Everyday Adventures

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while! It's just that school is in full swing and I haven't really had much of a chance to travel around, although that doesn't mean I've just been sitting in my room doing nothing! I am very involved in the activities that Uni Hall puts on, and I typically go out on the weekends and I am working hard in school. Today we went out to survey a possible site for studying garden skinks in my research class, and it is a beautiful area that I will share pictures of at a later date. As it stands, I haven't been posting much because most of my pictures are simply of me and a bunch of people that none of you know, and in a lot of them I'm not looking, well, my best.


The above picture was taken on a pub crawl for all of the Adelaide universities. The Hall has its own pub crawl in October. It was a lot of fun, there was much dancing, and we got to see some of North Adelaide. The picture below was taken before our first formal dinner, which had an 'International' theme. I had nothing to wear, so one of my friends came over and dressed me up. I had no real nationality, I suppose I could have said I was 'beachy'?

ANYWAY, you are probably more interested in Australia itself than in my social life. I don't have too many pictures of the city of Adelaide, which I hope to remedy this week. My classes end at 12 on Tuesday and at 11 on Wednesday, and I have no classes on Monday or Friday. This makes going to the beach or to the city very easy, and I have been to both many times now. Adelaide is a great city; it's not too busy but it has a lot of charm. There are parks everywhere, and although I haven't been yet, the botanic gardens are supposed to be amazing. I plan on going this Friday (they have free tours at 10 AM and I haven't been bothered to get up that early on a Friday yet). So plan on having more pictures from the city soon!

The main street, King William Street, starts at Victoria Square. Unfortunately, this street is currently under a lot of construction which can make it a pain coming in by bus sometimes.

The big shopping street is known as Rundle Mall. This is a pedestrian zone lined with shops and booths. One of the best things about Rundle is the bronze pig statues. I can't help but become five years old whenever I see them. All of the pigs have names. I forget the name of this one, but there is one named Olivia who is eating out of a trash can.

This pig that me and my friend So Xi are riding is named Truffles! So Xi (pronounced 'Suzie') is helping me feel better about my tendency to act like a small child.

Travel ten minutes from Flinders campus and you end up in Glenelg, a fun little beachside suburb and palindrome. I went last Friday, as the weather is finally starting to warm up! This is Jetty Street, the main street. There are shops all up and down and it definitely has a real laid-back and beachy vibe to it.



This fountain randomly shoots water up to different heights at random times. It reminded me very much of Aspen! Also, you can see the Dublin in the background. As the ad suggests, they have live music every Sunday. They also have pretty good food for a pub, and it's not too expensive. I have a friend who likes to go there every weekend and sit on the balcony. You can listen to the music and look out at the ocean while having dinner.


And here is the jetty for which Jetty Street is named!


Although it is still technically winter, the water was warm enough that some people were swimming. I cannot WAIT for the summer! There are miles and miles of beach that are similar to this; as you move around you can find beaches that are also good for boogy boarding or surfing.


I see some pretty amazing sunsets from my window, but I haven't been able to get too many pictures of them. Hopefully this will change in the future now that I am more settled in. I liked this one because in the areas where it was raining the clouds had turned bright pink.

Here you can see the city of Adelaide as I see it from my window.


So that's pretty much it. I've been very busy, going out and having dinner with friends, going to the movies, dancing, doing schoolwork, going to sports events for our Hall (we are the Flinders Uni Hall Sharks, and I included a picture of the girl's soccer team playing last Sunday. We won and were awesome. It was also a gorgeous day, and was made better by the fact that we were sitting in the sun watching our friends play soccer and there were parrots flying around. How crazy and awesome is that?) I will post more pictures of the city itself and spare you the details of my social life soon. This ended up being longer than I intended!

Flinders Ranges

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been updating, but I have literally just been going to classes and sitting around my room. This past weekend, though, I went on a camping trip with the International Student Services Unit into the Flinders Ranges, at the edge of the Outback. This map shows where we went; on our way back we passed through the Clare Valley.

