Day 11 to Marino
We arose at the usual time and took the small dog for a stroll. En route we passed a house where a few guests
were expected for a Barossa breakfast (or had had a big night the evening before).
Having accomplished that we packed the car – astonishingly everything still fitted - and headed towards Adelaide.
We had decided that we would stop off in Gawler and do their
historic walk. Gawler had always seemed
a grotty little town, an inconvenience to be passed through (or these days
around) when heading North. But I hadn't
been in to the town for ages so really had no idea what it was like. In fact their walk through the Church Hill
Historic District was rather excellent.
Being planned by Colonel Light everything is laid out rather strictly
and he allocated land for 3 churches in this area. Here are 2 of them.
Many of the old houses were well maintained and others were
being restored. Definitely support for
our preservation by critical mass theory.
A speciality of the area is the decorative ironwork -
referred to as Gawler lace - on many of the
buildings. This is usually called
'wrought iron' but we strongly suspect it is cast rather than wrought. Still very attractive however.
The oldest surviving building is the stable at the back of the police station. It would indeed be a nice venue for 'the oldest established, permanent, floating crap game in New York.
This house seemed to combine old time character with a tasteful (and hopefully money-spinning) addition of solar panels.
We then had a cuppa beside the Lower Para River looking at
the Moreton Bay Fig trees beside the road and Musk Lorikeets in the gum trees
along the River.
As we still had lots of spare time we swung by the Barker
Wetlands on the Northern edge of the metropolitan area. Unfortunately most of the waterbirds were
well away from the area we could access, so after ticking a group of Red-kneed Dotterells it was a matter of on to South
Road. Well, sort of on "on"
since the way the road is set up means that one can't make turns at all
easily.
When we eventually got to South Rd there were signs about
roadworks "expect MAJOR delays".
We didn't encounter MAJOR delays, but did find the road works. I have no idea what the eventual outcome is
going to be but the appearance at present is astonishing. I thought it looked most like the early
stages of constructing Battlestar Galactica.
After a couple of stops to buy things we got to Frances'
sisters house where we a staying for the next couple of days. Life got rather exciting when Tammie
(3.5kg) met their two 30kg beasts. She doesn't take stuff from anything and I
thought WWIII was imminent. However it
eventually sorted itself out and they all seem to be great friends now. (From some of Tammie’s later behaviour it
seems as though we are part of her territory and if another dog approaches us
she defends the turf. Thus by holding
her we exacerbate the problem!)
The house is high up on a hillside (more of a
not-quite-vertical cliff) overlooking the sea.
As a result of the sea being to the West of Adelaide this means there
are rather nifty sunsets.
Bird of the Day Red-kneed Dotterell
Plant of the Day Moreton Bay Figs
Interesting sight of
the Day Roadworks on South Road [The
old buildings in Gawler ran a very close second, but ended up not getting a
tick as they were somewhat similar to the other old buildings we have seen.]
What we learnt today
To be wary of the
road layout around Barker Inlet
I looked upon nice Gawler houses,
and Mr Plods old stable shed;
I looked upon the Adelaide roads,
And traffic lights at red.
