The ferry from KI to the mainland sails from Cape Jarvis which is about 90 minutes south of Adelaide. So once we were back on the mainland, we drove up to Adelaide still in the happy company of friends Hugh and Jo. It just so happens that Hugh and Jo, even though they now live in a small town south of Melbourne, named Castlemaine, they spent a number of years living in Adelaide. As soon as we got into town, we started driving by and visiting some of their old haunts. First stop was to check out an old friend of Hugh's because we were scheduled to have dinner with some other friends and Hugh wanted to provide some raw oysters for the party.
Steve is of Greek extraction and it seems that seafood in Adelaide is handled almost exclusively by Greeks. Steve specializes in oysters (he once personally shucked 3000 oysters in a day) and Hugh was determined to get his oysters from Steve, which he did – four dozen of them at eleven dollars a dozen. Pretty darn good considering they're going for fifteen to twenty dollars per half dozen in the restaurants we've been in. Steve was shucking without a pause the whole time and just handing them out like candy on halloween. We obliged by slurping them down as is was well into the afternoon and we hadn't indulged in lunch yet.
After putting in an order for the oysters, we continued up the street and ducked into a little nondescript shop that didn't even look open. Inside we found another old friend, Michael.
As you can probably guess, Michael is a potter. And a very good one. We saw one of his pieces in the Museum of Art. And he works large as you can see.
From the potter we headed to a very large, roofed market place that had everything you can imagine and more AND it had lunch. It made Fran very happy. After lunch, we went to the hotel and checked in for our night's stay. A lovely suite in a very nice hotel on the sixteenth floor. This is downtown Adelaide from our balcony.
Once we were settled into the hotel, we went for a walk downtown so Jo could show off a bit of HER Adelaide. She spent a number of years working at the Art Gallery of South Australia so that was where we headed. This is one entrance and the front is the photo at the top of this posting.
The featured show at the gallery was an exhibit of Indian art. There was a lot on display, but I was most intrigued by the wood sculptural work that was there. I don't remember seeing much Indian art in wood and it was fascinating and very well done.
There was, of course, much more in the gallery than the Indian exhibit. A lot of early Australian work and a representation of some English and European work. There is also a fair representation of more contemporary stuff. This was a good example. Quite an arresting piece. There were actually two of them side by side, but I wanted a closeup. The body of the figure is totally covered with screws. A rather harsh piece.
By the time we finished our city chores, it was time to get ready to head out to the country to our dinner with Rosie and Tony, more old Adelaide friends. Rosie and Tony have a home in Adelaide and a home in the country outside the city. That home is actually a ranch and they run about 80 head of cattle.
What we discovered is that Fran LOVES cows. Who knew? But that didn't stop her from snuggling right up to this one which is not a cow but a big bull named Bertie.
We had a really wonderful time and dinner with Rosie and Tony and then headed back to get some sleep in preparation for an early morning flight that would land us at Uluru and the Ayers Rock Resort around noon the next day. But on our way back into town, I saw and HAD to photograph this sign.
No comment necessary. Make of it what you will.
Note: We did NOT check it out.
Today we did King's Canyon and it was fabulous. But first we need to get through the Uluru adventure.
Tomorrow we head north to Cairns. We'll be spending a fair amount of airplane/port time and I'm hoping to get mostly caught up during the trip. We shall see.
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