In total, we spent a collective 4 days in Adelaide. It was never in our original plans of travel, but with our Innamincka adventure month it was 1 of only 2 cities we could fly into from the Outback (the other was from Brisbane, and we had already checked out the Gold Coast). It was also proportionately close to Melbourne, which we had definitely planned to visit (much more on Melbourne later!). Truthfully, I had a bit of a bias towards Adelaide after reading Bill Bryson’s “Down Under”, as he describes it as quite a boring place. So I really wasn’t expecting much out of the place. Well, it just served to me as a reminder not to judge a book by its cover. We really enjoyed Adelaide, for a multitude of reasons!
Firstly, it’s a very green and welcoming city. The weather is sunny and not too hot every day. The people are warm and the surrounding landscapes are beautiful! Beautiful beaches to the east of the city, the famous Barossa Valley to the North (more on Barossa later) and to the south and west you slowly head towards Melbourne.
Our time in Adelaide was divided up because of our trip to Port Lincoln. We arrived in Adelaide from the Outback, so happy to be out of the heat and away from the flies! We had 2 days in Adelaide this first time. We got a place via Airbnb.com which I will end up promoting quite often on this blog, and stayed in the suburbs with a lovely lady named Suzann. The place was in the suburbs, a quick bus ride from city centre. Adelaide is a very small city, so no place is far away. We, however, had already picked up our 5 day car rental so our mode of transportation was a bit easier.
A little bit on Airbnb.com---it is an online service offered now in over 90 countries worldwide and it is basically considered a B&B out of someone’s home. Depending on the location, prices are usually cheaper than hotels and hostels. It’s a viable alternative to a home away from home (at least that is how they like to advertise it). The only downfall is that you book a room or an apartment, and you have to wait (hours, maximum a day) for the host to contact you back and approve you. And some hosts don’t update their calendars often enough so they write back to you after a day and tell you that they unfortunately have no room for a specified set of dates. That part can be frustrating because it’s a longer waiting game than booking a hotel or a hostel. However, finding your own space during travelling is key—and sometimes you can’t do that in a cheap hostel, and we personally were not willing to spend a fortune on a hotel to get that either. Regardless, we have used Airbnb once in Poland and twice in Australia now and have been satisfied with all of the experiences. They were all good locations (our location in Melbourne was fantastic!) and they were exactly what was advertised in terms of distance and amenities. Next time you book a trip anywhere, consider checking out Airbnb.com!
As for the rental car we got for 5 days, take a wild guess how much it cost us?? Wrong! $44.99 for a 5 day car rental from Adelaide to Melbourne. How do you ask?! I am not a car rental guru, but I got lucky and found a deal advertising $9/day car rentals through Thrifty for one way Adelaide rentals. There were other one way deals too. The idea was to relocate cars from the smaller cities to the bigger one where they are more needed. So we got lucky with our dates and locations, and got a ridiculous deal!!! It’s worth searching for deals like this all over Australia. If not through official rental car companies, then through campervan websites, or even gumtree!
Now back to Adelaide itself. We were informed that the Adelaide Fringe festival was coming up (starting the Friday that we would be back from Port Lincoln, South Australia). Worth a see, we decided we would return to Adelaide after our Port Lincoln adventure. However, those first few days in Adelaide were full of other activities. We spent almost a full day in the Barossa Valley, checking out wineries and just driving around appreciating the gorgeous scenery. We made our longest stop at the McGuigon wines Yaldara estate, the most famous and well known of the wineries in the region. On the way to the Yaldara estate, we drove by Jacob’s Creek wineries and Penfolds Grange to name a few. We did a wine tasting tour at Yaldara (ofcourse!) and bought some exclusive cellar door wines (which means they are only sold at the wineries themselves, not to local or international stores). We then had a great lunch at a place called the Roaring 40’s, voted the best pizza in Australia a few years running! It did not disappoint!
Getting to the Barossa valley was easy, and we took the more difficult winding route, but with GPS on our phones, it was no problem. Picturesque fields and hills made for a great day!
We made friends with our Airbnb host’s daughter who happened to just move back from Canada and happened to just recently be in India—where we are planning a trip to as well. Traveller’s luck I call it---things always seem to work out and help you when you are open minded and trusting of your environment. She was great and we met up with her at a cute pub in downtown Adelaide for a drink later in the evening. She was about to start working at the Adelaide Fringe festival so she was quite good at advertising the whole thing to us. We were sold and planned to return in a few days.
