Footy match...

You haven't really seen Australia until you go to a footy game. We went to see Norwood vs. Sturt. Two local teams that are rivalries in Adelaide. Hopefully we will get a chance to go to a pro footy game soon and see the Adelaide Crows! Kim and I are also in a footy pool at her school. Go Crows!

Warawong Sanctuary...

A few days ago we visited the Warawong Sanctuary, which is a conservation park for Australian wildlife. We were able to spot a playtpus swimming in a lake. That creature moves pretty darn quick and is hard to see in the wild. We walked around for a bit and had a chance to see some other wildlife.



A wallabie we spotted at the Wildlife Sanctuary.



We came upon two kangaroos a little while latter.

Mt. Gambier...

After our visit to the Naracoorte caves, Kim and I travelled down to Mt. Gambier in the bottom tip of South Australia. It is about a five hour drive from Adelaide and almost halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. Kim was taking an inservice day to go and visit a school in Mt. Gambier with her co-worker Carol for the weekend. Carol was great and showed us around and let us stay with her extended family, who were very nice, for the weekend. We meet Carol's daughter MaCalla and her husband Troy and their two kids Jackson and Joirdan who were very cute. Troy's parents Steve and Dawn were very hospitable in letting let us stay at their house for the weekend. It was a nice area and we got a chance to explore a little for a couple of days.

Mt. Gambier is a small town (pop. 35,000) and sits at the base of several extinct volcano craters. The volcano craters have large lakes in them and they are amazingly crystal clear blue in color, almost saphire, especially during the summer. There are numerous hiking trails around the rims of the craters and along the mountainsides. Steve is an engineer for the public water company in South Australia so we had our own private tour guide and he took us down to the aquaifer for one of the crater lakes, Blue Lake. The next day Carol drove us out to the Coonawara wine region- this is another great wine area in South Australia- and you really get the scale of how much wine is produced here on a national and international level. There were miles and miles of vineyards with rows of grape vines as far as you could see.

The area around Mt. Gambier also is really know for its underwater caves and diving. There are some very deep caves formed by the limestone, which make for some excellent scuba diving in the lakes. The whole bottom half of South Australia is know as the limestone coast. The town also has some neat little shops and main street area. The weather for the weekend was pretty cold and got down to about -5 (@ 22F) overnight. This caused a frost in the morning, but it is not nearly as cold as it gets in Denver durning the winter. We visited some neat ponds and lake areas and made our way out the beach for a little bit as well. Kim enjoyed her visit to Grant High School and Mt. Gambeir high school as well - she got a chance to see the differences in schools compared to Hamilton where she is teaching now.




Underwater reeds at Piccany ponds in Nelson.



Sunset at the beach near Nelson.



The volcanic crater lake, Blue Lake in Mt. Gambier.



Rural countryside around the area of Mt. Shank



The bottom of the aquaifer in the volcanic crater lake, Blue Lake - Mt. Gambier



Rymill Winery in the Coonawara wine region.




Sunset along the Coonawara wine region.

Naracoorte Caves...

Kim and I recently visited the the town of Naracoorte where we had the chance to really go "Down Under" and see some fascinating caves. The caves are the only World Heritage listed site in South Australia (1994) due to the historical significance of the fossil discoveries in the area. The caves are formed from underground limestone and have strange displays of stalagmites and stalctites between narrow passageways. Much work has been done to carve out a walkway for visitors and tourists to explore the caves. They had a 30 meter hole that was drilled down into the cave so concrete could be pumped in to cement the walkway after it had been dug out. It was cool to look straight up this hole and see the outside world from below.

The geology of the caves was fascinating, some of the caves are dry and some are wet. The tour guides were extremly knowledgeable and gave us a wealth of information and history on the area. It was interesting to find out that bat feces (batquana) was heavliy extracted from the caves and a rich source of fertilizer for local agriculture and the economy. There are several caves in the area, and we visited three. Victoria Fossil Cave is where they have painstakingly recreated the skeleton remains of a Thylacoleo carnifex, (marsupial lion). Many significant fossil remains of this animal and several other species have been found at the caves at Naracoorte. It is a haven for geology, palentology, and historical research. They have over 100 diffrent fossiled sites they are excavating and researching. We also visited Alexandra caves, which was small, but had great formations in the limestone and gigantic huge cathedral type rooms. The other cave we went into Wet Caves, was self guided and lit up by sensor lights as you walked around. The caves and history were very impressive.

The website for Naracoorte Caves is:

http://www.parks.sa.gov.au/naracoorte/index.htm



Naracoorte Caves- A World Heritage Listed Fossil Site



Very long thin stalagtites know as "the drinking straws"



Skeletal recreation of the Thylacoleo carnifex, (marsupial lion) from the megafuana age.



This is a reflection of some stalagtites over a mirror-like pool of water.

Houseboating on the Murray River...

Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing well and thanks again for visiting our blogsite. Our latest travel experience included a three day houseboat trip along the Murray River. The Murray River is the largest river sytem in Australia and flows from the mountains in Victoria down to South Australia out to Lake Alexandrina. It was a extended weekend as Monday was a holiday celebrating the Queen's birthday in Australia. The houseboat trip was organized by the teacher exchange group SATEL and there were 24 people signed up. We had two 12 person boats reserved, the Kia Mist and the Black Swan. The boats were quite large with spacious bedrooms, two bathrooms, big living rooms, nice kitchen areas, deck space, and a top deck with a sunroof. We left from the Kia Marina station about 8 miles west of the town of Mannum on board the Black Swan.


German, Canadian, and American exchange teachers aboard!


Kim taking a turn driving the houseboat- notice the intense concentation.


Reflection of the Kia Mist along the Murray.


Nightime along the river.

Our general direction for the three days on the river was upstream in a west to east fashion. We traveled from Kia Marina to Younghusband then on to Bowhill and back. We had training provided on how to operate the boat and everyone was able to operate and steer the boat at some point in the trip. They are very fun to drive, although they respond very slowly which takes some getting used to. The trip organizers Joan and Jim did a fantastic job of organizing the event and catering and cooking all the meals. The food was wonderful! The Murray River is quite nice and we had some calm weather and nice cool days with sunshine. On the second day the river was very calm and extremly clear and had a glossy reflection.



Early morning clouds along the Murray.


We saw a lot of birds and wildlife along the banks of the river- here is a pelican hanging out on a gum tree branch.

We also got to cruise along under some neat cliffs. We docked at some very nice moorings in the late afternoon and were able to explore some neat countryside and hike some around the river. They also had kayaks and rowboats onbaord so we could take the boats out along the river for a paddle. We had group dinners in the evening and some nice campfires by the river later at night. There were exchange teachers from Japan, Germany, UK, Canada, Australia, and the United States onboard, and Kim and I really enjoyed getting to know everyone on the trip! Thank you to: Joan, Jim, Larry, Carolyn, Mike, Paula, Erin, Chrissy, Polly, Sophie, Maria, Joe, Caroline, Russell, Ron, Rachel, Ellie, Hidemi, Juan, and Yoko, and Denise- we had a wonderful time! Here are some photos from the trip.


These are some of the cliffs we floated alongside of on the Murray River.


Dining room area on the houseboat- here is Chrissy, Maria, Kim, and Polly is off in the kitchen.


Guitar maestro Larry deciding which song to play next.



Kim peeking over the deck.



Caroyln found this big gum tree on a hike and climbed up INSIDE it!


The huge Princess Murray paddlesteamer cruising by on the river.


The coneheads on the Black Swan houseboat- left to right Larry, Carolyn, Sophie, Polly, Paula, Chrissy, Kim, Maria, Erin, Patrick, and Mike.

The Barossa Wine Region...

Grape Vines in the Barossa Valley.


Our recent travels took us to the famous Barossa Wine Region. The area is set among gentle rolling hills in a long valley and has 80 wineries that produce some outstanding world class wines. From small vineyards to large multi national wineries this place has it all. It is really known for the reds, shirazs, and merlots that come out of the region. The reislings and semillons are equally as good. Although our experience has been that the Clare Valley is better know for those than the Barossa. The Barossa region accounts for about 20%percent of Australla's total wine output. The wineries are also the lifeblood of the local economy and support several small towns nestled throughout the region and a bustling tourist business. The Barossa Valley is about an hours drive from Adelaide and we went up on a day trip with Larry and Caroline, our friends from Canada who are also on exchange. We visited the small towns of Tununda, and Nuriootpa and went to the nice wineries and cellar doors of Vinecrest, Whistler, Maggies Farm, and Peter Lehman. The Peter Lehman winery was nice as we got there just before a downpour and had a friendly chat with a guy that worked there about sking. We traveled on later and walked around main street in Tununda and stopped to eat lunch in a very German style bakery called the Barossa Worst House (Wurst Haus). I have to say that despite the name, they had some of the best potato soup I had ever tasted. There were also many interesting shops and people in the town. The few wineries we did visit throughout the day were very enjoyable, and Kim and I really liked the 2004 shiraz from Peter Lehman. I did the driving by the way, so my tastings were very limited, but I don't really drink that much anyway to begin with. The return drive took us through some wonderful rolling green valley countryside and we saw a fantastic sunset along the way.



Whistler wines- our friends from Canada loved the name and the wine.



Some of the wines from Vinecrest, Peter Lehman, and Whistler.



Magnificent sunset over the Barossa Valley.



This is the winery called Maggies Farm- and Bob Dylan got it right- I ain't gonna work on Maggie's Farm no more- we took his advice to heart and relaxed with some wine tastings and a light lunch.


This old car was parked on Main Street in the town on Tanunda.



Inside fireplace at the lounge in the Peter Lehman winery- it was cold and rainy when we got there and it was nice to relax inside by the warm fire with a nice glass of shiraz.