Monday, Oct 31 - Exploring the Adelaide Hills Area

I opened the blinds at seven and we could bird watch right from our bed! We finally got up at a leisurely 7:30 and had a pleasant breakfast of home-made bread (carefully toasted in the bathroom with the fan on !), fruit, delicious local yogurt, and cereal. This is quite a place now we are rested and a bit more oriented. Bob went out birding while I went over to see Helen and try to use the computer…our travel computer has Works instead of Word, so I couldn’t figure out how to transfer the blog on my memory stick to Helen’s computer. Bob finally got the Adelaide Rosella, a parrot with a peachy breast and blue wings, that we have been looking for for some time.

We took off in our car a couple of miles to the Petaluma-Bridgewater Mill winery/restaurant, supposedly one of the best places in which to eat in this area. It is located in an old stone mill with a huge water wheel built in the 1850s. We made a reservation for lunch at noon and set off on a wonderful trail running along the mill stream. Kookaburra were flying around, and also a pair of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, very large black parrots with yellow cheeks and tails - really spectacular. And then a flock of Adelaide Rosellas cooperated and settled in a tree so I got a really good look at them! A pair Australian Wood Ducks swam by with six cute ducklings.

(pics:  Aussie Wood Duck, Superb Fairy Wren)
At noon we returned to the winery and settled into their small restaurant. I had an amazing starter of local venison tataki (barely seared, sliced paper thin) with shallots, jalapenos and ginger dressing. Bob had duck breast with shaved abalone and dashi-braised daikon for his main and I had bouillabaisse with a whole crayfish and crab in a very rich fish stock which we washed down with glasses of two kinds of Shiraz.. A really great lunch!

We went back to our B&B to nap and reorganize our gear for flying tomorrow. Helen had folded and delivered our laundry; she also got her computer fixed so I could use my computer on her network and send my blog! Pretty cool!

We took a quick drive up to Mt. Lofty (2300’) for a walk and view over Adelaide and the ocean beyond. There was an obelisk in the middle of the viewing area with a rim above a conical base of smooth marble about 4’ off the ground. A small boy ran up to Bob and asked to be put up on the rim. Bob, who has never lifted a small child in his life, obliged and we walked away. Suddenly an older man with a Sean Connery accent yelled out, “What are you doing up there, Bert? Who did this to you??“ And the boy, to his great credit, just said, “A man lifted me up”, and didn’t point out Bob, so we managed to escape!

We then found a deli and bought tomatoes, Adelaide blue cheese. capacolla, and drank the bottle of wine we had purchased at the winery for supper. The TV promised a new episode of Big Bang Theory, but so far it hasn’t appeared, so we’re going to bed.