We left Adelaide at 6:30 in the morning and headed to Quorn, a fantastically named little town that seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere until we traveled further and saw what the middle of nowhere actually was. On our way we passed by the Spencer Gulf, home of Australia's longest wooden jetty. There was also this, which we couldn't quite figure out.

We stopped for lunch in a small town, where we saw some Kookaburra! Every time we would try to get close enough to take a picture, they would fly away and make a very loud call that sounded remarkably like a laugh.


Finally, after driving for a ridiculously long time, we arrived at Alligator Gorge, where we did our first hike. There were lots of wild kangaroos around and the gorge itself was beautiful.


Finally, we arrived in Quorn, put our stuff in the hostel, and went on our first real hike, up Devil's Peak. I don't have too many pictures of the way up, as I was having difficulty breathing, but I finally reached the top. The views were incredible, and the haze you see comes from the oils in the eucalyptus leaves.It was very windy, and I was trying my best not to die in this picture. There is a sheer drop all around the top of Devil's Peak.




We all wanted to see the incredible sunset, which unfortunately resulted in us having to run down the mountain before it got dark. Some people saw an echidna, and I was very jealous.

That night we had an amazing stir fry and relaxed in the hostel. We got up bright and early the next morning, spent about ten minutes wandering around the train station, and then headed up to Wilpena Pound, the "gateway" to the Flinders Ranges. This is the train station in Quorn. It was pretty much the only thing there.


On our way up, we stopped to see some Aboriginal cave drawings.

Finally, we reached Wilpena Pound and began the hike to St. Mary's Peak. Right away, we spotted a kangaroo with its older joey. They were both very cute, but wild kangaroos are very flighty and it was hard to get close enough to take pictures. A lot of them are also very large and intimidating.


Does this scenery look familiar? I was reminded very much of hiking around Arizona while we were climbing the trail. For a lot of the hike, we had to actually scale the rocks so I got to use some of my rock climbing skills.

At the saddle before the peak, we had a beautiful view of the mountain ranges. Australia's mountains are extremely old, and these are some of the oldest. The person in the picture is Anthony, our guide/driver.

More views from the top.

At the end of the hike we found this gigantic eucalyptus and had some people stand inside of it for size comparison purposes.

After the hike, we were all extremely tired and sweaty, and we headed straight to our campsite. It was evening, and we had to drive very slowly over the dirt road because there were TONS of kangaroos and wallabies eating by the side of the road. Sometimes they would hop alongside the bus for a while. We also had to wait for a camel to make its way across the road, which was unusual. That night we had a barbecue, and it was amazing. We cooked vegetables, steak, sausages, and kangaroo meat. The kangaroo was very lean and had a sweet taste; I really liked it. That night we sat around a fire and played games. When the generators turned off, the stars were incredibly clear. You could very easily see the milky way and the sheer number of stars was incredible.

The next morning Anthony made us all pancakes, then we rented bikes and went for an 8 km bike ride down a dirt road that passed through a gorge. Once again, lots of kangaroos and great scenery. As with the hiking, I somehow found myself at the front of the group (perhaps I inherited the 'hiking really fast and leaving everyone behind' from Dad?), and so I was able to take pictures of everyone coming in. Once you hit the top of this hill, the outback just stretched out forever. There were cockatoos flying overhead, and in the distance you could see the silhouettes of emus walking around; they looked like dinosaurs.


A flock of cockatoos at the station where we dropped off our bikes.

On our way back, there was a sign for a motel that cooked roadkill. Mmm.

We stopped at two wineries in the Clare Valley on our way back to Adelaide. Both were in very beautiful places and the wines were good, although I don't know anything about wine so that doesn't mean much. At the Sevenhills Winery, there was a cat named Frontignac who was my favorite part.



So that was my trip. I'm sorry that I didn't write too much; I really am not feeling very creative or inclined to write right now, but I figured that since I haven't updated this in a while I probably should.