Adelaide has nice pubs and cute little eateries. However, we didn’t appreciate the full scope of the place until we returned for part of the weekend.
On our way back we got a better glimpse of how alive the city gets during its festival months. Adelaide is by far the largest city in South Australia, and the state of South Australia is considered ‘The Festival State’. For a period of approximately 2 months from mid- February to mid- April the city is alive with festival upon festival, one on top of another. The main (and most well known) of the festivals is known as the Adelaide Fringe. It encompasses a large group of performances and performers, from comedy to circus to the dramatic arts, lasting a month, centered in the heart of Adelaide. Many other intertwining festivals are very similar in nature, but with differences in how they are constructed. For instance, the Adelaide Fringe has one general “garden” area that has free admission, but you pay for all of the separate shows you want to see. At first I thought that was quite an expensive ordeal, but a friend explained to me the reasoning of the costs. Turns out, the performers have to pay their own way in to take part in the festival, so all of the pay and proceeds goes back to them. Pay it forward I suppose J
On our way out of Adelaide to Port Lincoln we made a quick detour to Garden Island in the Port Adelaide area to meet up with our old friend Whiskers (funny enough I don’t know his real name!) He is the awesome trucky we met in Innamincka who offered to take some of our bags with him to Adelaide in case our bags were too heavy for the flight (long story). He is an avid sailor and he suggested we meet him at the marina on our way out of the city as he was renovating his yacht. It was a great side trip for a few hours. We sat on his big yacht and chatted about Oz and about our experiences so far. It was a great conversation, and he urged us to come back to Oz again to go sailing with him! Something I think I will very much consider….
When we arrived back in Adelaide we did not stay with Suzann because we had other accommodations set up.
-------Funny story alert! When we were still in the Outback trying to figure out accommodations in Adelaide, I found an ad on gumtree offering free accommodation and food for any backpackers/travelers that were willing to put some hours of work into a local vineyard. This is common practice in the Barossa region, and hostels and houses are often filled up with willing participants. I found this advertisement on gumtree and quickly inquired about it, as they claimed they needed people on exactly the dates we would be in Adelaide. Unfortunately, the girl advertising the posting (Melanie) wrote back saying that their dates had changed and they couldn’t accommodate us. In accordance with my usual style, I wrote back to her asking whether she knew anyone else needing people in their vineyard, and whether she had any advice as to places to stay in Adelaide. Her response back was delightful and unexpected. She wrote that she actually needed help painting her house in Port Adelaide (just outside of Adelaide city centre) and that we could stay for free if we helped her with a bit of painting. Bingo! Thanks Mel!
We arrived in Port Adelaide on the Friday afternoon and met Mel & Chloe. They were great and we instantly got along. Sometimes you just meet people and you can become instantaneous friends! They were the best--- we checked out the festivals and downtown Adelaide with them, and got to stay 2 nights for free in exchange for just a few hours of painting! Lucky!
The Friday that we arrived we checked out the comedy venue of the festival and checked out Celia Pacquola- funny! In addition, we roamed downtown Adelaide and went to the Fringe as well as The Garden of Unearlthly Delights (an offshoot of the fringe). It was lots of lights, glitter, colour and music in the park. Awesome crowd and good eats. We made a night of it!
After a day at the beach and a few hours of painting, we decided to go to a slightly different venue on the Saturday night. The girls suggested a documentary movie showing at a local restaurant exploring the idea of a ‘sustainable earth’. It was very much a hippie “let’s save the world” type of thing, but it was informative and inspiring. There are so many things people can do and people are already doing to decrease our carbon footprint in this world. It is time for all of us to try something- whether it is planting your own garden, buying only local, supporting Organic, or harvesting as much energy from natural resources as possible—solar panels, for instance—they may not work as well in a place like Northeastern Canada where we now live, but in sunny Australia what better idea could there be to reduce energy costs and wastes?! Anyways, I am not here to give a speech or dive into climate change. I don’t know any more than the lay person on this topic. But I think this movement is worth a look: ‘In Transitions’. After a worthwhile evening, we went to the beach for a bit of star gazing and saw a few more shooting stars! The sky was not as spectacular as the Outback, but still better than what I am used to. The waves and sand setting sure beat the Outback though! :)
We left for Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road the next morning refreshed. Adelaide left us with a positive vibe and we were really happy we accidentally discovered it.
Key words:
Adelaide Fringe
Barossa Valley
Yaldara Estate/McGuigon wines
The Garden of Unearthly Delights
In Transitions
Port Adelaide
