Well… after two weeks in the Barossa it was time to leave wine country for a week in the big smoke of Adelaide. The primary reason for going to Adelaide was to get both the car and caravan serviced before starting the long haul up to Darwin in August.
We stayed near Walkerville at Levi Adelaide Caravan Park, which is only about 6.5km from the city itself. This van park was central to both the Northpoint Toyota (in Prospect) and Adelaide RV servicing places.
Levi Adelaide Caravan Park backs onto a linear park that follows the Torrens River into the city. We walked along this park on a number of days to catch an O-Bahn Busway from Klemzigg Interchange into the city or just for some exercise in the other direction following the river and the O-Bahn tracks. We were particularly taken by the O-Bahn Busway, which is basically a set of dedicated concrete tracks with raised sides. The buses are fitted with a set of horizontal wheels on either side of the bus so that the bus basically guides itself along the tracks at quite a high speed between the interchanges. At the interchanges the buses are able to exit the O-Bahn tracks and operate on normal streets. Having seen this impressive system we cannot understand why Canberra didn’t go this way instead of cumbersome expensive trams…
Rundle Mall
We did venture into Rundle Mall on one occasion and wandered amongst the sculptures but quickly decided that city shopping wasn’t really of interest and so jumped on a bus and went out to Henley Beach. Prior to heading out we ducked into an arcade to have a coffee and Rob noticed a hat shop selling quality hats including Akubras.
Now, as you may know, Rob was born and grew up in Kempsey, NSW, which is the only place in the entire universe where Akubra hats are made. Rob has two… one that is a size too small and one, inherited from Jo’s father, that is one size too large… Despite not intending to purchase anything he came away from the hat store with a hat stretcher for the small akubra and some foam packers for the large one… Problems solved.
Henley Beach
So… a while back in our trip, at the Robe Town Brewery, we got to talking with a couple who were from Adelaide and told us that we had to go to Henley Beach when we were in Adelaide for fish & chips at the Sailing Club. After a bus ride out we found a ‘sailing club’ that was closed and didn’t actually look all that appealing. So we walked along the beach dunes back towards the Henley Beach Jetty for a particularly nice lunch at Joes where we had a commanding view out over the beach and ocean. Sometimes an accident leads to a good outcome…
We’ve actually clocked up 10,000km in our van since we picked it up back in February, 2020… you know before COVID tried to destroy the human race…
We planned to get both the car and the van serviced in Adelaide, being the last major city before we head up the centre through Uluru to Darwin.
First off the mark was getting the van serviced and we had booked this in some months ago with Adelaide RV located in Adelaide’s north. There is lots of choice for caravan servicing in Adelaide but I think we chose the best. Adelaide RV were excellent and very helpful. Aside from a 10K service, they realigned our awning and diagnosed the problem with our diesel heater, which turned out to be water in the fuel… They drained the tank for us, re-tested and thankfully we can now heat the van if we choose to free-camp without power. This is very comforting now that we’re heading up the centre and may not be staying at powered carvan sites.
They answered a bunch of questions we had and gave us a good deal of confidence that the van is fit for the next leg of our trip. We can’t recommend Adelaide RV highly enough. Friendly, professional and quality service… They even blacked our tires…
After the van it was the cruisers turn for a service at Northpoint Toyota in Prospect. Once again it was a good choice. They gave us a courtesy car while doing the service and were done in a matter of hours giving it a clean bill of health for the next major leg of our trip. Very friendly, efficient and easy to deal with. Thoroughly recommended.
With both the car and van serviced and in good nick we’re confident that going up the centre to Darwin is comfortably within our capabilities…
When Jo caught up with her schoolfriends in Nuri’ for their joint 60th birthday celebration, Katherine who lives in Adelaide suggested that we meet up with her husband Peter for dinner one night and also at the Adelaide Showground Markets for brekkie and some produce.
Concubine
Our dinner date was at Concubine, an Asian restaurant in Adelaide’s ‘Chinatown’ precinct. It was a very classy restaurant that was ‘reminiscent’ of what we imagine a decent restaurant in Hong Kong would look like. Multi-storey with steep, narrow stairs leading to cosy separate rooms with three or four tables in each.
With a typical extensive menu we feasted on Prawns in XO Sauce, Edimame Beans, Crunchy Soft Shell Crab and Salt & Pepper Tofu and Chicken Mince with Long Beans, Eggplant & Chillie… A truly enjoyable meal and very reasonable prices.
Katherine and Peter invited us back to their relatively new and very comfortable apartment for coffee and nightcaps where Peter introduced Rob to a very good and very smooth Japanese Single Malt Whiskey.
All in all a lovely evening and it was really good to get know Katherine and Peter a bit more also grill them for a bit local South Australian knowledge. In fact, based on their recommendations we changed our plans and deferred doing the Yorke Peninsula in favour of spending a week in the Clare Valley, which was where Peter spent some of his early years.
Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market
Following our catchup at Concubine, Katherine suggested that we meet up again on the weekend at the Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market, only a short distance from where their apartment.
It didn’t disappoint… The Bagel stand was superb and we came away with a bag of assorted bagels, the best of which was the Jalapeno Bagel. The Roasted Garlic Bagel was pretty good too!
Poh Ling Yeow, of Masterchef fame was on deck cooking at her Jamface stall. It was great to see a person who has gained a big public image keeping it real and not hiding from the public after achieving success.
We stocked up on fresh veges, eggs, bagels as well as grabbing some brekkie fare to take back to Katherine’s for a late brekkie. The most interesting purchase was a bag of Jerusalem Artichokes for $5 that I used later in the trip for a pot of chicken vegetable soup. I also air fried some and tossed them into a fry up with chorizo, onions, capsicum and tomatoes. Having never had them before… I will be looking out for them again in the future. A really versatile and easyto cook vegetable…
Saying farewell to Katherine, we resolved to catch up again in a weeks time in McLaren Vale for a day of lunch and wine tasting…
So… earlier in our trip we received a phone call from our eldest son, James, to let us know that he and his fiancee Alex had decided on a date and location for their wedding. It just so happens that those settled on Rob’s birthday, 10th September in Lithgow, NSW.
Wonderful news and we’re both very excited for them. Of course this meant that we now had to figure out a plan to get somewhere that we could store the cruiser and van so that we could fly back to NSW for a week to go to the wedding.
Although we were already planning to head up the centre to visit Uluru during the cooler winter months and then on through to Darwin… This cemented our plan and we worked out the itinerary to get to all the places we wanted to see and have us in Darwin by the 6th of September to fly back for the wedding on the 10th,
So planning aside… This meant that we had to spend a day running around Adelaide to find wedding outfits for ourselves since we didn’t plan on attending any weddings as we were travelling around the rest of the country. We succeeded in our quest we’re now looking forward the rest of our time in South Australia before heading ‘up the guts’ to Darwin and then seeing our families again at James and Alex’s wedding…