Tuesday, March 30th
We hated to leave Port Fairy. It is a quaint fishing village that that is slightly up river from the ocean. We stayed at a hotel (Oscar’s Waterfront Boutique Hotel) that is an old converted ice house which had been beautiful restored into a hotel. A family bought it and converted it to their home about 20 years ago. It has very high ceilings and beautiful woods – Mark thinks it is cypress. Several years ago they built a home next door and turned it into a hotel. It is known for its gourmet breakfasts and of course we indulged! Heavens forbid we miss a good meal! We wish we had more time to spend there, but knew we had a long drive ahead of us.
We left Port Fairy about 10:30 am and started driving towards Adelaide – about 650 km (about 400 miles) on a 2 lane highway with a maximum speed of 110 km/hour (65 mph), a speed of which we both complied – me because I didn’t want to deal with a ticket as they are very strict about speed limits here, and Mark because he didn’t want to be hauled to jail if he got stopped with no driver’s license. It was a very long day! For the first couple of hours all we saw was sheep, sheep, and more sheep. Then the next 100 miles or so was reforestation of pines and eucalyptus trees for as far as you could see on both sides of the road. Every once in a while you’d come to a small town where the only commerce you’d see (other than a take away restaurant and a gas station) was a lumber mill/yard. Around the area of the forests were a lot of Kangaroo warning signs on the road, but all we saw were dead ones! It was kind of gross. We did see some wild emus on the side of the road and tried to take pictures of them, but they ran into the forest when we stopped. Then the last half of the trip was vineyards. It made Napa look tiny. We drove for about 3 hours and all you could see was vineyards to the left and right of the road. It was amazing. (South Australia is Australia’s largest wine producing state). There are very tiny towns – it might be 30-40 miles between towns and most of them had a recorded population of less than 300 people on their city limit signs.
We must not be the only people that felt like the drive is boring and there must be a lot of people who have fallen asleep on that drive. Every couple of km we would see signs about driving when sleepy. After seeing them for an hour or so, we made a list of them. Mark said it was like the old ABC sign game we all played as kids on car trips.
- Tired? Take a powernap.
- A microsecond of sleep can kill
- Fatigue is Fatal
- Drowsy Drivers Die
- Slowing down won’t kill you
- Tired? Stop, Rest, Live
- Rest every 2 hours when driving
- Survive this drive
- Take a rest. Be our guest.
- Arrive alive. Share the drive.
This went on for hour after hour. I can’t tell you how many times we saw each sign.
We stopped at a winery for a late lunch and shared a cold plate of smoked lamb, emu sausage, olives, tomato relish and feta. It was delicious and came at a time for a needed break.
We switched driving and I was so bored that I read to Mark from both Australia guide books that we have about what we were seeing and where we were going. I think he was ready for me to loose the books and take a nap (Jennifer, can you relate?).
Along with the animal and safety caution signs on the road, we’ve enjoyed the different vehicles. Remember the old El Caminos and Rancheros that Ford used to make? Well that type of mini truck is very popular here. You don’t see American type of trucks too much. We’ve also seen a lot of Land and Range Rovers and Toyota SUVs that look like Land Rovers. Yesterday we talked to a couple for a little while when we were looking at koalas who were on a 3 month trip through southern Australia and the outback. They were driving what Mark and I have started calling a “bush mobile” like you see in Australian outback movies. It was high off the ground and had a rack on top with 3-4 gas cans and several other metal storage containers. It had a wench embedded in the front bumper and the exhaust pipe came up beside the driver’s front window so when they go through water the exhaust would be above water. It was quite a vehicle, but I don’t think they have anything on Jimmy’s black truck – I didn’t see any sprouted horse seed in the back!
We finally made it to Adelaide and after having a couple glasses of wine and some cheese, we are ready to go to sleep. Mark has gotten into Australian Footy and is watching a game between the Geelong Cats and the Kangaroos. It really is hysterical to watch! Signing off for tonight and will try to post tomorrow.
Mark and Freda's Wanderings 