29th December Back on the Mainland

We are back on the Mainland and staying with Margaret and Ian in Adelaide- friends of Margot from the Centre for Global Education - in a lovely house just outside the city centre which we will visit later today.

But first we need to catch up from where we last left off, leaving Tasmania. With a few hours left on the camper hire we went to Melbourne's Altona Beach. A storm the night before (as we crossed) had stirred the water up so not too attractive for a swim but it attracted this pelican who seemed to find lots of tasty morsels as we had our lunch. 

20th December:  To Adelaide

Up early to walk across the road to the station for the day-long train ride from Melbourne to Adelaide. Ony 3 trains a week between these two state capitals and only 2 first class and two second class carriages so they try to make it a bit of an event. The crew is very nice and try to enliven what is hour after hour of scorched flat grazing land with the occasional gum-tree copse sheltering small flocks of sheep. But the the trip ends with an hour-long vertiginous descent through the wooded Adelaid hills into the city - quite a finale.

Margaret and Ian came and met us at our hotel with some supplies and guidebooks for KangarooIsland.  Peter had booked the hotel online not quite sure what an apartment hotel was but the price was OK so went ahead. Presumably aimed at business people it was more of an apartment than a bedroom with all you could need for a more or less permanent stay. Unfortuanely we had to get up at 5am for the coach pick-up to the ferry as it toured round half the hotels in the city picking up disparate groups of mainly german and italian tourists.