there were indeed koalas resident in the park and so were delighted to have our observation rewarded when we spotted two high up in the gums on our route. They were out on limbs rather than partially hidden in the forks of branches as we had expected, and quite unperturbed by our presence. They both looked so very cuddly, at least way up there. We came on down back to the camp via the Playford Lake which is home to several varieties of ducks, shags and darters. We watched a turtle chase after a tiny duckling and attempt to drag it under, until its mother turned and attacked it in defence.

Returning to camp we discovered the cricket was over for the day but no evidence of the resulting damage. I offered to google the situation but Chris elected to remain in suspense until the sports news tonight. I guess that is all part of the experience; what would I know?