travelling allrite

Most flights out of Adelaide Airport seem to head right over the city. Although it's not a big International destination, I've seen flights heading out to distant lands. Our own destination today was a slice of Germany, but via quite a roundabout route. I knew Ryan online via the airliners.net website and we met up with him in Singapore over a decade ago when Alex was but 9 months old. Since then he'd moved to Adelaide and we arrange to meet up for an early lunch at a Vietnamese Pho place near his workplace. The pho is excellent and so was the conversation. Unfortunately, Alex feels sick and makes a mess on his shoes. They're an old pair, but we need a replacement! Back in Sydney, not a problem. We know where the shopping centres are. In outer Adelaide we have no clue. What's more, we don't want to go too far off course. I'm driving and B can't navigate. We try one shopping centre, nothing but a rubbish bin for the stinking shoes. And enough time to sear...

The best way to explore a city is on foot, unless you actually are the foot involved. Sometimes the legs and the rest of the body as well. However, the brain had decided that it was sick of driving and couldn't be bothered working out bus routes, so it was up to the legs and feet to do the work of taking us around Adelaide city. The first destination of the day is the Adelaide Zoo, a good couple of kilometres away. Up the road and past Rundle Mall, across the bridge over the Torrens River opposite the impressively rebuilt Adelaide Oval. The main roads of this well planned city are broad and planted with trees. Along with the old buildings, it reminds me a bit of Melbourne. Certainly not Sydney. We walk along the northern bank of the Torrens and through the parkland. It is a pleasant walk but for the summer heat. Of that, there is plenty. There are ducks, pelicans and moorhens in and alongside the river and plantations of roses and other flowers whose sight and scent remind me of my...

There is something to be said for the humble motel. No matter how you try to spruce them up, the pre-eighties trimmings will always show up somewhere. You cannot delude yourself that you are in a luxury hotel. But the ability to park your car right in front of your room and not deal with narrow basement carparks makes up for that and more. So we just stuff our bags into the boot and B drove us out of Hay and off towards Adelaide. The land is so flat, salt bush and scrub, stretching out to distant horizons where mirages shimmer. Khaki, grey and gold beneath a brilliant blue sky. It is difficult to believe that I ever found it boring. We stop at Balranald, on the Murrumbidgee River. The tourist information centre has a sign saying they will open at 9.45. They don't. We partially retrace our route and turn off towards the Yanga Woolshed. A brown-grey snake slithers across the gravel road ahead of us, a warning to watch our step when we get out. The dusty carpark is empty of any other ...

Happy New Year!  Maybe. Anyway, it's our first trip for 2022. A road trip to Adelaide and South Australia. Assuming that the reason I'm feeling a bit rotten right now is just because of a long day's driving and not covid. We are at Hay, roughly the halfway point between Sydney and Adelaide. You could tell it was Hay because there was hay in the back of the ute at the motel, along with a pig eating more of it around the back.  The first half of the drive was the familiar journey down the Hume Highway, under cloudy, showery skies. We stopped for lunch at the Dog on the Tuckerbox, north of Gundagai. KFC for the others, a Chiko roll for me. South of Gundagai was the departure from the usual drive, the turnoff to Wagga Wagga. We stopped in the summer heat outside of Wagga, at the Air Force base, where a Canberra bomber, F-111, Meteor, Mirage and other retired aircraft were on static display. The museum itself was closed. The onwards without stopping, following the path of the Mu...