Day 4 in Adelaide - Tears, tantrums and KOALAS!!!!!

Good morning all! So, lets get a time line sorted.  It is now Thursday lunchtime here down under, and 2am in up over. We are starting day 6, and I will be shortly writing the account of day 5 (much shorter you will be pleased to hear!!!),

No sooner are we getting over a slight day 4, post wine tour lull and a meltdown to end all meltdowns by me (long story but those who know me well will probably guess why, sorry V and I love you!) it was time to head out to start day 5 and get back to nature, enjoy some coastline, scenery, culture and hopefully wildlife with a little bit of drama and last minute itinerary changes to boot.

So we climbed into Herbie with V at the wheel today (he still manages to look manly driving a bright yellow beetle with a good luck fairy in the window and flowers on the dash, it got him a lot of smiles from passing ladies...or so he said!) and we headed out in what looked to be sunshine to our first stop, not too far down the coast, Hallet Cove.

A beautiful rugged stretch of beach awaited us along with an other wordly backdrop which you would have no idea was hiding just off the freeway, but first it was time for brekky in the lovely little Boat Shed which I had been lucky to have been introduced to on my last visit.  So in front of a raging fire (yes you did read that right) we nommed on breakfast burgers and coffee, formulated a plan of action and then embarked on our trek to Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Actually it is a leisurely stroll on a perfectly placed boardwalk complete with information in abundance which V lapped up like a fat kid loving cake, informing my of the geological and historical content of this small but rather beautiful landmark.  As we headed up the steps to inspect the rock closer there appeared to be a Sherpa herding forward a group of enthusiastic Asian tourists in our direction.  Joy. After marvelling at the sand like appearance of a rock millions of years in the making, we turned to see that he had mysteriously and silently morphed over to another part of the park, which can only have been achieved by summoning a cloud by waving his fingers in front of his face in quick fashion and being whisked away on a said cloud (think 80's classic Monkey...).  Sadly this was not the case, it was in fact, his twin brother sporting the oh so popular suit and trainers combo so popular with tourists from this part of the globe.

As we left the boardwalk which resembled the Great Wall of China, we headed down to the beach to search the cliffs and amazingly stripy stoned landscape for treasure and watch the waves crash on the rocks.  As we made our way back up the beach to the car it began to rain, and then it rained a bit more, then it lashed it down, all but briefly.  In the space of 10 mins we had been sun kissed, drenched and sunkissed again!

Off we headed to wind our way up into the hills with the first stop being Windy Point (that's windy as in wind, not windy and is wind.  Actually that doesn't help.  Wind as in the weather  not wind as in you really wind me up.....). Thankfully as the rain had cleared the view from here over the city was beautiful and we found recognisable spots on the horizon before spotting our first koala sign and taking the obligatory selfie....who knows we may even bump into one...

And bump into one we did!! Thankfully not literally, but on route to our main destination of the day, Mount Lofty, we made a brief pit stop at the gorgeous Belair NP and as we were chatting to the helpful park ranger about the area, the word koala must have slipped into the conversation as his colleague appeared and said, matter of factly 'if you wanna see a koala there is one just climbing down from a tree right here....'

Did we ever!!!!!!! True to form, as the sign had clearly stated, there was indeed koalas for the next 4 km.  Well, one, and here it was, climbing down a very small tree indeed and patiently sitting at it's base while two very excitable pommies tromped over native flora and fauna to get close ups of the cute little fella.  Eeeeeek he was cute! Then, when he'd had his fill he meandered the 10 feet to the next small tree, climbed in and started having his lunch.

We took the hint and bid our farewells and took the very scenic drive to Mount Lofty, the highest point around and took in even better panoramic views of the surrounding countryside, completed a gruelling bush walk (1km, 15 mins but there were a couple of hills and logs to climb over)  and then discovered that bandecoots are fed up being mistaken for rats as they clearly have shorted tails and quite different faces.....(I told you V loves an information board).

Our plan for the rest of the day was to visit a couple of the lovely towns and villages that nestle in the hills in this part of the land, namely Stirling and the German settlement of Hahndorf, but these plans came to an abrupt end when the cash till I placed our pre-paid currnecy card into in order to get to said pre-paid currency, decided to eat the card.

So, to cut a very long, stressful (and rather distressing for all concerned) story short, the following happened....

I tried 3 machines all with differing issues. The third machine took my card. Sweet Baby Jesus and the Orphans how was I going to get out of this one seeing as I was the one who persuaded the usually cash only V to put all our VERY hard earned savings onto a piece of plastic, that in my own words, was as safe as it could get. The very kind woman in the bank that was faced with a gibbering and rather uncontrolably upset tourist was quick to tell me that she couldn't help as the machine I had used was atached to the shop next door and not her bank, but if I had used their cash till she may have, but probably couldn't, have done something.

I left the bank in tears to be confronted by V, who instantly knew something was wrong as I had been away from the car where I left him for some time and I felt sick all over again as I explained our dilema.  He went white, then walked away, probably for the best at that point. (he later confided that he was actually worried that I had been mugged, or murdered or worse, run away, as I had been gone so long.  He would have then been arrested for my disapperance, a Hollywood movie 'My girlfriend went to the cash till and never came back' (which I admit is not as catchy as 'a dingo ate my baby' but along the same lines) would have been made, with Kiera Knightly playing me and Jason Statham as V......thankfully we were all spared that scenario).

The next hour was filled with irrationally erratic behaviour, V waking around in the rain to stay out of the way, a call to an overseas Travelex number which lasted almost all of that hour, speaking to Carmella who was perfectly nice, but as English was not her first language she had trouble understanding my dilemma or that campervans didn't have addresses that you could send a new card to or that I was calling from a mobile, from Australia, but it was  finally agreed that I would collect some funds from Western Union the following day to see us through and the remainder would be put back into my bank within the next few days. For the love of God.

After nerves were calmed and apologies made (a big one to Carrie for dealing with my totally out of context hysterical call to her at work) we sat and decided what the plan of action would be for the rest of the day, given the current stress levels!  The perfect solution was found (and it also ticked two things off the list of things to do...)a sunset at Norlunga with fish and chips followed by a trip to the cinema in style.

The perfect sunset folowed in a place that I have been waiting to share with V for so long, and it didn't disappoint.  Neither did the fish and chips (crumbed sausage for my boy) and after writing messages in the sand we and sending the sun away to the Northern hemishphere, we headed out to Marion (shopping centre not person) so that V could have his first go at Gold Class.

Previous blogs have made reference to the wonder that is GC but for first timers it is basically a theatre of 30 leather reclining chairs in pairs, with tables in between where you watch a fill in luxury whilst waited on hand and food with whatever you desire (within reason) at designated times throughout the film.  My boy loved it. As did I.

All that was left was to head for home and bed, tired, still a bit stressed but safe in the knowledge that after we had queued in Western Union with a host of  fake African Princes all waiting for the money that their mad cat ladies had wired to them to help their sick 400 children, we would be once again ready for action.

but until then my lovely followers we will continue to have an 'interesting' time here so not only have the time of our lives but to keep you entertained.  As always I sign off......TTFN xx