Monday, 28 May 2012

Adelaide hills 11th-28th May

Arriving in Adelaide  my first impression is that it's warmer than Victoria. However up in Adelaide hills it's quite simply not.
Stirling is 15km from Adelaide with a population of about 2500 but other towns more or less merging into it at the edges. Originally settled as a place for Englishmen who couldn't cope with the hot Adelaide summers it's also the wettest place in SA. Facts I didn't bother to discover before coming...
The main street is lined with trees showing their autumn colours and over the next two weeks there's some very English sort of weather as winter sets in.

I take a decent walk nearby on Saturday which my legs feel. On Sunday I take the bus into Adelaide and visit the art gallery, get lost in the Botanical gardens and go swimming.
On Monday Lyn and Derek depart leaving me in charge of their huge house, cat and budgies. The sun's shining but it's cold and frosty the next day. The challenge is to keep the woodburning stove going and I'm feeling rather domestic again as I gradually transfer the woodpile indoors and burn it, keep the cat fed and pick and eat various home-grown veg. It's a quiet time with a few walks in my spare time, the cat for company and tv in the evenings.



They're a nice bunch at work and I'm working with another English Vet and also a Scottish nurse so there are people to discuss the inadequacies of Australian chocolate with; and other topics.
The clinic here is a world away from rural Victoria. I'm mostly seeing vaccinations, cat bites and routine things and there's no real dramas during the two weeks. My highlight is seeing my first up close (and unfortunately, dead-) koala. There's a bit of an overpopulation in the region and plenty are usually brought in to the clinic - many are getting renal failure very young, this one had a broken leg.

After a quiet and cold 2 weeks I'm glad to be heading off. First West to Perth then overland all the way up to the Northern Territory...

No comments:

Post a Comment